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TAKING A BREAK

I am taking a short break from the blog, but in the meantime I shall leave you with this photo. This bench is placed in a shady part of the garden; I do like sitting in this spot with a nice cup of tea, for a deserved rest, after working up a hard slog in the garden.

Please remember to look in again, as I shall be back, once I can prise myself off this bench!

I have many places where I can sit with a nice cuppa around the garden, in both sunny and shady spots, which include steps and tree stumps. Have you got an unusual place where you like to sit in your garden?

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PARSNIPS

Well I think it's good news and bad news. How pleased I was when I dug up my first parsnip of the season, the lovely specimen in the centre of the photo. Anxious to dig up another beauty, I quickly located the next one, oh not so good, so I thought let's try another one, oh no another disaster. You see, us gardeners do have some failures you know. I am my no means an expert on vegetable gardening, so I shall have to look this one up, unless any of you out there in blogland could tell me where I have gone wrong?



I did laugh, as I thought how my disasters of a parsnip seemed to resemble something I'd seen on Dr Who. When I came back indoors I looked up the official website, and yes there it was, the very thing right in front of me. I wonder whether the makers modelled The Ood on a mutant parsnip!

Veg Plotting has sent me some good advice, and saying I can still eat them, so right Michelle, this afternoon I made parsnip chips out of them, sprinkled with a small amount of ground rock salt. Tell your nephew that eating them like this is yummy!

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INSECT HOUSE

This is a photo which I took on our visit to Durrell formerly Jersey Zoo back in September 2007, I believe it to be an insect house?

An insect house is a great addition to any garden, maybe on a smaller scale than the one above, as they provide shelter for many insects which include non-aggressive mason and leafcutter bees who are known to help with pollination around the garden and are also thought to help increase fruit yield? Also an ideal place for ladybirds and lacewings to overwinter too.

I haven't got one yet, but hope to get one up this year.

AWARD NUMBER ONE

Daffy, this ones for you ... having recently discovered your love of elephants, this award could only be for you!

AURICULA THEATRE

As you have read in my previous post, I do like auriculas in old pots! I only have several plants of the same two varieties, but these are better than having none. The auricula plant is as tough as old boots, mine stay outside in their pots, come rain, shine, frost and snow, and they still come back to life, showing themselves in their full glory in the Spring.

Another one of my plans for the future is to have an auricula theatre, and to build up a collection of some of the more unusual varieties. There is a plethora of beautiful specimens out there to be had.


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The picture above is of an auricula theatre we saw when we visited the National Botanic Garden of Wales, although we visited in the summer, so the theatre was showcasing a marvellous display of geraniums! If any of you are lucky enough to be in the Carmarthenshire area of Wales, this is definitely a place to visit.

The gardens stretch over 500 acres of beautiful countryside, in the site of the old Middleton Estate, a Regency parkland whose gardens, lakes, woodlands, undulating hills and wildflower meadows provide a variety of habitats and microclimates for plant and animal life to thrive.

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FLOWERPOTS

I spent most of the weekend out in the garden. Whilst going round having a general winter tidy, I was noticing how many flowerpots have cracked and broken, most unusual as I don't usually lose any? Quite a few of my lovely old antique pots have succumbed this year, and these are practically irreplacable, as quite scarce and usually expensive.

I have been lucky in the past, acquiring some from carboots and a bargain job lot for a fiver at Ardingly antiques fair, but these are only small ones, and the ones I have lost are larger, and these are the pots I use for my auriculas, and auriculas do look so much nicer planted in antique pots, don't you think?

Judith from Everything In The Garden's Rosy, I am in agreement with you, I was thinking the very same.

Michele from Cowboys & Custard made a good point about using the breakages for crocks. Yes, at least this is another use for them!

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WINTER JASMINE - Modesty, Grace, Elegance

What a relief, Winter Jasmine has won my December poll receiving seven votes, equating to 50%! I am only relieved because I have this in my garden and I don't have Daphne which came a very close second, sorry Daphne, maybe one for the future?

