GARDENER'S WORD - IDEAS AND TIPS

Early last summer I had a garden room built in my small garden and it has become my little haven, my Utopia, a place to read, and snooze.  You wouldn't think that such a small space (about 9 x 7ft) would be anything special, but it is.  The light in there is bright and lovely and it only takes a bit of sunshine through that one wall of glass to warm it up.  There's no heating installed.  The glass in the double-glazing is special; it filters out harmful sun rays and stops fading and sun damage to what's in there (hopefully, that includes protecting me too).  I don't want plants in there, at least not in winter, as I am trying to keep it a  dry and damp-free space.  But I love plants and I love cut flowers too, so I did the next best thing and bought some cheery artificial ones which I put in that sugary-glass vase.  I know many people aren't fond of artificial flowers but the makers of them are getting really good at it nowadays and sometimes, whe...

There is widespread snow across the UK today and the forecast is grim.  The media is calling it the Beast from the East.  How's that for dramatic.  Here, in West Yorkshire, we seem to have got off lighter than some with only a few inches of snow whereas in Scotland, in an area between Glasgow and Edinburgh and extending north to Perth, there's a red alert as the snow is so heavy up there it could endanger life.  Actually, a thin dusting of snow can endanger life if you go and slip on it and break your neck.  The advisory is to stay put and not go out, and not drive if you can avoid it.  No need to ask me twice.  I got in, before it arrived, enough food to feed an army.  I've fed the birds in the garden to keep their little bellies full to try and keep them warm.  Actually, it doesn't seem so cold out there to me but then two quick minutes clearing the three feet distance between the kitchen door and the dustbin is hardly time to give me hypot...

Wouldn't you just know it, I buy a little bay tree and it was doing so well last summer and autumn and until quite recently. Over the warmer months it had put on quite a bit of leafy growth; all lovely for picking and putting in stews.   And, cherishing it, I bring the little plant indoors during winter to stop it perishing from the freezing cold of our rather cold and snowy winter here on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire.  Then, recently, I noticed small amounts of sticky stuff appearing on the upper leaves.  Checking on the internet, I discovered that it is a sign of scale insect.  Seems that Laurus Nobilis, Bay Trees, are prone to such little suckers.  So, I inspected the underside, could see very few signs of scale insects, and washed the leaves in soapy water.  And still the sticky deposits appeared overnight.  So, I then submerged all but the roots of the still small plant in soapy water for over 24 hours, thinking that shou...

It might still be winter and the weather has made sure we remember that with days upon end of miserable weather here on the Pennine Mountains, but today we had sunshine.  Glorious blue sky and sunshine with scarcely a cloud until mid afternoon.  Outside there was a little bit of a chill in the air but inside the garden room the temperature climbed above 20 degrees celsius.  I sat and began to read Alistair MacLean's 'Night Without End' (which I first read as a teenager and remembered enjoying it, hence buying a copy recently to reread).  Alfie, the resident Ragdoll Cat , snoozed on the wicker chair and in the garden lots of birds and squirrels 'free-jocked' (ate for nothing) on the seed and fatballs which I put out for them during winter.  For those of you who live in a sunny climate, you possibly won't appreciate the joy a sunny day can bring after days of rain, snow, wind, and cloud.    Thrushes confronting each other above the fa...

Although most things, if not all things, in my garden on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire go dormant during the winter months, the evergreens still retain their greenery.  I love ferns and have quite a few, and I would say that most of them are deciduous, like the Wood Fern, Thelypteris decursive pinnata .  My  Dryopteris filix-mas 'Euchinensis' also dies back, although I don't remove the dead growth but, instead, leave it to protect the crown of the plant until spring when the new fronds begin to unfurl. I do that with a lot of my garden plants.    Polypodium vulgare is evergreen and also my Buckler Fern (Dryopteris atrata) which have retained their green fronds. Evergreen fern in winter, Jan 2018 The Holly Fern, Cyrtomium fortunei , which I grow in a container, is quite evergreen each year although I give it a bit of protection by placing the pot against the east facing house wall and right next to the outside drain whe...

