Bank holiday approaching

Gardening in Literature and Media

I had just started an Agatha Christie novel on my kindle and I came across a discussion of dealing with the yellow peril! 'I was busy exterminating dandelion roots when...' was the line that caught my attention in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. So the battle has been ongoing longer than I am going to guess! 

Aquilegia are everywhere!

I have also caught a few episodes of the coverage of the flower show at Chelsea and it's made me realise I can call this gardening lark of mine a passion as it clearly is for so many of the visitors and celebrities that have been featured on the bits I have caught. (The tickets to this weren't cheap, even for the late afternoon entries, so I'll just have to store my one visit a good few years ago in my memory cache!) although Birmingham and Gardener's World is not long now...

Mary Berry, and Kelly Brook both showed off their gardens in short films during the Chelsea coverage and they were both spectacular for their own reasons - the actress not being adverse to getting her waders on and doing a bit of water gardening. I do miss our garden pond in our last house but I have promised not to dig one so deep if we do one here. I need to do a proper drawing like I said in February but the summer has crept up on me without a plan emerging...

The people's choice garden was won by Chris Beardshaw and there were some fun moments of alternative hats being tried on by Joe Swift. I loved seeing the greenhouses with 20,000 flycatchers and the exotic and new plants being displayed in the indoor pavilions from around the world.

I am now just enjoying the flowers appearing, and the fruits growing, and the occasional weed purging to get too serious about major structural changes but I have aspirations...

Pansies are still blooming in a pot planted in April.

May munching!

21st May, 2017

Days off!

We've had countless days of rain, so much I feel close to my Scottish friends and relatives! But today I had a very lovely day out, and it (the weather) was so nice, I should have been gardening! Lots was done in my absence, the kids had a picnic, spreading the picnic blanket over the bumpy grass, and I had a lovely lunch with our local MS Friends group. You can tell summer is coming when 8 out of 12 had Eton Mess for dessert.

Eton Mess at the Cricketers.

Violas

I spotted bees here but think the camera was too slow.

Honey bees mad for the Angelica blossom.

Coming home I took a walk around just taking in the plants and flowers. A friend gave us the gorgeous deep purple red clematis and there are loads of Californian poppies which are sunshine orange. Plus, I was able to find lots of wild flowers dotted all over (we still need to fix that lawnmower) - buttercups and periwinkle - and we have a bees' nest under a shed so they are obviously finding enough pollen to stick around despite my dandelion purging...

We are just awaiting the last bits on the barbecue to finish off before sitting down to the next bit of tastiness to my day. Cheers!

P.S. I am going to post a separate piece I wrote during the week about one of my bugbears, insomnia, after I had a conversation with Matthew and Helen about how common it is.

Raining again!
I am currently hiding from the rain! Trying to offload stuff! Family stuff just multiplies while you aren't looking... we have several DVDs still in their film covers so obviously not watched and it makes me sad that somebody is spending this, but maybe it means we are getting outside a bit?
More books have been sent to the book shed, making room for stuff currently on the floor...
My daughter's school are doing a planting day and I ducked out! I wanted to take time to decant stuff, ok, tidy and declutter, dust and think about a hoovering, but I do feel guilty. I am exhibiting all the signs of being a fair-weather gardener.

Peony roses are a deep red and alliums are my favourites.

17th May, 2017

Health Spa break!!!

An old friend and I had the weekend away at a health spa, about 15 minutes away from my home. Absolute bliss! I had some thassalotherapy (sp?) sessions which left me feeling wow! and healthy food, a bit of yoga, stretching, Eurovision, and we even got to spend time among gardens!

Lots of pond life...

Lily pads...

Wisteria, clematis over an archway, and iris.

Wisteria takes time and cultivation to look this good!

Beautiful wisteria, Irises and an elegant pond with large ghost Koi.

Restful and rejuvenating!

Update!
I have got my fingers in gear and contacted a few garden events to see if I can go see anything to get some current ideas!
Well, I might get to see Monty Don! A friend and I are visiting the BBC's Gardeners World show in Birmingham... And this year it's dedicated to MS! So excited!
(And go back 20 years and I can see a younger me shaking a head at my excitement

!)
Plus there are a couple of others which will be of interest, more later x

Other books to covet...

Practicality!

12th May, 2017

book fest!

New reading!

Aquilegia is one of my favourite plants.

In my working life, I was a book editor, working on lavish coffee-table and educational books. Every so often I harken back to those days. –  (The 500-page Garden Book was one I worked on many years ago - see if you spot it on my bookshelf?) –  Especially when I linger at certain sections as I pop into my local independent bookshop... 

At the weekend I had looked at at least three books on subjects which catered for the thing every MS specialist, MS news, even the national news is telling us we should be doing. Today I made a purchase which I am looking forward to applying to my MS, my blog and my garden! Triple whammy!
I bought myself Gardening for Mindfulness by Holly Farrell, which is a Royal Horticultural Society book published by Mitchel Beazley. With all the times I have been told to try mindfulness – on an OMS day in Berkshire, by my MS Nurse, and on the NHS wellness courses I have been on. it makes sense to try and follow that using a little bit of gardening literature.
I did see others which I'd love to add but let's just read this one first!

Colour everywhere x

MidMay, 2017

    

Colour is key!

