This week, on the one very, very windy day, Maintenance had a huge bonfire. He was burning three large, variegated box balls which had succumbed to the box tree caterpillar, and burning was by far the best solution to getting rid of the branches which were inevitably full of pupating larva. The rational for digging …
Well, I have a feeling that we are going to have to rethink our gardening in England if this weather pattern is here to stay. Water conservation will be paramount. Gravel gardens will be the norm – I’m even wondering whether to turn the herbaceous borders here in to gravel beds because it has been …
As I’ve written before, in Japan the seasons are broken down into 72 micro seasons and given little titles. I find it quite delightful and, although their seasons may not be the same as ours, I like to see what they call them. So just a few examples from these two months:- April 5-9 Swallows …
GARDENING HINTS Feb/March 2025 If you have kept seed from last year’s half opened packets, provided you have kept them in dry cold conditions, they should be viable. But I also have seed from packets of unknown age and also some seed doesn’t germinate if it is not fresh. Instead of going to all the …
GARDENING HINTS Last week I had a glorious day in the sunshine dealing with leaves – there were so many! And still the lime tree, which is huge, was hanging on so there are lots more to come down. We are lucky to have part of the garden which we call ‘The Shrubbery’ where we …
GARDENING HINTS I’m sure that many of you will be searching the bulb catalogues now to put in your orders or going to the garden centre to buy your bulbs for the Spring, so now is the time to raise awareness about whether to buy organic or non-organic bulbs, rather like the choice you have …
GARDENING HINTS August/September 2024 What a strange gardening year it has been. The rain…. The low light levels…The cold! Still on the positive side our large dipping tank at the end of the greenhouse has been full to overflowing all year. Everything looks beautifully green. I think having too much water is probably better than …
Gardening Hints – June/July 2024 In the last issue I wrote about my discovery of the box moth in my box hedge, and my plans to use an organic treatment for it. Since then I have seen one moth which I was able to identify from the description on line, and found two caterpillars. I …
GARDENING HINTS Let’s talk about the problems with box…. It is now extremely likely that you have seen box that’s looking far from well, either because of box blight, now widespread, or because of the box caterpillar (Cydalima perspectalis). I was feeling very pleased because we seemed to have escaped both, but sadly not. Last …
GARDENING HINTS, February/March Bridge During the recent heavy rain part of our garden wall fell down. This happens from time to time and we are philosophical about it- we have a lot of old walls and they do occasionally fall down. Luckily it is not in a place that is very visible, and we share …