Category Archives: Gardening

Up the Garden Path 16

by thehistoryinterpreter

It has been a while since we’ve been up the garden path and to be honest, the garden has been a bit neglected over the summer. It has mostly been about a great deal of watering and thanks to the new wooden barrel, large capacity, water butt, I didn’t run out of water, although it came pretty close. I do worry slightly that it still smells as if I am watering things with neat whisky though. A lovely friend came and kept things alive when I was away in May, aided by me moving pots to the shady part of the garden and standing them in children’s paddling pools and the like. It turns out that I have about fifty things in pots, or rather things in fifty pots, which may be a little OTT even for a garden with very few flower beds.

A lot of time has been spent trying to weed the gravel, in which eleventy billion violets self-seeded. A few other things self-seeded as well but I allowed the marigolds and oriental poppies to stay while they flowered and there’s still a random foxglove. The patio, which makes up the majority of the garden, is another story. Anything that will grow in the cracks has and I don’t want to repoint it as otherwise there’s nowhere for the heavy rain to go. It looks, to be frank, a total mess. I do have a lethal looking implement ‘not suitable for use by under sixteens’, that is supposed to be ace for weeding gaps between paving slabs but is actually pretty useless. Much as I am not keen on the idea, I fear it will have to be weed killer. Now all I need is a dry spell to apply it, which isn’t looking like any time soon.

The large tree in a pot that was rescued and I was using to fill the one tiny gap where I am overlooked decided to die and is now no more, although the two bare twigs about nine inches long that I got from the Woodland Trust are flourishing, as is the lemon tree, which actually has lemons on, not that they look like being edible. Last year my new apple tree had one solitary apple, this year there are several, they are still a bit small, so I am hoping they get to harvestable size. A new apple tree in a pot has three apples, although the pear looks a bit sadly.

Definitely not all success stories. The Josephine Bruce rose an the new wisteria started off looking supper healthy then suddenly looked windburned, even though they are in the most sheltered bit of the garden. The rose now looks seriously poorly; too much whisky perhaps? I will prune heavily and hope for better things next year, a flower would be a start.

I guess having seventeen different plants in flower in September isn’t bad for a tiny garden, even though it does look a bit bare and drab in general. More work is needed! Some pictures of the last three months of flowers to cheer you up if it is wet, windy and decidedly wintery with you too.

Up the Garden Path 13

by thehistoryinterpreter

Although I said that there would be no more updates until spring, I thought I would just mention the recent storm, which reached over 80mph in my little corner of the country. Fortunately, the garden itself is relatively sheltered so the damage could definitely have been worse. The smallest pots of heather in the front garden blew over and in a couple of cases came out of their pots. The chrysanthemums ended up on their sides but managed to retain their earth and a few plants look a little wind blown. The main casualty was the back fence, which has a distinct list to starboard. In order to prevent it leaning further ,or giving up entirely and lying down (and who could blame it) whilst it awaits proper repair, the fence mender of my acquaintance decided an interim remedy was required- at least I hope it is interim. I kid you not, he has tied it to the pond. He probably has memories of just how heavy said pond was to manoeuvre into position.

Although I don’t really like buying plants by mail order, as I like to see what I am buying, there were three things on my must have list that I hadn’t seen all year in any of my garden centre forays. I decided that now was the time to treat myself, so somewhere in the garden is a guelder rose, a windflower and a mock orange. They don’t look much at the moment but I am hoping that they will survive.

It is obviously not a great time of year for things to be in flower but one or two things are braving the December chills, Randomly this includes a honeysuckle, which is in part of the garden that gets zero sun at this time of year. Mind you Storm Darragh kindly deposited a fine layer of sand all over my windows, so it is tricky to see what is going on in the garden, unless I venture outside.

Up the Garden Path 12

by thehistoryinterpreter

It has been a while since the last gardening update but that probably reflects the time of year and the fact that I was away for the whole of September. As I hadn’t asked anyone to water the garden while I was away, with much of the garden being in pots, I was wondering what would survive a month of neglect. Every pot was moved to the shadiest part of the garden and stood in an old paddling pool and other similar, water-filled receptacles, as my fingers remained firmly crossed. I think I must have done too good a rain dance, as Devon was deluged in September, which was good for my plants, as everything survived but less good for my local friends and neighbours. By contrast, I had lovely weather in the north.

