GARDENER'S WORD - IDEAS AND TIPS

The weather forecasters got it right.  Today we have had more snow, although so far it's only a few centimetres deep.  The sky is blue, the sun is shining, and it's beautiful out there.  However, we have a warning that more is on the way.  I made myself busy this morning, after the disaster that befell the complete bird feeding station yesterday when the upright metal pole broke in two during strong winds.  I made some fat balls for the birds.  I just melted half a pound of lard and stirred in bird seed, raisins, and niger seed.  Once the lard began to harden again, I pressed handfuls into balls and put them into a special plastic feeder for fat balls .  I also hung out a bird feeder on the cross bar on my hammock/swing .  One thing is for sure, the swing won't break in half.  Snowy garden in January 2015  Whatever you do, don't give birds salty food or porridge.  It's dangerous and can be fatal.  See the RSPB websit...

Although I have no doubt that many places elsewhere are suffering far more severe weather than here, high up on the Pennines of West Yorkshire, this is the third time this year that snow has been forecast.  It was only last week when a road-gritting lorry couldn't make it around the estate where I live and I watched it reversing back down the road.  My question is, how is it that weather forecasters manage to forecast bad weather with such accuracy but not so much with good weather?   While the snow is on its way, the wind has been busy causing damage.   Bird feeding station I came home today to find that the metal centre pole of the bird-feeding station has snapped in two.  The feeders were lying on the ground, seed spilled in all direction.  No doubt the birds will be happy to clear it up.  I've seen a little red-breasted Robin tucking in already.  I love the birds visiting my garden.  Last week, in the morning, I found e...

If I had hoped that the snow would melt away before today, I was hoping in vain.  We have had, and are having, more snowfall here on the Pennine Mountains, about 875 feet above sea level.  It's about six inches deep in my garden already.  And more is forecast as on the way.  Oh, great!  It's hardly blocking the doors and chimney, I know, but I do feel sorry for the birds.  At great risk to life and limb I went out to clear the snow off the bird feeders (ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a tiny little bit but I was virtually swinging off the washing line as I tried to keep on my feet) and to place a dish of water on the feeding station.  I know it is likely to freeze over eventually. Great Tit on a snowy day A robin has been visiting my garden regularly since the snow came, as well as a number of other birds, particularly thrushes.  The thrushes like the home made fat balls , of which I have none.  So, that's a job for me to do....

In the winter of 2013/2014 we were spared snow here on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire, apart from a slight flurry which came and went with the blink of an eye.  But not this year.  This is our second good coating of snow this year.  Although I love the sight of it, I don't like the chaos it can cause on the roads, and so I stay in.  My garden today is covered in white and the sun keeps coming out and melting it a little, then more snow falls, and it melts a little more, then night time comes, the temperature drops, and the snow stays put.  Snow in my garden, 18 Jan, 2015 It's better, of course, than the horrendous gale force winds we've been having on and off for some weeks now.  Thankfully, so far, my fences have remained in place and upright.  I keep feeding the birds.  My cat, Alfie, keeps watching them through the kitchen window because there is little else to do for a cat who refuses to play and is as fussy about the weath...

I know that we are in winter now and that the shortest day is only just behind us, but the spring bulbs in my outdoor pots and troughs are poking through the compost and encouraging me to 'nil desperandum' when the snow (which has just gone) and the gale force wind and rain which are now howling and lashing are doing their best to push me into the doldrums.  Under the front window, in a long trough, I have planted tulip and iris bulbs saved from last year and I cannot wait to see them in flower once again.  I particularly love Iris Reticulata 'Harmony'.  Iris reticulata 'Harmony'   I was lazy last year when winter was approaching.  I haven't protected many of the perennials and the Japanese acers that I knew that I should have protected.  There just seems to always be too much to do nowadays so I have left them to thrive or not survive.  I'm surprised to see that the penstemons are full of luscious green growth and show no sign a...

It snowed a few days ago and the temperature here, high on the Pennine Mountains in West Yorkshire, is freezing cold.  The snow is lingering despite the sunshine and blue sky.  My car is still covered in icy snow, the road is covered with ice, and my Ragdoll cat, Alfie, and I have not been venturing out.  We are both whining about it now.  I've been watching the birds, particularly the Collared Doves and Thrushes, coming and going from my bird feeding station and the seed feeders are emptying fast.  As nearly all my store of wild bird seed has now gone, I boiled some rice and formed it into balls.  A year ago I bought a huge bag of niger (or nyjer) seed, thinking I was being clever and getting a bargain, but the birds have shown little to no interest in the special feeder for that tiny, dark brown seed.  Goldfinches are said to be attracted to niger!   So, I have rolled the rice balls in the niger seed and the visiting bi...

