Even by my really rather poor posting standards this has been one heck of a musings break! So it’s time to bring it back. It’s a simple one today, a beautiful piece of music that hints at the slow and gentle creep towards Autumn that’s to come….
Musings and Singapore Slings......
So another year and another with no musings… Maybe I should rename this page “I’m still here, I love plants, gardens, the joy of working in them and contributing to their survival and increasing bio diversity and I’ll say hello once a year page”?
In other news I was very lucky to spend some time in Singapore on the way to a wonderful family trip to Australia for Christmas and it was such a joy to be surrounded by plants wherever you went, indoors, outdoors they even adorn motorway bridges.
Until the next time… (January 2024 if the pattern continues!!) Plants are life…life is plants.
The joy of planting continued......
Back in the Spring of 2021 I posted a story about a new border design I’d created and planted. With all good intentions I planned to share a story about it’s development a few months later in the Summer. Well here we are not quite in the Summer of 2021 but in the Winter of 2022!! Better late than never it now seemed as good a time as any to show you the changes.
Before - March 2021
After August 2021
The joy of planting....the soul of the soil.
From enjoying spring sunshine to dodging hailstones there’s still no better feeling than setting out plants and planting them into fully prepared soil with lots of organic matter. Better still get your hands in there too, it’s a microscopic world teeming with a vast array of organisms that breathe life into your plants and through your skin can benefit your gut microbiome health too. It’s win win! I’m looking forward to seeing the 220 perennials I planted in two newly created borders at a clients this week come to life in a few months time and then nurturing and maintaining them over the years to come. Just need to play them Mort Garsons - Mother Earth's Plantasia now….
Mindfullness in the Wilderness
I feel blessed to be working with plants and nature in the great outdoors and it was a joy to plant up a small wildflower meadow in such beautiful surroundings a few weeks ago. Autumn is the perfect time for planting Wildflower plugs and they give you a head start over seeds. A mix of native perennials that included meadow sweet, wood avens, greater stitchwort, self heal, hedge bedstraw, red campion, hedge woundwort, wild primrose, wild foxglove...Looking forward to seeing this area develop as the flowers self seed away year after year.
Cosmos the gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving...
If you want big impact, flowers galore, cut flowers for the vase, more flowers galore, more cut flowers for the vase then Cosmos bipinnatus will not let you down. Really easy to grow from seed indoors, grow on undercover and then plant out after the last frosts and you’ll have a border or large container dancing with beautiful flowers and that gorgeous fern like foliage from June until the first frosts. Keep cutting them for the vase, deadheading and they’ll just keep on giving.
Two Weeks Later.....
I hope this finds you safe and well. One copy of Flora Britannica, a pile of vinyl and 2 weeks later our flowers have pressed.
Top Left - Helleborus × hybridus Harvington white speckled
Top Right - Primula vulgaris 'Cabaret Purple'
Centre - Narcissus ‘Tête-à-tête’
Bottom Left - Vinca minor sp.
Bottom right - Primula vulgaris sp.
Until the next time stay safe.
Time for a Herbarium...
Well you could say a few things have changed since I last wrote in February…One thing that’s not changed is that plants and gardens still continue to lift our spirits and no more is that needed than now in these difficult times. Long before the digital world took over our lives, where identifying a plant can be as simple as using an app on our phones, identifying plants my well have involved a visit to a Herbarium. Botanists across the world would collect plant specimens and essentilly dry them for storage, study and collections. On that subject there is much in books and online that you can find if you’d like to find out more detail.
I’ve taken a trip down memory lane with my daughter and we’ve added flower pressing into the home schooling curriculum! It’s fun and simple! You just need some flowers from your garden or containers, some sheets of kitchen roll, pieces of cardboard, something heavy and a bit of patience ;-)
Simply cut a piece of cardboard then place a sheet of kitchen roll/absorbant paper on top then add your flowers and add another sheet of kitchen roll and then cardboard. Find a collection of heavy books and in my case a pile of vinyl records and leave for a couple of weeks!
Your pressed flowers can then be framed if you so wish or in the case of our household probably end up on the fridge with a magnet!
Hellebores...Float On.....
After weeks of saying I must go down the garden and cut some Hellebores today is the day! It’s usually the soil that gets the best view of these wonderful flowers, so why not cut a few for a display in the house. Cut the flower with 1 or 2 inches of stem, dip the end in boiling water to seal it and then add to a bowl of water, let them float and you can enjoy these beauties for upto week…..A classic flower needs a stone cold classic tune…Float On!
Propagation Pop
It’s that time of the year to dust off the propagator and to start off your seeds undercover indoors. These Cosmos bipinnatus “Purity” have already popped up to say hello. A pure pop flower too….talking of which…