Gardening to Nourish and Feed Both Body and Soul

Hello Friends!

I don't know if anyone else found this, and it's probably just because we had such lovely, summery weather following on from such a summery merry month of May but yesterday morning, when I was watering my pots, there was that old, familiar smell in the air, quite unexpected, hinting that autumn is slowly creeping around the corner.  Like I say, probably all to do with how fickle the weather has been, very hot then plummeting by ten degrees Celsius overnight to feeling very cold, and nothing more than that, but when you find yourself putting your vest back on and turning the heating on in June, you begin to wonder whether or not you imagined it.

A garden is a source of nourishment.  The very act of gardening nourishes the soul as you care for, tend, and nurture seeds and plants to maturity and their intended purpose.  Then, if you grow an edible garden of any kind, even just a few simple salad vegetables on a windowsill, you are not only nourishing your soul but also your body with produce you know you can trust to be the best it possibly can be.  What can be better?

If you garden, you do not need a gym, or a therapist, and you get flowers, fruit and vegetables.

One of the things I used to do several years ago, working alongside my father, was to grow most of the household food for about eight months of the year, I did my best to continue after he passed away, but in recent times I have been overwhelmed and I had to stop.  As a full time care giver, it was as much as I could do to keep up with the mowing, never mind weeding, digging, sowing, growing on and maintaining a vegetable garden.  Something had to give, and we all know it takes no time at all for nature to regain a foothold and turn even the most well tended garden into a wilderness.

This year, I had planned to get on top of things, beginning by hiring someone to come in and help with the heavy digging and moving of trees and shrubs, and to generally help get things sorted to a point where I can manage, but we all know what happened next, and it put a whole tool box full of spanners in the works for everyone.  Now that the only gardening company in my village is able to work within very strict guidelines, he's up to his eyes with seasonal mowing and won't be available for many months for the kind of work I need doing.  So, I am puttering along, doing what I can until he is available at the end of mowing season.

There is a long, narrow section along side the south facing pine end of the cottage.  It gets full sun in the summer for about eight to ten hours a day, so gets very warm and seems to me an ideal spot to grow things in pots and containers.  There was an old shed tucked away in the corner, it had to be dismantled last year for safety's sake, especially with the windy west Wales winters, but the chap who took it away didn't come back to finish the job, so it's quite untidy right now, and even as I work to tidy it up, a lot of the rubbish is of the ilk that can only be taken to the tip {Civic Amenity and Recycling Centre} and right now it's not open to trailers, which is what I need.  I may end up hiring a skip in a few months, when we are able to do such things again.

I digress.  The space is paved, no earth; it isn't big enough for anything other than storage out of sight; it's also a sun trap, so too hot to sit in; it's not visible unless you are standing in it, so I can't see the point in filling it with flowers.  So, I have filled a few recycled containers and pots with compost, sown seeds, tended, watered and weeded, and have had a few small harvests already, turning it into a food producing corner.

I have very basic things, such as mixed leaves, lettuce, beetroot, watercress, salad onions, courgettes, strawberries and hopefully tomatoes.  It's not a lot, I would starve if I was relying on this, but it's something positive and nurturing to do during lockdown, and getting my hand back in to growing food again.

I am keeping these trays as baby leaves, not planning to let them get large.  Successive sowings will be key to keeping them tasty.  I love salads, and a fresh picked bowl of leaves is my idea of heaven.

Radicchio, Chicory, Mixed Leaves

It's made me realise, once I have reclaimed my two former fruit and vegetable areas that I now have a whole new area!  It's so warm I think I may be able to grow peppers, chillies and even aubergines along side the cottage, especially if we continue to get good, warm days.  It will be an excellent spot to put one of those small wooden upright cold frames as a place to bring on seedlings.

Salad Onions

It's also made me think of how to use a similar area, but much bigger, along the north facing side, which although shadier still has good light for five months of the year, plenty enough to grow salad crops in raised beds which then frees up the other areas for all sorts of things, and who knows, maybe I can grow enough to keep me in vegetables for most of the year?  However, if they all germinate as poorly and slowly as the spinach and salad onions I will not have much to show.  I sowed two lots of salad onions, and only one lot germinated.  Only one, single spinach seedling to show so far too.

