Karen Gimson

Garden Visit : Little Ash Bungalow, Devon NGS

/ karen / 15 Comments

Plant Paradise

It takes a lot for me to leave my cosy potting shed. I’ve created a happy little haven, with all creature comforts; kettle, toaster, comfy chair, reading corner. Cat and new puppy for company. But, I was enticed out recently to visit a garden I’ve heard a lot about, Little Ash Bungalow at Fenny Bridges, Devon. And I’m happy to say, it was well worth the journey. The garden is a delight. Rare and unusual perennials, trees and shrubs. A plant paradise. Here’s a photo ‘slide show’ of my visit. The garden is open this Sunday, 18th August from 1-5 for the National Gardens Scheme.

Francoa sonchiflolia. Known as bridal wreath. An evergreen perennial with lance-shaped basal leaves and 80cm tall spires of rich pink flowers. Not totally hardy in more exposed gardens.

Astrantia Little Ash Seedling, blue echium vulgare and pink Salvia Penny’s Smile. A lovely contrast of flower forms. This combination has a long flowering season. Astrantias have a good ‘skeleton’ structure once the flowers have gone over.

Purple Veronicastrum Fascination partnered with red Persicaria amplexicaulis and white Persicaria alpina. I’ve just discovered ‘persicum’ is Latin for peach and refers to the long peach-like leaves.

Grey-leaved Melianthus major (honey flower) creates a background to blue agapanthus, bright pink Diascia personata and mauve Verbena officianalis grandiflora Bampton.

Agapanthus thrive in the well-drained gravel beds up by the house. The evergreen agapanthus is deep blue africanus variety.

From the top terrace, looking down the right hand side of the garden, to the glorious East Devon country views beyond.

Owner Helen Brown has made the most of the views. Here she’s framed them with a series of arches covered with climbers such as ornamental vine, Vitis Purpurea and scrambling viticella clematis.

In the gravel just in front of the steps, there’s Dierama, known as angel’s fishing rods. Grass-like leaves with tall graceful flowering spikes. The flowers dangle down, hence the common name. I’ve found this difficult to grow in my wet Leicestershire clay. It’s a plant that needs a perfect balance of good fertile soil with excellent drainage. Not easy to achieve.

The view through the second arch. There’s a white clematis Paul Farges, or summer snow, on the right.

At the end of the view, there’s a granite and metal sculpture. These were originally rollers in wooden frames, pulled by horses to flatten clods in the surrounding fields. The metal parts came from more modern Cambridge rolls, pulled by tractors. In the background you can see an area of moisture-loving planting alongside a stream, with a path leading to a pond.

A focal point metal seed head sculpture in the centre of the mini-meadow.

Umbellifers in the meadow. Very attractive to bees, butterflies and hoverflies.

Looking over a low farm fence, there’s a paddock full of grasses and wild flowers such as yellow rattle and yellow Lotus corniculatus, bird’s foot trefoil.

The whole field is covered in tiny white flowers. We know this as stitchwort, a type of stellaria.

Helen leaves flowers to set seed for birds to enjoy. This is a Silybum marianum with thistle-like seeds just about to take flight. I’m glad I captured the moment, and I’m glad I made the effort to leave my potting shed to see Helen’s garden in all its glory.

Little Ash Bungalow is a 1.5 acre garden regularly open for the NGS, and also open by arrangement for groups of 10 or more on pre-arranged dates. Admission is £4 adults, children are admitted free. Cakes and refreshments usually available. Dogs on leads welcome.

Little Ash Bungalow, Fenny Bridges, Devon, EX14 3BL

https://ngs.org.uk/view-garden/21320/

Notes:

Other plants I noted, if you are a keen plants person: Roscoea Royal Purple, Crinum powellii Album, umbellifera Conopodium majus, Hedychium spicatum, Buddleja weyeriana, Clethra alnifolia for perfume, Grevillea victoriae, Cuphea blepharophylla, Buddleja lindleyana, pitcher plants, rudbeckia, Catalpa erubescens Purpurea, Phlox Starfire, Crinodendron patagua, Lobelia urens, Gladiolus papilio Ruby, Miaianthemum racemosum, bamboos, pond plants, bog plants and clematis – many unusual varieties.

