SNOWDROPS

Geoffrey Grigson in his Englishman's Flora lists many other regional names for this plant - Candlemas Bells from Wiltshire, Death's Flower, Dewdrops, Dingle Bell, Drooping Bell, Drooping Lily and Eve's Tears from Somerset, Fair maids from Hampshire, Naked Maidens from the German Nackte Jungfrau or Dutch naakte wijfjes, Peace-Snow from the French perce-neige and there are others - Snowdroppers from Gloucestershire, White Bells or White 

Queen. 

I like the name Eve's Tears best.

In 1659 they were still referred to as early white bulbous violets by Sir Thomas Hanmer.

John Gerard in his herbal, page 147, Chapter 88, calls them bulbous violets but when it comes to what medicinal use they might have he only says - Touching the faculties of thefe bulbous Violets we haue nothing to fay, feeing that nothing is fet downe hereof by the antient Writers, nor anything obferued by the moderne, only they are maintained and cherifhed in gardens for the beautie and rareneffe of the floures, and fweetneff of their fmell.

Culpepper does not mention them at all.

 You can see, here by the woodland path, how splitting and replanting whilst still 'in the green' is spreading the plants. They are also self sowing themselves and each bulb clump is dividing and multiplying to form, we hope, a carpet.

But they are not the only flowers in the garden - apart from the odd rose the Corsican hellebore is coming into flower as is also the winter honeysuckle, odd crocus and witch hazel.

But it is the snowdrop that is the harbinger of hope to come.

To move on - The path to the veg beds is carpeted with thick moss. This is due to the wet weather we have had for the last few months. Today I have been scraping it off, a tedious laborious business.

I thought I might attack the moss with a vinegar spray but the sprayer is broken and corroded - I should have washed it out last year. Now I will need a new one.

And finally a poem - 

SNOWDROPS

(nothing is perfect)

i

Silently,

newborn

out of

woodland 

debris,

rise

optimistic

petals,

shining 

nonpareil

of

white,

delightful

rampant

oracles of

spring

spread

numberless

over

what was

dead, a

rapture 

of opalescent

pearls.

ii

And, in January, when first they came,

she would walk the garden,

bend, pick a few short stems

and place them in an egg-cup

by the clock that chimes the hours.

And now, each year, he takes that journey

up the woodland path she trod.

He stoops, takes the snowdrop buds

and puts them by the clock,

a small white sign of love.

OF BIRDS AND PREDATORS

Usual - that is what R's grandmother wrote almost every day in her diary! Mowing, weeding, dead heading etc.

I have been up by the wall at the far end of the garden digging out the soil under the trees where they hang over from next door, The soil/leaf mould mixture is over a foot deep and will be a great asset to the garden.

Meanwhile back at the bird feeders - it is no wonder I catch squirrels only infrequently as I have just watched great tits entering the trap and leaving with whole peanuts! To other birds -

Robin

Greater spotted woodpecker

Goldfinches

and best of all? Cock bullfinch. On my way out this morning came across the cock pheasant, well a cock pheasant, hopping along on one leg, the other injured - cat? They are definitely the main predator on the garden and at some time or another all of these birds have been victims. One problem is that the cats have no natural predator controlling their numbers. (Sorry Scottie.)

Of course grey squirrels and stoats take eggs and chicks as will other birds - woodpeckers, sparrow hawk etc. 

There has been a minor flap over sickly osprey chicks that the naturalists left to their fate - big outcry - poor little chicks - need to be rescued. But that is the whole point - the natural order of things, predators at the top of the food chain, seeds and insects at the bottom. 

Unfortunately we have got rid of wolves and lynxes and bears and instead of replacing them as natural predators we have distorted the ecosystem - too many people - perhaps a good cull of mankind might be the answer - whoops - dangerous territory.

To move on - (and about time too) - R showed me tadpoles in the pond - they must have been hiding in the weed - I have hoicked a load of crowfoot out to give some clear water, leaving at the side sonny creepies can slither back into the water.

Walking the garden with friends today we put a a small jack snipe - have seen the odd one before in the stream bottom - still a nice surprise.
At the rhubarb patch I was suddenly assailed by a strong sweet gingery scent and realised it was coming from the rhododendron on the banking thirty yards away.


R and I went to Abi and Tom's nursery at Halecat, Witherslack and they have done an amazing job. The trouble is one never leaves without spending something - bought a blue geranium and this unusual white primula.

