Garden Blog

Four years ago, when our pond was new, it had a small solar powered pump. The role of the pump was to keep the pond oxygenated for animal life such as tadpoles, daphnia, water boatmen, dragonfly and damselfly larvae and so forth. The pump though only worked intermittently, and after a few months we gave up on it. From then …

We re-opened the Garden to the public last Sunday morning. Cautiously, just 10 am to 12 noon, one morning a week. Our protocol is set. There’s gel at the door to make sure visitors come in with clean hands, and a signing-in book. After the welcome, we ask our guests to maintain social distancing. Basic rules. Sunday, though, was drizzly …

Listening to Kathleen Ferrier singing ‘Down by the Salley Gardens’ I muse on plant names. Until recently, I thought Salley Gardens referred to the Salvation Army, maybe where they did their band practice. But no. Salley comes from salix which is the genus of willow, which are in the gardens ‘where my love and I did meet’. The words are …

In these blogs, I have written about the Cereal Project but just in snippets. I thought I’d do an overall piece now that the cereals are maturing. A cereal is a grass which has seeds we use for food. Most grasses have seeds which are too small for food. A few in nature though have larger seeds, and arable agriculture …

I snap these sun flies (Helophilus pendulus) on a leaf on the pond. Helophilus means marsh loving and pendulus means hanging, so our pond is their manor. The name sun flies is thought to be a misreading of ‘Helo’ as ‘Helio’ (marsh as sun), as they are no more sunlovers than many other flies. Because of the stripes, they are …

We are contemplating how we might open the garden to the public once more as the lockdown eases. Museums, art galleries and cinemas are opening on July 4th. Most will have a booking system to keep numbers down for social distancing. A booking system is a possibility for us too. We are less risky as we are open air, but …

The rain began in the early hours of Thursday. It continued for eight hours, and then on and off during the day. It wasn’t heavy but was steady, allowing water to soak deep into the soil. Much more than we can deliver with a hose. We water for around 40 minutes on three nights every week, but having to cover …

Phacelia (Phacelia tanacatifolia) is a plant native to SW United States and Mexico. So what is it doing in our wildflower bed? Presumably it was among the seeds in the pack we bought, but that simply pushes the question back a level, like what was there before the Big Bang, or who made God? None of which I can answer. …

It’s a chilly, overcast morning, 13ºC, feeling all the colder with a 17mph wind. My source is BBC Weather for E7. That’s a 13 degree drop from last week. Although chilly for me, better for the garden as it allows our watering to sink deeper into the soil, and flowers to mature more slowly, and so last longer.   Still …

Gateway agreed to put in a water tap as a quid pro quo for the space they have taken from us for as long as their building work continues. I was pessimistic on their timetable for installing it. My feeling was, now that they have what they want, why hurry. But they did it quickly, and now we have running …