Introduced from China in 1844, Winter Jasmine bears sunshine yellow flowers on bare stems.

Nearby neighbours have got the most marvellous display of this at the front of their home, theirs facing west, my dad (his facing south) and stepdad (his facing north) also have lovely specimens, so you can see will tolerate any aspect you may have. A few years back my dad gave me some good size rooted cuttings of his, two of which have taken around my garden, one of which needs a really good prune for next year, some of you may already know that me and pruning just don't go together!

I always go into raptures when people talk of Winter Jasmine, I just think it is so lovely, I suppose because it always adds such welcome colour to a garden, which at this time of year is sometimes shrouded in such dreary cloud, like today for instance.

In second place came Daphne with six votes, Clematis Cirrhosa with one vote, and Sarcacocca with no votes (is this because not many of us really know what this winter beauty is?). Judith from Everything in the Garden's Rosy reminded me of the beauty of Witch Hazel (Hamamelis), certainly another welcome addition to any garden at this time of year.

Michelle from Veg Plotting has also reminded me of Viburnum Bodnatense Dawn, which I do know of and love, and Winter Honeysuckle, which I have definitely got on my shopping list for Winter 2008!

WISHING YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR

Let's hope 2008 is a great gardening year for us all, I know it is going to be busy!

Spot that cracked flowerpot. I have got many of these around the garden at the moment, I can see some repotting coming on in January!

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CAMPANULA CARPATICA

Also known as Bellflower, this really is the all round star of the garden. Look at how it has recovered from many bouts of frost! Although don't introduce it to you garden if you don't want a lot of it, as it does enjoy self seeding in all little nooks and crannies. Growing tips, well you don't need any, it just about grows anywhere!

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JACK FROST

Air below 0°C is defined as Air frost, measured at a height of 2m (6ft). Ground Frost occurs when the air at ground level is chilled below freezing point. Ground frost is measured at 5cm (2in) above the ground. Hoar Frost the fluffy deposit of minute ice crystals on grass and brickwork, occurs on calm, clear nights when condensation takes place after freezing. Black frost, as the name suggests, is a thin sheet of frost without the white colour usually associated with frost.



Sedum covered in frost - this plant is as tough as old boots!



Frozen Bird Bath - don't forget to make sure you leave unfrozen water for the birds!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ... WINTER WISHES ... HAPPY NEW YEAR

It is a special time for mistletoe and holly, it is an excellent time for laughter, a great time to be jolly!

Cheers everyone for taking time to read my blog, and for all the great comments left. I still can't believe how many great people I have met in such a short space of time!

Judith of Everything In The Garden's Rosy left the very first comment on my blog, which really set the wheels in motion, many thanks Judith.

Please keep in touch in 2008.

Louise x

CRINKLY THE SWAN

Love is in the air for Crinkly the Swan, whos patch is at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Gloucestershire. Apparently he appears to be 'loosely' associating with another Slimbridge Bewicks swan called Taciturn, which is great news. Up until now, with his crooked neck and ungraceful flying, no other female has showed any remote interest in him, aah. Despite his disability, which makes him less aerodynamic, Crinkly has managed to survive seven migrations from breeding grounds on the Russian Arctic tundra which means that he has flown over 21,000 kilometres which in my book makes him the superhero of the swan world.

Swans fly back to Britain at this time of year because conditions in the tundra make feeding impossible.

Let's hope we can hear the 'flipper flapper' of tiny cygnets in 2008, with proud parents Crinkly and Taciturn looking on!

SONG THRUSH

Today I saw my very first Song Thrush of the winter in the garden. I only just saw it, as it had been startled, making it quickly scurry under a bush. The Song Thrush has such beautiful spotty markings and colouring, I always think their paleness blends so well with the winter scenery, athough perhaps their brightness makes them easy prey to larger birds, would they be attacked by magpies or sparrowhawks? Song thrushes are sensitive to hard winter weather and winter territories are often abandoned during periods of severe weather, when many birds move southwards, even as far as north-west France and northern Spain. At present the Song Thrush is in decline, and is red listed as a bird of serious conservation concern. The cause appears to be a combination of lack of food and lack of nesting sites, brought about by intensive farming methods?

