GARDENER'S WORD

Today was dry enough to clean and seal my marble table which stays outside all year round.  Marble is a metamorphic rock which is rather porous in that it allows water to seep into the tiny, natural cracks.  When temperatures are freezing any water in the cracks freezes, expands, and damages unsealed marble.  I don't want to risk it so each autumn I clean off as much as I can of the dirt and mould that has embedded itself into the marble during spring and summer using a soft brush to apply a proprietary cleaner (I use Tikko Restoration Cleaner)   and then I rinse off the cleaner, and let the table dry before I seal it with a water-based sealant (Tikko Stone Protector/W) applied with a soft brush.  When the table dries, after using Tikko Stone Protector/W, it has a matt finish and is light again.  You wouldn't know that it had been sealed.    After the sealant has dried, I cover the table with a...

I was mooching around Gordon Rigg's garden centre in Rochdale the other day, looking for something that will tolerate a particular place in my living room - warm and a little shady - when I spotted a delightful little fern.  So healthy and green it is.  I'm afraid my brain turned off a bit as I read 'warm' and 'light shade' on the sign above the plants and thought of how plants are supposed to be good for us, breathing out oxygen, giving an element of humidity in a centrally-heated room.  I didn't even remember to make a note of the fern's name at the sight of such a reasonable price on the pot (£3.99) of a good-sized fern.  I didn't even care about the strong little white roots poking out of the base of the pot.  I can repot it, I thought.  Then, when I got home, my brain turned back on again.  Hmmm.  Looks like something that would grow in a pre-historic rain forest, something that would grow big, like a tree fern, with a trunk even....

A friend kindly sent me a photograph of myself and my beloved Ragdoll cat, Alfie, in the garden together.  Both of us are camera shy and so it was quite a surprise to find out that this photograph had been taken.  It was in summer a couple of years ago and everything was green and quite luscious.  Alfie was having a lovely time playing in the grass.  Here I am doing a spot of watering.  It truly does look quite a jungle.  Those cherry tomatoes in pots in front of me provided so much lovely fruit that year.  Here I am doing a spot of watering (2013).  It truly does look quite a jungle.  Those cherry tomatoes in pots in front of me provided so much lovely fruit that year.  Alfie, my Ragdoll cat, making me laugh.  

I am busy winding down my garden so that I have nothing to do but feed the birds when winter hits us.  Unfortunately for the local wood-pigeons, someone in the neighbourhood has complained about them and an official letter has been sent to all spelling out the diseases and pests which the poor old pigeon might bring upon us.  It seems that pigeons themselves are considered pests, the poor things.  This means that those who have been feeding them have now stopped.  It saddens me to think that they now have to find somewhere else to feed when winter is coming, and I wish that the person who complained, whoever they are, could have complained early summer instead of just when winter is arriving.  But, the problem is that pigeons do tend to increase in number the more you feed them.  What started off as a few pigeons a couple of years ago has risen to over thirty.  You only have to look at Trafalgar Square in London to see what can happen.  ...

I've trimmed back and brought the two big potted  Heaven White begonias that have been sitting on my outside kitchen window bottom since spring.  They are to spend their second winter inside my home along with a few cuttings that I took in spring.  Only three cuttings took and the plants are still small but that is no matter because, small as they are, they are very healthy and flowering well.   They give so much pleasure, flowering as they do all winter and all summer long with their bright green leaves all shiny and fresh looking.  I don't know where they get their energy and I feel quite exhausted for them.  I'm hoping no living critters come crawling out of them though.  I've give them a good inspection and a shake but you never know.  I won't be pleased to find earwigs and spiders in my home.  Lately, my beloved Ragdoll cat, Alfie, has been killing tarantula-like things that are appearing in my rooms from s...

I'm finding it difficult, in this rainy weather, to get done all the jobs that need doing in the garden.  I've swept up one lot of leaves from the neighbouring trees and bagged them in the hope they will provide compost for next year, but another lot loom heavily overhead.  Meanwhile, I've been marvelling at the perpetual strawberries that are still in flower, still got embryo fruit and still providing ripe fruit.  If only I could get at them all before the slugs do.  The slugs seem to get the biggest and the best, blast the little suckers.  I don't know where they are hiding out but they certainly did a good job of ruining my tomato crop this year.  I feel, often, despondent.  But the ones I picked today, that survived the slugs, will be nice on my Bircher Muesli for breakfast tomorrow. Perpetual strawberries 15 October 2013 Perpetual strawberries 15 October 2013

I drove over to Harlow Carr today and after having an early lunch with a friend, we went for a stroll around the RHS Gardens.  While a lot of the flowers had finished, not all by any means, it was the autumnal colours of the trees and shrubs that caught my attention; particular the Japanese maples.  I particularly liked this view with yellow in the distance, then orange, and in the foreground a red one. Autumn colours at RHS Gardens, Harlow Carr - October 2013 A little farther ahead on the path was a dazzling blue spruce.   It's colours are really strong and I think the softer autumn light has a lot to do with it as I don't recall it quite catching my attention in such a way when I visited in summer. Blue spruce (left) Autumn colours at RHS Gardens, Harlow Carr - October 2013 I noted that the vegetables in the plots nearer to lake are being allowed to go to seed.  There were several lettuce which had bolted and interestingly several artich...

I mentioned in a previous post how I was saying goodbye to problematic roses but there seem to be a million jobs that have come at me all at once this autumn.  Where to start?  For one thing, it was a mistake to let a strawberry plant that had managed, somehow, to appear among the roses.  It provided two delicious strawberries and so I left it.  While I had my back turned, its runners managed to run and root among roses, amid herbaceous plants, and made their way to the lawn.  I had a devil of a job pulling them out.  Strawberries are not on my agenda for next year.  I need an easier life in the garden and am semi-decided on going for small shrubs and herbaceous perennials.  I want ground cover to supress weeds.  One rose that is doing so beautifully that it is quite safe, for now, is Wild Eve in the north-facing border.  She's flowering even now and her next-door neighbour, New Dawn, will also remain.  They have both remained trou...

I realise it's a month since I posted anything about my garden.  The truth is, I've reached a crossroads with it, a quandary.  I have a permanent case of vertigo, as some might already know, and it's quite hard enough gardening without having to constantly battle with the weather and fight pests and diseases.  While I love roses with a passion and can manage pruning if I am careful, I do find having to deal with millions of aphids a, well, pest (no exaggeration - there can be hundreds of the little red or green suckers on just one rose bud). They even attacked my stalwart row of trouble-free  yellow Arthur Bell roses this year and that's a first although I could not, yet, bring myself to remove Arthur Bell which is too beautiful for words and maybe the attack was a one off.  I live in hope!  Aphids on a rose Aphids leave a sticky residue to which spores of mildew fungus can find a home.  Then there is the dastardly rust disease and ...