Big Freeze

What a week. Haven't posted since last Thursday - the storm came in on Friday and hasn't really left yet. We got off light - electric off and a fence down. Our friends down the road had quite a bit of storm damage but travel inland only five miles and the snow is unbelievable. The poor farmers - the sheep and lambs have no chance, we could see the army chinook dropping food over the hills for stranded livestock but there have been many losses.

Apologies - I don't want to write a sad post - trying to cajoule myself into better form.

So - busy day today. Flowers to make up and deliver this morning. Cleared more of the rough grass along the side of the lane but it looks even worse now, the old hawthorn hedge is rather leggy and bare at the bottom, I will try to fill with quicks and hopefully that will help.

We then moved all of the wood which had been cut from the laid hedge in January and brought home to be cut and stored for next year's winter fewell (Good King Henry).

Then I gathered foliage and flowers for wedding table arrangements (made up tonight) to be delivered in the morning. Looking forward to a lazy weekend, eating yet more chocolate and drinking yet more wine. Detox will truly start when the weather improves....good luck with that (as my lovely supportive son would say...sarcastically of course).

Still too depressed to photo the garden - every single leaf of foliage throughout the three acres has been blasted.

More tomorrow - promise more uplifting theme! x

Waiting For Snow

Artic conditions yet again (atrocious conditions overnight according to CecAngie - I can't tell them apart - both wear hideous outfits and talk like Helary Hemilton).

Thermals still adorned, furry hat still wrapped tightly around the head and yet I never warmed through all day. Snow on the hills and loads forecast for tomorrow....so frustrating, so much to do.

Finished weeding the cottage garden today (the most sheltered part of the garden), gritted and mulched the remaining beds and dug out some thugs (lysimachia clethroides, achillea ptarmica The Pearl & river lilies) and moved them to the cut flower field where there's loads of room...bring it on.

Planted a few more hellebores in the new shady garden beds and a dicentra formosa that was being choked in the cottage garden. I'm looking forward to the beds blossoming, mind you, something's been digging in the shady garden, probably the badger and they've made a right mess...any suggestions on keeping them out? Or, at least, deterring them.

Lastly, we planted 40 hedging roses (mulitflora, virginiana and canina - Lidl £1.99 for 10) along the bank where we laid the hawthorn hedge, hoping the roses will grow with and through the hawthorn.

I didn't take any photos today...too miserable. So here's one I made earlier.

Thalictrum in the cottage garden.

I'm off to batten down the hatches.

Natural Beauty

Have been poorly for a few days - rotten virus. (Not a good soldier me). I don't think my mood has been enhanced by the woeful deterioration in the weather...since my last post, we have had heavy snow and more forecast for later in the week. I can't even get out to the garden so instead, I decided to make a few home made, natural beauty products....I've had a book from the library since January and had ordered the basics such as cocoa butter, beeswax, citric acid and various oils.

Feeling very smug - have made my own cleanser, face serum and mint choc chip lip balm!

Far easier than I thought, like most things. They were based upon recipes from this wonderful book - very easy to follow. I used the recipe for the cocoa butter lip balm sticks - beeswax, cocoa butter and jojoba oil but because I only had wee tins, not sticks, I added some organic extra virgin olive oil - the sticks have to be slightly harder to stand up. Then, I added a teaspoon of organic cocoa powder and a few drops of peppermint essential oil, stirring well through before it sets. Then pour into tins (saved from old lip balms but available online). The cocoa powder adds a hint of colour which I like.

The anti aging face serum - I only had half the ingredients so, like most things, I improvised - I used argan oil - found in southern Morocco - the latest greatest anti aging oil - just try not to think about the fact that, to extract the oil, the goats eat the fruit then poo the seeds - lovely! It makes it easier to extract apparently. Then I added jojoba oil as my skin is quite oily....it doesn't block pores.....and wrinkly so I added essential oils of frankincense, clary sage (not for ladies heavy with child) and cypress - you can tailor it to suit your skin. 

I tried it all out this evening and have a lovely glow (a face like a blood pudding according to the hubbie) but I've warned him not to be too shocked when he wakes in the morning to find himself beside a younger, fresher me! (I have no patience - have you noticed?).

Anyway, I'm getting carried away and decided to look up the natural botox alternative (bee venom face cream) as allegedly used by Kate and Camilla - it's 60 quid a jar and they electrocute the poor bees to release the venom - how awful. But I keep remembering my mother's kindly comments last week - "you could virtually climb into the wrinkles in your forehead!" Thanks mum. Well - what do you think of this? - apparently stinging nettles can have a similar effect - chopped, mixed in warm water with yoghurt and honey, and applied as a face mask (no pain, no gain)....roll on the spring weather til the nettle's start growing - WATCH THIS SPACE!

In Like a Lion

My poor wee garden - it's been blattered, with a wind that would glean corn, a lazy wind that doesn't go round you, but through you. It was too good to be true - up until a week ago, the winter had been so mild that my potted perennials were shooting up nicely, the bulbs were all sprouting forth beautifully...iris, muscari, narcissi & primroses looking picture perfect. 

They now look like they've been blasted with a blow torch - the beast from the north east has hit them hard, the ground was frozen til lunchtime today - that just doesn't happen in our mild peninsula (says I rather smugly). Just not fair Mother Nature, bring us back the mild wet westerlies that we're used to....better the devil you know.

The before pics.......hadn't the heart to photograph the after.

Flower Power

Plant it...and they will come. I have discovered that, even on a remote windy peninsula, if you choose the right plants, the wildlife in your garden will blossom. 