Snow is still with us here, high on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire.  It arrived about a week or go and despite it showing signs of melting now and then, another lot comes along.  It's been a dreary winter so far.  If it isn't raining, or blowing a gale, it is freezing, or snowing.  Sometimes winter holds surprises, for example some (not all) of the bacopas in my four hanging baskets (on an east facing wall) are still green and strong.  I thought bacopas were supposed to be tender.  Some, and I'm not sure if they are Bacopa Scopia Double Ballerina Snowball  or Bacopa Scopia Great White , or a mixture of both intertwined, are full of healthy green leaves.  They've survived sub zero temperatures, blasting gales, and snowfall.  They should be long dead and gone, shouldn't they?  Bacopa Scopia - outdoors winter survivor - Jan 2018 I had left the hanging baskets in place (through laziness), expecting everything within them...

Now and then I like to get out my camera, iPhone or Canon EOS 6D, and take a photo or two when it snows.  Across from where I live is quite beautiful when it snows, and sometimes in my garden and neighbouring gardens too.  I thought I would share a few here, taken over a few years, that maybe I have not shared in this blog before.  Neighbouring garden in a snowy winter Neighbouring gardens in a snowy winter A West Yorkshire snowy winter scene A West Yorkshire snowy winter scene at night A West Yorkshire snowy winter scene during the day Snowy trees Snow on roses during winter

At one time I had a photography blog, just my amateur stuff, but I took a few photos over time of snow and ice with my Canon EOS 6D camera and thought I would share some of them here as they were, after all, taken in my garden during the winter months. These are some I took of ice.  Above: Ice surrounding a clear plastic washing line with a (rusting) metal core.  Ice on black metal Ice on black metal Ice on vegetation Icicles Ice on vegetation Ice on vegetation

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted. I've been kind of hibernating.  It has been freezing, and or snowing, or raining, or blowing a gale,or all the lot at once, and I have fed the birds and otherwise kept myself indoors.  It's movie and book time.  The garden Room (I call it simply the 'Room') has been too cool or cold for me.  Outside right now is white with snow with more forecast to come.  One thing I did notice the other day when opening the front door for the postman is that one of the little alpines at the front of my home is in flower: Lithodora diffusa, 'Heavenly Blue' .  It is dotted with pretty little blue flowers.  How lovely.  I mean, even the snowdrops haven't made an appearance yet.  The below photo was taken during summer 2017, but believe me when I say there are plenty of flowers on it still.  Lithodora Diffusa  aka Lithospermum diffusum And my cat Alfie is refusing to go out even though I s...

Happy New Year to everyone reading this.  2018 began with a supermoon lighting up my garden last night, and everything else!  I would have missed it except that I was in the kitchen, the lights were off and the blinds down, and yet the work surfaces were flooded with light coming under the bottom of the blinds.  Now, I don't have an outside light so I wondered where it was coming from and there it was, the moon, Earth's faithful companion, big and bold and bright.  I took photos but I'm afraid my lack of photography skills didn't do it justice.  Supermoon (Wolfmoon), 1st January 2018, 9.51pm Supermoon (Wolfmoon), 1st January 2018, 9.51pm December 3, 2017 was blessed with a supermoon too.   I missed that but got a good shot of the supermoon, glorious in a blue morning sky, on 8 December, 2017 . We've had some pretty harsh weather lately although nothing compared with what other countries have faced.  We've had some very short bouts ...

We've had some quite harsh weather here on the Pennines of West Yorkshire these last few days.  Snow comes and never quite goes, and it has been perishingly cold with subzero temperatures for days.  Hopefully that will help kill off, or suppress, some garden pests and diseases.  Whatever flowers were remaining - the penstemons, roses, clematis, and some flowers still in the hanging baskets - have been frozen to death and my garden is looking somewhat pathetic this morning under the light covering of snow and ice which is as hard and clear as glass.  I've removed all plants from the garden room which, despite insulation, is dipping below freezing inside.  But outside, this morning, wow!  Sunrise has painted the sky the most fabulous rainbow colours and a 'murder of' crows has decided to gather in the neighbour's ash trees at the bottom of my back garden and make the most alarming racket.  In all my years I have never ever seen that before....

