Monday 18 March 2024

Spring really has sprung…



It’s been a long old winter, as well as being exceedingly wet! But at last we have a dry day, warmer too!

And having planted my newly acquired dahlias, I took a break to look around the garden.





I had a shock when I ventured to the greenhouse and saw what greeted me.

I planted these old sinks in the autumn and I’d forgotten that I’d put in some tulips! 

Lovely aren’t they?



 

Monday 26 February 2024

Plans..etc!

Oh heck….I’ve been such a bad blogger, just lately. I’ve been trying to perfect my crocheting skills..which I think are improving…I attempted the ripple stitch, which is quite easy...until you get carried away and forget to count! But I think I’ve ’cracked it’ now!




And as well as this, I’ve been thinking about the garden and what to do with it this year. 

All that we’ve had, here in South Devon, weather wise, is rain, rain and more rain; talk about enough to drive one bonkers. February is usually when I start to get outside and make a start on tidying, pruning, planting etc and I’ve not managed to get outside as much as I’d have liked. 

Having said that, I have planted my Foxgloves, ( two dozen+)  grown from seed last year; hopefully, they will provide a lovely display in June. I just have a handful of smaller ones remaining, to plant. In the greenhouse, I have Comfrey in flower. I grew those from cuttings and they will go into my newly enlarged raised bed, also soonish, I say ‘soonish’ as although the bed is constructed, I need to order topsoil. Plus…I have been looking after a few of my son’s precious plants, which he healed in, temporarily, when he moved house, just before Christmas.

So, with my raised bed in mind, I’ve been trying to plan what to plant and how to organise it. 

Sweet Peas are a ‘MUST’ ! I’ve been collecting packets of seeds since last year….and introduced myself to them, earlier…



Varieties are: Early Mammoth, Prize Strain Mixed, Old Spice, Cupani, Floral Tribute, Top to Bottom, Spencer Mixed, Odorata ‘Sweet Dreams’ Mammoth Scarlet, Promise, Mammoth Rose pink, Winston Churchill.

I reckon that’s more than enough! 

Dahlias are my next choice…I have a few tubers stored away but I’ve just ordered 7 new tubers…


Arabian Nights


Bahama Mama



Art Deco



Caramel Antique




Bellini


All Directions



Peaches and Cream

I particularly like the look of ‘Caramel Antique’, a new variety. So watch this space.

So what else to grow in my raised bed? I think, bearing in mind that I won’t have much room remaining, probably some patches of wild flowers as I was really successful with these last year.  I don’t have the room for much veg or salad bits but could probably squeeze in some lettuce along the edge. 

It will certainly be good to get back to some gardening and let’s face it, getting outside does one the world of good! 😁


Thursday 1 February 2024

The Glory of the Garden…Rudyard Kipling.

                                         The Glory of the Garden


OUR England is a garden that is full of stately views,
Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues,
With statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting by;
But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye. 
For where the old thick laurels grow, along the thin red wall,
You'll find the tool- and potting-sheds which are the heart of all
The cold-frames and the hot-houses, the dung-pits and the tanks,
The rollers, carts, and drain-pipes, with the barrows and the planks.






And there you'll see the gardeners, the men and 'prentice boys
Told off to do as they are bid and do it without noise ;
For, except when seeds are planted and we shout to scare the birds,
The Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words.
And some can pot begonias and some can bud a rose,
And some are hardly fit to trust with anything that grows ;
But they can roll and trim the lawns and sift the sand and loam,
For the Glory of the Garden occupieth all who come.





Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
By singing:-" Oh, how beautiful," and sitting in the shade
While better men than we go out and start their working lives
At grubbing weeds from gravel-paths with broken dinner-knives.
There's not a pair of legs so thin, there's not a head so thick,
There's not a hand so weak and white, nor yet a heart so sick
But it can find some needful job that's crying to be done,
For the Glory of the Garden glorifieth every one.





Then seek your job with thankfulness and work till further orders,
If it's only netting strawberries or killing slugs on borders;
And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden,
You will find yourself a partner In the Glory of the Garden.
Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees
That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees,
So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray 
For the Glory of the Garden that it may not pass away!







And the Glory of the Garden it shall never pass away ! 


Rudyard Kipling





This is one of my favourite poems in which Rudyard Kipling describes England through an extended metaphor of a well loved garden!




The poem begins with the writer describing England as a garden in all its glory, with “stately views”.  Although there are beautiful shrubs and peacocks, there are also tool sheds and other similar features. And he tells how the gardeners all have different jobs; some might look after growing the plants, others move soil and sand etc. They are hard working people, all doing their best to make this country good. 

And then Kipling tells us that we need to make sure that we are doing all we can for our country…that it might be hard work but eventually our hands will grow strong and our backs will be painless. And then we will be brought into the glory of the garden…and he hopes that the glory of the garden will last forever!