A Black House and a Baboon’s Bum!

The work of the under gardener can be varied and, as the title suggests, so it was today. It would appear - the head-gardener has told me so - that black is, well, the new black! The great and the good - the personalities, the celebrities of gardening - have recently espoused the use of …

Six on Saturday: 29/08/2020

It has been an unpleasant week for gardening. We had hardly recovered from last week's Storm Ellen when we had Storm Francis on Tuesday of this week and, though not forecast, the damage was much greater. We had very heavy rain, with parts of the garden under water, and everywhere absolutely saturated. We had especially …

Venturing Out!

Storm Francis, blast it, has visited itself upon us today. The meteorological service had announced its arrival with an Yellow Weather Warning for rain and wind and, as we had come through Storm Ellen (Orange Warning) only last week, Francis just didn't bring any great threat or sense of foreboding with it. We had come …

Blue Skies and Lady’s Tresses.

This past week has been dominated by the weather, with storm Ellen on Wednesday evening/night the centre of disruption. It had come on foot of days of unsettled weather, heavy rain and gusting winds and these conditions have continued since. Gardening was disrupted prior to Ellen's arrival and difficult afterwards as the conditions continue to …

Six-on-Saturday 22/08/2020

Our week has been dominated by the weather. Of course, the gardener's week is normally influenced by the weather at any rate but when you add a storm to the mix matters can be significantly more dramatic. Storm Ellen arrived late on Wednesday evening and passed quickly but dramatically. We were very fortunate as we …

Not Once, but Twice!

I recently read Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast, A Natural History by Carol Gracie and thought it one of the best wildflower books I had ever read and, very significantly, it was one with perfect relevance to readers at this side of the Atlantic as we grow many of those very same wildflowers in our gardens. …

Delete, Delete, Delete!

The photo counter on the camera is often a good indicator of an enjoyed garden visit; the higher the count the more I found I considered beautiful, worth photographing, worth looking back on again at home. But, then, there are the occasions when the count is high because I have made such an effort to …

Six on Saturday 15/08/2020

The hay has been saved! Our "Bulb Lawn/High Grass/Wildflower Patch" has come to the final cycle of its year; we cut everything to the ground last week and took it all away - the "saving" bit. After months of changing appearances it has been brought back to basics, to its off-season appearance, to being just …

Melting Point!

It came around three this afternoon, the point when normal gardening became impossible. Not many outside of Ireland realise that Irish people melt when the temperature goes above 25C (that's 77F, Google has told me!) but it is a fact and that point was reached yesterday and today. In these days of staying at home …

Deja vusssssssss

It struck me as remarkable today that three distant memories came back to mind. It must be my memory day and that is somewhat remarkable as I genuinely have a head like a sieve - one of our sons once compared me to Homer Simpson who had said that when anything new came into his …