One thing I have had a problem with is cats.  They seem to think I have kindly put out some nice, new litter trays for them, and I lost my beetroots twice.  I used tent pegs and twine to make a net that I hoped would deter them, but no, it didn't, so what to do?  I went into the garage to search out some chicken wire or old netting, that should do nicely, but I found three old, rather rusty, wire shelves left over from one of those little plastic greenhouses.  Absolutely perfect!  They fit over the two target boxes as if they were made for this purpose alone.  No more cats, and beetroot and watercress now growing nicely.  Sometimes, it pays to be a pack rat hoarder!

I hope those miniscule green specks are the Watercress

Beetroot and repurposed wire shelf to protect from marauding cats

I have three courgette plants that will be ready to put out under cloche cover in a couple of weeks, so I must prepare three large containers.

The fruits are looking as if I will have something to harvest too, naturally I would like a bit more, but anything is better than nothing as I get my hand back in, and I am establishing strong, healthy plants for next year too.

First of the raspberries

Blackcurrants

Before I go, I have to share with you the small helper.  Treasure loves to help, especially if it means he gets to dig around in the wet earth, the muddier the better; after all, he is a small bear, and if small bears do anything better than anyone else, it's playing in the mud.  We do need to get him some more appropriately sized tools!

Until next time
Stay Safe, Stay Well
Deborah xo

Floral Miscellany with ICAD

Hello Friends!

As lockdown continues, and for some it's still more rigorous than for others, I am still confining myself to my garden, so I apologise for yet another post with little else other than pictures of flowers.  Even so, I do hope you will take a peek at them, for the flowers of my cottage garden are very special to me, and most come with a little history or back story, some of which I share from time to time.

It's beautiful weather for most of us, although I think that nagging thought of two dreaded words to any gardener, "Hosepipe Ban" are looming closer each day.  My water butts are empty!  I will soon be starting to save bath water for the potted plants, but always use fresh for anything that will be eaten. The promised rain in the coming days will be sporadic and localised, so depending on how you look at it, you will be lucky or not lucky.

