One day, all days will be potential garden days
But until then it's a question of taking my chances on 2 out of 7. Since I wrote off Saturday shopping for a fetching outfit for our neighbours' same sex wedding, aka civil partnership ceremony, in December, that left Sunday for gardening. Which was fine until midday (I only got outside at about 11.30) and then it pissed down with something between sleet and rain for the rest of the day.
However, I managed to:
- collect more leaves
- plant more bulbs
- do a 15 minute clear up at J and Ps.
- mooch about like a miserable old cow tethered indoors
But I did buy a nice outfit on Saturday!
The weather has flatlined, but not for long...
Today was evil. The thermometer stalled at 2C all day, we had thick fog that didn't lift an inch and not a breath of wind. A pervasive, icy, damp chilliness gripped the day and for once made me glad of an indoor job.
But a glance at the forecast for three days time paints an entirely different picture. Gale force northerly winds, sleet and rain coming in from the east. Maybe I'll be thinking fondly of cold foggy weather by the weekend. Unlikely.
Can't do it
I'm up, dressed, breakfasted and sturdy-booted, ready for a serious session outside. But, it's thick fog, -1C and so very still that it's scary - like the world's stopped turning and the weather is no more. Call me a nesh wimp but I'm not going out there on my own.
Some notes on hardiness
An update on today and some observations for future reference:
- Gladiolus calianthus (Acidanthera)- no sign of frost damage in shade tunnel, but plainly frost bitten under the bell cloche (I left the top vent open).
- Thalictrum delaveyi seedlings are hardy as anything - pricked them out today as they are growing strongly despite the cold.
- Freesia laxa and Dierama seedlings also happy.
- Pelargoniums in cold frame look nipped - moved them into polytunnel.
- Chocolate cosmos in shade tunnel looks frost bitten, but the cuttings under a cloche in the polytunnel are fine.
- Geranium 'Ann Folkard' seems to be thriving despite the cold, with fresh young shoots the colour of forced rhubarb. Maybe it's enjoying the extra light now that the birch is bare.
Also sowed another set of Meconopsis seeds - they've been in the fridge so I've put the pot in the polytunnel. Just one seedling so far from the second batch I sowed.
Collected some cyclamen seeds from under the winter cherry. Some had germinated, see below. Transplanted them to pots to save them from accidentally being weeded up.
On the third day...
...it was exactly the same. Barometer still rising, no wind, temp dipping overnight to below zero and lifting with the sunrise. High pressure is settled over the UK and is set to stay for another week. It's easier to read the weather station graph if you click to enlarge it.
Going down...
Last night was a record low for 2005, at -3.8C, beating the record for Jan 2005. The chocolate cosmos is still in the shade tunnel and the pots they are in seem frozen - I'll move them into the polytunnel at the weekend - if it's not too late. This weather will finish off the last of the annuals and many of the perennials. That's a good thing really, it means I'll finish the 2005 clear up in November, rather than at New Year as usually happens.
Some pics from this morning:
First proper frost
The garden themometer dropped to minus 2.2C overnight - it was still only 0C at 10am. We brought the Dicksonia in last night and I covered some of the marginal plants with plastic bell cloches just in time.
Beautiful day today - makes winter almost enjoyable when it's still, bright and sunny.
Speedy digging in cool sunshine
With lunch booked at Haigh Hall with our great friends and neighbours,I squeezed in a quick spot of digging in the morning sunshine. This was the pumpkin patch and will become the new prairie garden. First it needed digging over and weeding. Next job - removing six inches of top soil as it is too high, moving the large stones on the left and importing a few tonnes of gravel.
Round one complete... And a shot of my boots.
Prairie garden makeover day 1
before...
an hour's sprint digging later
It takes two years but it's worth it
The product of a full day's leaf collecting. I should shred it really, but it's hard enough work collecting them. However, it's all worth it because..
..this is what it makes. The first bucket of home brew compost, 50/50 sieved garden compost and leaf mould. Can't wait to try it out with seeds and cuttings.
A splash of colour in November is priceless
Mrs Popple
Mahonia x 'Charity'
Fatsia japonica - more interesting than colourful
Another inch of rain
3rd time in a fortnight we've had an inch in one day. A proper November feel to today - driving rain, sodden leaves, almost bare trees black with wet, deep cold puddles in the roadside. Yet the fuchsia and cosmos are still in flower, a couple of the David Austin roses are doing their best to have a final fling and the cyclamen are positively vibrant. There is no month when the garden is colour free. Not even miserable November
Black gold
The pile on the right is 2 year old leaf mould. The left hand pile is 18 month old compost. Apart from the sticks in the compost and bluebell bulbs in the leaf mould, both are perfect - soft, dark and crumbly. The bins are now clear and ready for re-filling. All in all a very satisfying days work.
Note to self - make more leaf mould!
2nd note to self - turn the compost mid year to help it homogenise.
Between shopping and the rain
I had a good couple of hours in the front garden, which hasn't been touched for about six months. Tidied up the acanthus and potentilla and thinned the phormiums a bit. Also planted the Spring Green tulips on the appointed day, along with half a dozen Allium Christophii. I think they'll look good together, especially since they are around the Corsican hellebore which should still have it's lime green flowers then.
Still mild, but much too damp to mow the lawn or sort the leaf mould out. Below are a couple of pics I took in the 10 minutes of sunshine this morning.
November 5th pics
Planted this up in October - quite pleased with it.
Sorbus hupehensis. It'll look even prettier when the leaves turn
The new shade tunnel. With a typical gardener's blindess I didn't see how untidy the area still is until I saw the photo.
What to do with a shade tunnel
With all the young plants I've got growing I wanted somewhere outdoors, unheated but sheltered to grow them on, so I thought I'd build a shade tunnel. The idea was to protect young plants from the drying effects of wind and sun to let good root systems form.
Well it's all but finished now - just the ends to do, if I can be bothered. First impressions are that plants seem calmer, less stressed in there than in the border or the polytunnel. I'm looking forward to experimenting with it over the next year or two. Somehow it feels like a really grown up sort of space to have - almost a mini-nursery. And anyway it hides the garage from the house and hides the polytunnel from the neighbours. They'd have me build a Victorian Orangery instead, but it's not my style (i.e. I can't afford it)
A warm welcome
A warm welcome to the GW MBers who've dropped in - my visitor counter has had to rub its eyes and wake up!
Do leave a message if you feel inclined and if you have a gardening related website or blog you'd like me to include a link to (see links below), then mention that too.
Happy gardening. Trillium
My brain is full...
Back to college today for another dizzying spell of fast-feeding on plant botany. New words I learnt today include the following (writing down helps me learn them..)
- plumule (the bit of a seed embryo that turns into the first true leaves)
- endospermic (seeds in which the food store is held in the endosperm)
- drupe (bit unsure about the definition of this, but an apple is one, I think)
- parthenocarpic (Produces fruit but not seed)
- hilum (the scar on a seed where it used to be fixed to the plant)
- hypocotyl (the bit that holds the two sides of a dicotyledon seed embryo together)
- micropyle (the titchy hole in a seed testa that lets water in)
- dehiscent (seeds that are released by the splitting of an outer capsule, eg pea)
- orgibberellins (some hormone for spraying on plants to make them fruit)
Only 9, down on the weekly average of 15, but quite enough for my ageing brain!
Halloween
I can't claim any credit for this fine specimen - purchased by DB and beautifully carved by H2 who had sole custody of a very large, sharp knife for the purpose.
