Category: Gardening
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Oh, these garden blossoms
How blessed are we, we exclaim, to enjoy the spring flowers as they erupt around us? The wilds of the North Pennine moors did not lend themselves well to bounteous, delicate blooms. Copious blackthorn and hawthorn blossom there are so much appreciated, when they cover isolated trees and hedgerows alike, but these flowers are very…
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A single flower . . .
Sometimes the beauty of a single, solitary bloom is enough to take your breath away. This lonely tulip in our new-to-us garden was one such. I’m reminded of the William Blake poem, Auguries of Innocence, of which I suspect most of us are aware only of the first quatrain: To see the world in a…
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The gathering moss . . .
So the corollary to the aphorism about the rolling stone must be that the sedentary one does gather moss. Our gardens, front and back, have accumulated a rich, thick, mossy carpet. Apparently this ground covering is an ideal environment for an ecosystem of invertebrates, and as such should be a brilliant place to retrieve, with…
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The ‘inherited’ garden . . .
When you move, in my limited experience, you tend to leave one garden in place, and pick up the next in your new residence. I have heard that some people so love their gardening efforts that they uplift everything from the site they’re vacating to transplant into the new one. But that’s not the normal…
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Catching up is good . . .
I think that moving is especially fraught because everything is in disarray, all around, and it feels like you just can’t settle down to a normal task. It’s all just accommodating to the new space, putting things here and then then, and then back again. Testing out new living arrangements, fixing a few things that…
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A spot of light gardening
The two specimen plants outside our front door seem to have perished in the heavy December frost. There’s no sign of life, anyway, as this supplementary example, still mouldering in the back garden, evinces. I’ve already removed the floral corpses from their pots, in preparation for new planting. Our delightful morning job, in the bright…
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Too busy to muse . . .
We must have planted the Viburnum in the corner of our front garden some years ago and then left it to its own devices. My iPlant app tells us that this lovely plant decides to bloom in late autumn and then continues on into early spring. But we’d never been aware of its blossom until…
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The season’s change brings joy
Finally, as the end of September clambers into reach, it feels like autumn here high up in these North Pennines. The sun still shines with warmth, and the sky is still blue, even though the winds have started up again after the prolonged respite during the hot summer. It’s the beginning of the end for…
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Soft clean lines . . .
The soft lines of our hedgerows echo the undulations of the fellsides across the valley. This sight is such a joy, especially with the straggly hawthorns trimmed into a presentable state. This was work that was beyond my capacity, so we inveigled a local handyman to work throughout yesterday, to finish today, and to charm…
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Checking out the willows . . .
Really, it’s anybody’s guess whether my willow plantings will be a grove someday or not. There’s definitely signs of growth in numerous whips, much more than last year evinced, but still. It’s such a harsh environment up here, until the trees create their own shelter and the succession of plants accumulates behind them. Some willow…
Roads to Joy 