A few weeks ago I shared photos of a Libertina Perigranins here, and later discovered a possible flower bud with alienesque attributes.

~~~ which this week opened, and it is a miniature delight of white!  I bought this little plant two summers ago while on a local open gardens weekend in aid of charity.  I think I paid £1.50, as I was captivated by the leaf shape and colouring.  I had no idea it would give such a sweet flower too!

A few days on and it looks as if it will open up with a succession of flowers up the stem, and I hope to get a better photo when our weather settles, if the poor flowers survive.

In the same blog {link above} I shared images of the fir tree I thought was dead, which surprised me by coming slowly back to life.  I am now pleased to say that the green is increasing daily, and while I don't think it will ever fully recover, it is showing just how resilient nature is under pressure.  There is always hope!

The wonder of nature never fails to amaze me.  Isn't it incredible how it fights back and flourishes?  I don't normally buy potted fir trees, but the year Mum died it was so close to Christmas I didn't feel up to decorating but needed to do something, so I bought this and decorated it with edible garlands and seed baubles for the birds outside my window.

See, I told you many things in my garden have a back story.

The lovely, warm days mean I plan where I work in the garden so that I am in the coolest spots that can be managed.  I find this helps me focus more too, I am less likely to put off a particular job as I know in a few hours it might be too hot in that area.

The other afternoon I found my sun lounger.  I am not one for sitting in the garden for any length of time, so goodness only knows why I bought it in the first place.  I must have bought it five or six summers ago now.   Mum was starting to fail and I had hoped I could use it to encourage her to sit out with me for half an hour of a lovely afternoon or evening, but she did not care to.  I struggled with the lounger, even though it is a very nice one, good and robust, that converts from a sitting position to horizontal, but I could never master the art of doing so.  Eventually, I put it away in the back of the garage.  When I found it last week, I had visions of it having rotted away, but it's fine.  Then I thought I would be giving it away.  I put it on the lawn and set it up to check it over.  As soon as I sat down, something clicked and suddenly it slid easily from sitting to horizontal and back again as I am sure it is meant to do! It's a keeper!   My only problem is I am not one for sitting doing nothing and I feel rather like a fish out of water, but I will adjust to it in time.  It is most pleasant just listening to birdsong, and the other morning I actually heard a cuckoo for the first time in years, which shows how unpolluted the sound quality of the air is now without endless traffic going by.

Still, I am trying harder than you can imagine to enjoy my garden as a beholder rather than a worker. This, I think, will take me some time to perfect.

June is underway, and that brings us around, once more, to the annual Daisy Yellow ICAD art challenge.  I will not be posting on here, just this once to remind anyone who wants to see what I am doing this year, you can follow my daily shares on my Instagram account, @welshdebsart.  I hope you'll check it out, I am not following prompts this year, and here's a little taste of the first card, on day one, to whet your appetite.   Oh! look, more flowers!

I did a pencil sketch of what I wanted, it took ages with endless rubbing out of lines, and then I coloured it in using my new travel box of Inktense paint pans.  I am not sure if I have finished it or not, but sometimes you have to just walk away.

The concept of working on something as disposable as an index card challenges me.  For the record, this does not mean I throw the art cards away, I have boxes of hundreds from previous years.  What I am saying is that it puts into perspective the amount of work that goes into creating something, all the time you may, or may not spend on it only to be using a disposable scrap of card, rather than proper water colour paper, canvas, or other more durable, less disposable type of surface.  It opens up thought and discussion.  This piece took me a good two hours on a piece of paper that cost a penny.

After days and days of glorious sunshine, the weather has taken a turn and it is quite wintry again.  I confess, I am shocked that the evenings have been so cold I have had heating on.  As I look out my window, the lawn is covered in pink, yellow and white were the petals are ripped before their time from the roses and poppies.

Many of you know I grow a Frances E Lester near my front door, and this time of year the wonderful, rich rose fragrance fills my cottage.   The blooms start out a sugary pink before turning white.

Clusters of blooms open in succession, giving big, bold bright white, dinner plate sized and larger bouquets of fragrance.  You can see the bloom yet to open on this cluster

The more that open, the more stunning the plant becomes, both visually and olfactorily.

As gardeners, may of us will be disappointed, not only in the potential undoing of so much of our efforts, but the lack of rainfall.  It's damped the surface and that is all.  Hosepipe ban loom ever nearer!

Yesterday afternoon, I picked my first strawberries. Just five, but I feared they may come to grief if left any longer, especially with the weather coming in bad.

Slim pickings, but a start and more will follow.  They are sweet and juicy, and I wished I had some cream.

I don't have many indoor plants now, but do have a couple of cacti.  I bought them as part of a set, lost one over the winter, but find I particularly like the round, barrel one.  I recently repotted the two survivors and hope they do not need repotting for some time as I am still finding spines in my fingers!

I hope your weekend goes well, and you have fun, whatever you do.  Like many fellow gardeners I shall be fretting over lack of water and wind damage, but calming myself with some art and creative work indoors, and some baking, oh! and copious amounts of tea.

Until next time
Stay safe, stay well
Deborah xoxo

Oriental Poppies

Hello Friends!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love poppies of all kinds and they bring me much happiness and joy.  Right now, the blousiest, most beautiful Papaver Orientalis, or Oriental poppies, are beginning to bloom in my garden.  Not only do they bring a fabulous splash of bold colour where they bloom, there's the added bonus that the bees love them too.

