A Short Walk

Chum and I took a short walk down to Dingly Dell yesterday morning, mainly so a poor hot woolly dog could take a swim and cool off. It's only down the bottom of our road so I wasn't expecting to see much, therefore imagine my surprise when I realised the little meadow was awash with common spotted orchids, they're not very rare, hence the name, but there is still something about seeing an orchid that thrills me! Then as we approached the stream I glimpsed the unmistakable flash of electric blue that signals the presence of a kingfisher, that's not bad for a run of the mill morning walk!

"In life there is nothing more unexpected and surprising than the arrivals and departures of pleasure. If we find it in one place today, it is vain to seek it there tomorrow. You cannot lay a trap for it" Alexander Smith

Exam Blues

we took two mock exams yesterday, plant science which I just about scraped through and propagation which I didn't. Despite the amount of time I've put into revision all those plant names disappeared from my head like smoke, I must face the fact that it is a distinct possibility that I will fail this exam. Despondency is my new middle name. I suppose if I ignore the housework, Dave, the kids, the dog and eat ready meals for a month, I might cram in enough revision to pass, don't expect any exciting blogs for a while! I guess I should take the mock examinations in the spirit in which they are meant, which is to highlight any areas that still need some work, cheer up Al, you've still got three weeks! On a lighter note our class had a photo session with the RHS photographer at lunchtime, they needed some pictures to illustrate their adult learning brochure so if you happen to see a purple headed nutter pulling up sticks of rhubarb that'll be me!

"Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However they who aim at it and persevere will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable" Lord Chesterfield

Dahlia Deja-vu

Just when I thought we had finished planting dahlias Giles produced another fifty or so to be put into the south border, as well as a dozen Verbena bonariensis and five rows of celeriac! I think it was even hotter than on Saturday working away as the sun beat down and reflected off the old brick walls, small things kept us amused though, we had several visitors to talk to and we enjoyed watching a pair of blue-tits that have made a nest in the wall, back and forth they went with wiggling beak-fulls, it made us feel better that we weren't the only ones working hard! The old walls are a haven to many creatures not only birds,one hole has been occupied by a cheeky field mouse which pops out every now and again to take a mouthful of clematis buds much to Giles's annoyance! After lunch I had a master class in turf laying, easier than I thought it would be, but the rolls are surprisingly heavy so I was glad we only had a small area to cover. We brought the days work to an end by helping Lady Halena to plant her colourful bedding into the tubs by the back door, by then I was pretty glad to finish, it had been another blisteringly hot and sticky day!

"There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough to pay attention to the story" Linda Hogan

PS I've got a new camera that takes panoramic shots, what do you think? Don't forget to click on the photos to view them in light box.

The Big Plant Out #2-Dahlia Day

Back at it with a vengeance yesterday as the high temperatures demanded that we plant out the dahlias and other tender perennials, they are best off in the ground rather than cooking in the greenhouse. Our mission was to rescue them whilst risking a cooking ourselves! By the end of the day we had accomplished our goal, dahlias in, runner, French and borlotti beans in, tomatoes and peppers in and all well watered with a hose pipe long enough to reach most corners of the garden, which weighed a tonne of course! As I was watering I was beginning to wish I was a plant on the receiving end of that refreshing jet, thank goodness I wore a hat and had plenty of sun cream on. Monday looks like being more of the same, I will be very tanned if this weather continues!

"Just living is not enough, one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower" Hans Christian Anderson

A Grand Day Out

Phew, what a whistle stop tour of London it was on Wednesday, arriving at Kings Cross we took a cab to the flower show which conveniently took us passed Trafalgar Square, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, I was excited to see the sights again after such a long time. I was less excited to see the beggars, horrendous traffic and hardly anyone speaking English, compared to the city Chelsea show was an oasis of calm. I think I must be getting too old and too provincial for the capitol! The show itself was fabulous, everyone attending was so friendly, secure in the knowledge that they were talking to a fellow enthusiast. Even the celebrity gardeners were approachable, Alys Fowler signed my programme and on a couple of occasions I stood right next to Andy Sturgeon as he was filming, it's nice to see the people you've been watching for years on the telly in the flesh. Out of all the gardens the Artisan ones were my favourites and in particular the Shepherds Hut which only managed a silver gilt, a travesty when they awarded gold to the Bronte garden! Then of course there was Diarmuid Gavins latest attempt at controversy, he certainly pulled off a coup this year as it was a showcase of the scaffolders talent with barely anything to do with gardening, and if you ask me a complete waste of space! The taxi back to the railway station was exhausting, as the time before our train ticked away whilst we sat in gridlocked traffic, eventually we abandoned the cab and took the tube, leaving us just enough time for a champagne cocktail before boarding, that's what I call a full on day, roll on next year!

