That Was January 2012

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Work and weather have been so varied over the past few weeks, that the cold, vague title pretty much sums up what’s going to be written here.

Where to begin? Well, where I left off, raving about Sarcococca confusa. Those deliciously fragrant shrubs are still blooming away.

Now we have witch hazel too. I can’t smell it! I keep reading and hearing of how wonderful its “spicy scent” is, and despite sniffing from afar and sticking my nose right into those yellow ribbon flowers, nothing. There were 5 different cultivars out at Kew, I smelled every one, and still nothing.

They look lovely though, and I’m pleased to see the shrub we transplanted late last year is blooming:

Some of our hawthorn hedging, is showing its delicate white blossoms early:

Some shrubs are sprouting along the avenue:
This unknown, maybe philadelphus:

And this lonicera:

A clump of vinca minor, after leaves cleared from its base:

And the Prunus laurocerasus have flower buds:

And this unknown ribes is in bloom – they smell like ribena!

I see these things when clearing the last of the leaves – mostly oak, which fell later than the chestnuts – which has been the main focus these past few weeks. Uninspiring, but actually rather satisfying, and must be done. As long as there is dry weather and good company, it’s a lot of fun.

I pruned this berberis last year as it was affected by mildew, and now am able to prevent this happening again by clearing organic material from its base:

Eventually there was an end to that long avenue, and crawling on hands and knees to get the last bits out from under the hedge, I saw a variegated vinca major flowering:

A reward was the joy of mowing this great expanse:

It’s part of the field where dogs can be off leads, we call it the “dog field”. Last year excavation work was done and that patch was bare. Then we seeded and watered in late summer, and the grass grew. I think now it’s been mowed 5 times.

That was the first cut of the year, taking advantage of above zero temperatures, and look, the first green compost in a very long time!

Up in the nursery we were making it all nice for the mayor’s visit next week. The mayor of Lewisham (Sir Steve Bullock) is actually coming to see me, and work with me for the afternoon. This is because I am Lewisham Council’s newest apprentice. I’m terrified, I don’t think I’ve met a sir before.

I cleared leaves from around our tea (yes, Camellia sinensis) plants, which are still flowering:

Here is some rue, which is beautiful. It’s for our medicinal plants display:

And we have washed so many modules. Unfortunately now I can smell the Jeye’s Fluid again, and it’s foul. There is a radio up there, and I’m never alone for that task.

There have been hundreds of plants delivered, including these Phyllostachys bambusoides, for the textiles display:

And 8 tubers of Dioscorea batatas have been sown! No one has any idea how excited I am. I’ve been sneaking up to the nursery to check them most days (also to water last year’s unused bedding geranium F1 Bullseyes, which I’ve taken under my wing as they’re lovely, and cuttings I’ve taken from pruned water shoots and herbaceous plants). It’s partly that the whole display garden endeavour has finally commenced on the greenhouse side, and partly that the plant itself is a relative of my favourite plant, Dioscorea elephantipes.
Also known as Hottentot Bread, it is an african yam (Dioscoreas are yams). Here is a splndid caudex in Kew Gardens:

And here is my own lovely thing, which was fresh and fab with just one stem last summer, died down after I brought it in in winter (it’s deciduous) and sprouted immediately 3 new stems. It’s looking a wee bit light starved at the moment, but it’s on the brightest windowsil, and will have to wait for spring.

Oh yes, and here are the Horniman’s tubers in propagators:

It’s warm in the heated greenhouse, but it’s effin’ cold outside! Freezing, in fact. Come and take a look at the frost with me.

In the quiet garden, on the snowdrops:

In the nursery, on potted hellebores and Italian arums:

Through the loquat, it begins to snow:

On the leaves of cyclamen and viburnum, you can see that it was really tiny hail, but that made a lovely sound as it pitter pattered through the trees:

It settled for a while.
On the herbaceous border:

And on the terrace:

And I tried to capture how it hung in a spider web in the corrugated bark of this weeping ash:

And drawing this journal to a close, some other random stuff.

I replanted some hedging that had been destroyed by a fallen poplar just after New Year’s:

A gardener’s friend:

(also, I saw my first thrush ever eating cotoneaster berries yesterday! Huge and speckled, I was thrilled.)

And while I used the real, boring privet for that hedge, here is its trunked relative, Ligustrum lucidum:

20 tonnes of good soil to spread over the next however long:

Azure skies over the bandstand and laurel bank:

I still love my job, and I hope the forecast snow doesn’t stop me doing it next week!

/edit: I almost left the title as “That Was january 2011”, one day I’ll start writing dates properly!

• 4 Feb, 2012
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