Ground Elder (Aegopodium podagraria)
The weather has been so mild that the lobelia in the pot outside the back door is still looking good. No flowers but loads of green lushness. I was quite chirpy about this until I realised that even my old enemy, the ubiquitous Ground Elder, is thriving. Generally, the green parts of this nasty intruder die down during the winter and give me a breathing space from “observing ground elder” angst. I am aware that the roots thrive, whatever the weather. Triffid-like it encroaches silently but if I can’t see it I don’t mind...
read moreHow to attract birds to your winter garden. Part two: winter flowering shrubs for you and the birds
I think that I get more pleasure from winter flowering shrubs than any other shrubs in the garden. When they flower it’s like a surprise visit from an old friend. The birds like them too; the flowers attract insects and these in their turn attract the birds. My Mother advised me to plant winter flowering shrubs near the house, this was good practical advice as we don’t spend much time pottering in the depths of the garden when it’s chilly. She also pointed out that it would be a good idea to put the most scented shrubs in the...
read moreGardening gloves
I used to think that gardening gloves were a waste of time. I’d pull on sturdy leather gloves for pulling out brambles but generally I liked the feel of mud between the fingers. The problem was removing the mud at the end of a stint in the garden. This took ages and somehow a feint residue of ground in dirt always remained. I tried pretty cotton gloves and found that the mud soaked through. The Homebase rubber gloves, with cotton backs, were too big. Marigold washing up gloves got clammy after a while. Everywhere I looked people were...
read moreHow to attract birds to your winter garden. Part one: setting up
Most of the houses that I work in have a conservatory. The majority of them have a pair of binoculars lying on a windowsill. Not for observing the neighbours but for watching birds that visit their gardens. When I look at a client’s bird table I often wonder whether a lot of the birds do the rounds. Is it the same belligerent gang of long tailed tits that took turns to eat our fat balls this morning? And do my precious collared doves actually belong to families all over the village? To encourage bird visitors, we plant shrubs that...
read moreWrapping up the greenhouse for winter
The first year that we had the greenhouse I haunted that section of the garden centre. At that time I was spending quite a bit of money on materials for jobs from Homebase and the Save and Spend card was sending me wads of vouchers very quarter. I had longed for a greenhouse for years. We bought the Baron Greenhouse 8ft x 6ft. As it was a Meccano affair, arriving in a long thin box, it wasn’t very expensive. I quickly realised that the greenhouse companies make most of their turnover selling ‘essential’ greenhouse equipment...
read moreThe pond garden
One of my great pleasures is to walk down to the pond garden and feed the fish. From midsummer onwards the fish expect to be fed whenever we pass the pond. I’m not sure how they know that we’re coming. Our footfalls must resonate through the water. As we approach, they rush to the feeding area, a mass of multicoloured fins and tails, and stare up open mouthed. We feed them twice a day but often those fishy stares are hard to resist and they get another snack. The semicircular pond is twenty eight feet by twelve. There is a gentle...
read moreCompost
My Mother is an avid compost maker. As a child I remember her endlessly drifting down the garden with kitchen scraps and bunches of dead flowers. In those days passing horses and carts were not unusual and she would rush out of the house with a shovel to collect the manure droppings for the compost. We all thought she was mad.I got the composting bug a couple of years ago. Our county council was offering cut price composters to residents so I thought I’d have a go. Until then we had a large compost heap that was organised and turned by...
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