"By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show" Samuel Johnson

My favourite

I rest my case

Eye catching but fun!

The Big Plant Out #1

We girls got a day off from the mowing yesterday as Giles has decided we are unlikely to get any harsh frosts now so it was time to plant out the salvias. we had to prepare the border first, taking out the worst of the weeds and anything that hadn't made it through the winter then the salvias could go in, that took the three of us until lunchtime. We then moved all the dahlias into the greenhouse to harden off for a week or so before it is their turn, that will be a mammoth task as there are so many of them. Cosmos, helichrysum and nicotiana grown on in pots were also large enough to plant out,though we kept half of each back in case the rabbits develop a taste for them and we need to replace any. Quite frankly after all that I'm bushed, so I'm off to Chelsea Flower Show for a bit of R&R, I hope to bring you some exclusive pictures later in the week!
It's my birthday today and the sun is shinning for the first time in weeks, lovely May!

"Fly free and happy beyond birthdays and across forever, and we'll meet now and then when we wish, in the midst of the one celebration that can never end"
                                                                       Richard Bach

Grubbing In The Dirt, Again!

Isn't nature beautiful

Just a very quick post as I've got a million things to do today, no day of rest for this gal! It was very quiet at NC yesterday, no Giles with his dry wit and no dogs to keep us amused with their antics. Alyson and I just kept plugging away at hand weeding the apple tree border where the hairy bitter cress and groundsel had been having a right old party.  The ground was pretty damp so we both looked quite a sight by the end of the afternoon, but we did have a glow of satisfaction when we finished the job and improved the look of that part of the garden immeasurably.

"Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing, it's when you've had everything to do and you've done it"
Margaret Thatcher

Before

After

A Field Trip

I took a trip out on Wednesday evening, an almost unheard of occurrence these days, but I suppose you could say it was a bit of a bus man's holiday. My friend Hannah from college (a future star of the horticultural industry if you ask me), works at the Himalayan garden at Grewelthorpe and had arranged an exclusive evening visit for the Knaresborough Horticultural society complete with a guided tour from Hannah herself, so I sneaked along too. It was a very enjoyable visit, even if the breeze blowing along the lake did feel truly Himalayan!

The rhododendrons were looking magnificent and with the excellent sculptures nestling amongst the mountainous twists and turns, and the odd show-stopping blue Meconopsis appearing out of the dusk, it was a memorable trip. At this point I must apologise to Hannah because despite pestering her for correct Latin names I confess I've forgotten the lot, must remember to take a note book next time! So no captions today just enjoy the photos.

"The good shine from afar like the snowy Himalayas" Buddah

"The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has" Michelangelo

                                            

No Time For Napping

They don't make them like this any more!

Diana and I were lucky with the weather again on Wednesday and were soon working in our shirtsleeves popping back the onions that have mysteriously un-planted themselves. Whether it's the birds or the worms I can't say but we must have had to do it a dozen times at Norton before they grew roots and stayed put. Next we planted royal sovereign strawberry plants between the new apple trees, Di has also sprinkled a mixture of annual seeds behind them where they will look pretty and keep the weeds in check. Then we started a bigger project, clearing the topmost bed in the garden which although containing some unusual specimens has become swamped with couch grass, there is nothing for it but to rescue small grass free clumps and bin the rest, it will take some time before it is finished. My thoughts of a late afternoon snooze were thwarted again when I got home to discover my onion plants had arrived, so I had to go back out into the garden to settle them in, no peace for the wicked!

beans, onions, peas and leeks all settled in!

"There is more refreshment and stimulation in a nap, even of the briefest, than in all the alcohol ever distilled" Ovid

Exam Exacerbation

Polemonium yezoense var Hidakanum 'Purple Rain'

Another day at college left us feeling emotionally drained again yesterday. We continue to plough doggedly through past papers in the hope that we might dredge up a vestige of an answer that will suit the exacting standards of the RHS. The planning and garden design paper was a real stinker, it's pretty hard to put some concepts into words and that august body has a knack of phrasing a question with such perfect ambiguity that you're left floundering about not knowing quite what they're after. Isn't there a campaign for plain English society? If so the RHS need reporting to them. Most of the class fluctuate wildly between abject despair and optimistic hope, driving just about everyone either to the Betty's cake counter or the plant sales area as a salve at lunchtime! Only five and a half weeks to go.........

"The more we study, the more we discover our ignorance" Percy Bysshe Shelley

Gardeners V Nature

As we move ever closer to summer, in time if not in temperature, the chores in the garden become more labour intensive. We are waging a war on nature by trying to mould it to our neat garden ways, she is fighting back with all her might as the weeds threaten to swamp the borders, in her eyes there is as much merit in a stinging nettle as an iris. To begin with yesterday we thinned out the peach fruit discarding up to three quarters of the set so the remainder will grow fat and luscious for our consumption. More lettuce seedlings went into the cold frame next so there will be a continuous supply rather than all being ready at once. Then we resumed the mowing regime which seems to take longer and longer each time, I'm sure I must walk around the garden at least a hundred times when it's my turn to use the hand mower, well that's what it feels like! Finally we finished with another assault upon the peony border, Alyson and I left Giles, Vortek, and Gwyneth hard at it when we left at four, I do hope they manage to finish the job!

