A room with a view...

Weather: Windy and mildish but getting colder. Daytime temperature 7C

Well - despite my resolution not to sow seed too early this year I couldn't resist getting a few things growing! I sowed aubergine in a heated seed tray in the greenhouse and a few Tom Thumb lettuces plus a red variety that I bought from the real seed company.

I sowed an extra tray to bring in and put on the windowsill in my office which is about the only bright windowsill in the house. Five days after sowing the seedlings are showing! (OK you'll need a magnifying glass to see them in the photo but they are there I promise.) I also transplanted parsley seedlings that I had sown just after the new year (the pots on the right) and they've picked up. So with the mint that I brought in before Christmas in the pot on the left I really feel a sense of the new growing season starting!

Snow showers forecast for tomorrow.

Big Garden Birdwatching...

Weather: No frost. Daytime temperature 9C. Sunshine.


I did my Big Garden Birdwatching for the RSPB's annual count this morning. An hour from 10.30 to 11.30. Although it's mild I still got pretty chilly as I stood quietly in the shade for the first half an hour. I retreated indoors to do the final half hour of my watch through the windows. No unusual sightings - although I thought at one point that I wouldn't see a blackbird until a solitary female blackbird bird turned up with just minutes to spare.

The RSPB website seems to be offline so I'll have to save my results and enter them once they are back online.

While doing my birdwatch I decided (at last) where to plant the Rosa Mutabilis that my mother gave me for Christmas. The soil looked good for planting but battling my way into my digustingly untidy shed (notice no photo) I found I didn't have any bonemeal. Although I sometimes cut corners I have learnt that when planting a shrub that will be in position for many years to come its worth giving it a good start. Anyway it was a good excuse for a trip to Waterperry Gardens. It's not the cheapest place for garden supplies but so much nicer to visit than one of the big chains and a nice excuse to have a look round their gardens.

The pond in the photo above is one of my favourite spots at Waterperry and it was looking maginificent in the low winter sunlight.

The snowdrops there were in full bloom which must have the organisers of their snowdrop weekends quaking in their wellies as the aren't until mid February. Perhaps they will turn them into daffodil weekends. Mind you the daffs are already well on their way. Yes - this is Waterperry in Oxfordshire on January 26th!!

What a difference 5 days make....

Weather: Mild for January. No frost last night (or for the last few nights) and 9C today.

Picture above taken today. Picture on the right taken five days ago...who says you can't see plants grow!


I reckon these daffs by the urn have been growing at half and inch (sorry 1cm) a day.

I haven't got time to do any gardening today so that's it for now. Only to say that by way of experiment - remember the japanese quince twigs I brought in and put in a vase a couple of weeks back that flowered pale pink? Well - I've cut some more twigs today, this time slightly closer to flowering than the first bunch. This time the buds are already swollen.

I've put them in water. What colour will they turn out to be....pink again or the deep red that I know the plant to be when it flowers naturally outdoors?

Watch this space!

Here Comes the Sun...

Weather: very windy overnight followed by a slight frost 2C at 9.00 am and a dusting of white on the north facing roofs.



At last a clear morning and I decided to get out at first light (well about ten to eight!) and go for a walk. That is the great plus of working for myself from home - no commuting. I chose one of my regular walks which was very muddy after all this rain but the mist on the horizon and the standing water in the fields was spectacular. In the stillness after last night's wind the roar of the traffic in the distance was pretty loud and a reminder of how good it is not to be in it!



The snowdrops are rushing away now - compared with the photo I took earlier in the year (see January 4th post) Any day now they'll be flowering.


Next decision: take advantage of not having a major deadline to hit today for my work and get out and do some pruning and perhaps move a couple of shrubs...



....and I did. I pruned the vine. It's an outdoor variety - I'm not sure which but most years we get lots of bunches of small, sweet, black grapes. Not so last year it as suffered badly in the summer's wet weather and the leaves yellowed and fell early. It may have suffered further as there seems a lot of dead wood but it always seems very dormant at this time of year. I have pruned it back to one potential bud at each node on the main stems....here's hoping..



