SoS 20/6/20

June 20, 2020

It’s a gloomy, dreer day, threatening to bucket down at some point. It’s also the day before the winter solstice, so it’s a short dark day anyway.

We’re in the city for a few days and so Husband dashed out, mowed and threw handfuls of blood and bone around the Matchbox ready for the rain.

There’s nothing much of note in this little garden this week. Thanks to Covid-19, and being in Lockdown at our bigger garden, it’s been a long time between drinks in this tiny one. So yesterday, whilst the sun was shining, I took pics of rusty garden accoutrements we have spattered around. I love rust in a garden – it blends, harmonises and enhances any and everything. I. also love garden ornaments that are woven, welded and built, as my Rusticana board shows on Pinterest.

SoS 6th June, 2020

June 6, 2020

Strange that we’re coming into winter whilst so many of the Sos-ers wander through summer gardens filled with so much beauty. I think that globally, we gardeners are coping with the world’s vicissitudes better than most because we have a place into which we can escape. And nothing more so than a beautiful summer garden.

SoS 9/5/20

May 9, 2020

Here we are again! It’s astonishing to think how quickly the week goes as one day rolls seamlessly into another so that days even lose their names at this current time.

SoS 18/4/20

April 18, 2020

It’s Day Whatever of Which week in What Month. Or so it feels. Mind you, the garden doesn’t care what day it is and I suppose as gardeners, we shouldn’t either. We’ve had a couple of days of wind and so there are blotches of red and yellow leaves all over the lawn and because the weather has cooled dramatically, so trees and shrubs have realised it IS autumn so most of my offerings for Six on Saturday, are richly coloured.

Firstly our Guelder Rose – Viburnum Opulus has begun it’s change. The shrub suffered badly through the drought and we think we’ll cut it back by a 1/3 to fill it out a little. It’s a bleached crimson and I love the way it blends quite green leaves as well as coloureds.

White nerines about to burst. We have these dotted around the garden simply because they bloom at this time, giving a spike to the garden.

One of our row of Japanese maples. They were planted for their rich red branches but somewhere along the way, the red has vanished. Nevertheless, look at that amber colouring!

One of our two giant fifty year old liquid ambers. I LOVE the flow of colour through the trees, from pale rosé to the richest shiraz or cab sav.

Then the blood red of our blueberries. This is by far the most spectacular. Wow!

And finally our saffron crocuses are beginning to bloom. I foresee a little harvest.

Head over to Mr. P’s blog to see the northern hemisphere in its spring glory. It beats Covid-19 News any day.

SoS 10/4/20

April 11, 2020

This week on SoS, I’m offering two gardens.

The state of one is the direct result of Covid-19.

We’ve been in lockdown with borders closed for quite a while here in my state of Tasmania (Australia). If one had a shack anywhere, (a second residence on coast, rural or highlands), one could stay there for the duration of the lockdown, only venturing away for food, exercise and medical requirements.

It’s similar to the UK, I believe – Stay Safe, Stay Home.

SoS 8/2/20

February 8, 2020

It’s been such a long time since I SOS-ed.

The main reason is the ongoing drought where I live.

Deciduous trees are yellowing and losing leaves, not because autumn approaches, but because of lack of water. Our subsoil is dry for at least a metre, if not more. The above is one of two massive sixty year old willows in our garden, favourite hiding places of our grandson and our terrier.

My borders stopped flowering weeks ago and whilst we can keep the borders alive, it’s as though the plants are going into hibernation. So there’s little to photograph as even in the city, trees are beginning to shed, street verges are dry and in some cases just dirt. And gardens of the less interested are looking awful.

However, on a quick walk yesterday, I took pics of what caught my eye and gave me hope that this pervasive dry will end one day and it will rain.

Acorns in a street row of oaks. I love the trees – so shady in summer.

Down a little lane and shaded from the worst of the westerly sun, this tiny little clematis (unknown?) which I found so pretty. I wouldn’t mind a cutting, as I have a thing for clematis.

Which brings me to seedheads of Clematis Montana in my own garden.

Nasturtiums. Love the colours, love the taste of the flowerheads in a salad.

And finally, Pachystegia insignis. This plant that grows down the road from our little city-bolthole is the one that caught my eye a while ago with its leaves. It has papery white flowers and now these wonderful seedheads. It’s very hardy and I purchased three last year. All in tubs as a plantsman friend says they do best in tubs, she has found.

And that’s it from me for this week and probably for a little while because of the drought. It will soon be time to begin reading catalogues, to separate seeds and think about propagating, but without adequate water, it’s hard to divine anything beyond life-support for what one already has.

So pootle on to other wonderfully wet northern hemisphere gardens with The Propagator, folks. It’s envy on steroids!

Toodles.

SoS 27/7/19

July 27, 2019

I’m back in the Matchbox Garden away from the coast as I prepare for further eye surgery on Tuesday, so had a trip to the nursery, bought a few things and had a little bit of a plantathon… not that one really gets a sweat-up in the Matchbox, unlike my Northern Hemisphere friends who are sweltering!

Today I offer up a bit of a mish-mash of pics because in all honesty, there’s only so much to see in a garden that’s tiny.

SoS: 20/7/19

July 20, 2019

We’ve been in the city for 10 days, but are now back in the big garden. Despite lack of water and freezing conditions, the garden has surprised us, doing things with a distinct ‘Where’s spring?’ attitude. My six might show that our garden is gradually waking from winter (such as winter was…)

SoS 13/7

July 13, 2019

In town for ten days or so, it’s been possible to check on the progressions of the Matchbox Garden. Walking around it takes a whole ten minutes. 🙂 But love and care of same can take as long as a piece of string. I’m sure gardeners out there know what I mean. For example, one of my new auriculas is struggling and as its a new cultivar from a breeder-friend, I am hoping it will survive. Hope comes with necessary research and so the piece of string has no end…

Anyway, here’s my Six on Saturday and the fact is that I could have put more in as spring is starting to push up from beneath the soil. There’s only about 40+ days till spring and less than 100 to daylight saving!!!!

SoS: 6/7/19

July 6, 2019

It’s been an age since I joined in posting on SoS, partly because it’s been a busy month, with the publication and release of the new novel.

Lots of new nerves as its a new genre (contemporary fiction) and there’s a need to entice new readers. Writing a book is so like gardening. You plant a seed, you feed it, water it, support it as it grows and you prune it and shape it, you feed it again, then you watch and it flowers and you can sit back and admire it (if you are lucky!).

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Tag: The Propagator