It's so cold out there today on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire that the snow, which fell during the early hours of yesterday morning, has turned to ice with roads like skating rinks, not to mention my garden paths.  As always, all year round, I am feeding the birds but I think some people focus on the little birds because they look so vulnerable and sweet, but big birds need food too.  I've filled up the seed feeders with nutritious sunflower seeds and I've made some fat balls from lard, sultanas, sunflower seeds, and chunky oats.  The fat balls have only been outside for minutes and already about a dozen medium size birds are having a go at them.  And they are dropping bits on the ground.  Good.  Squirrels have been coming around recently and I've been throwing down sunflower seeds on the ground for them and the big birds. Making fat balls costs money, of course, and I am very much aware that some people will not be able to afford to feed th...

It's been perishingly cold these last couple of days on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire.  However, we keep getting lots and lots of glorious sunshine which heats up my unheated garden room .  Today, while it was freezing in the garden, the sun raised the temperature inside the room to an almost tropical 15 degrees celsius.  Ok, that's a bit of a hyperbole saying 'tropical', but in comparison with outdoors...   There is a promise of even more sunshine tomorrow as the sky this evening was ablaze with hot colours.  Red sky at night, shepherds' delight.  I truly believe that.  The sky looked ablaze.  Sunset in West Yorkshire, 1 December 2017 Meanwhile, the cold weather has turned the soil in the garden rock hard, and the plants in the hanging baskets have been nipped by the frost and are finally on their way out after giving me a wonderful display for months on end.  When the plants are dead, I will clear them out...

It's November 25, 2017 and for anyone who might think that snow has come quite early this year I can tell you that not only did snow arrive on the Pennines of West Yorkshire on 9 November 2016, but a large amount of snow descended around 18 November 2016 too.  I got quite a surprise when I looked out of my window yesterday evening, into the darkness, and thought I was imagining the white stuff reflected back at me in the light from the kitchen window.  My snowy West Yorkshire garden - November 25, 2017 Above, in my unheated garden room, the temperature has dropped to 2.2 degrees.  However, the lower thermometer reading shows that so far the temperature within has not dropped to, or below, freezing.  I have my pelargoniums , the Jade Plant (Crassula Ovata), and my little bay tree (Laurus Nobilis)  in there (for now) but they are covered with garden fleece.  It's all very experimental and I am hoping that no harm with come to those plants....

Although I've grown a lot of different roses in my time (not so much nowadays) I cannot recall ever growing an apricot colour.  The nearest I got to that was Just Joey , a hybrid tea rose. Just Joey, a hybrid tea rose I believe Just Joey was named after the wife of the Managing Director of Cants of Colchester, Joey Pawsey.  I can still remember the lovely fragrance that Just Joey had even though I have not grown it for more than 20 years.  Just Joey is highly recommended on the David Austin Roses website , and also has the RHS Award of Garden Merit.  It was the World's Favourite rose 1994 (which would have been about the time I grew it).  It was registered in 1972.  Just so you know. 

Although it's been a while since I last had a flower on my garden's buddleias (I grow Buddleia Davidii Nanho Blue and Buddleia Davidii Empire Blue ), the Nanho Blue has some beautiful silver and quite hairy leaves on the tips of its branches.  I wonder if they will last throughout winter as the shrub's large green leaves are being shed.  It looks really pretty but, alas, the shrub will need pruning in spring to stop it getting over large and keep it in shape.  Right now it is in a container but I think I ought to find a way to plant it in the garden next year. Buddleia Davidii 'Nanho Blue' silver leaves Buddleias can tolerate hard pruning and it just encourages them to make more flowers.  Davidii flower on present year's growth, hence spring pruning.  My Empire Blue does not have these silvery leaves.  Buddleia Davidii Empire Blue

I was mooching around Skipton in North Yorkshire today with a friend.  It was bitterly cold and much of the time we were indoors having warming coffee and fruit-bread toast.  We looked around charity shops, and inside a sheltered arcade. It was there where I discovered a small stall that I had never seen before, where various kinds of wood carvings were being sold.  I had to have this one, this interesting face of wood which looks like a Sikh to me with his moustache, beard, and turban.  I thought at first that it must be resin but no, it's carved from a big branch of wood.  Inexpensive too.   Tree Man (Sikh) wood carving I was told that although the outer surface was varnished that the rough other side was not and that it must not be varnished as the wood must be allowed to breathe.  This was information for external use but my tree Sikh will sit (or hang, there is a loop at the back) quite happily and protected within the safety of my...