Also I moved my Sweet Box (Sarcococca). I often grow plants to remind me of people - or in their memory. And this is for Aunty Dorothy - a great aunt in fact - who died in her mid nineties a couple of years ago. The last time I had lunch with her we walked to the pub and on the way back she pointed out this shrub growing in someone's garden , which was in flower in February, and said she'd like one when she moved to her new home in Yorkshire. She did move but died a few months later and I bought this plant for her.


I didn't position it well and it got overcome by the plants around it. So now it goes in the border where the Choisya was - and I can see it from my office window. I hope it does her proud - Aunty was one of the few people you could describe as 'vivacious' even into her nineties. A lovely lady sadly missed.

Inch by inch...

Weater: Wet and ridiculously warm. 10C at 5.30am. 12C midday. Windy.

The spring bulbs are spurting up with the temperatures having been so unseasonably high over the last couple of days.

Several things spring to mind from my photo...

1) I put the rather less than attractive plastic frame in place yesterday over this particular patch of daffodils because they have huge heavy multi petalled heads that are too heavy for their stems and a frame helps them to stay upright for longer!


2) The photograph shows up the leaves in this bed but I don't usually clear them from here - I'm always amazed how they disappear in the spring under the newly growing plants and rot back back into the soil naturally. There are two arguments to bear in mind here - the leaves act as a mulch and protect the plants from the worst of the weather but they may harbour pests . These leaves are from a William bon Chretien pear tree to the left of the picture.

Decision: I'll leave them for the time being and clean up any big clumps when I give the bed its first weeding in February or March.

3) The Huechera behind the pot is looking in good shape. I should give it a little TLC but cutting back last year's flowering stalks soon.

4) The twiggy stuff behind the daffs is a Weigela and could do with neatening up a bit. Only a bit because it flowers on last years growth.

I always get impatient at this time of year, particularly if the weather is warm. I want to get out there with my clippers and start pruning shrubs that the books say leave til early spring. When is early spring nowadays? I leave that question with you!

Pretty in pink...

Weather: Warm and wet - a constant light drizzle is falling but it is 12C. It is on it's way to becoming the wettest January on record!

The sun in the photo on the left isn't from today - it was taken over a week ago...you'll see why in a moment.

I walked a favourite country walk a couple of days back up to my wellied ankles in mud for much of it and turning into the wind on the return stretch a squall with driving horizonatal rain set in. As I walked along the edge of a wood I was glad the wind was blowing across me towards the wood so if any branches had come they'd have blown away from me...

So as I have no intention of working in the garden today other than to gather some of the Rocket and Corn Salad, I mentioned in previous posts, to add to a salad for lunch I will mention my Chaenomeles japonica (Japanese Flowering Quince) . I've no idea what variety it is because it was in the garden when we arrived but the flowers are very definitely dark red.

Very soon it will be in flower outside but last weekend when I was clearing that part of the garden I cut some bare branches and brought them in because I'd heard that if you put them in water they will flower... (refer back to photo one)

They looked rather good even without flowers but now just over a week later they have come into flower - a delicate flamingo pink!

Welcome the worms!

Weather: Wet and breezy. Cool night about 2C. Day time 7C

Well - two garden related deliveries in two days! Yesterday my Wiggly Wigglers Can O Worms wormery arrived and they have to take top prize for the most environmentally friendly packaging I've seen. No cardboard, no bubble wrap, no plastic - and even the address label and preliminary instructions are on a circle of paper you later use in the base of the first level of the wormery to stop the 'worm bedding' falling through the holes into the lowest segment that collects all the lovely juice from the composting process! Top marks!

Yesterday evening I set it all up gave my new worms their first feed of kitchen waste and tucked them up for the night.

And if you haven't heard the Wiggly Wiggly podcast I can highly recommend it. As a podcast producer I listen to all sorts of audio on the web but there is no audio I come back to as regularly as the Wiggly Wiggler Podcast. You can find links to it on their website.

