When we moved in last autumn, an old rose grew up the holly (left trunk), along with brambles & sycamore maple saplings. Red rose hips dotted the holly, thick rose branches hung down to grab anyone close. Love this year's new growth, so thinned most of it out, leaving 2 old stalks, as well as the mature sycamore (right trunk), since I'm not a lumber jack. Hoping the new growth will skirt the trunks while the rose hips do what they did last year. #gardening@gardening
The loropetalum started blooming in early spring before its cousin, the witch hazel, & is continuing to bloom as we head through May. Such a great shrub. #gardening@gardening
It’s always interesting to find out what’s shaped a garden - personal taste, visits to other plots or, as in the case of Charingworth Court, a holiday.
I’ve been out to this Cotswold garden ahead of its open days for the National Garden Scheme and discovered a touch of Japan.
Everyone is talking about this NPR story about USDA hardiness zones shifting. It's a great story and the shift is real and it's evidence-based. But a couple things about USDA zones:
It's based only on the minimum winter temperatures and nothing else. For example my new zone is 9a, which is the same as a lot of Georgia. My climate is nothing like Georgia except for this one statistic.
1/2 #gardening #ClimateChange https://apps.npr.org/plant-hardiness-garden-map/?name=Seattle&state=WA&lng=-122.351538&lat=47.619335
The removal of the tomatoes from the greenhouse benches gives us room to get the first planting of sweetcorn (Flagler) started. We put 5 seeds to a pot and 32 pots make a row. Once those are big enough and the weather warm enough they will get set out in to a row and another planting will be started. We try to have 2 weeks between plantings to extend the season. Last year we brought ~ 230 ears of corn to the table. #gardening #allotment #zone6b #NewEngland #BeetBear #Today #sweetcorn
#today#BeetBear and I got busy and planted up our cucumbers (Marketmore), zucchini (Dunja), yellow squash (Sunburst), and butternut squash (ButterBaby). After the tomatoes went out ,we had room to do this. Once these get large enough in a few weeks time, they will go out to grow on in the garden. There are 4 seed trays of each type, each tray has 6 seeds. The contents of each tray will be set out as is (minus the pot) in a hill of it's own. #gardening #allotment #zone6b #NewEngland
I know many people find that Xitter has become an unreadable grifter nazi hell hole, but I just looked at my timeline over there, the "Following" one, and it was so full with beautiful #art that I got sad. Filling my feed with just a shitload of amazing art from past and present is one of the things I have not been able to recreate over here, not nearly to the same degree. And yes I know about the relevant hashtags and art focused servers and all that.
I asked a guy, who was tearing up a driveway a couple miles from my place, if I could have the busted "urbanite" for #landscaping, as my site has NO rocks (unless they were brought here). I'm 72 and I really should find some helpers. Every piece gets picked up and set down at least 3 times before coming to rest, not to mention busting up the big piece and fine shaping the smaller ones. It adds up and my knees let me know they are not thrilled. Oh, well. I think it looks nice & I love the work. Keeps me exercised while wearing me down. Like Life. #urbanite#hardscaping#permaculture#gardening
Hydroponic basil started. Bought a $3.25 basil bouquet at Trader Joe's, and split out the plants... probably a dozen usable plants if you are careful, and you can also clone them from clippings... depending on how much pesto you need #basil#hydroponics#gardening#food
This crittur, which I think is a bee fly, was sniffing around my seed pots, for some reason, literally putting its head to the compost as if sniffing, then moving to the next pot. #gardening@gardening#bugs
The biggest tree in our garden is this copper beech, although it isn't really quite as big as it looks in the photo. At this time of the year, its canopy is just coming into leaf, and the young leaves are this wonderful red-green colour. They are an especially impressive sight when the sun is shining through them.
I just bought this tree (Merlot Redbud) for our front yard and I’m so excited! We live in a verdant green forest, which is beautiful - but having some additional color would nice. Two years ago we planted a pink flowering dogwood that bloomed this year and we love it!