GARDENER'S WORD

For the last two nights we have had snow here on the Pennines of West Yorkshire and during the day the snow has thawed and we have had sunshine. That works for me!  Apart from that, I'm so pleased to tell you that a lovely Great Spotted Woodpecker has visited my garden again. I first saw it on the first day of January 2020. It likes the homemade fat balls that I make. It's lovely to see it eating seeds from the feed, alongside the small birds. I wondered what sex the woodpecker is and it seems they are very easy to identify.  The male has a red patch on the back of its head, whereas the female does not. Young Great Spotted Woodpeckers are even more easy to identify, from any view, because they are sporting a cap of red until they mature.  It's most definitely a mature male that is visiting my garden. Whether or not it is always the same one is anybody's guess. Sorry the photos are not great. They are taken from a distance through the kitchen window. If I opened the do...

Approaching winter last year, there were a few buds on my Wild Eve rose. I expected them to rot and come to nothing, so have not paid any attention to them. I'm afraid my garden is like a jungle over winter as I leave everything untidy for the insects and the birds (and it saves me doing any work). So imagine my surprise when I looked out of the window today and noticed one bud had actually bloomed.  Ok, it looks a bit chewed and ragged, but it's a welcome sight. Roll on spring. Wild Eve rose blooming in January 2020 There are a couple of buds here and there which look promising. How lovely! This image below is Wild Eve in summer. She's a beautiful David Austin rose. Wild Eve rose

I've been gardening for decades and for the first time, this year, have bought a heated propagator. Each spring I take cuttings of my older red pelargoniums so that I can have a good display each year. Usually I will do this around late March but I wanted to get a jump on the weather this year because I want flowers earlier. Stewart Premium 52cm Thermostatic Electric Propagator I bought it via Amazon and you can see more details about it there. It comes with a base within which is the thermostat and probe, then there is a large tray and two smaller ones which fit into the base, and along with that came 10 small plastic pots.  I used those and another six besides, so I have fitted sixteen cuttings in individual pots into the base. It's quite room! It was easy to set up but I couldn't quite make out from the pamphlet whether or not I was supposed to put water in the base. Looking at several YouTube videos demonstrating this propagator, it seems not. Anyway, pelargonium...