The second delivery was this morning and they say good things come in small packages...my vegetable seeds arrived from the Real Seed Catalogue. I love the way they are in re sealable see-through bags with the instructions inside. And I am once again full of hope for the season to come.

My vegetable plot was a disaster last year - most of my seedling were eaten by slugs. I must have lost 80 per cent of my crops to them. That combined with the wet season and the fact that my vegetable patch is becoming increasingly shady as surrounding trees grow...well I am usually more than self sufficient in courgettes but last year I had none!

It was the Real Seed Catalogue's collection of seeds for late sowings that saved the day for me with oriental greens I'd hadn't grown before coming up trumps and I even grew a few fennel bulbs successfully. Their germination rate was great so this year I'm declaring war on the slugs and using Real Seed seed from the off...

Fingers crossed.

Rocket man...

Weather: Wet and mild overnight - daytime overcast about 10C

After yesterday's exertions I decided on an easy day in the garden today. I ordered a wormery from Wiggly Wigglers on line to work in addition to my compost heaps - mainly because in this closed system the worms will eat cooked scraps without attracting rats - and this will reduce the amount of rubbish sent to landfill.

In the vegetable garden I gave the Rocket a hair cut...it is pretty hardy and certainly overwinters here. In fact I have been luckier with late sown rocket that then sits in the ground over winter before giving me a spring crop than I have been with a normal spring sowing.

It had however got overgrown and entangled with the leeks next door to it. The frosts in December had made this growth inedible but I could see new shoots coming up from the ground so I took the clippers to it. I hope the new growth is strong enough to resist the frosts still to come - but if we continue with this mild spell I should get a few pickings of this and add it to the Lambs Lettuce I have growing in a pot in the greenhouse for good additions to salads over the next few weeks.

After that I added the remains of one of last year's tomato grow- bags to the active compost heap and a layer of Choisya leaves with the Rocket cuttings. It's all pretty cold and gloopy but will soon get going again in the spring. I hope!

Out of the Darkness..

Weather: Overnight frost but mild today following a very wet few days.

I haven't been in the garden much this week - partly due to the terrible weather and partly down to having a lot of work on. But today was bright and I got down to one of my least favourite jobs - taking out the stump and root of the Choisya Ternata I cut down last weekend.


While I was about it I also took out the older Symphoricarpas Variegatas the 'Snow Berry' plant. I love this delicate little shrub but it was always hemmed in by the Choisya. A newer plant has established itself next to the old one and I will make sure that I leave it plenty of room this time.




Despite having taken out the Choisya it will still be a dark corner here. But I have decided to take down the higher branches of the Viburnum Tinus that was behind the Choisya and is therefore pretty tall. I have also pruned back some of the Pyracantha that grows up next to the wall to let some more light in. It took me all morning to clip off the higher branches - I thought there would be just a smallish pile of prunings to get rid of...but I ended up with another huge pile of branches to cut up! Some has gone for kindling and small logs for next year's fire - the rest I have bagged up to take to the dump.

I hate taking prunings out of the garden - I'd much prefer to be able to compost it all but I won't have the time to shred all this material for the compost heaps so the dump is the best.


I am glad I've got this job done - the before and after photographs don't really show how much work was involved. The second photograph does show a little more light getting through. Comparing it with the photograph from a few posts back it looks a bit barren but I'm glad I've done it as has opened up lots of new possibilites. Now for the best bit...deciding what to put in the newly turned earth!

Give me just a little more Thyme...

Weather: windy and changeable - which means mainly dull but with odd bits of blue sky and no frost last night. Daytime temperature 10C

It's back to work properly today - so I haven't had much time to get outside. But I have had a little time for my thyme! I am useless with thyme. I just can't get it to grow here. Perhaps the soil is too fertile for it. Last year I thought I'd cracked it by putting it in a tub using very gritty poor soil and hardly watering it (although the weather conspired against me on that one last summer). As you can see it is hardly a prize specimen at the moment - just after taking that photograph I gave it a hair cut and brought the best bits indoors and put it in a jar on the windowsill next to the last remains of Christmas. I can never bring myself to throw my Poinsettia out when I take the rest of the decorations down.