I have now almost seen the seasons round in this garden and the winter jasmine is starting to bloom again. The robin has returned to the garden and I have had solitary glimpses of a great tit and a wren. The potato crop has been harvested. ‘Minimal’ is the word that springs to mind. The geraniums have been moved into the summerhouse for the winter and the garden chair has been dismantled and squeezed into the shed.

The three large chrysanthemums in pots, that I mentioned last time, have flowered. They were sold as being white, yellow and rust coloured. I guess one out of three isn’t bad, as I have rust, paler orange and dusky pink. They are past their best now but have been glorious. A piece broke off the rust coloured one and we shoved it in a pot. It has rooted and is now flowering! I also have yellow and white chrysanthemums in a hanging basket. Other additions include a Capsicum, a Hosta and a Michaelmas daisy, which I brought back from holiday, along with some rue. The Michaelmas daisy isn’t looking too healthy but maybe it will revive.

There’s been some more moving. One of the many sheds is an unsightly plastic affair that houses the bins. It was on view from the conservatory, so we moved it to the other side of the tarmacked area. It is now on view from the converted garage room but you win some you lose some. Fortunately, this was a great deal less effort than other shed moving escapades. In the place where it once stood is a new plant trough. This was bought especially for a climbing Josephine Bruce rose. In truth, I am not generally a great roses fan, well only the chocolate sort but I particularly wanted this as it was my father’s favourite flower and it climbed all over an arch in my childhood garden. I had been told that it was also the rose in my mother’s wedding bouquet but it seems that it wasn’t bred and introduced until three years after they married, so maybe it was just a similar rose and they thought it was the same. Said rose arrived in the post as a ‘bare root’ specimen. This basically means that it has to be planted straight away. ‘Straight away’ turned out to be the coldest day of the year, when much of Devon was under several inches of snow. Fortunately my little corner had escaped with just rain, although it was pretty jolly chilly and not ideal for any kind of gardening. Now I just have to work out how to keep it alive.

Up until a few weeks ago, my garden was 100% not overlooked. Then an over the back neighbour dug up a large buddleia, giving me just a tiny corner view of their conservatory and vice versa. Just at this time, the fisherman of my acquaintance acquired an eight foot high evergreen tree thing, species unknown, in a pot, that was surplus to someone else’s requirements. ‘We could stand it in that corner’, he says. Not really my choice of plant but I thought it might serve a purpose at least for now. I particularly wanted to keep it in the pot, partly because it may be a temporary acquisition and also to stop it growing much more. The corner in question in on the raised bed. We then had to get a very heavy, eight foot high tree up on to a two foot high raised bed. Undaunted, scaffold boards were arranged to provide a slope up to the raised bed. The plan was to lay the tree down and roll the pot along and up the boards. The trouble was that the pot was not cylindrical but was noticeably wider at the top than the bottom. This, of course, means that, when rolled, it went round in circles and not in a straight line. By dint of ‘roll a little, straighten, repeat’ the tree was elevated into position. It doesn’t completely block the gap left by the buddleia but it helps. I am a fair weather gardener so it may be spring before the next gardening update.

Up the Garden Path 11

by thehistoryinterpreter

Autumn is just around the corner. Surely it should still be about April. I went on a buying spree intending to get things to fill the newly cleared side bed. Annoyingly, most of the things on the list weren’t available. For now, I have put a net up as the climbers, that were cut back pretty much to ground level, start to regrow and have planted some bulbs. In fact, the main consequence of the plant buying trip was that I somehow lost my debit card. I got it ready as I approached the checkout. As if by magic, by the time I reached the checkout it had disappeared and was nowhere to be seen. The twenty something on the checkout was very impressed that someone as ancient as I had an app and (after a bit of faffing) was able to use it to block said card within five minutes.

The pond does now have water and plants. It looks a bit murky but some insect life seems to like it. I’ve tidied up the large raised bed, which was looking very much past it best. The olive tree now has a larger pot, as well as a few tiny olives. I picked the single apple that was my apple harvest.