Six on Saturday. Wind-Swept Walk Around My Garden on 10th Aug 2019

/ karen / 15 Comments

I don’t like windy weather. It makes me unsettled. I worry about everyone’s gardens. So much effort goes into growing flowers, fruit and veg, it’s heartbreaking when it’s destroyed by the weather.

I’ve waited all day for the wind to drop. It hasn’t. So it’s a blustery, sort of a walk around my garden. My dahlia stems are pointing in all kinds of crazy directions. I should have staked them better. But I didn’t. This one is still looking lovely though. It’s a decorative double called David Howard. Beautiful, orange-blushed flowers 10cm across, set off by bronze-tinted foliage. Plants grow to about 75cm, unless toppled by the rain and wind……. sigh.

Double flowers like these last around two to three weeks in a vase. They keep on opening up, like a ripple effect, until the centre is revealed. Well-known florist Jonathan Mosley gave a demonstration at the Belvoir Castle Show recently and revealed a few tips on getting the best out of cut flowers: Use a very sharp kitchen knife to cut flowers, not secateurs which crush the stems rather than cut them cleanly. Walk round with a bucket of very cold fresh water, and drop stems straight in, so air bubbles don’t get the chance to form in the stems. Cut flowers early in the morning and stand them up to their heads in water in a cool dark place such as a potting shed or garage for at least 6 hours before using them in arrangements. Giving them a really good drink makes them last much longer.

I’ve decided to go for an apricot-coloured theme this week. It might help calm our shattered nerves. This is one of my favourite rambling roses, Ghislaine de Feligonde. It flowers in huge swathes in June, and then puts out the occasional flower right through the summer. Bees love it, it’s free flowering and doesn’t get blackspot. All cause for a celebration, I think. Plus is looks good in a a vase.

In keeping with the colour scheme, there’s some beautiful seedling spider day lilies bred by Pollie Maasz at Pollie’s Lilies. These ones don’t have a name as they are trial plants. Pollie selects the best from her trials and registers new names. It’s a fascinating process and I’m glad to have some of her “babies” to try out here.

I am very fond of New Guinea hybrid impatiens. They flower all summer for no effort other than watering and feeding with seaweed extract or liquid tomato fertiliser. I don’t even bother to dead head them, they seem to sort themselves out. This one is Magnifico Star Orange. Cheerful even when it’s raining and blowing a hooley in the garden. I can always pretend I’ve been transported to the tropics.

I love begonias. This one is from the Apricot Shades range and is good for containers and hanging baskets. It will flower its heart out until the first frosts, then I’ll bring it in to the frost free greenhouse for winter. Dried off and kept indoors, it can be started into growth each spring. A really good value plant and so many lovely colours to choose.

Finally, from my pelargonium collection, there’s this beauty. This is one of the species hybrid pelargoniums from Fibrex Nursery. I think it is Pelargonium Ignescens, but will stand to be corrected. I have quite a few from the nursery and the labels have long gone. This one dates back to the 18th century and has pretty soft, downy leaves too.

I hope you’ve enjoyed your walk round my garden today, despite the howling wind! This is the view from the far hedge, in the back field behind my garden. It’s a wonderful place to stand and observe the weather. You can see for miles and today the farmer has started – then stopped – harvesting the corn. In a day, the crop will be safely gathered in, and the scene will change again, with ploughing the next sound we’ll be hearing.

Links: sos are https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2019/08/10/six-on-saturday-10-08-2019/#comments

Dahlia David Howard: https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/57111/i-Dahlia-i-David-Howard-(D)/Details

Rosa Ghislaine de Feligonde https://www.ashwoodnurseries.com/shop/rosa-rambling-ghislaine-de-feligonde.html

Pollie’s dayliles https://www.polliesdaylilies.co.uk/

Fibrex https://www.fibrex.co.uk/

Dancing with Bees- prize draw winner. And The Good Bee Review. New books

/ karen / 9 Comments

Thank you everyone who left a comment on my review of Brigit Strawbridge Howard’s new book, Dancing with Bees. All names were put in a hat and a winner randomly selected. A copy will be posted to Debi Holland when it’s published on 5th September.

photo: Bees loving Echinacea White Swan in my cut flower patch.

I wrote about Brigit’s new book here: https://bramblegarden.com/2019/08/04/dancing-with-bees-a-journey-back-to-nature/

Chelsea Green Publishing. Publication date: 5th September. £20, hardback.