Anyway I now have a jar of fresh thyme for cooking with over the next few weeks

Now you see it - now you don't....almost

Weather: On Sunday started frosty but warmed to about 6C during the day. Sunshine.

Yes I'm a day late with information about yesterday but as it was such a perfect day for gardening I spent all day taking out my overgrown Choisya Ternata. The before and after pictures tell the story - but once out I suppose its footprint was about 2 metres square!

It had been a cutting - given to me by my mother just after we moved here so it was nearly twenty years old. I now have three options

1) To leave the old stump and see if it rejuvenates from there.

2) To prune and encourage the rooted 'pup' I found when taking the old shrub out

3) I have taken cuttings of the original and put them in a trench with sand in the bottom in an empty patch in the vegetable garden.

One of the above will surely mean I will still have a Choisya in the garden....just not such a monster as this had become. At the moment my day's work doesn't exactly improve the look of the corner of the garden but it is now full of promise.

I creak a little this morning - I certainly know I did a good day's work yesterday. And there is still more to do in that corner of the garden to open it up enough for the extra light to help out the crab apple tree which has been struggling, surrounded as it was by tall shrubs. It will remain a shady spot and my next job is to decide what to plant there in its place.

Still more Cider in the Jar....I hope!

Weather: Sunny morning but rain in the afternoon. Daytime temperature 6C

It's Saturday morning and the sun is out so it's time to tackle the apple tree. It was given to me by my grandfather about 15 years ago before the wall behind it was built.

It is a family tree with three varieties grafted onto a fairly drwarf root stock. They are Coxes, Katie and a cooker called Howgate Wonder. Last year we had a bumper crop of Coxes, but few Katies and one or two rather poor Howgate Wonders. (As cookers go I'm not impressed with the variety anyway so I wasn't too upset about that!) The tree is however an overgrown mess of crossing branches - and because it has the wall, a buddleia, holly and ivy surrounding it, it has strained towards the light and become straggly. The weight of the fruit has bent the lower branches so that they virtually touch the ground...it needs sorting out!

I have been very 'brave' with my pruning today. I hope I haven't cut out too many of the potential fruit bearing branches but I as it had such a heavy crop last year I wouldn't be expecting such a big crop this year.

And the extra plus to taking out some of the more mature branches is that I get a small pile of little logs that I will stack under cover and they will go on the stove in a year or two's time.

So - we'll see later in the year whether my hard pruning was a good or a bad move!

Isn't it a Lovely Day to be Caught in the Rain!

Weather: Wet and misty but warmer about 5C

OK - I saw three snowflakes yesterday. Most disappointing! And today it is miserable out there and my best intentions to get on with some pruning have gone by the board. But there is something I like about being outside in the rain though so - as you can see - I did at least put my boots on.

So, time to get on to one of my main reasons for starting this blog. It is to become my 'garden diary' for reference in future including a photographic record (its amazing what can be done so easily now). I thought I'd start by taking a look to see how the spring bulbs are doing.

The Daffodils are just about an inch high - which makes them a bit later than they have been in recent years which I put down to the fact that we had many more frosts during December than we have had for the last few years.

The snowdrops (left) are only just showing too. I don't know what variety they are as I was given them 'in the green' about 5 years ago. They usually flower in about the middle of the snowdrop season and as ever I am looking forward to them.

The broader leaves in the photo are self seeded primroses which love this garden. We inherited them from the previous owner - both the common wild yellow ones and a dark purple variety. Because they cross promisciously they also appear in all shades in between. I dig plants out every year because they are so prolific!

It's Saturday tomorrow so I should have more time to get outside (I've been stealing time to do this by eating into my podcast editing time...so it's back to Nature's Voice now).