This morning I have read that there may be a water shortage in the UK after a dry winter - where? Lawn still boggy in places etc etc though the stream has partly dried up. Anyway we have borehole of our own. 

Got up this morning and looked out of the bedroom window up the garden and a swallow zoomed down in front of me from the nest at the top of the gable. I know one swallow doesn't make a summer - but a spring?

The sun on the front of the house this morning was a treat but we have been warned winter is coming back in the next few days - blossom beware.

Watching M. Don on Gardeners' World there was a bit on Charles Dowding and his Natural No-dig way he uses in his market garden. He wrote a very interesting book - Organic Gardening which my son C gave me in 2007 - ISBN 978 1 903998 91 5. (If you have a garden or are into that sort of thing (or have a bad back)).

Went to Muncaster Castle today to see the bluebells - 2 weeks early and stunning.

More Muncaster pics in next blog.

HONEYBEE AND HEDGEHOG NEWS

So we walked down to the veg beds where the buddleia, pruned early in the year as usual, has exploded in flower - and it was covered in honey bees - a delight to see. I do not know where they have come from but they are very welcome. We usually have to make do with bumble bees.

We have finally had two days of sun with temperatures over 20C but now, Sunday, it rains again. Fortunately I have mown the lawns when they were dry. There are still some flowers on  the roses - mainly the Rhapsody in Blue and William Shakespeare. R keeps dead heading to try and prolong the flowering.

To hedgehogs - R had met someone from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. 

In the centre of their badge is one in a triangle with the Gardener's Friend written outside and below - Don't Squash Me! Presumably this refers to motorists. You can find them at www.britishhedgehogs.co.uk.

When we were in Wales R went into Window on Wales in Solva and bought me a new seat for the garden as seen here suspended from the green-oak beam outside the kitchen doors.

Give me the sun and I shall recline, well swing, in style.

Now to a success story - Hydrangea Annabelle - this one is but three of four years old and wonderful, the green heads expanding to plate size and turning white. Apparently if you want to fill a vase with the flower heads the stems need to be stuck in boiling water for a minute or so - the they will last longer.

I was not asked the other day what gardening magazines do I peruse so I decided to ignore that lack of enquiry and show you the main three. The Garden is the mag of the RHS, Gardeners' World is a spin off from the tv prog and English Garden is just a mag - but a good one.

So a quick veg interval - I weeded the asparagus bed. The top growth is lush and promising. One pic shows the rhubarb in the foreground.

I must go down there and give them a liquid feed, and take out the old raspberry canes, and move the suckers that have come up all over the place and . . . 

To move on to COLOUR!
Here are some good colour blasts - Agapanthus with Japanese anemones -

Crocosmia Lucifer -

Tansy -

And finally the orange Day Lily -

This is a bone of contention as, despite its visual punch, I think neither of us particularly like its colour (let alone its thugginess). I tried to dig out some in the spring and it was a Herculean task.

Just circumnavigated the garden and R took one look and said that I was to get help - no arguments - but I have some reservations - I rather like the jungle (R does NOT) - and I will get around to things - one day - probably - possibly - maybe.

ME MARRA'S MINCED

Well, R is taking our small glut of tomatoes and my marrow to make a ratatou - what's it.

So, here is the forgotten courgette with an apple and a six inch ruler for size (15cm).

In this remote corner of England a marra is a friend or mate. It is a greeting word showing respect. This has nothing to do with the green object above but is a line filler. Anyway my marras will not complain.

Up on the top banking the branches of the ash trees hang so low it is almost like having a canopy above. This is where the chimes are hung - I know - bl**** wind chimes and all that - they do not suit some people, but we like them.

I have just noticed the font and so on has changed and I cannot get it back so you will just have to put up with it. (Very irritating!)

Now, here is a pic of the garden from under the ash trees - all a bit jungly and grassy. I am having a phobia moment and using the weather as an excuse to stay indoors. There is so much to do and so little desire to do it.

Autumn has come with its leaf colour. Note the pond still has water in. I have just got the Pond Bible through the post and it says to avoid having the stream running through so I will change that (one day).

 Another aspect of autumn is berries - here cotoneaster and hawthorn (the thornless one we saw at Holker Hall).

 There are flocks of redwing and fieldfare that have arrived from northern Europe for the winter so I expect them to clear the garden of berries soon.

The sun is out so I go out and the sun is in and it is raining so I come in and the sun comes out and so on and so on. The grass is too wet to cut. At least the roses are still flowering.

