When we disposed of the willow crushed shed, we kept its door for future use.
We have now used it to replace the rotted door on the Second World War air-raid shelter in the garden
My father used the shelter to store apples and we have kept homemade wine in its stable cool temperature. Now it’s just a home for our thick hoses we use to empty ponds, and the stack of buckets in which we overwinter water lilies, when we empty the ceramic water pots each autumn.
Removing the old more sound log proved no easy task, for as a young man I had done jobs to last.
I assisted our friendly local builder, Brett Lomas, to pave the area and install vertical stone slabs to hold back the higher ground.
The pond in front of the seat needs de-silting, and we reckon the seat will give us somewhere to take a breather when we are carrying out this fairly unpleasant task.
Sadly, yesterday one of our large Koi Carp died, a Chagoi around 10lbs in weight, I guess. We used to bury dead koi in the garden, but there were usually dug up again by the wildlife,
Last night while slugging I went to see if the fish was still where I left it. It had been moved a yard or so but was being devoured by a badger. The badger didn’t run off as the meal was too heavy to pick up and make a rapid exit, so he kept eating, ignoring me. I thought I’ll go back in doors and get my camera, to hopefully get a picture. It turned out that
The Phyllostachys kwangsiensis seed continued to germinate since my recent post about them.
The Epimedium seedlings have been producing new leaves, but frustratingly slowly. I recall reading on an American website they get some flowering from Epimedium seedlings in their first year. I will be extremely surprised and happy if I see a flower from any of them next year.
It has been a challenge to keep them from being eaten, during the worst slug and snail outbreak I can remember. There have been several evenings when I have collected as many as I pictured in my earlier post. Only on suddenly colder nights does there seen less out there. Other than then, there seems little reduction in numbers despite my best efforts!
Over my forty years or so of having bamboos in the garden there have been quite a few flowerings. Some have resulted in the death of the plants a few of considerable size.
Until recently, it was an occasional bamboo species flowering, Fargesia murielii, Yushania anceps, Himilayacalamus falconeri,
Some of you may have read on the old web site about the sudden disaster, that occurred during the summer of 2009, when our very large weeping willow’s tree trunk failed at about five feet from the ground. A number of trees and shrubs were damaged by the falling tree along with our ancient 8’x6′ pent shed. It might have been repairable but was not a feature of great aesthetic value.
Our daughter and her friend served drinks and cakes etc. from the shed so we thought perhaps a more attractive replacement might be used as a tea room, were we to start having open days again.
We were completely amazed by the two guys who carried the panels one each down our long and winding paths with overhanging branches, with almost no damage to plants. From when they arrived to completing the the building including felting the roof was less than an hour and a quarter. We had to glaze the windows and door ourselves, which has taken far longer. Each panes of glass has been pressed into a bead of silicone sealant, and any excess trimmed off with a sharp knife and chisel when cured.
I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit fed up with this drought! The ‘experts’ never mention that gardeners wont have been using their hose pipes a great deal for the last five or six weeks, not to mention farmers, who wont have been irrigating anything. Also they have been saying the water will have been taken up by trees and not soaked in. Many trees have only just got leaves on them and wont have been taking up water. Surely the situation must be much better for water companies now!
What has been having a field day with all the rain are the molluscs. As someone who tries to protect their Hostas, Epimediums and other vulnerable plants without the use of too many toxic slug pellets, I use the capture and destroy method. I go out with a torch and collect a range of undesirable creatures. As well as slugs and snails you can catch Lily Beetles, Black Vine and other weevils and night caterpillars all about their destructive work, once it is dark. One does of course have to have a degree of determination to get out of
A few years ago I was very pleased to obtain a very small plant of Phyllostachys kwangsiensis. It sounded as though it was a very exciting addition to my bamboo collection, as it is said to have many of the desirable features of Phyllostachys edulis, but doing them much quicker in the UK climate. Indeed it had heavily pubescent culms when they appeared and small leaves in profusion.
I have potted off my pan of open pollinated Epimedium seedlings and currently have just
We have continued the good work of Karen, our volunteer gardener with our potted Hosta collection.
New visitors to the site may not be aware that there was a previous incarnation of the site which ran for about 11 years. The posts and images were not added quite as regularly, due to the greater difficulty.
There are news posts covering such things as pond building, tree disasters and our Koi Carp.
You can find the old site by hovering over ‘About’ and then selecting ‘Old Site’ or for added convenience click on the image of the old site on this post.