At the Royal Horticultural Society garden centre in Harlow Carr today, inside the large greenhouse annexed to the shop, they had counters full of colourful cyclamen and poinsettias. While I have never been particularly enraptured by poinsettias, I do love cyclamen.  Out of kindness, I don't buy them.  I used to, many moons ago, but I have never bought a cyclamen yet that I have not swiftly killed off.  There must be a trick to keeping them alive but it is one that I have never learned.  Cyclamen 'Metis' Cyclamen.Org FAQ (external link). I understand that it is an art to get poinsettias to flower just at the right time for Christmas.  It's all to do with keeping them in the dark for a period of time, or something.  Actually, it's the colourful bracts, not the insignificant flowers, that attract all the attention.  These shrubs used to grow in gardens when I lived in the Caribbean and people would grow them next to a shrub that would flower whi...

At the Royal Horticultural Society garden nursery today, in Harlow Carr, I saw a small selection of Hellebores.  Some looked rather bedraggled but others were quite lovely, especially Helleborus 'Verboom Beauty' with its beautiful butter-coloured stamens. Helleborus 'Verboom Beauty' - 17 December 2014 I don't know if hellebores are picky kinds of plants which need to be in a 'just so' position in the garden, or what.  I mean, I bought one in a pot a couple of years ago and it was not happy when I planted it in a small, south-facing border, at the top of my garden where others things grow quite happily, and it subsequently and rather quickly died.  Yet, at the front of my neighbour's house there grows a huge white hellebore which has spread out, and has flowered profusely and for many weeks on end throughout winter and early spring for the five years that I have lived here.  It has never been tended, weeded, fed, or watered.  It has been totally neg...

I visited the Royal Horticultural Society garden nursery today at Harlow Carr and although it was relatively quiet, compared with spring and summer months, there were a few things that caught my eye.  First and brightest was the small, potted, Skimmia japonica 'Temptation' with it's cheerfully bright red berries and shiny, fleshy leaves.  What a gem at what a price.  Quickly I put it back and took a photograph instead!  Imagine having this wonderful evergreen shrub growing in your garden in winter though.  Apparently it is a self-fertile variety so no need to buy more than one.  Skimmia japonica 'Temptation' - 17 December 2014 Skimmia japonica 'Temptation' has small white flowers in spring which attracts pollinators.  It will accept any aspect, and likes neutral soil.  I read that it has bushy growth, is ideal for a container, and only grows to about 2ft.  Hmmm, a rose of mine was supposed to grow to 2ft but it reaches 5ft! I und...

It's a busy time in the garden for the birds eating the seed, and for me filling the containers!  My garden has become very popular as the weather gets colder.  The thrushes seem to love the home-made fat balls for the birds  that I have hung out in a special holder.  Thrushes dining on home-made fat balls I've not seen too many grey squirrels lately but one visited the other day and it is easy, by one photograph in particular, to see why people call them tree rats.  Personally, I think they are enchanting and entertaining creatures and they are welcome to dine at my expense any time they like.  Grey squirrel helping itself to bird seed Grey squirrel showing its white underbelly. You can see why some people call them tree rats. Six sparrows on one feeder helping themselves to bird seed.

Nothing much of interest is happening in my garden now that winter is here.  There is the occasional shabby rose opening from a ragged rosebud, and a few penstemon flowers are still looking nice, but the cold and wet weather has given everything a miserable cast and I have to admit that I am not a winter gardener.  What interests me now is the birds and I get so much pleasure watching them arriving in my garden despite costing me a small fortune in bird seed.  Unfortunately, I cannot get great photos of them because I have to take them through the kitchen window, or they fly away the minute I open the door.  And, invariably, I have the wrong lens on my camera.  If I go and change it, by the time I get back the birds have flown.  I really ought to get out of the habit of leaving my macro lens on, at least for now.  Goldfinches having a feast Goldfinch checking me out A Chaffinch waits in the wings while the greedy sparrows fill their b...

I know I am English and rumour has it that we are supposed to talk about the weather all the time, well it's true and I offer no apologies.  While we aren't suffering the deadly volumes of snow that the people of Buffalo, New York, are suffering, we've had days of miserable grey skies, fog, and rain.  My garden is covered with soggy, rotting, leaves and the slugs are having a field day.  I swear they are like Gremlins in the movie of the same name, and multiply at a crazy speed when wet.  Today, rain has held off and we've even had a little bit of blue in the sky and weak sunshine.  I took advantage.  I've taken down the hanging baskets filled with Swingtime and Southgate fuchsias which have been fantastic for months on end.  As soon as we get serious frost, it could quite easily kill them.  To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how tender or robust these two types of trailing species are.  Sadly, they were still flowering and it seemed li...

I seem to be behind in my autumnal chores this year.  When the weather has been fine, I haven't felt like doing it.  When it's been miserable, I have been raring to go, but won't.  For one thing, if anything will set my back off, it's cold weather.  Does that sound like a good excuse for being lazy?  I think so.  Today is mild though.  It's cool, but fine.  After dilly dallying for a few hours this morning, I started on the jobs.  The first job was to treat the marble table.  It's a must, and something that cannot be put off too long.  If the table is wet, and the temperature drops below freezing, the marble can crack.  First of all I hosed off the grit and leaves, then applied a specialist marble cleaner .  The cleaner, and the protective liquid is very expensive but both those bottles are enough to last for years for my marble table which is 43" dia.  While the table top is drying, which it has to before I...