Meanwhile, more new books….I have one prize draw copy to give away of :

The Good Bee- A Celebration of Bees and How to Save Them

by Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum.

Published by Michael O’Mara Books, 2019.

Hardback. £9.99

It’s a delightful little book, full of insights into the secret lives of bees. The section on gardening for bees is particularly helpful. There are five simple steps to start helping bees:

* plant year round flowers, shrubs and trees

*provide nesting sites and materials

*ditch the weedkiller and bug sprays

*leave the mower in the shed

*create a bee watering hole.

There’s ideas for making DIY bee hotels and info on where to site them. A charming, well-written book packed full of interesting facts. It would make a perfect stocking -filler present for anyone wanting to know more about bees.

Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum discovered their passion for bees and beekeeping twelve years ago. Since then they’ve set up Urban Bees, working with communities, charities, businesses and the public to raise awareness about all bees and support bee populations through education. They established a number of apiaries around London, including in Regent’s Park. They have written three books together, including their bestseller, A World Without Bees.

Please leave a comment below to be included in the draw. No purchase is necessary. A name will be randomly selected by the publishers. There’s no cash alternative.

Links:

The Good Bee : https://www.mombooks.com/book/the-good-bee/

Dancing with Bees : https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/dancing-with-bees/

Next Review coming up, with a prize draw copy is:

The Garden Jungle, or Gardening to Save the Planet, by Dave Goulson.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/1070593/dave-goulson.html

It’s been a fantastic summer for books- for wildlife-friendly gardeners.

I’m Growing New Potatoes for Christmas.

/ karen / 6 Comments

New potatoes are more than just a treat for early summer, you can enjoy them into the winter too. Started now, they will be ready to eat by Christmas. Here’s how I’m growing mine.

Special seed potatoes are available online, in catalogues and in garden centres now. I’m growing Charlotte and Pentland Javelin which are favourites for taste. You can also buy Nicola and Maris Peer. These are cold stored potatoes, primed ready to plant in August. You can also hold back some of your spring-bought seed potatoes, but you have to keep them in the bottom of the fridge until now, before planting.

Royal Horticultural Trials at Wisley showed that potatoes grow best in bags rather than rigid-sided plastic plant pots. You can buy special potato sacks, but I’m re-using compost bags. It’s a good way to recycle them.

I’m using Dalefoot salad and vegetable compost. Roll the tops down to form a collar, spike the bags to give good drainage, and fill them with 30cm of loosened compost.

Sit the seed potatoes on top of the compost. Ensure they are not touching, place them about 20cm apart.

Cover the potatoes with 5cm compost and water well. Place outdoors on a sunny patio. As the shoots start to grow, cover them with more compost and roll up the compost collar. Keep doing this until there is a 5cm gap left at the top for watering. What you are doing is “earthing up” the potatoes, without all the effort involved on growing them in the ground.

Move the bags, before the first frosts, into a greenhouse, porch or conservatory. By now the top growth will have died back and can be removed. Stop watering and keep the potatoes stored in the dry compost until you want to cook them. Because they have not been harvested and exposed to sunlight and air, the potatoes will not form hard skins and will retain that new potato taste and texture. In the past growers would have stored them in damp sand. My grandfather used to make “clamps” for vegetables such as potatoes and carrots, when vegetables had to last right through the winter without the availability of fridges and freezers.

I use soil association-approved Dalefoot Compost which is made from sheeps wool and bracken. It gives farmers in the Lake District an income for their wool which might otherwise go into landfill. It’s 100 percent natural and peat free, and contains a source of potash which makes fruit and flowers grow well.

My summer potatoes did well this year. I’m hoping for a small but tasty crop of new potatoes just in time for my Christmas dinner.

After planting my potatoes, I am sitting in my summerhouse with Grace cat, enjoying sunny weather and 23C temperatures, thinking of winter days ahead. I’m sure those tasty treats will be so welcome when the days are cold and wet.

You can listen in to my 10 minute gardening tips during BBC Gardens Hour today at 1.40.47 on the timeline on Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07hst9m Each week we try something new, do pruning, take cuttings, grow something from seed, help wildlife. Sometimes our projects work, sometimes they fail, but it’s a lot of fun trying, aiming to get the best from our garden plots.