I acquired some wallflowers and chrysanthemums. I also ended up with a sunflower that was self-seeded from the birdseed. Apart from sparrows, I have been deserted by smaller birds, I hope they return in the spring. I always knew that moving house would deplete my supply of garden birds. I do still get visits from jackdaws, magpies, wood pigeons and herring gulls, so I have to make do with those.

Unless I can get any of the plants on the wanted list, there will be a lull in gardening over the winter. It will just be the continuation of the convolvulus wars and a bit of tidying. It is still very much a work in progress and I am still not completely happy with it but it is on its way.

Up the Garden Path 10

by thehistoryinterpreter

What has been going on in the garden over the past few weeks? you ask. Well, you probably don’t but I will tell you anyway. The most noticeable difference is that we’ve cleared the bed down one side of the garden. This isn’t quite the undertaking you might think as my garden is tiny and much wider than it is deep. The whole of this side was occupied by a very dead bush. It did have the advantages of being a home for birds and the support for some pretty honeysuckle-like climber but it really did have to go. We unearthed a ridiculously leggy hydrangea that had been struggling to reach the light. The bonus is that the soil is good, or it is now we have removed a ton of dead bush roots. What remains is a camellia, that was severely pruned to make room for the shed, a random hollyhock, which seems to be in a very odd place as that bed gets virtually no sun. Mind you, said hollyhock is only about nine inches high and has no flowers. We’ve left the remnants of the honeysuckle-like thing and another climber that may revive and so far planted a Michaelmas Daisy and some white daisies that were donated following their role as a wedding decoration in a local church. The fence behind the bed has been painted to match the one on the other side.

The new water butt is on hold as I may be going to do something with the tarmac in that bit of the garden and don’t want to move a full water butt. The pond now holds water but I haven’t had the chance to acquire any plants for it yet so the water is pretty murky. Despite this, there is evidence of insect life. The vegetable harvest has been unspectacular, although it is always fun to grow them. The pea harvest was minimal, the strawberries even more so, with most of the strawberries being smaller than the peas. The bean succumbed to black fly but I still have garlic and potatoes to harvest. There is a solitary apple on the newly planted apple tree and excitingly, some mini olives on the olive tree. No one actually likes olives but that isn’t the point.

We bumped up the electricity and water bills by power washing the patio. It does look good but there is little grout (if grout is the right term) between the slabs, so plenty of weed growing opportunity. I don’t want to fill the gaps as they prevent the garden turning into a swimming pool when we get heavy rain.

I have been a bit ruthless and taken out the cape fuchsia, which was spreading all over the place. I have shoved some in a pot but that’s its lot. Some of the garden is looking a little tatty as things start to die back, I am leaving some things to go to seed deliberately. I am a bit worried by the white lilac, which looks less than healthy. I have also realised that I have put some things in in the wrong places. I have a massive rudbeckia growing in the planter, which I might attempt to move when it has finished flowering.

I have finally hung the pretty solar lights that were a Christmas present. Now all I have to do is stay up late enough to admire the effect. Mind you, with the nights drawing in (sorry to point that out) it will soon cease to be a problem. Convolvulus wars continue. How can something grow so fast? Hopefully off to buy plants for the newly cleared bed this week. I must practice practicing restraint – hmmm.

Up the Garden Path 9

by thehistoryinterpreter

I am pleased to report that the summerhouse now has a roof. It was a tad concerning watching my trusty assistant climb on a wooden roof whose strength was an unknown quantity but this passed without incident. Now if I could find a way of getting baked on masking tape glue off the windows all would be well (I’ve tried white spirit).

The pond/sink is causing a few issues as sinks by definition have a plug hole. This isn’t the sort that you could just put a plug in, (supposing I had one) as it is flush with the bottom of the sink. First attempt was fibre glass, which didn’t work, strange this as this is how the fisherman of my acquaintance fixes holes in his boat. I can only hope, for his sake, it works better on boats. Next attempt was to try to seal some spare shed roofing felt over the hole. I was never very convinced by that one and it failed miserably. Now we’ve emptied half a tube of the sealant you put round baths into what remains unsealed of the fibre-glassed plug hole. We are waiting to see if that works.

