Tag: Plants

Garden guide

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What job would you do for free?

I’d volunteer for a job as a garden guide if I was looking for something to do. There are several beautiful gardens in this area. Rode Hall, Trentham Gardens, the Dorothy Clive garden, Biddulph Grange garden or further afield I would love to work at the Eden Project in Cornwall. I don’t actually know enough botany but I would try hard to find out their Latin and English names, it would be embarrassing to confuse my Aqualegia with Calendula or Gerbers. I would enjoy the exercise and chatting with people who enjoy nature including the birds insects and mammals that thrive in beautifully tended gardens.

If there is no such job I would just go and do it anyway. Each season has its beauty. One inspiring book is a very old story called the Secret Garden. I can’t remember the author though.

Can’t wait for spring

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This is a potbank shaped planter I bought from a company called project 2000 and that I hand painted a couple of years ago. I varnished it with yatch varnish and it has stayed in good condition. It has a small space at the top and I will try and grow either geraniums or pelargoniums in the top. Or maybe nasturtiums later in the year. I want to start preparing the yard and garden. I can’t just ignore it but we might get a bit of snow later this week The design is based on a local pottery symbol nearby. I think it was called the falcon works.

Mushrooms or fungi?

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A plethora of fungi in the garden today, not sure what they are, but we have an old tree stump and I think these are growing on its roots? I need to clear away all the empty flowerpots, give them a good wash so we can pot plants on in the spring. We spent a couple of hours planting pyracantha and roses next to the old hedge, hoping they grow up nice and spiky.

What is this?

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Blue flowers, ridged flower buds and bright green leaves with a jagged edge. Its a biggish bush /plants but in a raised bed, so I’m not sure of its maximum height.

Does anyone recognise this, I’d like to find out. I might take a cutting. The plants are covered in flowers and seed heads so I might try and gather seeds too. It’s in full sunlight/partial shade. Any ideas?

Green hair?

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I found a photo of a ceramic head I made several years ago at my friend Claire pottery class. It must have hung on the same nail in the back yard for at least 20 years!

The weight of the face squished the space inside it in a bit, but it still is a good planting pocket. It has a crack in the back from the firing, so when I plant it up I use plastic to line it but make sure there are holes for drainage. I put different plants in each year, this time I have some sad snapdragons still clinging to life. Maybe next year I will try Sempervirans? (house leeks).

Pelargoniums and Surfinia

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Oh I do like a good hanging basket. This is one from a couple of years ago, I think it was one I planted myself. The red flowers are pelargoniums although generally they are called geraniums. The purple ones are Petunias which are also called Surfinias. It’s interesting how names can be changed for fashion or trademark reasons.

Happy flowers

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Joy

Bees and hover flies pollenating the flowers, I don’t get out to deadhead them so they are going over (dying back) sooner than usual, but they are still joyously beautiful.

I didn’t realise how much the back yard meant to me ubtil this period of isolation. But I just have to look out of the back door and I see this glorious view. I haven’t taken any recent photos so I must get some before it’s too late. Have a lovely September.

Cat on a box

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I turned round and then back, and there was a cat on the box that I’ve been using as a footrest. The box normally has a cushion balanced on top of it but sometimes I want to reposition my legs and it’s slipped so I need to rebalanced things, and voila the cat, without missing a beat commendered the box top. This is the other boy cat, not my friend from this morning. The other, other cat is usually found nesting on one of the cat tree platforms, which, because of my hubbys mad indoor gardening, is also used as a lemon tree and cumquat plant stand. Oh the joys of sharing a house.