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvellous" Aristotle

The iris are blooming come and see!

On Hands And Knees

A spring day at last!

Thank goodness we had a proper spring day yesterday, the breeze may have been chill but the sun was warm on our backs as we worked in the veg plot. I helped Alyson build the main framework of the bean wigwams but after that my skills deserted me so I left her to finish off whilst I weeded the artichokes. Then we sowed a nursery bed of kale, red and white cabbage and broccoli in the cold frame where they will be safe from slugs and rabbits until large enough to plant out. A quick weed around the onion sets and then the rest of the day was spent on our hands and knees again, removing as much goose grass as we could from around the peonies, laborious stuff and we're not even half way yet!
A couple of things caught my attention at home later, my horse chestnut saplings have come down with a nasty case of scale insect, easy to cure by wiping them off but I think I'll take one of them to college to show the others first, and out of my latest batch of sunflower seedlings one of them has three cotyledons! It will be interesting to see if it goes on to have triple leaf growth instead of the normal two, I'll let you know.

"Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees, it is a matter of the will, quality of the imagination, a vigour of the emotions, it is the freshness of the deep springs of life" Samuel Ullman

Spot the odd one out

Scale insects

Another Deluge

It's a good job I've got plenty of revision to do because us gardening types haven't a hope of any hands on stuff at the moment, when will this appalling weather end? We must have had eight months of dreariness now, surely it can't continue much longer? Oh for the feeling of the sun on my back as I plant my veg seedlings into their summer homes! Still I'm better off than some poor souls, unlike the owners of the garden in the photo just around the corner from me,  I snapped it yesterday whilst taking Chum for the shortest walk in history under the deluge. Fingers crossed for an improvement next week, I'm sure that was last weeks Friday lament too!

"Whether the weather be fine, whether the weather be not, whether the weather be cold, whether the weather be hot, we'll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not" John Bennett

A Breath Of Fresh Air

Dingley Dell

I managed to squeeze in a quick walk with the dog in between chores and revision on Wednesday, I go to Spofforth every other week at the moment so I can catch up with my studies and rescue the house before it falls into a state beyond repair! I took Chum down to what we call Dingley Dell, a small tributary of the Nidd which is literally only three paces from the A59 probably the busiest road in Harrogate. The local conservation groups have been busy down there planting native saplings and generally tidying up so it was a pleasant little amble, it's great to see that someone is taking an interest as I'd stopped visiting due to the litter and vandals. With some sunshine and warmth to cheer us on Chum and I had a very enjoyable game of 'throw the stick in the river' which set me up nicely for a day of revision, I'm not sure I could manage all that studying without a breath of fresh air first.

"Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies"
Erich Fromm

Hooray For Herbs

It was with relief that the class settled down to study the last remaining module about herbs yesterday morning, a subject most of us knew a little about anyway, and it was with even greater relief that we met the news that we will not be tested upon it in the exam. Hooray, no more incomprehensible plant science, no further Latin required, no extra planting situations to cram into creaking brains or soil analysis to grapple with, we have finally finished the course. All that remains is for us to remember everything we have been taught and write it down in a fairly legible and understandable way and then we can relax. But I mustn't jump the gun we have six weeks of revision and a mock exam to contend with before sitting down to the final exam which takes place over two days and consists of eight different papers. So don't expect too much excitement on the blog as I must cram, cram, cram!

"A man's nature runs either to herbs or to weeds, therefore let him seasonably water the one and destroy the other" Francis Bacon

Double Sunday

May hedgerow

No news from Norton to report as yesterday was a bank holiday and I took a sneaky day off, of course that's left me at sixes and sevens as I feel like I've had two Sundays. Sunday 1 I made the most of the sunshine and headed into my own garden. I finally cut the hedge which is a job I hate especially the first cut of the season as it takes so long with my hand shears, but it certainly looks better for it. I also went through my seedling nursery ruthlessly discarding anything that wasn't thriving, whether it's the crappy conditions that have encouraged a greenfly infestation I'm not sure but it's not very encouraging this early in the season, so I sowed more direct in the hope of an improvement if they're left to Mother Nature. Sunday 2 I spent all afternoon revising botany and making flash cards so I'm feeling quite smug, no doubt that feeling will diminish as we start to be tested in class later!