Flowers are flowering bravely, with a rose, a fuchsia and a hydrangea coming to light. The convolvulus is still convoluting away. Annoyingly, much of it is coming from the other side of the fence so can’t be dug up. I’ve harvested the first three tiny tomatoes from my solitary tomato plant. The remaining  tomatoes look like they may be pea sized.

The other ‘big task’ – moving the once moved shed again, is also accomplished. This was necessary because it really was too wobbly. So it was back with the plastic rollers to pull it out of the corner in order to put down some large paving slabs before rolling it back. This all makes it sound remarkably simple. It wasn’t. The shed had to come forward and be shoved/rolled round a corner and back, ideally without one of use getting stuck behind it. While the corner was clear I took the opportunity to cut back whatever is going all along the side fence. This is a bed that is untouched so far. It seems to be something in the honeysuckle family but with much smaller flowers. The ends are leafy and flowery but underneath is a whole load of dead looking bush. Hacking away at it was not easy and my arms are tastefully decorated with scratches. Much as I hate digging up living things, I think the only way to deal with this bed will be to dig it all out. I will wait until the what ever it is has stopped flowering and then hope that it wasn’t holding the fence up. Reinstating the shed in the desired position has meant that I could at last put away things that have been lying around in the garden because it ‘wasn’t worth putting them away as the shed would need to me emptied’.

What’s next on the agenda? Well if the sink holds water, planting the pond. Much as I don’t want to fill the tiny garden with sheds and water butts, I am debating a new water butt; I fancy one of those that double as a planter. I’m sure I’ll find more jobs to add to the list

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Up the Garden Path 8

by thehistoryinterpreter

One month on and the summerhouse roof is still unfixed and the shed is still baseless but in my defence, I have been away. In my absence, things have been growing apace, not least the pesky convolvulus. I am particularly please with the progress of the ‘veg patch’.

I however can relate the saga of the pond. Daughter and son-in-law have recently moved house and inherited an enormous garden. In amongst the weeds wild area was an old butler sink. Having established that it was surplus to requirements, I decided that I would acquire it to create a mini pond. As we were in the area a few weeks ago, with sufficient room in the copious boot, it was time for mission pond to commence. Said sink was a long way down a very long garden. These sinks, although small are dear reader, not light. Never fear, with the aid of son-in-law’s muscle and a wheelbarrow, the soon-to-be-a-pond was stowed neatly in the boot.

Part two of the saga relates to how to get the sink out of the boot minus any muscular assistance and is a clear illustration that I did not think this through. I am actually quite good at lifting and carrying stuff, sheds for example but lifting up and over is not my thing. This is the point at which we became acutely aware that we are pretty much devoid of local friends and acquaintances who are fit enough for heavy lifting. To add to the difficulty, it needed to be done quickly, as we were about to set off on holiday and didn’t want to take a heavy sink with us. Fortunately, inspiration struck and a kind, not quite so local friend, who happened to be in the area helped us and the sink out. It now reclines in roughly the right place waiting to be cleaned and to have its plug hole fibre glassed up. This task is firmly in the queue behind summerhouse roof fixing and shed moving. Cue putting ‘how to create a tiny pond’ in my web browser.

Up the Garden Path 7

by thehistoryinterpreter

It has been a while since the last garden update; we’ve been busy with other things. Nonetheless progress has been made. The fence is now a sort of sagey bluey green, the summer house has had three coats of the same paint. This took a while between showery days. I decided I’d put masking tape on the windows. Goodness knows why as previous painter of the shed liberally applied brown preservative to windows and walls alike. By the time the third coat was on, the sun had baked the masking tape to the windows, so now I have to try to scrape it all off. The bird table also has touches of blue. The raised bed is built and planted and I finally have a base for the sundial that I have had for ages.

My helicopter chair and umbrella are in situ ready for when I might possibly have time to sit in the garden. The grandchildren also, with permission, rehomed three gnomes to the local gnome reserve but I am actually getting quite fond of some of the random inherited ornaments. The war on winter jasmine has now become an ongoing and not very successful war on convolvulus. How does the wretched stuff grow six inches in one day?

