Garden Blog

It’s 23°C, sunny and breezy in the community garden. We’ve had a week without rain and the plants in pots and raised beds are suffering. We water and we water, but there’s a limit to what you can deliver with a watering can. The large cubic metre tank at the back of the container is 2/3rds empty. The buddleia is …

It is warm in the garden, around 22ºC with intermittent sunshine. The buddleia is 2.5 metres (8 feet) tall and the playhouse is almost hidden. On the inner edge of the buddleia forest, in a raised bed, is an acanthus with a column of white and purple flowers and large, fern like leaves. Another plant flowering this week is Jerusalem …

Warm in the garden today, around 24˚C. The garden is very green with all the rain we have had in the past week. And full of flowers. They are hard to keep up with, it is all happening so quickly. On the pond, there are quite a few azure damselflies, some in mating pairs. I spot a fat bodied dragonfly, …

The temperature today is about 23˚C, pleasant in the sun, a little cooler towards the time we close as the sky clouds over. We have a visit from a dozen nursery children from Kaye Rowe, along with a teacher, assistants and parents. Most stay about 40 minutes, although a few stay on and don’t go back to the nursery. The …

We have a sunny day in the garden, with a temperature around 20˚C. We have about 30 visitors. Mums with babies and toddlers to begin with, and, at around 4pm, children from primary schools with parents. The irises are out on pond, also called flags, they are bright yellow. I noticed last year, this was the time we see dragon …

The temperature is 17˚C today, pleasant in the sun, a little chilly in the shade. There was a little rain in the early hours but the garden is dry with quite a few plants flagging due to the hot days, up to 29˚C, earlier in the week. We are doing a lot of watering but will not be able to …

I come into the garden at 2pm, it’s a little chilly, perhaps 14˚C, in a sky half blue, but by 5pm when I leave sky is almost completely blue and the temperature is around 18˚C, the warmth creeping up on us through the afternoon. The Japanese cherry in the children’s area has almost lost its blossom, two weeks of brilliance …

The temperature has tumbled this week to 14˚C, chilly when the sun goes in, quite pleasant when the sun is out. Last week it was 27˚C, and over the week we have used a lot of water. The only reservoir left is in the large cube behind the container. Inevitably lack of water will be a problem over the summer, …

It’s 27˚C in the garden, which contrasts with last Thursday when the temperature was 11˚C, the average for April. Over the afternoon we had 29 visitors, fine weather midweek brings them in, especially mothers with young children. Lots of watering to do today. Although the various tanks are full, they won’t be if this hot weather continues for another few …

It’s a chilly, overcast day, no more than 12˚ C. It’s no surprise that I see no flying insects; I am sure the cold weather grounds them. The pond has a solitary pond skater on the surface, but has lots of tadpoles in the clear water which is full to the brim due to all the recent rain. The first …