Six on Saturday – If I must

I had decided that I wasn’t going to SoS this week.  Lots to do, miserable outside, lacking motivation, Madagascar 2 on the TV, crisps in the cupboard.  However, such is the hold that The Propagator has on me, I have relented.  I am hoping that eventually he will return the incriminating photos.  Until then, let’s go!

My first picture is of an argyranthemum, rescued as a plug from local garden centre.  It has flowered all summer, even though the gardener failed to dead head regularly.  Hopefully it will survive until the spring and be even bigger and better next year.   I will have a word with the staff.

pelargonium

I have had this pelargonium for several years, found on a table of assorted plants at an open garden.  Although it has never thrived in our damp Devon air, it is doing a sterling effort of hanging on in there.

phormium

This phormium was given to me as a seedling by one of my old clients in Bristol.   She had a wonderful garden, was ambitious and imaginative.  Looking at this plant reminds me of her.  This is one of the many wonders of gardening.  The sharing and the receiving and the memories.

cherry

This is a peach tree grown from a kernel.  It hasn’t flowered yet, it is growing like a cuckoo, but the autumn colour is fabulous.  Thanks Storm Brian for leaving us a couple of leaves to admire.  So kind of you.

As I live by the sea, it is compulsory (a local bye-law) to grow at least one armeria in your garden.  This variegated form is looking quite healthy but hasn’t flowered since I bought it last year.  Good job it has such pretty foliage or I would be whispering “compost bin” in its direction.

cuphea

Lastly we have a little cuphea, which lives in a planter at the front of the house.  Soon he will be jettisoned as I have recently bought some cyclamen and violas to replace him and his straggly lobelia companions.  I’m tough, take no prisoners.  When a plant is finished, out with it.  No qualms.  Stop looking at me like that.  Is that a small tear rolling down his face?  Come on, it is the right thing to do!  OK, I might pot him up and try and over-winter him.

Once again, thanks Mr P for hosting this meme (a word I never though I would type).  Check out all the other SoSers on his website.  Another link here , if you dare ………..

Research

Half term at The Farm.  After a few quiet weeks it was full of life again.  The last horrah before the end of the season.  A case of mixed blessings.  Although I am looking forward to overhauling and juggling and suchlike, which can’t be started when they are busy, I do like so see the place buzzing.   I enjoy talking to the guests, and love to see the kids so free and full of fun, enjoying meeting the animals and learning about where their food comes from.  It was especially fine today as a “frequent flyer” was staying with her family, someone who I hit it off with from the first.  Sometimes friendships are like that.  She loves dahlias and we are planning a Thelma and Louise style trip to Cornwall to visit the National Collection.  When I say Thelma and Louise we are not expecting to murder anyone, just drive a car and say yee-haw and wear sunglasses or whatever they did.  I haven’t actually seen the film, research may be necessary.

It was wet again, as this aster can testify.

Tables

Today I visited a cafe that I have never previously been to or even knew existed.  In that cafe I was meeting a woman who I have never met before, but I was pretty certain she was real.  Ninety percent certain.  After taking my order the man behind the counter noticed me peering around the room.  “Is everything OK?” he asked.  “Yes” I replied “I’m meeting someone here and I don’t know what she looks like”.  “Oh”  he said at a loss for anything more constructive.  I continued “But I know that she is not a man or a dog and as they are the only inhabitants of your fine establishment I can only guess that I am here first”.  “Great” he said “You now have the advantage”. “What advantage would that be and why would I need one?” I wondered, but didn’t say out loud to avoid overt rudeness. “You can choose exactly where to sit” he explained.  “Perhaps he is a mind reader, I had better be careful” I thought.  “Stop thinking” I thought again.  “I see, and where would you recommend?” I asked looking around the almost empty room. “Well our most popular table is the one behind the man eating the enormous bacon buttie” he explained “people will clear that table of dirty dishes just to sit there”.  “But surely that man would be irritated if, bearing in mind there is a room full of vacant tables, I decided to sit right next to him”.  At this the dining fellow looked up and gave a slight nod of agreement, unable to speak due to his sandwich eating activity.  This apparently hallowed place didn’t look particularly special to me, maybe I was missing something.  It was decided. “I will sit over in the corner, away from the window, diagonally opposite the breakfasting gentleman.”  And so I did.  I have always been wilful.

My mystery companion arrived moments later and I recognised her as such instantly.  She was very nice.  We had two coffees and many words.  This event may happen again, but next time I will let her choose the table.

This photo of a self-seeded fennel has absolutely nothing to do with coffee, cafes or tables.  However I do not have a picture of any of the above so it will have to suffice.

Sheltering

More of the same today.   We slipped and slided like a muddy Torvill and Dean, digging up self-seeded ferns and throwing them on to the Bonfire That Never Burns.  They will be quite safe there.  During a particularly heavy spell of rain I sheltered under a Paulownia.  It was even more painful than being in the open.  Anticipating when the huge drips that were falling through the gaps in the canopy would land on my head was quite disturbing.

This afternoon I decided that I couldn’t face putting on my sodden waterproofs, dripping gloves, wringing hat, squelching boots and doing it all over again.  So I went home.