Links: Seed potatoes https://www.amazon.co.uk/Taylors-Autumn-Planting-Potatoes-Christmas/dp/B008M4MHFC

Dalefoot compost : https://www.dalefootcomposts.co.uk/

Karen twitter : https://mobile.twitter.com/kgimson/status/1149241935502225408

Karen on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karengimson1/?hl=en

Please feel free to share this blog post. Thank you for reading!

You might also like to read: https://bramblegarden.com/about/

And : https://bramblegarden.com/2019/08/04/dancing-with-bees-a-journey-back-to-nature/

Response on twitter. @bimblegarden said:

Six on Saturday – a walk around my garden- 3rd August 2019

/ karen / 43 Comments

Short of time, I usually post photos of my garden at dusk in a last-minute dash about the place. Today, I got up early at 6am. And, surprisingly, the back fields are as misty as an October morning. We are having some really strange weather conditions this year.

I opened up the summerhouse in the hope of a nice day. The weather report says it’s going to be 23C.

Things I can hear at this time in the morning: Cows in the field opposite. They line up along the hedge to see what I’m doing. Snorting, sniffing and generally jostling for space, they are noisy and rather nosy neighbours.

I like to walk the perimeter of the plot twice a day, at dawn and dusk. We’ve made a kind of avenue of trees accidentally. We just happened to place the cherry, maple and ash trees wide enough apart to drive a lawn mower between. It makes a lovely calm leafy track, and the view out across the field changes daily. This path is good for watching the owls. They can’t see us, but we can see them.

On the other side of the trees, there’s a small paddock, an orchard and veg plot. This year, there’s more cut flowers than veg, although we are enjoying Charlotte Potatoes, and broad beans at the moment. I planted some French beans a fortnight ago and they will be cropping in another couple of weeks. The cut flowers have all been battered down by the rain. We had a whole month’s worth of rain in 36 hours. Floods are out in surrounding fields. Growing in a total jumble is Ammi, dahlias, rudbeckia, nicotiana, borage, verbascum, sweetpeas, cosmos and pot marigolds. There’s cabbage and garlic squeezed in there somewhere.

On the garden table there’s pots of the new Agapanthus Fireworks. My trial plants flowered from March and have now produced another three stems. I’m delighted with my plants and can highly recommend them. They are easy to grow and flower for a long period without needing anything more than watering.

My trial Aeonium plant is also looking really lovely. It’s a gorgeous colour and shape.

That’s my six photos for this week. I hope you’ve enjoyed your ramble around my garden- at an much earlier time than usual!

links :

Six on Saturday : https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2019/08/03/six-on-saturday-03-08-2019/

Agapanthus Fireworks : I wrote about them here : https://bramblegarden.com/tag/tulips/

Agapanthus from Wyvale Nurseries : http://www.wyevalenurseries.co.uk/news/news/agapanthus-fireworks-wins-new-product-award-at-glee/

Aeonium Review here : https://bramblegarden.com/2019/04/12/review-of-garden-beauty-web-shop-and-prize-draw-for-aeonium-schwarzkopf/

Please feel free to share this blog post.

Summer Lemon Biscuits Recipe

/ karen / 20 Comments

If you were listening in to the radio for Garden Hour, these are the biscuits I took in for the team. I made the lemon and white chocolate version yesterday. Today I made them with dark chocolate. Delicious!

Recipes featured here use produce from my garden. I’m always looking for ways to use up my citrus fruit from the greenhouse. This is a favourite recipe. It only takes ten minutes to make. Perfect if friends turn up unexpected and you want to give them a quick home-made treat.

Ingredients

180g biscuits ( I’ve used home-made Scottish shortbread, but you can use any biscuits. Custard creams are delicious, as are chocolate bourbons.)

3 tbsp lemon curd. Home-made (recipe below) is totally delicious, but any will do.

100g best quality dark chocolate, or white chocolate.

Few bits of fine lemon peel for decoration

Recipe

Crush the biscuits in a food processor, or in a plastic bag, bashing them with a rolling pin.

Add the lemon curd and mix to combine.

Use a melon baller or a 7.5ml measuring scoop to form balls. Press them slightly while in the scoop so they hold together.

Tap out on to a tray covered with foil. Place in a fridge.