Like as the thrush in winter, when the skies
Are drear and dark, and all the woods are bare
Sings undismayed, till from his melodies
Odours of spring float through the frozen air
So in my heart when sorrows icy breath
Is bleak and bitter and its frost is strong
Leaps up, defiant of despair and death
A sunlit fountain of triumphant song
Sing on sweet singer until the violets come
And south winds blow, sing on prophetic bird
O if my lips, which are for ever dumb
Could sing to men what my sad heart has heard
Lifes darkest hour with songs of joy would ring
Lifes blackest frost would blossom into Spring
Edmond Holmes

VIOLENT VEG

All I want for Christmas is this calendar! Did you know there is a website dedicated to this? Click on this link to take you to their somewhat politically incorrect allotment!



This could be J, he enjoys very few vegetables, me I could eat the lot!

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PINE CONES

I love to have a few pine cones, they remind me of time spent with my family growing up on a farm in rural West Sussex. I remember on the cold wintry days going out with mum to collect these from the hundreds of pine trees that surrounded the land my dad farmed on. I regret to say that a great majority of these trees were felled a few years back, no not to make room for housing but for a golf course of all things! We had an open coal fire in our sitting room and these cones really spat when we threw them onto the burning coals, not too good for Mum's carpet, although the rug in front of it took the full extent of the scorching and of course when out of the room we would always put the fireguard up.

A pine cone is a seed that comes from a pine tree. Pine trees are tall and straight. Pine trees don't lose their leaves in autumn and winter. They belong to a group of trees called evergreens.



I always love the opportunity to mention squirrels, I know they can be pests, but who could hate these lovely cute 'n furry creatures? My 'Secret' grey squirrel is still reeking havoc around the garden, he has knocked down a bird feeder yet again, with his acrobatic antics!

Squirrels are seed eaters. They favour pine cones, but also eat larch and spruce. Their diet also includes fungi, shoots and fruits of shrubs and trees, and sometimes birds' eggs. They can choose between good and bad nuts by holding them in their paws. Reds do not hibernate and store fungi in trees to eat over the winter months. When food is plentiful, they put on weight in the autumn to help them through the winter. This is important for breeding females, so that they are in good condition for producing young.

DECEMBER POLL

For winter scent or colour which would you choose?

These are the entrants, place your vote on the poll aside.

top left Clematis cirrhosa
top right Daphne
bottom left Sarcococca
bottom right Winter Jasmine

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CYCLAMEN – Resignation, Goodbye

Many thanks to everyone who took part in the November poll, the results show that colourful Cyclamen has been voted most favourite winter bedding plant.

Rather fortunate really, as this is the winter bedding plant I have chosen for my drainpipe pots, the almost sorbet shades of pink do look so beautiful and full of colour, and seem to look good against the brick of the wall. I have them planted in homemade compost, and topped off with soil improver, which is made up of very small pieces of bark mulch, which makes a lovely foil for the beautiful markings on the foliage, which this variety have.

Make sure you twist off the spent flower heads as they turn to seed, doing this will help them to continue flowering over a long period of time.



Cyclamen, from the Greek, kyklos, meaning circular, a reference to the way the flower stems twist into spirals as the seed cases develop. Cyclamen were put to many medicinal uses during the first few centuries AD according to Pedacio (or Padanius) Dioscorides, a Greek military surgeon and naturalist of the first century.

Cyclamen received 50% of the vote, Pansies/Viola received 27%, Polyanthus/Primrose received 10% and Heather received 1%, I am so pleased one of you voted for poor Heather!

