GARDENER'S WORD - IDEAS AND TIPS

I did quite a bit of pottering around my garden yesterday, checking things out.  The Polka raspberry canes are no longer bare but are bursting with leaves.  Not only that but amid some of the leaves are small flower buds which promise fruit a few weeks from now.   I grow my raspberry canes cordon style , leaning the canes down below the top level of the 6ft fence so that they have more protection from the wind.  It has worked out quite well. Polka raspberry canes producing leaves and fruit buds in April   Polka raspberry canes producing leaves and fruit buds in April Polka raspberry is a primocane  (primocane is a cane which grows from the ground in spring and provides fruit in autumn) but can fruit both in early summer and in autumn if you follow a few simple pruning rules (see link).  A floricane raspberry, on the other hand, provides fruit in summer on old canes that appeared the previous year.   Polka raspberrie...

Although spring is my favourite time of year because we have months ahead before winter arrives again, it is not my favourite time of year as far as gardening is concerned.  There is so much, too much, to do, and so little time in which to do it.  You have to make hay while the sun shines.  I was sitting on my swing yesterday, enjoying some of our rare sunshine, sipping coffee and contemplating reading a book when I remembered that I needed to sort out the hanging baskets of fuchsias.  Last year four baskets adorned the back wall of my home and they were magnificent.  When late autumn came, I cut back the plants and put them into the mini-greenhouse to overwinter.  Fuchsias go dormant but when spring came they didn't all show signs of life.  So, yesterday, I split up the baskets and took out those fuchsias which were obviously dead (a snip of the secateurs will soon tell you if there is green life hiding inside the brown stems.  Several of th...

I've lost a few plants over winter although some succumbed to silly workmen plonking bags of cement on them, or stepping on herbaceous perennials that had not yet appeared from underground, unbeknownst to me.  I need to replace them and while I was mooching around the RHS Garden shop in Harlow Carr last week, I saw a 'must have': Aubrieta (Aubretia) 'Kitte Blue'.  It's a dazzler with large flowers.  My camera had problems with the colour and turned the petals slightly pinker than they actually are.  Aubrieta (aubretia) Kitte Blue Aubrieta 'Kitte Blue' Aubrieta 'Kitte Blue' - macro The labels says that Aubrieta 'Kitte Blue' has very large flowers which almost cover the plant through late spring every year.  The year round foliage makes a neat carpet too.  It is perfect for growing in a rockery, raised bed, or in gravel.  It is hardy, evergreen, and perennial.  It achieves a height of 10cm (4") and spread of 50cm (20...

All hail was let loose on my garden today.  The weather is so mercurial lately that I don't know what to expect from one hour to the next.  It started off dull and raining this morning, then the sun came out, and just as I was about to stick some washing in the machine and was contemplating getting the hoe out of the shed to do a bit of border tidying, down it came.  Mind you, I was only contemplating doing these things and hadn't actually realised it had start to hail until my Ragdoll cat, Alfie, burst through the kitchen door like his tail was on fire.  When I looked out, small pellets of hail, about the size of a pea, were pelting down.  It was quite beautiful, really.  Hail on my garden - 24 March 2015 Looks like Perlite, doesn't it? Hailstones in a garden container  Hail zooming like bullets past the garden shed

What a gloriously sunny day we are having today on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire.  While it was a cold start, things heated up by early this afternoon and I was able to sit on my hammock/swing and read for a while.  There isn't much by the way of colour in my garden right now although the primroses and crocuses are doing a great job of cheering up the garden.  I've grown the crocuses in a square container which I covered over with mesh during winter to keep the squirrels at bay.  Squirrels like eating crocus corms very much and will dig them up.  Crocuses growing in a tub Crocus stamens Crocus stamens - macro I forgot to mention that the Irises are out too and giving dashes of blue in a small border as well as in two pots at the front of the house.  They are really lovely. Unfortunately, sunshine, birds, an ever-present prowling Ragdoll cat, and jobs that need doing, are always a distraction when I want to be lazy.  So I d...

I cut my small back garden lawn this morning; first cut of the year.  There are bright green patches of moss which will be dealt with in a week or two.  I popped down to the garden centre and bought a box of Evergreen's Complete 4 in 1.  Although some think it too harsh, it does the job I want it to do.  It gets rid of weeds and moss, feeds and strengthens the lawn  You have to be careful not to go mad with it though (apply too much) because, if you do, it will burn and blacken it along with destroying the weeds.  I want my lawn to look as good as it did when at its best last year and in years before that, like my lawn looked in 2011 .  Lawn 2014 I also pruned the Arthur Bell floribunda roses  and sprayed them with a systemic rose fungicide by Bayer .  I was so disappointed last year to find they were full of black spot.  Arthur Bell has been such a fantastic rose, so strong and healthy for several years but now they s...

Spring has arrived today.  Of course, it could always leave today as well.  So, I've taken advantage of it and I know I shall be stiff as a board this evening.  That's the problem when a really good day arrives, so much to do before it starts raining again.  My garden, which is often so lovely in summer, looks a mess over the winter.  That's because I refuse to garden in the freezing cold, and wind, and rain, when there are books to read, movies to watch, cat-napping with my Ragdoll cat, Alfie, enjoying the warmth of my home.  I began by digging out two roses.  I think the roots went down to Australia!  It was a killer getting them out.   I'm was sick of them getting blackspot and what have you, and sticking me with their thorns.  There are plenty other plants to enjoy that are less ruthless, and I've still got the climbing roses Wild Eve, Generous Gardener, and New Dawn adorning my fences.  I pruned the climbing roses a l...

It has snowed again.  How dare it!  Here am I, waiting for spring to arrive.  By 'spring' I mean the sort of spring that has sunshine and bright light, and days that are warm enough for a summer-gardener like me to enjoy pottering around.  As I look out of the window at the snowy disorganisation, I think of all the chores that imminently need to be done (much of it pruning, lawn-border trimming, raking lawn free of moss, etc) and it's nerve racking.  I did, however, the day before yesterday, have chance to plant out a small pot of 'Spencer Mixed' sweet peas that I bought at the RHS Garden Centre in Harlow Carr.  You would think they wouldn't fare so well having several plants in one small spot but once in the garden the roots find their own way and last year's pot of sweet peas did wonderfully well despite the competition of a clematis.  I actually bought three pots of 'Spencer Mixed' sweet peas and only remembered that I hadn't har...

Many of my garden plants are waking up after winter, coming out of hibernation now that we are approaching spring.  Primulas are in flower in my north-facing border but some of the flowers are looking rather bedraggled (close up) after the recent bouts of snow and freezing temperatures that we have had here on the Pennine Mountains in the last few weeks, not to mention lashing rain and howling wind which is loosening the trellis on the top of my fences.  Although I thought that last year's display of snowdrops 'Galanthus 'Woronowii' which I have planted in a pot so that I don't go and dig them up (they don't like to be disturbed), was pretty dismal, this year is no better.  Even so, the two flowers that are up right now are cheerful, bright, and a very, very, welcome sight.  Snowdrop 'Galanthus 'Woronowii' (macro)

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...