Melt the chocolate in a Pyrex bowl suspended over a pan of boiling water. Ensure the water doesn’t get into the chocolate mixture. Or melt in a microwave in several 10 second bursts. Take care not to over cook.

Drizzle the chocolate over the biscuits in long lines. Add some fine lemon peel to decorate. Return to the fridge to set.

Will keep in the fridge for 3 days. But they won’t last that long. They are truly delicious!

Lemon Curd Recipe

Makes 1.15kg

Ingredients

6-8 large lemons (unwaxed, organic, or home-grown)

225g butter

575g caster sugar

5 large eggs

Recipe

Grate the zest from the lemons on the finest setting. Squeeze the juice and strain into a jug. You will need 300ml of juice.

Cut the butter into small pieces and put into a glass bowl along with the sugar, zest and juice. Set over a pan of hot water and stir until the sugar has dissolved. The bottom of the bowl must not touch the water which must simmer and not boil.

Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl but don’t whisk them. Strain the eggs through a sieve into the lemon mixture. Simmer on a low heat, sitting continuously until the mixture thickens. Will take about 20 minutes. Do not allow to boil or it will curdle.

Pour into warmed sterilised jars. (pop the washed jars in an oven for 10 minutes until sterilised).

Place wax disk over the lemon curd ( wax -side down). Smooth down the disk to remove any air.

Cover with dampened cellophane circles, label and store in the fridge.

Makes a lovely filling for cakes and scones.

Can also be orange, lime or grapefruit curd.

Enjoy!

Incognito Insect Repellent- Review and Prize Draw

/ karen / 27 Comments

Working in the garden, I’m often trying to fend off flies and mosquitoes intent on biting me. Flapping my arms around is my usual method of defence. It doesn’t always work. And as I found out recently, a bite or sting can turn into a nasty infection – or even blood poisoning.

I wrote about a recent accident in the garden here :

https://bramblegarden.com/2019/07/05/infection-a-warning-to-gardeners/

Readers replied with their own stories – as well as those who suffered serious infections from insect bites.

https://bramblegarden.com/2019/07/19/infection-update-19th-july-2019-gardening/

My write-up has been viewed 122,000 and liked, retweeted and commented on 31,000 times. It’s obviously a subject that resonates with many gardeners.

Since then, I’ve been careful to always wear gloves. I’ve got different gloves for the various jobs in the garden. And I make sure I cover my arms and legs – and use insect repellent.

Through Twitter, I learned about UK company Incognito and sent off for some samples to try out.

I love the anti- mosquito spray which is quick and easy to apply first thing in the morning, under and over clothing. Mosquitoes and other blood sucking insects home in on ears, wrists and ankles where blood vessels are nearer the surface. So I pay particular attention to those areas.

I’m liberally spraying the insect repellent over my clothing as well to repel ticks.

Here’s a summary of what I liked about Incognito insect repellent:

* Deet Free

* 100 percent natural ingredients

* Protects against malaria, dengue and zika-carrying mosquitos

* Recommended by NHS Public Heath England for use anywhere in the world

* Easy to apply and doesn’t leave skin feeling sticky or greasy

* Pleasant citrussy scent (oil of lemon eucalyptus )

*Protection lasts up to 4 hours against daytime biting. Easy to reapply for extended evening coverage.

I found the products to be easy and pleasant to use, and I can report that a horsefly and a whole cloud of mosquitoes were sharing my gardening space, and didn’t come anywhere near me. Also, I spent a day working alongside a lake, a situation I usually dread in the summer. And again, no bites while using the spray and creams.

I tried out the combined sun cream and insect repellent. Very useful for SPF 30 requirements. And there’s a natural moisturiser too, containing avocado, chamomile and geranium. I haven’t had a chance to try the incense sticks yet, but we are planning a family party in the garden soon where they will be very useful. They are non-toxic and have a lemony aroma.

Incognito is offering a prize of a 100ml anti-mosquito spray, and a 150ml insect repellent suncream. Please leave a comment below to be included in the draw. No purchase is necessary. Incognito will draw the winning name “out of a hat” and post the prize direct. Please also say if you don’t want to be included in the draw. All comments are very welcome.

Please feel free to share this blog post on any platform.