Morrisons just had some patio trees on sale. Sadly by the time I returned with a larger vehicle they had fewer, so less choice but I acquired a pear, an apple and an olive, all of which, I hope, will grow in pots. I also added a couple more clematis and another companula to the basket. Some garlic, chives and a strawberry plant are other recent acquisitions. I have moved the poor wind-blown geraniums back to the relative shelter of the back garden. The beans and peas are growing and nasturtium, marigold and wild flower seeds have germinated. The hanging baskets are starting to flower, not very fast as I’ve had to put them in a position where they get zero sun, still at least they won’t dry out. I really have pretty much run out of room now, although there are still at least five ‘must have’s that at present I haven’t.

Next jobs on the list, apart from window scraping, are moving the shed (again) so we can put a solid base underneath and repairing the summerhouse roof. The felt is purchased and now ‘all’ that is needed is free days when it is also dry.

Up the Garden Path 6

by thehistoryinterpreter

We moved the shed into its new position! It was quite a performance involving crashing through undergrowth and nearly getting stuck behind the shed, as we attempted to get it as far back as possible, without knocking next door’s fence down. We had to do a bit of random shoving of bits of wood and stone under the corners to get the doors to open and close. There was plenty of ‘a bit more under this side’, ‘no a bit more under that side’, rather like cutting a fringe and trying to get things level. Getting the pipe we’d rolled the shed into position on out from underneath it was a challenge. It involved my trusty assistant manfully lifting one corner a fraction, me laying on wet gravel and risking life and fingers trying to shove the pipe sideways with a spade until it finally rolled out from under the shed. This is not the last of the shed moving saga, as it really is very wobbly and we should have constructed a better base. When we can face it, it will be emptied, moved a little and have slabs put underneath. It is also just a couple of inches too large to fit, so it does slightly cover the office window but I am going to live with that.

The shed is a must. Having just retrieved what I hope is the last lot of things from my old shed, that were being stored in a handy barn, there were a lot of diverse bits and pieces to fit in. Believe it or not, the shed contents was triaged and things were disposed of, before I moved. Nevertheless, I seem to have seven tin of brown fence paint and having just purchased two tins in sage green to repaint things, I won’t have much brown wood left, apart from the back gate. I could probably paint that every year for the rest of my life and not run out of paint.

I was asked where I would like to go to celebrate my birthday. My previous birthday was spent at a funeral, so the bar was pretty low. I opted for Trago Mills, hoping that their garden centre might provide cost effective plant, planter and potential replacement summerhouse buying options. It was Easter Sunday, so I checked online and was informed that it was open. After a forty mile drive we discovered that it wasn’t open. We were also going to walk round Stover Country Park but there was no space in the car park, so some frantic Googling of ‘garden centres near me’ ensued. The first one we tried, about six miles further on, was also shut, despite being advertised as being open. Returning to Stover to see if there was a parking space, we spotted Plants Galore, allegedly open Monday to Friday but with a discrete sign that said ‘Open Easter Sunday’. This was huge, with plants at very reasonable prices. I did go just slightly mad. Amongst the purchases was a wisteria, an apple tree, some hanging basket plants, three herbs, some lavender and tomatoes, peas and beans, because growing veg is always fun. As a bonus, we did manage to park at Stover, though the cold wind made it less pleasant that it might have been.

If you are thinking, surely she won’t have room for all those plants in her tiny garden, you would probably be right. We have investigated the lifting some of the patio option and it does seem particularly well concreted down, so I have ordered a raised bed instead. There is just enough earth beyond the patio, behind where the shed used to be, to plant the wisteria and apple tree. They are still waiting patiently because I want to paint the fence first and there hasn’t been a dry enough day to do that yet. I have also decided to go for the repairing the summerhouse option, as I prefer the shape and size of the one I have to any that are available. I am using the summerhouse as a greenhouse come potting shed. The search for fence paint and liner for the impending raised bed took me to other outlets where a clematis and some heather found their way into my trolley. So, some planting as been going on between showers but there’s still a long way to go.