Six on Saturday – Static

It is not as if Storm Brian snuck up on us unannounced.  We have been warned of his imminent arrival for days.  In my heart I know I should have gone out in the garden yesterday to take my photos, when it was warm enough to dry the washing.  But I didn’t.  And today I have paid the price for my bad planning.   Today’s Six on Saturday, run by the our illustrious leader The Propagator, has necessitated a bit of a rethink.  I was tempted to post unrecognisable blurs and try to convince you they were specimens of the extremely rare Amazonian Giant Poodle Grass or even the Tasmanian Snucklewurgle.  However the angel on my right shoulder managed for once to out shout the wicked chap on my left and I opted instead for honesty.  My cunning plan is to concentrate on the more static of the garden community, apart from the first one which is used purely for effect, having fallen in the gale.

Let us begin with my one plant contribution this week, a toppled Phyllostachys aurea, which like its companion from last week the black bamboo, is grown in a pot.  This golden bamboo is occasionally divided, when a saw is definitely needed, and repotted in fresh compost. Generally it is ignored until attention seeking behaviour such as this necessitates some action.  It falls over several times each winter, in fact today I left it where it fell, it will be fine.

ladybird

This chap is the only ladybird I have seen in the garden this year, which is rather sad.  Not just my garden but also the ones I work in.  There has been plenty of aphid, so no lack of food for them.  Has anyone else noticed a dearth in the spotted one?

Next we have our Welsh dragon, he guards the front door and so far has been very successful at keeping intruders at bay.  Long may he continue his vigil.  Do not be fooled by his comical demeanour, he is quite fearless.  Reminds me of someone, can’t quite put my finger on who that might be …….

snail

This mammoth mollusc moves around the garden, filling a space when and where they appear.  Luckily for me he is totally plant friendly, no nibbling going on at all, which is just as well as he is quite large and could do an awful lot of damage if he was that way inclined.  I was hoping that he would scare off the others, but unfortunately not.  Perhaps they worship him as some kind of Venerable Snail God and are actually attracted rather than repulsed.  That didn’t work out as planned.

This is an ornamental key stone.  It came from a reclamation yard in Bristol many years ago.  I loved it then and I love it now.  Hopefully someone didn’t just nick this from the rest of the arch and run!

Finally our sundial.  I was working in a garden just outside Bristol, where a builder was renovating a house.  This was in the garden and he said I could take it if I wanted to.  It was in the back of my car before he finished his sentence.  Around the face is a short saying, I thought it was appropriate for today, “Let others tell of storms and showers, I’ll only count your sunny hours.”

Thank Mr P, who knows what next week will bring.  Hopefully it will involve plenty of sunny hours and very few storms and showers.

 

Flying Lessons

After a fairly productive “tidy and mulch” morning, the forecast rain arrived to scupper my afternoon plans.  Luckily I had contingencies.  And conveniently they were all greenhouse based.  I say “based” because it did involve going into the deluge, but not for long and intermittently.  Today was the day I had ear-marked for clearing out the feral tomato plants.  Nipping out side shoots had been abandoned weeks ago.  They had been “expressing” themselves freely ever since.  I could see from the outside the soup of squashed fruit, mouldy leaves and lurking molluscs squashed against the glass.  Not a job for the faint-hearted.  So, with a wheelbarrow parked at chucking distance outside, I cruelly attacked the optimistic top growth.  When it was piled high I  pushed it up to the compost bin.  This took several trips.  The best green tomatoes were laid out on the shelving to ripen.  We live in hope.  Then the growbags were loaded and pushed up the hill to be stored until a piece of free ground needs a little improvement.  Then on to scraping up the gunk and detritus left behind, all the while throwing the resident population of slugs and snails over the hedge into the field beyond.  Luckily for this little newt I was wearing my specs and he didn’t partake in the flying lessons.  I tucked him in a cosy corner where hopefully he will be safe until the spring.

Sunflower Felling

Today was not the day to be a top heavy, shallow rooted, annual.

To prevent the almost inevitable toppling of the sunflower forest and the consequent squashing of the less stout souls below, my first job this morning was to dig up the giants.  First I had to remove the extensive corsetry that was valiantly attempting to hold them in place, although they were already at a jaunty angle.  All it took was a quick nudge from a fork beneath and we had a controlled felling.  I then passed them over to Lady Mantle who cut off the worthy flowers which she lined out on a low wall.

It may have come to your attention that it was a tad breezy today, and has not yet relented.  I sincerely hope that the howling and crashing coming from outside is the wind and not an early Halloween visitation.  For all the weather’s vigour it was pleasantly balmy and, after the sun shook off the Saharan dust, it was bright and blue skied.  This made for unexpectedly good working conditions.  Of course everything had to weighted down and throwing weeds into a trug was a miss and miss affair.  Later I chased the cut sunflowers around the garden, scooping them up and taking them into the house.  Lady M. had been diverted.

The journey back was scattered with twigs and small branches and the odd young tree that had been battered just a little more than it could cope with.   I was glad to get home.

I hope you stayed safe and damage free.