I am https://mobile.twitter.com/kgimson?lang=en on twitter

Also https://www.instagram.com/karengimson1/?hl=en

Links : Incognito https://lessmosquito.com/

NHS advice re insect bites : https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/insect-bites-and-stings/

NHS advice re sepsis : https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/sepsis/

UK Sepsis Trust https://sepsistrust.org/

You might also like my recent posts : https://bramblegarden.com/

About: https://bramblegarden.com/about/

* Currently (25 July) the repellent spray and roll-on are buy one,get one half price at Boots.

Six on Saturday. A peaceful walk around my garden. 20th July 2019

/ karen / 27 Comments

Looking west.

Field boundaries awash with seedling clematis. I never cut them back. They grow as they please. Clematis Betty Corning is very similar. Long flowering in the shade of the hedge.

Rosa American Pillar survives without much care. This one came from a holiday cutting taken (with permission) from the front garden of a cottage at Sandsend. We used to rent the school house at the bottom of the valley for summer holidays with the family. A lovely reminder of sunny days, sea and sand.

Protected by tall hedges, the plot provides all the cut flowers, fruit and veg we need. No sprays or chemicals are used here. It’s a haven for wildlife – as well as me. Don’t look too closely. There’s plenty of weeds.

Flowers from the plot. On sale at Six Acre Nursery, Costock, Leicestershire. All proceeds to Rainbows Hospice for children and young people.

Sometimes I make door wreaths from the flowers. Here’s one I made this week.

Enjoy your weekend.

Links :

Six on Saturday : https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2019/07/20/six-on-saturday-20-07-2019/

Seeds from : https://higgledygarden.com/

Rainbows Hospice: https://www.rainbows.co.uk/

You might like to read : https://bramblegarden.com/2019/07/19/infection-update-19th-july-2019-gardening/amp/

Also, In a Vase on Monday: https://bramblegarden.com/2019/06/03/in-a-vase-on-monday-3-june-2019/

About Bramble Garden : https://bramblegarden.com/about/

Please share on any social media.

I’m @kgimson on twitter. https://mobile.twitter.com/kgimson?lang=en

karengimson1 on instagram https://www.instagram.com/karengimson1/?hl=en

Infection – Update- 19th July 2019 #gardening

/ karen / 26 Comments

I’ve just had a few weeks I would rather forget. I’ve spent a lot of time sitting here, recovering from an infection.

We spent a year renovating our 1930s summerhouse; it’s on a turntable, so it can follow the sun. I’ve watched the sunrise and sunset from my armchair, pondering on how a simple gardening injury can cause a potentially serious illness.

A few weeks ago I got a splinter in the palm of my hand. I was gardening and sweeping out my potting shed. A tiny drop of blood, it didn’t look serious. So I finished sweeping up before heading to the kitchen. I washed my hands in hot soapy water and extracted the splinter, put on a plaster and never gave it a second thought. I’ve had many thorns and splinters over the years, and always got away with it. This time I wasn’t so lucky and my hand became infected.

I wrote about it here: https://bramblegarden.com/2019/07/05/infection-a-warning-to-gardeners/

The infection spread another 10cm up my arm before stopping, thanks to antibiotics. This is called “tracking” and the pen line is a way of monitoring how fast the infection is progressing. Recovery has been challenging. I had a bad reaction to the tablets and the wound was slow to heal. I’ve finished two courses of antibiotics, but it’s possible there’s still a splinter in my hand as it is still red and sore.

What surprised me was the response on social media. My ‘warning to gardeners” post was viewed almost 120,000 times. It clearly resonated with many people.

I’m sharing some of the responses here. Hopefully it will spread the message to get urgent advice if you think you have any kind of infection, blood poisoning or sepsis. Speed is of the essence. If you don’t have time to read through, follow @SepsisUK and get to know the symptoms of serious infection so you can ask the question “Could it be sepsis.”

Infections were caused by gardening and other outdoor activities. Insect bites, plant sap allergic reactions and accidents with tools and equipment also featured amongst the 31,000 responses.

Here’s some snapshots from my twitter feed:

Abbie Jury wrote:

….

Nick Aikman wrote :

Georgie Newbery from Common Farm Flowers commented:

Vergette Gardens wrote:

T Dev wrote

Ella Beard wrote:

Owen Griffiths wrote:

Tara wrote :

Lucy Clements wrote:

Lou Nicholls wrote:

Reaction caused by cutting hellebores.