"A Sunday well spent brings a week of content"
                                                        English proverb

Accused

Early morning snow shower

It's not the easiest thing in the world to get up early and go out gardening whilst it's snowing but that's what I had to do yesterday, I've really had enough of this cold please can we have something a bit warmer now? First thing we earthed up the potatoes as Giles was fearful of the harsh frosts forecast over the next couple of nights so at least that got us warmed up. Then we prepared the plant sales area adding new stock brought from the nursery and planting out into the garden anything that wouldn't cut the mustard for selling, they will soon bulk up once in the ground. Then there was a kerfuffle, Giles mentioned that the hen pheasant was sitting on her nest so we went to have a peek only to find a sad pathetic pile of dead feathers not even cold. All suspicion turned upon a certain small black dog, what a shame that nine lovely eggs will now come to nothing but I suppose we can't blame shandy for not telling the difference between bunnies and birds!

"There is no instinct like that of the heart" Lord Byron

Guilty as charged!

Ne'er Cast A Clout

At least the Lunaria annua in my garden is looking cheerful.

Gosh isn't it cold! There's absolutely no chance of me casting or clouting until the sun makes an appearance again, in fact I'm finding this years weather either deeply confusing (The hot spell in March), or deeply depressing (The three weeks of yuk we're currently experiencing). My vegetable seeds are slow to germinate even indoors which is probably just as well as I wouldn't dream of putting them outside yet, the hedge needs its first cut but I can't motivate myself to do it, and the tomato plant I bought weeks ago is now so leggy it probably wont survive. I did take a spin around the garden yesterday to keep an eye on things only to find the dreaded lily beetles having an orgy in the pot in the bottom border, so the lilys will have to go as I refuse to spend money on chemicals to try and save one pot. All in all not a very inspiring couple of days, here's hoping the long term weather forecast will cheer us up on Sunday. By the way, for all my readers that come from more exotic climes, the saying Ne'er cast a clout til May be out just means don't take your vest off just yet!

"The sun was warm but the wind was chill
  you know how it is with an April day.
  When the sun is out and the wind is still,
  you're one month on in the month of May.
  But if you so much as dare to speak,
  a cloud come over a sunlit arch,
  and wind comes off a frozen peak,
  and you're two months back in the middle of March"
  Robert Frost

Knowing Your Onions

I was back at Spofforth at last on Wednesday after a break of over a month, I'm pleased to report that my friend Diana is feeling much better after a nasty dose of spring flu. The garden and orchard have changed considerably in that time and with the apple trees in full blossom our spirits were high as we began work. Getting the onion sets planted was our most important task, they really shouldn't have been left so late but I'm hopeful they will soon catch up. It reminded me that I've now been visiting Brian and Diana for a whole year and that this was the first task I ever helped them with, how time has flown, I just hope I've now got a bit more knowledge under my belt and that with almost an entire years study with the RHS I do indeed know my onions!

"The onion and its satin wrappings is amongst the most beautiful of vegetables and is the only one that represents the essence of things. It can be said to have a soul" Charles Dudley Warner

Apple cordons in full blossom at Spofforth.

Humdrum Houseplants

It was a convoluted day at college yesterday as we continued to mop up stray bits and pieces that don't fit into large segments. In the morning we looked at houseplants, a topic that none of us find especially inspiring, we must know the basic care for Adiantum pedantum maidenhair fern, Ficus benjamina weeping fig, Euphorbia pulcherrima poinsettia, Kalanchoe blossfeldiana, and Saintpaulia ionanthe the African violet, our heads are now well and truly stuffed to bursting point! In the afternoon we tackled machinery and health and safety with an unexpected display of Tai Chi from Richard who says it is a very good way of warming up your muscles before starting any heavy duty gardening. I wonder if it will work on brain cells if we use it before the exam?!

The quote today is the Tai Chi Reiki creed, very appropriate I think,
1.Just for today do not anger
2.Just for today do not worry
3.Earn your living honestly
4.Honour your parents, teachers and elders
5.Show gratitude to every living thing.

New Experiences At Norton

pheasant eggs in the vinery

Every day throws up new experiences at Norton Conyers, be they little ones like the flower or bug you've not encountered before, or be they challenges that must be met. Yesterday was just such a day, as my confidence grows driving the tractor I knew I would have to conquer my dislike of reversing, so I bit the bullet yesterday and whilst no one was looking had a really good practise around the car park, I'm certainly no expert but am glad I faced my fears. Then just as the afternoons work was drawing to a close we had another experience when a swarm of bees flew into the garden, I've not encountered so many before and felt quite unnerved when they settled in the courtyard where the staff cars park, luckily after a hard days graft I was too weary to risk missing my lift so I took a quick picture and we made a hasty exit. Alison says the bees return every year to the same spot and that's why she never leaves the car windows open! I'm glad I saw them, but nature can be a bit scary sometimes.

"Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him" Aldous Huxley

The swarm

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