Six on Saturday – Trying

Posted byofftheedgegardeningPosted inSix on Saturday, Welsh WalesTags:, ,

It would be easy for me to dismiss 2022 with a dismissive brush of the hand and no turn of the head. For many this has been a challenging year and when this new one comes along we are all hopeful for change. However, I have a niggling fear, somewhere just left of my spleen, that it could get worse. 2023 could make us wish for the relatively happy days of 2022. We must be very careful. Love the one you’re with, better the devil you know, the grass is not always greener on the other side, that sort of thing. Perhaps my resolution should be to live more in the moment and worry less. I’m definitely going to try. If you wish to peruse other SoSer’s end of year gardens, then pop over to Garden Ruminations and peruse away. Let’s go!

Who is this shining their bright light amongst the dead and dying? It is the white scabious, the one that knows no fear, the one that appeared as if by magic, the one that cocks a snook at winter and its weapons. Be more scabious.

Onto the poor dear Tibouchina urvilleana, caught out in the cold and frozen on the brink of glory. This time I doubt it will recover. I am a murderer.

Whilst on some non-gardening outdoor mission, perhaps feeding the piranhas (as I have come to know the local sparrow population), I noticed that the Iris reticulata were coming up. As I picked up the pot it fell into two parts. Determined not to have to deal with emergent bulbs in need of a new home, and aware that the hungry hoards were ominously gathering, I quickly tied some string around it. “Return to implement a more permanent solution” was added to the itinerary. This item is yet to be crossed off. Invisible mending a speciality.

The Ribes sanguineum ‘King Edward’ has steadfastly refused to let go of his few remaining leaves, even though we have had, as our insurance company quoted “storm force winds”. I will not go there. My fingers are in my ears and I am chanting “the roof is not leaking, the roof is not leaking” until 2023 sorts it all out.

The frosts bowed these broad beans to the ground and I wondered at my sense in early sowing. They have popped back up like weebles. Whether or not the flowers are still viable, or indeed if anyone is in town to pollinate them, is another matter.

Finally, the Pyrus ‘Chanticleer’ has eventually dropped its full load onto the garden, and perhaps a little onto the plastic grass next door. I raked up the majority from the lawn and bagged them. The rest are waiting for worm and weather to do their magic. Delegation. The beautiful Helleborus x hybridus ‘Anna’s Red’ rises from the golden leaves, it is nearly her time.

That is your lot. Another year complete. Our SoS community has had some changes but remains as supportive and informative as always. Happy New Year my friends, I wish us all good things and for us all to do good things. I’m going to try my best.

43 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – Trying”

  1. Some years ago, I stopped filling plastic bags with leaves as it seemed counter-environmental to use that single-use stuff. I now have a green leaf bin (that’s it’s colour; the compost daleks are black). Whoops! I didn’t tell you that, did I, when I said my compost bins were full.

    Mae’n ddrwg gen I.

    Meanwhile, I guess you have to look forward to the neighbour demanding you cut down your tree cos those nasty natural leaves are damaging that wonderful fake lawn.

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  2. Who is King Edward? Why does he have his own cultivar of a Californian species?! Is he at least Canadian? Red flowering currant is native as far north as British Columbia, which is neither British nor Colombian. It is in Canada, which is even farther north than Oregon! Your white scabious is rad, not because it is scabious, but because it is white!

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      1. Goodness, I have no idea where King Edward Island is. There are a few places named after Prince Edward in Eastern Canada. Do Princes eventually become Kings, and if so, and if places named after Prince Edward are more than many years old, did Prince Edward become King Edward already? I think that there might be some dude in England who was formerly Prince Charles who might be King Charles now, like those cute little spaniels who are named after those cute little compact Chevrolets, . . . and some King, . . . who is also named, . . . well, Charles. Does the King of England drive a Chevrolet? Goodness, it does get confusing.

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  4. Scabiosa – the pretty plant with the ugly name. More like a skin disease. I’m sorry about your tibouchina, I know you’ve nurtured it for a long time. Best wishes for 2023, Gill, like you I fear it might be more of the same. Or worse. Tighten the seat belts, and hope for the best.

