May 2019

What a lovely blog. No photos required, you describe your enjoyment of your garden so well. Funnily enough, I just realised today that if I am not working in my garden I find it very hard to enjoy it. I actually feel as though when I am working in my garden...weeding, pruning, planting, dead-heading, mowing...whatever....I feel like I become part of it all. I suppose I become part of the 'life' of it. I absolutely love to be working in it...smelling the smells, hearing the bees. One day I shall learn to sit still ......

If you sat still in your garden as much as I do, Karen, it would not look as beautiful as it does. If I spent more time working in it, my garden would not be the same either! But I do understand about the enjoyment of being part of it. The wonderful thing about gardens, gardeners and gardening is that the diversity is everything. It’s an activity which is “infinite in its variety” (to misquote Shakespeare) and that is one of the reasons GoY is so fascinating.

I’m so glad you have a Whitebeam, Mel, one of my favourites, and how wonderful to make a story out of your enjoyment of your garden. Thank you very much for the book recommendation - it sounds very much my sort of thing! To return the favour, you might enjoy Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth Von Arnhem.

I do love to just sit in a comfortable chair and enjoy looking at everything I’ve planted, maybe with a mug of coffee and a crossword: perfect contentment :)

Yes, it’s a lovely tree, Sheila. It is very big, but we love it. It really needs a trim, though - its branches are reaching towards the house and making one of the front bedrooms very dark. It was pollarded when we arrived in 1972 and looked very odd. It took a long time to grow (unlike the contorted willow in the back garden which we have cut back every few years)

I shall look out that book, Sheila. There are excerpts from it in the Book of Women Gardeners.

A lovely blog and I agree that some things have to stay, like the moss in the lawn. At the top end where it grows bigger (or a different variety) the birds really go to town in the Spring, it looks as if it has been raked! So if I every get round to putting weed killer on the lawn I shall have to leave that area, or I shall suffer a real guilt trip!
I too have a 90% dead Plum tree, the pigeons killed it I think as they eat all the buds of the leaves as they appear and now there is only one lonely small branch that actually has leaves. Trouble with that is it supports a very large Clematis which has been a mass of pink, masking the fact that the tree is nearly dead. If I cut the tree down this will not have a home. Like Karen I hardly ever sit still in the garden, except when I am weeding having to sit with an arthritic back. Then I enjoy the company of the Robin who always waits for something edible to appear, more bugs than worms it appears to enjoy. We have several, though they are supposed to be territorial, very tame, but I did tell it off this morning when I left the door open and came in to find it in the Living room! It was not really bothered, it let me pick it up and put it out.

I hope your plum tree survives for a few more years, Honeysuckle. I have got used to the gap now, but I did miss it at first. I expect the birds did too: it had several bird feeders hanging on it. Like you, I love to see the birds in the garden. I have just been amused by a large wood pigeon perched on a water feature, drinking from the rather small cascade of water coming out of a miniature pot. He (if it was a “he”) had his head right inside the pot! Usually, the birds drink out of the half-barrel, which is full of oxygenating greenery so the small ones can actually perch in the middle. The large birds stand around the edge. Pigeons can drink while reaching down, but the others have to lift their heads to let the water trickle down their throats. We have robins, too. They are pretty bold, but none has ever come inside! There are robins inside at the local garden centre - they nest in the roof. I think they are indeed territorial so I expect there are only a couple. I loved to see the various tits “steaming” through the trees, especially the plum which I could see from the kitchen window. One or two would arrive, stripping the branches of insects, then more would follow and then eventually move off to the next garden. Blue tits, great tits and coal tits seem perfectly happy flocking together. Sometimes I see long-tailed tits too, which I love.
Enjoy your garden!

I'm glad you're enjoying your garden. Nice to hear from you again.
That book sounds interesting, I may try to see if I can borrow it from our local library.

I recommend it, Hywel. The fact that all the writers in it are women is irrelevant. It is just a selection of writings by different gardeners with different points of view. Some of the entries are instructive, some more like diary entries. I love it and often dip into it.

I enjoyed your blog and as Karen said, no pictures needed ! I too have done more pots than I usually do of busy Lizzies and Begonias . But I have got to know my new neighbour who kindly watered my pots and toms while we were away. I was a bit concerned as I always had two or three neighbours in Laceby , so that if one forgot, then the others would carry on. As we have a big back courtyard I wanted to make it as colourful as I could. The main garden areas look after themselves.
I will have to look out for that book.
Enjoy sitting in your shady corner too !

Hi Rose! I am happy to say the weather held as expected, so no casualties amongst the annuals. It always amazes me how very quickly the plants put on growth once they are planted on. I have had two more trips back to the GC since I wrote the blog, but only for very specific things - a few perennials for the new space in the border (mainly foxgloves, which I love) and four trailing non-stop begonias for a hanging basket. I have sown some runner beans around a bamboo wigwam so we shall see how they do. After a shower a few days ago, I observed a positive glut of snails, so I’m a little nervous. I usually plant such things in pots. I may get a couple of tomato plants as well, and try them outside. I am glad to hear you have someone to water your pots. I have a good neighbour who used to water the tomatoes when we went away but, to be honest, I don’t think I can ask her to water the pots - it takes over half an hour! I usually give them a really good soak, use water-retaining gel and pray! They are usually ok for a week, though I wouldn’t recommend it as a strategy!

I am hoping for good enough weather to spend plenty of time in the garden this summer. It is dull here today, but warm enough to be sitting under the gazebo checking up on GoY, so that’s all right!