My garden is sodden at the moment with all the rain we've been having the past few days so, to avoid standing on saturated lawn and borders, and causing damage, photographs will have to wait for another day.  Sunshine is forecast for tomorrow, at least part of the time, but until then I thought I would share some photographs of trees, my favourite plants.   Do the world a favour, save the bees and plant some trees . Trees at Temple Newsam, West Yorkshire, August 2014  Trees at Temple Newsam, West Yorkshire, August 2014 Thorpe Perrow arboretum , North Yorkshire, June 2013 Prunus serrula - RHS gardens, Harlow Carr 2014 Oak tree, RHS gardens, Harlow Carr 2014 Trees at RHS gardens, Harlow Carr   

I see the Welsh Poppy (Papaver cambricum, formerly Meconopsis cambrica) growing quite often in local gardens, in positions where I can tell that the plant has sown itself.  There's one growing alongside a house drain, where the bathroom water flows.  Some Welsh Poppies found their way into the narrow strip of soil under my living room window and I thought, how sweet, let them grow. Well, they are, but you try and pull one up.  I swear the root of one large plant headed for Australia and tied a knot in itself when it emerged from the other side.  That's an exaggeration, but they are real toughies and not as easy as you might think to pull up.  Of course, it's not surprising that they are toughies, delicate looking survivors.  Although I have pulled up most of the ones growing at the front of my home while they were still small, I caught this little yellow flower on camera today.  Sneaky plant had grown without my noticing.  I shall l...

I don't know whether I have mentioned this before, I think I have, that last year I grew two trailing pelargoniums on either side of my front door, in small wrought-iron corner baskets.  They did ok but I thought they had died over winter.  When I removed the baskets this spring with the intention of replanting them, I found that the poor little pelargoniums were struggling to get a grip on life.  I empathised!  I replaced the compost and replanted the plants which were mostly woody with the tiniest amounts of green showing.  Happily, they both survived and were doing very well except that yours truly, I, went and snapped the trailer part off one of them the other week while watering it.  It still has leaves, and again has survived, but there are no flowers.  On the other side of the door, its fellow pelargonium has produced lovely red blooms.  Red trailing pelargonium, grow in a corner basket I think, for the amount of flowers produced...

I mentioned back in a post in September that clematis Arctic Queen had collapsed and picked itself back up again after I cut the whole thing right back to its base.  While I hoped that the climber would grow again and maybe produced one or two flowers this year if I were lucky, I never expected that it would grow back to full height, and produce lots of buds and flowers which are continuing right through autumn towards winter.  But it has. Arctic Queen in a south-facing container, November 2014 Although I have had to move this climber a few times to try to try and ascertain where it is happy - it's a fickle thing - it seems to be content on my front porch/doorstep, facing south, protected a little against the wind which blows across the Pennines.  It looks really pretty when I approach the front door of my home.   I think that one of the reasons that it has recovered and done so well is that we have had a mild summer and are having a mild autumn....

It's quite lovely right now where I live with autumn turning the leaves of the trees and shrubs all sorts of shades of red, orange and gold.  The small Prunus avium Stella (Gisela 5) which is growing in a large pot sunk into my garden border is looking rather bare after high winds the other day.  Even so, it's rather lovely with its mostly naked stems with large leaves hanging here and there.  I took a few photos of the leaves today and couldn't resist editing them a little on the computer.  Prunus avium Stella autumn leaves This little tree gives so much pleasure in the garden.  It has lovely white flowers in spring , sweet red cherries in summer , and now lovely golden leaves in autumn.  What more could I ask of it? Click here if you want to check out about pruning cherry trees .  The notes are useful for me, so that I can try and remember to prune my small tree early next spring. Cherry tree, Prunus avium Stella Gisela 5, leaves in a...

I bought two Osteospermums a few months ago, at the beginning of July.  Just two, in individual pots.  At the time I bought them I thought they were a little bit expensive, probably because the big garden centre where I often go is generally so cheap and has such great plants for sale.  How could I possibly have considered two plants expensive that have flowered from the day I bought them, right through the summer, and are still full of flowers and buds.  What a bargain.  Osteospermum 'Sunny Mary' and 'Pink Honey '.  Osteospermum 'Sunny Mary' flowering into November Osteospermum 'Sunny Mary' with insect - Macro photograph Osteospermum Flower Power 'Pink Honey' flowering into November Although I kept them in their pots originally, I soon realised they were not happy and so planted them into my garden borders where they thrived and bloomed. Osteospermum, also known as African daisies, are perennials but they are not hardy and need...