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RED SKY AT NIGHT

This is what the sky looks like, today, late afternoon, down here in West Sussex. After a very mild, bleak, blustery and wet start to the day, it has cleared to become dry with a noticeable chill in the air. I passed through my patch today, just enough to put out my bin and box for tomorrow, to throw foodwaste and shredded paper into my compost bin and to take a photo of this lovely sky which looked incredible, as if alight, I like the skyline against the silhouette of the hedge.

SOW BUSY

What with one thing and another, (all of which I daresay will be revealed in my home blog in the very near future) and running another blog alongside this one, I have not been able to post a garden article for a while. I really must get off this computer and out into the garden today, so hopefully soon I shall have something to share with you. Don't forget to pop back in a day or two, or three!

In the meantime, I hope you are all working hard in your gardens and watching the lovely wildlife that visits.

Back indoors soon, Louise x

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ROSEMARY - Remembrance

There's Rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray you love, remember - (Hamlet) William Shakespeare. Rosemary is the herb of remembrance, and sprigs are often carried at country funerals or woven into wreaths.

I inherited this useful Rosemary plant from the previous owner, it is a hardy evergreen herb, and is still in little blue flower now in November! It likes dry soil and mine is more or less growing out of a paving slab, so that is how impoverished the soil is.

Rosemary is said to thrive in households where 'the mistress, not the master, rules', maybe that is why it thrives so well in my garden!

Rosemary Hair Rinse - Infuse a few stalks of Rosemary in hot water for several minutes, strain the liquid and allow to cool and bottle, this can be used as a final hair rinse, but always remember to keep it handy in the bathroom! This rinse will bring out the shine in dark hair, for fair hair replace the Rosemary with Chamomile flowers.

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STATICE

I remember as a kid my mum saying how much she disliked Statice in dried flower arrangements, so when a garden magazine was giving away freebie Statice seeds on the front cover I was in two minds about growing them, but I am pleased I did, I really like them. They are really easy to grow from seed, appear to be drought tolerant and flower for months on end, they are still in flower now in November. Established plants also survive in the ground over winter, the foliage does die down a little but they manage to spring back into life in the summer, well they do down here in the South.

The top photo is of plants I grew this year from seed they include some unusual colours such as salmon pink, orange-yellow, pink, carmine and blue, the blue being shown in the second photo.

The 'everlasting' blooms on strong wiry stems hold their colours superbly after drying. Pick when foliage is quite dry and flowers are well coloured. Tie in small bunches and hang upside down in a dry, well ventilated place until really dry.

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CHRISTMAS CACTI

My step-dad bought me this plant a few Christmas' ago, unfortunately that year all the developing flower buds decided to fall off! Last year the same plant flowered 'its socks off' with two displays of gorgeous blooms. Well you can see how well it is doing again this year, it is tight in its pot so I may have to repot it after flowering has finished?

I discovered some tips in a magazine of how to look after these plants, I didn't religiously follow these, but whatever I did do has produced good results.

January to March - resting period so water infrequently.
April to May - when compost begins to dry water well.
June to September - place outdoors in a shady spot but look out for slugs!
September - bring back indoors and keep compost fairly dry and cool until flower buds form.
Water frequently during the flowering period with rainwater.

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FERNS

I have four different ferns planted at the base of my Amelanchier tree, this is one of them. I love ferns and they are a great addition to any 'green' garden or to an area in shade. They were very popular with the Victorians and they displayed them beneath glass in 'ferneries' and also developed 'stumperies' where they planted ferns and other shade loving plants amongst tree stumps and roots, this is a great idea and this is a project which I want to undertake sometime soon. These have two purposes, one to look good and two to encourage lots of wildlife amongst the decaying matter, lovely!

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NERINE common names include Jersey or Guernsey Lily and Spider Lily

I was given this plant by a friend who was dividing hers, and to be quite honest it hasn’t done a thing, up until now that is. The other day I had quite a shock to see it flowering as it had been relegated to an out of the way corner of the garden. I must say it is beautiful and is an added a splash of lovely pink, which when you think of it, a colour not seen in abundance at this time of year in the garden. I believe this is Nerine bowdenii, a bubblegum pink variety.