This font size is chopping and changing - I have been bowled a googly (Googley) (Cricket term for non aficionados) (Game not grasshoppers).

This is my 468th blog and I may take a break soon - probably not stopping altogether but writing a longer one every couple of weeks perhaps.

Getting the place ready for next year starts now and I dream of an apartment with a window box - but then would miss the garden, our garden, our little corner of heaven. (Except it can be Hellish sometimes.)

I am off to make some more blackcurrant jam from 2013's fruit to clear some space in the freezer.

And have yet another cup of tea.

If I wasn't on this diet I could have a Kitkat biscuit - Mmmmm!

Whoops! R has just nicked her finger chopping onions to go with the marrow and our tomatoes to make the ratatou - what's it thingy.
Doc to the rescue, plaster in hand, knife in the other to complete job.

READING MATTERS

Now is the time to gather up one's loin cloth and make with the exercise and diet restraint. The trouble is a huge plate of leftover turkey meat, boxes of chocolates and nibbles bought and not consumed, and an inner lethargy great enough to send me to sleep before I wake.

So, at this time of year, on dark nights, it is time to get out the books, light the wood burner and contemplate the garden.
(Actually I am reading The Black Box by Michael Connelly).
I have many books on my shelves - a list is below. Some I regularly look at, some rarely, but at one particular time they have given me ideas or answers.

It is clearly going to be a wild going out of the year, wind and rain rather than wintry weather, boggy underfoot and a bit miserable.

I have not yet dragged the watercress from the ponds nor trimmed back the dead meadowsweet. A good clearing is needed but I will have to be careful with the wild life - leave the stuff removed from the water on the bank for a day so creatures can crawl back into the water.

The Wendy House looks rather lonely at the bottom of the garden, waiting for warmer weather to be used again. R writes in the kitchen where it is always a comfortable temperature because of the Aga range.
There is a holly in the hedge near the lower pond and it did have berries but they are now well digested by the birds.
I ramble.

As soon as I am into this New Year there will have to be some planning - a scale back of workload, I think, letting the wild garden be wilder, less managed - but then, as I am a bit of a control freak, that may be easier said than done.

I promised you a list and here it is -

A Gardener's Book of Names - Michael Paffard,
The Englishman's Flora - Geoffrey Grigson,

The Natural History of The Garden - Michael Chinery,
Creating a Wildlife Garden - Bob and Liz Gibbons,
The Wildlife Pond Handbook - Louise Bardsley,
Managing The Wet Garden - John Simmons,
The Wild Garden - Violet Stevenson,
Collins Wildlife garden - Stefan Buczacki,

Gardens for Small Country Houses - Gertrude Jekyll and Lawrence Weaver,
The Essential Garden Book - Jasper Conran and Dan Pearson,
The Garden of Cosmic Speculation - Charles Jencks,

Silva - John Evelyn,
Herbal - Nicholas Culpepper,
Herbal - John Gerard,
Horse-hoeing and Husbandry - Jethro Tull,
The Gardener's Assistant - Robert Thompson and Thomas Moore,

Organic Futures: The Case for Organic Farming - Adrian Myers,
Coppicing and Coppice Crafts - Rebecca Oaks and Edward Mills,
Organic Gardening - Charles Dowding,

The Encyclopaedia of Plants and Flowers - RHS,
The Gardening Year - Reader's Digest,
The Illustrated Guide To Gardening - Reader's Digest,
The Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants and Flowers - Reader's Digest,
Hillier's Manual of Trees and Shrubs,

The Fruit and Vegetable Garden - Michael Pollock,
Home Grown - Denys De Saulles,
Vegetable Plotter - Dr D.G. Hessayon,

Grow Your Own Cut Flowers - Sarah Raven,
The Cutting Garden - Sarah Raven,
Grow Your Own Garden - Carol Klein,

The Scented Garden - Rosemary Verey,
The Houseplant Expert - Dr D.G. Hessayon,
The Complete Gardener - W.E. Shewell-Cooper,
Gardening on Walls - Christopher Grey-Wilson and Violet Matthews,
The Border Book - Anna Pavord,
The Fragrant Garden - Kay N Sanecki,
Spiritual Gardening - Peg Streep,
Dream Plants for the Natural Garden - Henk Gerritsen and Piet Ourloff,

This does not include Floras, The Concise British Flora, other natural history and wildlife books and magazines, the internet.
It does not include the many books borrowed from the library.

So to a New Year and wintry weather to come - fog and frost, perhaps some snow and ice.