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Weather: Overcast. Light snow forecast (but as yet no sign). Daytime temperature 1C.

It is snowing in parts of the UK at the moment - but it rarely snows here. When it spreads down from the north of the country it usually stops at Banbury - about 30 miles away. I love snow and I am keeping my fingers crossed that we get at least a few flurries but so far it's been a drab and cold day. There is ice on the standing water in the garden but the carpet that covers the compost heaps isn't frozen. For several days last month that carpet was a stiff as a board.

The compost crock in the kitchen is brimming over so one of the few times I will venture into the garden today is to empty that.

I have made compost for as long as I have been gardening. We have three compost 'bins'. Two are brick built with wooden slatted fronts. These are full of nearly done compost - some of which I will use in the spring. The third is an all wooden slatted affair which is the one I am filling at the moment.

At this time of year the most recent layers consist of kitchen waste (we eat a lot of vegetables so there are plenty of peelings and trimmings), wood ash from the stove in the sitting room, and the sawdust based cat litter from the litter tray belonging to a local 'outdoor' cat who has decided that it is warmer in our kitchen than in the barn she usually sleeps in... The mixture may seem a bit claggy but as soon as I have more greenery to add I will give it a bit of a mix and the resulting compost doesn't seem to suffer.

I had been hoping to find time to prune the fruit trees today but instead I'm getting started on editing the next RSPB podcast instead in this episode we will be previewing the Big Garden Bird Watch at the end of the month. I made a whole series of podcasts for this last year so I am going through material I recorded for that to see if there are any gems I missed and will be adding that in to new material which I am due to record next week.

Who or what is eating my Leeks?

Weather: Cloudy but quite bright. Getting colder. Daytime temperature 3C

I've grown leeks for many years and they were one of the few of last year's successes in that they didn't appeal to my burgeoning colony of slugs. But now something is finding them tasty and I'm pretty sure the culprit is rather larger than a slug! The garden is virtually enclosed by a stone wall and I've never been troubled by rabbits so it's a mystery.

Fortunately whatever it is it seems satisfied by the outer leaves at the moment and the bits I want to cook remain intact.

Recipe: this is my favourite leek recipe and it is really easy - it is called Wrexham Bake although the reason for that is unknown.

Ingredients:
1lb sausages
1lb leeks - (cleaned and cut into 2 inch lengths)
1 15oz can of chopped tomatoes
A large eating apple (cored and chopped into large chunks)
Salt and Pepper (I also like to add a few pinches of dried chili)

Method:
Put all the ingredients in a casserole and bake in the oven at about 200C for 45 minutes to an hour. You can brown the sausages first if you prefer.

Day two and I'm already digressing to recipes!

Happy New Year

Weather: Mild, overcast and damp. Daytime temperature 7C

The first of January seems to me an ideal time to start a garden blog. I have kept records of my garden sporadically over the last 15 years in a collection of diaries and I won't be able to resist referring back to these from time to time!

In 1998 I see that that it had been a stormy new year's eve in Oxfordshire - followed by a 'grey day' much like today.

We moved to this garden in August 1989 some three months after the previous owners had moved out. In those three months the old farmouse garden in front of the house had gone wild! It was dominated by an old rose, later identified as New Dawn, which had to be cut back so that we could get in the front door!

Beyond an old stone wall there was a longish narrow plot surrounded by old farm buildings - much of which was once cobbled farmyard - crying out to be turned into a garden.

We don't own any of the surrounding farm buildings and along the long southern side of the garden there is a particularly tall barn that blocks all winter sun from the whole of our garden. On a gloomy day there is not much to draw me outside at this time of year! But my first gardening decision of the year looks ahead to the summer and that is where to plant a new rose - a Christmas present from my mother - a Rose "Mutabilis" which, as it's name suggests, promises a flower that changes it's colour as it ages..

It is quite happy for now - recently potted and sitting in my cold greenhouse. The weather forecast is for cold weather later this week so I think I'll leave that decision until after that...