Some photos

I've added some photos of some of the flowers out in my borders right now.  Just click here. 

The orange poppy is a bit of a mystery and a lot of an annoyance.  I have only planted pink and white poppies in the garden - not always successfully I might add;  yet I now have three groups of bright orange poppies.  All the colours in my back garden are cool - the hot ones being in the front garden, so I really don't want three lots of in-your-face poppies nestled among the pastel shades.


One of the groups has been with me from the beginning of this garden - five years plus and each summer after it has flowered I try to dig it up, but next year back it comes.  Being a gardener I can't bear to poison them or rip them out when they flower so I grin and bear it until they have finished.  I am determined this year that when they've done their thing I will get every last bit of root out and pass them on to someone who can use them.


I am curious though as to whether they are absolute rogues from somewhere or other?  or wrongly labelled ones I've bought and planted (this is the answer I think is the right one)?  or do pale poppies eventually revert to the simple orange?


Answers please?

Back home and loving it.........

The following is how I began my time back here in Bury.  It is the opening to my diary blog which I do for family and friends so they can keep up with where we are and what we're doing.  In case you've forgotten this was written in that lovely hot stretch we had in April.

I'm absolutely cream-crackered but sweetly content.  Gardeners out there will recognise the feeling.  I've just spent most of the day in the garden beginning the clearing up after six months abandonment.  It is always a cross between the Secret Garden and Miss Haversham's when we get back but at least when you do it there is a huge payback. It was so hot today - actually summer temperatures (around 18C) so absolutely no excuse not to get on with it.

Had we not had six breaks in our cold water pipes and a broken boiler thanks to the -17C experienced in Bury (the repairs were finished the day we were flying home!), I would have thought you lot were telling porky pies.  Clearing the veggie beds today I dug up proper radishes; only the slug damage prevented them from going on our salad.  There were half a dozen potatoes all sprouting into life and showing above the soil and the land cress that I’d left to rot down over the winter to improve the soil was eighteen inches high and in flower.  We have rhubarb almost ready to pull and so far I have only one dead plant to report.  This is an incredible result following the winter the UK had again this year.

So, as you can see I was out getting things back to rights as soon as I got back in April.  Good job as it turned out as our weather has been a bit hit and miss ever since.  

Everything is staying pretty much as is this year with a couple of tweaks in the veggie plot.  I moved the rhubarb down to the bottom square (0) as it likes shade whereas other crops like beans don't and they get stuck in there every third year with my three year rotation system.  So now - this year - reading from the bottom of the strip to the top I have - rhubarb in the none rotating bed along with four cauliflowers (they are supposed to be better for shade too) which I thought I'd have a go at as I found six (plus) of them reduced to 50p and looking as though they needed rescuing.  They seem to be going great guns so far.  I have grown all kinds of brassicas many years ago and they were so full of various bugs I was squeamish about eating them. I'm  made of sterner stuff in old age and, unless they are truly beyond eating, they'll be fine.

In bed number 1 I have the spuds.  I did fantastically well last year with International Kidney and was sorely tempted to do it again especially as the Swift all fell down with blight.  Gardeners are nothing if not adventurous so I resisted and planted Red Duke of York (2 rows) and Rocket (1 row).  I have to have first earlies because we leave here before we can harvest the later ones.  That said I was weakened by another bargain a couple of weeks ago and planted two large planters with King Edward (my favourite spud of all time to eat) maybe they will be OK when we come home at Christmas (?) and 2 more containers with Annabelle.  This is a first early I know nothing about.  The seed potatoes were knocked down to silly cheap as it was a bit late for planting.  They are all coming up though!!!

Bed number 2 has my legumes.  'Scarlet Emperor' runner beans and 'Speedy' dwarf French beans.  The French beans have had a poor germination rate both in pots under cover and in the soil - I am still struggling to get another four plants into growth which I need to make up the nine I want.  Lastly I have some Petit Pois - another B & Q bargain strip. Like the strawberries that I have in a couple of pots on the patio, I don't grow enough of them to ever get enough for a proper meal but they are lovely to just munch now and again in the garden on a nice sunny day.

Bed 3 is my change of method this year and I like it already. This is square foot gardening.  Take a look at the link and if you get interested there is masses of stuff out there to get you started.  Mel Bartholomew is decidedly the best bet for sensible down to earth (pun not intended) advice.  I have his little book for $4.99 and it answers any question you could ever ask.  I'm sure you could find it in the library to see if you want to own it before you buy - that's what I do.  My twelve squares have (at the moment) Beetroot, radish, lettuce, a couple of the left over cauliflowers, mixed salad leaves, carrots, some left-over peas and a new and interesting addition to my repertoire - India Mustard.

So that's the veg.  The flower borders are looking good right now too with the roses, foxgloves, poppies, clematis - all very English and fluffy.  I intend to get round to posting some photos on my web album soon and I'll let you know when they are up.

OK this is where I want some advice.......  My rhubarb is in its third year, yes, I know I've just moved it but it hasn't been fantastic and indeed its twin dropped dead in year one.  It is Glaskins Perpetual.  Is it a rubbish variety?  no good up North?  needs feeding a lot? etc etc etc - I am very inclined (next year) to just bin it and replace with good old Queen Victoria.  Opinions welcome.