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  5. I’m sad to see the tibouchina in this sorry state, and I would have liked the pot to be protected or bring indoors. These are broad bean flowers yes, viable but you can’t find a pollinator at this time of the year….that’s the problem I had with my late sowing. I didn’t have enough pods. I will restart my sowing in February.
    I wish you a Happy New Year, all the best of course, so that 2022 will be only a distant memory

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  6. Another amusing ‘sermon’ taken in good faith about worrying…I do like the thought of mending clay pots, and look forward to your ‘master class’. May the glass on your greenhouse shine, wishing you and yours all the best for The New Year.

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    1. Thank you Sis and the same right back at you! I haven’t quite worked out how I’m going to sort the pot out, I am still at the “avoidance” stage. If only I had some molten gold hanging about…….

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  8. Yes, lets all be more scabious! I join you in the sadness of a broken pot, mine was quite a nice one too and one which should have taken inside containing as it did a summer geranium. But the sadness for the tibouchina is very great. I’m going to hope that just maybe it will survive! Happy New Year.

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  9. We’re chanting the same mantra about leaking roofs but sadly it’s not working ☹️ Having just had solar panels installed we know who’s to blame.
    I’ve lost so many things this year to that spell of frost, let’s hope it includes the dreaded vine weevil.
    Happy New Year 🥰

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    1. Funny, it was one of the first things that the NHBC asked “have you had solar panels fitted?”. What a shame for you, trying to doing something right and getting stung. A chap came out yesterday and did a temporary repair (hope it works) until the assessor comes and makes a proclamation later in January. Happy New Year to you my lovely x

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      1. Proclamation! That sounds posh.
        I’m not sure which I’m dreading more, the fight to get them to admit responsibility for the leaks or the damage more scaffolding will cause to the emerging snowdrops.
        Hey-ho onwards and upwards. Wishing you both a Happy New Year and a successful outcome with your roof xx

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  10. My roof is fine, despite last week’s blizzard. It’s the basement I’m ignoring, as melting snow and torrential rain now creates a little lake around the house… I love your Hellebore arising from the fallen leaves…

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  11. I don’t want to be medically pedantic but there’s not much to the left of your spleen in which to have any kind of fear so follow my new motto, ‘It is what it is’, works for me.
    Your tibouchina looks a little like my Melianthus major leaves and please can I have a cutting if your Ribes sometime?
    Wishing OH and yourself a very Good New Year, with love from us in North Devon 🐾💕💖

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  14. I really do want my garden to be more scabious, though I am not sure it will grow here. Don’t lament the Tibo too long, they tend to drop dead here for no reason. The Hellebore is magnificent. Maybe we should be more Hellebore, too. Although that sounds like it would require alcohol. Happy New Year.

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  15. I enjoyed your post very much and I think your resolutions are very wise. I have several un-mended clay pots awaiting some attention, as my normal tube of glue was not up to the job. I will wait patiently for your wisdom.

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      1. Yes, home now, came home on Boxing Day to this glorious weather! After a week of average temperatures of 25deg and wall to wall sunshine, it’s a bit of a let down to say the least! x

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  17. happy new year – our roof is also ‘not leaking’ although we have containers strategically placed to collect the ‘not water’ coming through. Hoping our roofers are back to work soon although here in Scotland we take our New Year holidays seriously and may have to wait a bit. Glad to see you have some plants still surviving. My broad beans were killed off by the -7 ice a couple of weeks ago.

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  18. After the wind blew over Mam’s huge pieris pot one time too many (not a euphemism) and left it in several pieces, she hightailed it to the handyman (shop not person) and came back with a two-part Gorilla glue which worked really well. So well that when the weather warmed sufficiently for the pieris to be dragged from the pot and into a bigger one (for the breakages revealed a very pot bound root system), I had to take the sledgehammer to the repaired pot to break it all over again. In many places, the glued cracks held better that I would ever have imagined. This is my very long way of saying that although it’s expensive, that glue might be worth a go? Not sure how it would fare on the ‘not leaking’ roof, mind, perhaps that would be a bodge job too far? Good luck with it all and all the best for 2023 x

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