Up the Garden Path 5

by thehistoryinterpreter

This is mostly the tale of two sheds but first, the other gardening news. I’ve been working on keeping the flowerbed, that has been cleared so far, in a reasonable state and I am pleased to relate that the bird table is back in situ and can be seen from my settee. The snag is that, now that it is sometimes a little warmer, I am opening the door between the living room and conservatory, which creates a different ‘view of the bird table’ obstruction. Not sure if it is best to move the bird table again or the settee. On the subject of birds, there’s been a great deal of interest in the two, very much past their best, birdboxes. I am optimistic that the great tits will be nesting in one.

I foolishly decided that it was warm enough to put the geraniums out. I don’t think I was wrong in terms of temperature. I planted them in extremely heavy concrete planters that came with the garden. Then I decided they’d prefer to be in the front garden where it is sunnier. We just about managed to move two out of three planters to the front. This was accomplished by my partner in crime lifting the ridiculously heavy planter and me running back and forth with the two concrete planter supports that each trough required, which had to be done one at a time because of their weight. This, dear friends, was not a good plan. Sunny the front garden may be but it is also exposed to easterly gales, of which we have many. Not sure about the survival rate for said geraniums and we can’t face moving the troughs back at the moment. I may be replanting any geraniums that have made it thus far.

There seems to be little professional interest in shed moving or grass reinstating and I am having second thoughts about the latter. It is very damp and shady and I fear any grass would quickly be reduced to moss or mud, so that idea is on hold. As I’ve mentioned before, removal of the wooden shed was a priority because the rain running off the roof ended up on the wall of the bungalow (for those in Australia, that’s a single story, brick-built house, not a glorified cabin). You’d think shed removal could be quite fun wouldn’t you? A few bashes with a sledge hammer and Bob’s your uncle. No such luck, my trusty assistant decided that one can never have too many sheds (note to reader – he has too many sheds) and decided that he wanted to preserve it for re-erection in his own garden. Taking it apart in a state that would potentially allow re-erection was not so simple. It seemed to have been very firmly erected, with every screw tightened with an electric screwdriver. Still, after much effort, there was a not shed where the wooden shed used to be.

At this point, in the absence of the ‘getting a man in’ option, moving the six foot by five foot six ‘tin’ (aka plastic) shed was going to wait until we had help in the form of muscles that hadn’t seen the best part of seven decades’ use (me), or eight decades in the case of the trusty assistant. We both claim that it was the other person who suggested this but somehow the sun came out this morning and it was decided (I am sure it wasn’t me) that, with the aim of some sturdy bits of tubing, we could move the ‘tin’ shed. I was particularly keen to see what was behind it and had envisaged moving it three or four feet forward so that I could investigate. Before I could draw breath, the plan changed to moving it fifty feet and turning it round through 180 degrees, so that it was almost where it needs to end up. It can’t yet be exactly where it needs to end up because it is a different shape to the now ex wooden shed and some work has to be done on a base.

Operation move the shed began. The first thirty feet were on paving slabs. Not too tricky once we’d moved random plant pots, the bird bath and various inherited garden ornaments out of the way. The shed was tipped back slightly, I risked life and fingers shoving a pipe under it, then we rolled it forward on said pipe, inserting an additional pipe when necessary. ‘This is how they built Stonehenge’, I remarked. We even managed the 180 degree swivel without too much of a problem. Then we reached the gravel. This was more complicated. As we pushed the shed forward it basically ploughed gravel up before it. It required a double tipping back whilst shoving manoeuvre. The garden now looks a total mess up one end but significantly larger at the other. The tin shed is now abandoned at the right end of the garden, waiting to go a further ten foot back and fifteen feet to the right behind the conservatory, when the base is ready. It is also on top of the hole for the rotary washing line. As I line-dry all my washing, it can’t stay there for long.

Whilst on the subject of sheds, there is also the rather battered summerhouse. I am debating whether repairing it, to give is a few years’ additional life, is worthwhile, or if I would be better going for a replacement straight away. I’ve been investigating possibilities. It seems that the same structure varies wildly in price depending where you purchase it; I some cases it can be ten times as much from one source compared to another. Some offer an installation service, which in many cases is more than the cost of the summer house. I was going to consider biting  this particular bullet but despite having had to swear never to by any more flat pack furniture ever again, it seems building a flat pack shed/summerhouse is a different matter and should be ‘simple’. Watch this space.