Raised Beds

I heartily recommend raised beds.  I started with them three years ago because my soil was poor and full of stones and they have been just brilliant.  My husband made them for me simply by hammering a stake in the ground and screwing on four foot long decking strips.  The photo probably explains it.  I painted the outside with food friendly outdoor paint and Bob's your uncle.  I  am trying to figure out a way to add a strip a year until they build up to a stand up working height which would be terrific.  I knew that I would have liked that when we did them but thought I'd never be able to afford the soil needed to fill them.  As it turned out with my own compost and some bought bags to top them up each year and I'm sure I could get there eventually.  So if you think that's a possibility- make the corner stakes the height you'd like the beds to be eventually.  If you change your mind you could always saw them off.  Meanwhile they might make good posts for draping plastic sheeting or fleece over?  Here's a posher version to get you thinking about them from Gardeners World.  Raised beds.

Change of email address

I have a link at the top of this page for anyone who wants to contact me directly rather than via the blog.  Please note I have changed my (gardening) email address to: mormson2@comcast.net.  I don't even want to attempt to explain why - suffice it to say this is an easy solution to a computer techie problem.

Thinking of home

A friend emailed me today and happened to mention that all the spring bulbs are just about appearing above ground with a particular reference to snowdrops.  They remain my most spectacular failure (so far).  Every so often I forget that I have never succeeded in growing them and duly plant the next huge batch.  I have bought them dry and 'in the green' and planted them at all different times and generally in a 'woodish' sort of area of the garden with about as much success as I have strewing poppy seeds and watching them grow.  Zilch!  It has been suggested that as I change homes like other people change socks maybe they appear the year after I've left and the new owners are inundated with snowdrops in the Spring followed by glorious swathes of poppies.  Mmmmm??.


If you have great success with either of these little blighters would you like to share how you do it?


A thought occurred to me reading Gardeners World on line today that maybe not everyone knows about it.  I do snatch the good six month offer they do each year (usually with a free gift) and subscribe to just that  but it isn't worth my buying a year's magazines as I'm not in the UK for half of it.  Even on offer and with a gift six months it isn't especially cheap and like most magazines the pictures are great (but in themselves not useful) and when you are my age you maybe get one fresh idea or bit of information per magazine, so I am happy to read it on line for half a year to ease out the cost.  Any way if you click on Gardeners World you can check it out for yourself.


I have linked to the 'jobs to do this week' page to see if you agree with me that the recommendations (from the South) run about a month ahead of what we need to do up here? Frustratingly I won't be doing anything until April.


I noticed Thompson and Morgan are promoting their seed potatoes right now on line and I saw an offer this morning to save 20% (future VAT) right now.  Again click on the name if you want a look.


Happy (gardening) New year!

A useful contact

I received the following email from a reader and thought it would be useful if I passed it on in its entirety (don't worry I do ask permission before I do this).


 I have just stumbled upon your Blog and found it really interesting. It's great to find that more people are talking about gardening locally instead of using the south as the template for all gardening. I've added the blog to my bookmarks and intend to check back regularly as spring comes round. Also, I'd like to suggest a company for your useful links section. A few years ago, I went to the flower show at greenmount held by tottington horticultral society, hoping to get some guidance with issues I was having on my vegetable patch where I was introduced to their chairman, Graham. His advice proved invaluable and much more suited to my issues than any book I could find. Since then, my wife discovered that he was in business as Hortivation horticultral services, he has undertaken several jobs for us displaying the highest level of competence in gardening, his website has some useful guides that yourself or other of your readers might find interesting. It might be worth mentioning the society on your blog for as I've found them most helpful and a great source of plants.

I am more than happy to provide the links:

website: www.hortivation.co.uk

email: info@hortivation.co.uk

address:  2 Heathfield Road, Bury, Lancashire, BL9 8HB

phone: 0161 820 8606

Thanks to a bury gardener for the tip.

Wintery thoughts

Hello from sunny Florida.  Now you didn't need that did you?  I am aware it is getting far too cold far too soon in Bury as we (or at least him indoors) do read the UK papers and news sites on line.


Gardening for me is non-existent over here as we live in a condo and the landscaping is managed to within an inch of its life by a swarm of gardeners.  I miss it dreadfully.  Yes, I know, because I keep being reminded by everyone and his brother, that there's not much gardening to be done in Bury in the winter.  Nevertheless I miss my romantic notion of puttering around outside now and again on a nice crisp sunny day inspecting this and that.  As I've not done that for the best part of ten years I suspect it isn't at all how I imagine it.


OK, to the point of this missive....  As you've gathered I can't do anything very much for the blog until about April so I want anyone who is reading this (and there have been 661 visits to this since it started) to take up the cudgel and start a dialogue.  That is why I started it.  Just answer this piece and I'll post it and maybe we can get some conversations going.  Failing that I guess there's not a lot of point in doing it.


Come on let's get local gardeners sharing thoughts and info, maybe just chatting......  Gardeners are nice people!