..,Would smell as sweet.

Someone stop me - please!!
Day off today, Luke took the car, I couldn't go shopping (aka spending) so what happened? Jack, the neighbour took me to the garden centre! And of course, the rose offer was still on and my favourite rose, 'Winchester Cathedral' was there so......,
we were back within half an hour; twenty quid the poorer (yet again). We now have three apricot roses at the front of the house and for the back garden we have one crimson, three white, one climber and two pink roses (plus one for Mum when we next see her). Who needs that many roses? Well, obviously I do.
My back aches like mad today, way too much gardening over the last two weeks (and still four roses to plant!)Actually it was doing the boring sieving for stones (it's not all glamour in the garden; far from it) when I put too much in the sieve to hurry up the process. It didn't work, proved too heavy and I had to tip half of it out but whilst shaking my maracas (or sieve!) I put my back out. Ouch!

Getting into my stride.

Whenever I read a chapter of a gardening book or look up how to prune a shrub or train a climber or whatever, I realise how much there is to learn and how little I still know. I also know that once I've read how to look after it there will be something else demanding my attention and then I won't recall the first lot of advice. The good thing is that there is always somewhere to find out the best course of action in dealing with gardening queries.
I suppose I wanted this blog to be all things to all people but I'm no expert and it would be wrong of me to try to dispense advice, especially as you may be so much more experienced than I am. Gardening depends on many factors; different soil conditions, the weather in different parts of the country, where you place your plant; all sorts of things. So I am keeping my blog simple - it's literally just a wander through my garden and me sharing my plans for it with you. Nothing more, nothing less.
I'd really like you to come along; to walk beside me and see what I see but I realise that what I love may leave you unimpressed. So, all I can do is explain what it means to me; what I see, smell and learn whilst I dig, weed, plan, dream of and love this brown earth that is home to so many amazing plants.

Right now, the little 'Trail of Tears' bean that Luke planted to replace a half eaten one has just poked it's head up out of the ground. It is still wearing it's little brown cap which was the shell of the planted bean. It will shrug that off as it reaches up for the blue of the sky and grows each day into a tall, climbing youth of a plant. It's all magical, if you look for the magic.

The first potatoes were dug on Sunday. Two plants were lifted and shaken from the ground to feed Luke's Mum and stepdad. We dug the egg-sized spuds, boiled them quickly in bubbling, salted water with two freshly tweaked stems of garden mint, drained and replaced over the heat whilst tossing them in butter and coarsely ground salt. What a glorious meal that first bowl of new potatoes always is. It reminds me that food doesn't need hiding under a thick bechemel sauce but can be simply served to let it's real flavours sing out. A cherry tomato, plucked straight off the vine and savoured in the mouth as it bursts like a sunray on your tongue - it's just bliss. It is also cheap, healthy and fresh. Oh, and did I say something like tomatoes or potatoes can be grown on a high rise balcony or in a handkerchief size courtyard?

A rose by any other name

I picked up a gardening book from the library today on roses and this spurred me on to drop into the local garden centre on my way home to grab a couple more roses whilst they are still on offer. They are David Austin roses which have always been healthy whenever I've bought them. I had a 'Winchester Cathedral' rose (a lovely white rose) in my last garden but haven't found one to replace it yet so I bought a different white, 'Glamis Castle' which I've planted by the deck. It doesn't have a great scent but is a lovely cupped flower and is flowering abundantly right now, only a month after I planted it. I coudn't be more pleased with this exquisite plant.




I've gone for another 'Crown Princess Margarete' for the front steps. I was looking for another apricot coloured rose to accompany my original 'C.P.M.' and the 'Teasing Georgia' that I have interspersed with blue clematis but just couldn't find the right shade despite my best efforts so I've decided to double up on one of them and this way I get to keep my colour scheme without it getting too busy. I'd hoped the 'Spirit of Freedom' rose would work but it had too much of a pink tinge to it and whilst a cream or white would have uplifted the apricot and blue scheme I couldn't find one. I also couldn't find a climbing rose which is what I really wanted but the garden centre chappie told me it was a bad year for climbing roses (interestingly enough though they will be getting some in next week when the two roses for £20 deal finishes!) I smell a rat!






For my other rose I chose a completely different colour than I normally would choose - I don't know, in the last year I've really fallen for orange in the garden which is something I had never considered before. I'm still not a huge lover of red in my own garden and yellow isn't ever my first choice but I'm loving orange right now. Against blue or purple flowers or pots they just scream for attention. Of course, if you don't want anything too loud there are lots of variations right down to the palest, faded peach blush. A bright orange lily though always catches my eye; brave little thing, standing upright in a border and demanding I look only at it.



I've made it sound like I chose an orange rose, haven't I? Sorry to mislead you; I have in fact gone for a deep crimson rose called 'Munstead Rose'. It's a short shrub but mine has four stems, all topped with a mass of buds and it wafts the most delicious smell under my nose when I get near it. It's a sultry Rita Hayworth kind of rose if you know what I mean? It is just full of confidence that it is the most beautiful rose in a dusky, explosive sort of way. Of course, as in people, we are attracted to different types but this rose is my tall (although it's short!), dark and handsome type and I'm blown away by how much I love it. It's the sort of rose I want to put in a hidden garden, tucked between lots of dark, glossy leaves so it makes even more of an impact when you spot it. You know Jessica Rabbit, all curves and a great big fringe over one eye? I'm not explaining it very well but this is what this rose conjours up for me. It is not flashy but just completely sure of it's worth. Oh la la!

The tale doesn't end there, of course. I went back to the garden centre a week later and choose two more roses. ONe of them, a large shrub rose called Claire Austin is full of bud and I wanted another orange rose for the front garden (to soften the edge of the raised deck)

I eat my words

Well, I told you I don't see myself in the hammock for months and then, lo and behold, I am relegated to the garden when Luke is working from home. Having worked hard all day I am not really in the mood to take up my spade so to my amazement, find myself on my back in the sling of warm canvas, looking at a soft blue sky streaked with fuzzy aeroplane trails before I spot a lone buzzard being divebombed by a seagull. The buzzard seems to take little notice and just alters his lazy course slightly. After a few minutes of being pestered the seagull seems to be happy he has done his job and leaves the buzzard to return. For ages I watch as it weaves it's way above the treetops, occasionally hovering over a spot before seemingly catching the breeze and, wings ever outstretched, moves along the skyline. Best bit of 'time-wasting' I have had in a long time.

People in glass houses

I'm a bit confused about this blog. I've been writing for one week now and I'd really like to just write about gardening but everyone else's blog seems to just be musings on life so should I write about what I want to or just mooch along, whittering on about my day?
I think I will stick to what I originally intended. Gardening.

So, here we are again - the immortal greenhouse. I just said to Luke, "If we saw where we had got to by now a week ago we would wonder what on earth we have been doing all week. But I promise you we have been diligently working on it. We have had Luke's Mum staying with us for forty eight hours and although she didn't need any looking (we made her tea lady whilst we did 'gardening stuff') we still didn't want to be rude and just concentrate on the greenhouse so we slackened off quite a bit. So we have left it as a frame, partly constructed, on a breezeblock frame with a concrete foundation. We need a full day together to finish off the framework before clipping in the glass panes and erecting the staging. It all sounds so simple!

On the plus side I sewed some wild flowers in a rough patch of ground (at least a month too late but let's see what happens). The great thing about wild flowers is that their ideal growing conditions are poor soil and sunshine; so all I had to do was create a little drill and sprinkle them in. I'll keep you updated.