Nerine bowdenii, sometimes called the Jersey Lily after Lily Langtry.

Others just holding on to flower in my garden are pale blue scabious, sunflower stella, salvia black and white, sedum, white gaura, white osteospermum and purple campanula.

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STRANGE PHENONOMEN

The other weekend when we had the rain showers and the gardens were full of glistening cobwebs I took this photo of my holly bush. When I uploaded the photo onto my computer I noticed what looked like a frog sitting on a branch, I went back outside to take a look but I couldn't pinpoint exactly which part of the bush I had taken the photo. I know on film you can sometimes get two pictures overlapping but this was on digital and my memory card didn't have any photos of frogs on at the time. What do you make of it, is it a trick of the eye and just leaf and stem, looking at it does freak me a little.

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MORE BIRD FOOD

Thanks to everyone for their comments on my posting Cats & Birds, they made great reading, my conclusion being to carry on as I have been, for me to enjoy the birds but just hope the cats don’t get to enjoy them too!

With this in mind I couldn’t resist a pack of these Gardman Hanging Feeders for Wild Birds when we popped into B&Q over the weekend, I like these feeders as you can hang them individually or stack them together and for under £5.00 I think they are quite good value for money, I have had these feeders before but not this particular selection:

Thistle Seed to attract Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Coal Tits, Siskins and Bullfinches.
Robin Seed & Insect Mix to attract Robins, Blue Tits, Black Caps, Dunnocks, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Wrens, Finches, Thrushes and other species.
Blue Tit Seed & Insect Mix to attract Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Thrushes, Robins, Dunnocks, Black Caps, Wrens and other species.

Saturday 27th October is National Feed the Birds Day, designed to encourage people to feed the birds in their gardens. It is also a good opportunity for regular bird feeders to increase their feeding regime for winter. Feed the Birds Day is timed to coincide with the clocks going back as this marks the onset of the long, dark winter nights, when life can start to get a little harder for birds.

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CATERPILLAR

Are there any caterpillar experts out there, does anyone know what this is? I think I have read that the hairy variety of caterpillar are moths? I discovered it clambering over my alchemilla mollis when I was having a garden tidy.

CATS & BIRDS

Oh dear, today I witnessed one of the neighbourhood cats just having caught a bird in my garden, I know it is all part of nature’s cycle but I still get upset when I see it happening. The dilemma of mine is I like cats and I like birds, so I don’t chase the cats out of the garden and I encourage more birds into the garden. I do my best to site all my bird feeders so as not to make it too easy for the cats to pounce but they will still manage to spring upon unsuspecting birds on the ground.

I always worry when the fledgling birds are on the ground in the Spring, they are so vulnerable and they really can be sitting targets for a passing cat, but this year I was fortunate and didn’t notice any dead birds around the garden or in a moggies mouth.

Not being a cat owner, do cats actually eat their catch or do they just enjoy toying with it?

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HAITHS BIRD FOOD

My parcel from Haiths has arrived, I have treated my birds to a selection of goodies:

Bucket of Small Fatballs
Woodland Trust Forest Feast
Premium Wildbird Food

http://www.haiths.com

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AMELANCHIER SNOWY MESPILUS

The weather today has been lovely, take a look at that blue sky in the photo, and I spent about 5 hours outside in the garden, with quite a few tea breaks thrown in! I have accumulated debris enough for another trip to the tip, I do compost a lot of my garden rubbish, but I can only do so much.

Gardening should really be done in blinkers. Its distractions are tempting and persistent, and only by stern exercise of will do I ever finish one job without being lured off to another.
Richardson Wright

Amelanchier can be used as a shrub but ours has been left to develop into a small multi-stemmed tree. In Spring it has white flowers before these turn into berries, ripening from red to purple-black. The leaves change various shades of colour during the year until Autumn when they have this beautiful bronze leaf colour, it is deciduous but the bark gives character to the garden in wintertime. The blackbirds and starlings love the berries, adults and juveniles alike.