I had an idea of creating a colour palette, once. I look through the pictures I have collected this month and OMG I'd need to throw a flamethrower to accomplish this...

Somethings are evidence of my planting over the last couple of seasons but others are the previous owners' legacy. These bushes which stood neglected have all been trimmed and are rewarding us with blossom.

My trips to garden centres have brought new colours and I pledge to change the persona of the garden.

Getting over a lurgy!

11th May, 2017

Being able to sit in sunny patches and start viewing the results of hard work has meant that a lurgy hasn't developed into something worse. I've been active on my plans and posted on local sites to see if anyone has any surplus paving slabs. This has not yet seen anything of benefit, and when people say I am quite welcome to lift them for a sum, I do need to know how cemented in they are. I developed muscles by doing my edging but it doesn't mean I am going to win any paralympic medals for hefting things anytime soon.

I am off to a health spa for the weekend so I won't be blogging again till next week - don't tell the mare's tail?

Californian poppy

  

Overgrown and abundant already!

Gooseberries growing...

Strange seed buds on the rhubarb? My dad grew it but I have never seen this...

Lovely yellow roses.

Angelica.

White roses.

      

Aquelegia and alliums in the herb garden.

Adding another clematis and a purple buddleia...

May 7th, 2017

Feeling poorly but gardening helps...I woke this morning with a streaming cold and wasn't facing the day with enthusiasm. However an hour outside, cleared the snuffles and I have another bit planted and tidied up while putting more weeds in the brown bin. 

It's little by little that's helping me here, as the garden isn't small and I have to deal with it in manageable chunks. I have some things going on that perplex me - I haven't seen rhubarb do this? And other things that excite me - I have gooseberries appearing. We have mixed rhubarb and gooseberries and made delicious crumble and pie. I am not sure what to do with Angelica (also sprouting) or the flowers on the chives.

Eek Moments!

The hidden barbecue...

     

5th May, 2017

Hiding from the election!

I started to tidy the house - sadly neglected after busy planting months - but I couldn't bear the radio bleating on about why the council election has turned out the way it has... I could turn this into a political blog but you'd turn off in droves! So then I started thinking about the stuff I am not showing you - the neglected infrastructure of the garden. Two sheds are only fit for skipping but despite this we keep filling them up but they really aren't holding the essentials. Skip hire, please!

Untidy house, untidy sheds... the need for a great big skip is high, but as soon as I turf anything out, that'll be when we discover a need! So we'll both be hoarders for as long as we breathe, but it (the grand dreams) all require both muscle and wealth. The concrete paths and decrepit sheds are crumbling and hiding ants and honey bees. And some of those bees are whoppers and sticking around despite the dandelion purges. So I must be replacing them with good alternatives. 

Ants are coming into our living room/lounge/sitting room in droves so that is something I need to also challenge as I don't fancy it getting worse if/when the warm weather hits!

Smallest leaking shed! it has all my gardening stuff...

I now have a home office but with no electricity, I use it for contemplation more than anything else. It has some of my gardening books and there is space for some more that I chanced upon in my local independent bookstore which deals with mindfulness and gardening or how to construct your garden. Most of the most known gardeners admit to making gardening mistakes for which mindfulness allows us to be reflective on why our purchases were perhaps mistaken in the first place. I will perhaps try putting together some book reviews (I was an editor in a past life...) and passing on some of the finds.

Anybody fancy a flower show this year? I feel an escape from it all might be nice!

Gravel has been dug into a trench around the house after bad floods proved that the garden slopes down to the house... now a weed trap!

We found birdhouses on their sides and our gas barbecue is slightly unused after we discovered a barbecue constructed of bricks...

...a shed too damp for storing firewood...

May 2017: Planting things in new places!

May 1, 2017

Planting between showers!

Ok, April just ended but today was an example of the kind of weather typically described as April Showers, and it was a day when I jumped around trying to do bits around other activities, including a housewarming party! A few of my purchases at Knebworth and before now have a place, but I must remember to get the snail/slug pellets out before my hostas are severely munched. I find snails under the dandelions remember? Well, I put temptation their way when I planted my hostas out front...

Painting the borders of her garden...

I've dug up some edges of the front grass to extend the beds with the sambucus Black Lace, the lovely peach phormium, the perovskia Blue Spire and a white buddleia. Now some of those are small versions and others (3 hostas from Knebworth) are huge, and the calla lily tubers are under the soil at the moment.

The bright colours of the newly painted shed make the plants 'pop'.

However, I love seeing some of the things I planted last year coming up and I can't wait for them to flower. Buds have appeared which look suspiciously like the alliums which I love, and buds are opening on the monster rose bushes. Anemones that were planted are also coming up between the dying daffodils so I am hopeful that new colour is going to be current again soon. There are deep red peony buds and wallflowers, too.

The first roses to flower, which I think are like the ones I remember as 'Peace'.

Wallflowers planted in Scotland and added by granny. 

I am nibbling away at my woolly grass to add little areas for new planting and I haven't even attempted to draw a garden plan yet! I will just have to wait and see whether a June birthday will see me getting a software garden design package, garden seating, luxury plants for the garden, concrete slabs or a new lawnmower... watch this heavily hinted space?!? Unfortunately, the list keeps getting longer...

Knebworth purchases put into an area nibbled off the front grass.