Gardening
Pulling my boots on I was pounced on by one of the colourful Keswick beggars. You don’t need to be a a hen pheasant to be impressed by his colours. Tame as the neighbours hand-feed a number of them.
Warmer weather and no shortage of rain mean the garden growth season is well under way. Plenty of trimming and thinning to be done. But it’s not all cutting, I uncovered a Holly sapling of about 25 cm height, dug it out successfully with about the same depth of root. Its new home is a gap in a hedge to the road. Watered in with some of its previous soil and rain water from the butt.
Thinning out Terry’s Greengage tree in his garden in Preston Park, Brighton. We’ve been looking after this tree for many years now and have found that pruning is best done in the spring when the sap is moving, rather than just after the fruit has been harvested This catches up with storm damage and reshapes the tree to keep it low and flat. It’s a shame to loose the buds and even blossom but the tree has a tendency to over-fruit then dieback the next year. And anyhow the fruit would be out of reach of harvesting.
Workout outside today: a session on my garden’s hedges is at least as good a workout as a session in the gym. Keeps the hedges and me in trim: that’s the hedges less spiky and my upper body and core worked, plus chats with my Keswick neighbours.
Great to workout in such lovely cloud forest scenery! And then off to the council tip to recycle the four bags of cuttings.
My garden Camellia in full flower, out and proud in the spring sunshine under Latrigg (368 m.) in the Lake District.
Our Christmas Poinsettia, yes from a nursery but a while ago and doing fine at home by following the care instructions plus a plant light. Our family first associated the Poinsettia with Christmas in 1958, when my Father was a Research Fellow at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Latin name Euphorbia pulcherrima, known in France as « Rose de Noël ».
Wonderful deep red to the eye, one of those colours that only looks right in real life, never on a screen.