This was my first ever Oriental, Coral Sea.  Last Autumn, I thought I may have lost it as a careless handyman and his {very unable} assistant lifted a baby boulder {which took two to manage} and instead of putting it to one side, or on the wall, recklessly dumped it in the border, smack bang on top of my Coral Sea!  I did not discover this until after they'd left and the damage was done.

How could they do this?  It is far too big and heavy a stone for me to even think of moving, even with the most careful application of the laws of physics {I can hear some of you now, hollering "Deb, don't even think about it!!!}

However, a few weeks ago, I saw the familiar leaves poking around the stone.  She'd survived and is spreading out and around the offending rock.  Last week, a few tentative buds appeared, and today she is starting to dance in all her ballerina glory!

Thrilled with the beauty of this poppy in the garden, just after the marriage of William and Catherine, I bought two Royal Wedding  poppies.  Only one plant was in flower, one was in tight bud, and I was smitten by the stunning contrast of a navy centre against the pure white petals.

Peek a Boo! Do you see the bug?

However, when the second one opened, it was not the same colour at all, but a delightful shade of mauve.  I was not disappointed at all, but have no idea what this one is called.  It's very, very pretty indeed.

So, I had three beauties in my garden, bringing lots of pleasure, although they are short lived.  I had hoped to gather and sow seed, but was told Orientals do not propagate from seed, but on runners and root cuttings.  Then this happened:

Two years after I planted the Royal Wedding, a magnificent, deep orangey pink poppy opened, and I have no idea where it came from, or how, but I would say it's self seeded, contradicting what I had been told.

If anyone knows anything how this might have happened, I will be interested to hear from you.  It looks more coral than Coral Sea!

The only down side is the blooms only last for about five days, but when a single plant is so full of buds that after twenty seven you tend to lose count, my only wish is that they would all open together in one colossal and magical display.  Just once, then they can return to normal, but wouldn't that be something to see?

Until next time
Stay safe, stay well,
Deborah xoxo

p.s. I apologise for the differences in text, I have tried the new blogger which is being forced upon us again, and I definitely do not like it.  I wonder how many of us will lose swathes of followers as we did last time?

Making a List

Hello Friends!

No, it's not "that" time of year, this list is what I want to encourage growing in my garden.  As I read it, the names on it seem very familiar, so I find some comfort in that I am not changing my mind often, I still like the same things.  With a bit of luck it means no expensive purchases that are impulse buys and end up not working out.

Many of the plants that show up repeatedly on my list are freely self seeding, so even if I have to buy a packet of seed or a couple of plants to start me off, future years are generally taken care of.  Here's a little of what my list of "must haves" looks like:

Umbels of any kind, I am a lot in love with umbels!  I like edible ones, such as dill, fennel, and angelica, and I allow any that just drop into my garden from the nearby countryside to grow where they seed, such as Cow Parsley and Alexanders.  I could wax lyrical on umbels, and they are so photogenic oo.  I adore the pop of the purple Verbena bonariensis against the yellow green of this dill.  The dill is growing where it was put, the Verbena is a happy interloper from the flower garden into the herb garden.

Aquilegia, preferably the old fashioned, single colour ones, although I am happy to have some of the multi coloured or double ones if they happen to show up.  As followers of this blog will know, I have them in so many colours, from almost white, to pink tinged, and right on into deepest purple.  Another free seeding plant, and they look so pretty and old fashioned in Springtime. 

Daisies  I love anything daisy, or daisy looking. Osteospermums, Marguerites, Feverfew, and my lawn is full of those tiny, bright and star like ones from which we made our childhood daisy chains.  Such a simple beauty, full of innocence and joy.

Lavender.  My garden would not be my garden without fragrant lavender.  Preferably the long stemmed type, so I can make my lavender wands, but any type of lavender will be just fine.

Not forgetting the fabulous fathead lavenders!

Roses.  There have to be roses.  Shrub, patio, rambler, and the more fragrant, the better.

Ladies Mantle.  A great all rounder, the acid yellow flowers and lime green foliage are a perfect foil for whatever flowers they have as neighbours, and they big, cushiony mound perfectly fill in so many gaps.  Above, it highlights the pink rose, here it is a fabulous foil against a red verbena.  It's froth of flowers looks spectacular in a border or in a cut flower vase, and the leaves are amazing in the morning dew.

Poppies of any sort, from the humble wild field poppy, the Icelandic and the Californian, to the big and blousy short lived, but spectacular Orientals. I just adore poppies, any colour.  As for the seed heads, they bring so much interest to the border later on.

Plants such as Foxgloves, Mullein, Evening Primrose, Borage, Verbena Bonariensis, and more, all make me so happy, especially when they give of their seeds so freely!

I don't only have all of these, they are my must haves, my go to plants, and everything else just sort of falls in around them.  Then there's the clematis, camellias, hydrangea, pinks, cranesbill geranium, Japanese wind anemones and so many more.  I wouldn't think I could cram so much in, but somehow I do!

Over the years, I have paid attention to what does well, and what doesn't.  That sort of diligence helps me establish what works and will bring year after year of joy. 

I don't usually turn to a lot of annuals. I don't know why.  I do have a few, mostly pansies and violas, I am partial to lobelia, and purple alyssum {when I can find it}.  Just this morning I pushed a few Empress of India nasturtium seeds in pots and borders where it looks a bit bare. They should grow and make a pretty, and edible, filling in plant.  I usually buy a tray of violas or pansies every few years and they just continue to self seed and I leave them alone to get on with things.

Until next time
Stay Safe, Stay Well!
Take Joy in the Little Things
Deborah xoxo