The bees (bumble & wild) and butterflies last year were in greater numbers than ever and, do you know, I think that's the most rewarding part of my job - having the good company of these beautiful creatures. Before I started gardening (almost twenty years ago), I couldn't have given a toss about wildlife. Now I find myself getting completely lost in their world........watching a furry bumble nestling down for the night inside one of my dahlia flowers, or a little ladybird cosied up under a pile of debris & sticks in the corner of one of the borders, a shiny black beetle busily eating slug eggs under a plant pot - it's a whole other world that us stupid white men just don't appreciate....I could on and on but I'm rambling as usual.

Anyway, the point of this post was to point you in the right direction re plant choices, so here's my top ten plants (in no particular order) for wildlife - why not give them a go?

1) Cerinthe

Easy to grow, looks really pretty, hardy (flowered all winter) and the bees LOVE it. They tell you to sear the ends in hot water to make it last as a cut flower but I find it lasts fine, so long as you cut it at dusk.

2) Catmint

Smells so good, both foliage and flowers cut beautifully, flowers from April - October, easy to grow and the bees love it.

3) Pussy Willow

Great early source of pollen for bees, grows, like wildfire in our wet climate, from cuttings. Eco friendly plant(see earlier blog post on willow). Makes great shelter in the garden boundary & useful from  Xmas til spring in flower arrangements. 

4) Feverfew - easy to grow and loved by bees and hoverflies. (Also great for migraines)

5) Scabious - loved by butterflies and bees and a great cut flower - also very hardy, flowering over a long season.

6) Phlox - easy to grow in our heavy clay, smells wonderful and loved by bees & butterflies.

7) Teasel - a great weed that self sows everywhere but loved by moths and the seedheads feed the birds in winter.

8) Echinacea - again great for bees & butterflies.

9) Cotoneaster - all types - great for berries for the birds in winter but best of all, as the miniscule flowers are just opening in spring, the bees are literally queuing up to feed - the noise is remarkable. Established plants also make a great shelter for wildlife.

10) Rosa moyesii - a very easy rose with single flowers and lovely flagon shaped hips for the birds in autumn. When in flower, the sound of bees is deafening - it is quite unbelievable - perhaps because it grows to such a height.

Anyway - this is just a select few - I would love to hear about what works best in your garden in attracting the wildlife - share, share why don't you?! x

A Planting We Go

Still so much to plant - too soon for annuals but have perennials to go into the new beds - at least it's going to rain later in the week...

The new "shady" beds  - really face south and west but tall trees around. I have planted fuschia, lilac Mme Lemoine (double white), white oriental poppies, white japanese anemones & echinacea White Swan. Also bulbs - crocus Snowbunting, brodaeia hyancinthina & allium thingymajig (cba looking up my invoice but cheap and pink).

Am hoping they'll be OK under the ash trees and laurels. Will post on their progress - promise!

Also stole some phlox, lysimachia & lemon balm from the cottage garden to move to the cut flower field - I love making new plants for free. All thugs which I will relish - the more the merrier. Looking forward to their abundance in summer.

Just finished a lovely tweeting meeting with like minded British cut flower growers.......so many tweets coming at you fast and furious....my head is in a spin, my feet don't touch the ground....think the prosecco added to the dizziness  Join us here #britishflowers. 

Prairie Planting

Perfect weather for planting up the prairie border that we prepared in the autumn. I had ordered some grasses from two different nurseries - I would recommend Peter Nyssen for grasses, perennials & bulbs - great value & service.

No one seems to want the "hot" colours for bouquets - reds, orange, yellows so I have moved all of my crocosmia from the cutting garden to the prairie border - 50 in total (having divided them up). Also the heleniums which I love (& the bees love). I also bought 9 rudbeckia Goldsturm.

The border is up the side of a field between the garden and the road, down the side of the entrance lane, so it looks a bit rough at the minute. I can't wait to see it grow - hopefully the design looks ok - I sort of just bunged them in.

Plant list as follows:

Grasses                                                  Crocosmia
Stipa gigantea                                         Lucifer
Pannicum Heavy Metal                           Emily McKenzie

Calamagrostis Brachytricha                    Carmin Brilliant  

Calamagrostis Karl Foerster                    Honey Angels

Calamagrostis Overdam                          Severn Sunrise  

Miscanthus Herman Mussel                                

Miscanthus  Ferner Osten                                  

Miscanthus Sinensis Zebrinus                            

Perennials

Helenium Moerheim Beauty, Indiansommer, Red Jewel, Waltraut, Sahins Early Flowerer, Double Trouble

Kniphofia Tawny King & Rudebeckia Goldsturm

Doesn't look like much at the moment but here's hoping. Will keep you posted!

Spring

Yet another beautiful, sunny day in the garden..just me and the dog and a few Queen Bees foraging for some early nectar. The weather is unbelievable - three weeks without rain and lots of sunshine - certainly makes the job even more pleasurable. 

Spent most of the day in the tunnel - am behind schedule on that front mainly because weather so good, don't want to go inside. Potted on autumn sown hardy annuals - clary sage, gyp Covent Garden White, sweet sultan, malope Vulcan, annual lupins. Also potted on verbena cuttings & tree lupins sown from my own seed last autumn.

Came home with sore back to find April Country Living arrived in the post - great start to the weekend - just having a wee beer and listening to Van the Man  on the ipod (Veedon Fleece - an early classic - especially aptly named "Bulbs").

BTW have started tweeting - it's killing me - you're only allowed 140 letters per tweet - harder than you think when you're used rambling on like me. Or drivelling  some might say (a la Blandings).

Have a great weekend!