Mike Bray wrote:

Little Silver Hedgehog wrote:

…

Mrs Brambledown wrote:

Lunacy Towers wrote:

Janice Mills wrote:

Claudia de Yong wrote:

Plot Garden Design wrote:

Grow Like Grandad wrote:

Dorinda Sweales wrote:

Lynn Nothegger wrote:

Caroline Barrett wrote: ….

Fiona -Green Rhapsody- wrote:

Wee C wrote:

Peter Caton Books wrote:

Tanya Anderson wrote :

Val Bradley -Sun Gardening – wrote :

Dorinda Sweales wrote:

Jean Vernon wrote :

Elizabeth Atherton wrote:

Constance Craig Smith- Daily Mail Gardening – wrote:

Links:

karen Gimson on twitter @kgimson, https://mobile.twitter.com/kgimson?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Instagram : karengimson1, https://www.instagram.com/karengimson1/?hl=en

UK Sepsis Trust for further advice https://sepsistrust.org/

For good garden gloves : http://www.goldleaf-gloves.com/

For insect repellents, there’s currently 20 percent off on their website : https://lessmosquito.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw1MXpBRDjARIsAHtdN-02E9MDRwt0HxoUuXwEEnzH1EVBglUh_Bh0IrBNWvQnVr4sqPiWsNAaAlxDEALw_wcB

Weeding/ gardening gloves : https://bramblegarden.com/2019/05/11/mastergrip-gloves-on-trial

NHS 111 advice https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/urgent-and-emergency-care/nhs-111/

In a Vase on Monday – 15th July 2019

/ karen / 33 Comments

I’ve discovered, by accident, the magical effect of a sunset on sweet peas. It turns them into mini “stained glass” windows.

Picking them at 9pm, I suddenly find it’s too dark to take photos. Nights are rapidly drawing in. Mid-summer lulls you into a relaxed state of mind. Surely there will always be time to meander round the garden. Then, quite soon after the solstice, everything changes. There’s no streetlights here; dusk means picking your way through tall corridors of dark trees, along grassy paths, past the horseshoe wildlife pond. If you are lucky, you’re accompanied by a barn owl, sweeping along the hedge in eerie silence. You’ll marvel how such a large bird can ever catch any prey without being seen. But they make not the slightest sound and pass by like a shadow. If they see you, they don’t panic and madly swerve as some birds would. They barely acknowledge your intrusion, calmly changing direction and floating over the hedge to continue on the other side. They seem not to flap their wings, but soar and glide as if carried by the wind.

Our boundaries are made from farm posts and galvanised pig wire. We like to keep a connection with the surrounding fields. After all, our garden was once part of the farmland. We’ve simply borrowed the ground to grow fruit and flowers.

There are 10 beds, 1.3m wide by 3m long, divided by narrow slab paths. This year it’s a muddle of potatoes, broadbeans, Sweet williams, daisies and verbascum. A rickety A-frame of hazel rods runs through the centre, for sweet peas. This year I’m growing a combination of heritage types from Easton Walled garden and Higgledy Garden, and new varieties on trial from Mr Fothergills.

Amethyst and rubies; sweet pea flowers shine like jewels in the sunset.

My flowers are being sold at Six Acre Nursery, Costock, Leicestershire, with all proceeds going to Rainbows Hospice for children and young people. I am a voluntary fund-raising ambassador for Rainbows, and I also give slide shows and talks to garden groups for charity.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this peaceful walk around my garden at dusk. There’s much to see, even in the gloom.

Links : Cathy In a Vase on Monday : https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2019/07/15/in-a-vase-on-monday-think-pink/

Easton Walled Gardens : https://www.visiteaston.co.uk/

Higgledy Garden Seeds. https://higgledygarden.com/

Mr Fothergill’s Seeds https://www.mr-fothergills.co.uk/Flower-Seed/Sweet-Pea-Seed/

Barn Owl Trust https://www.barnowltrust.org.uk/barn-owl-facts/

Notes: Most birds make a flapping, swooping sound when they fly. Owls have special edges to the front of the wing that breaks the air into small streams of wind that rolls to the end of the wing. Comb-like feathers further break down the air into even more smaller streams to create almost silent flight.