My Auntie Pam

I don't normally go off piste so to speak, preferring to stick to gardening topics, but this week I've had a very special gift and wanted to share it with you all. As you can see from the photo I was lucky to receive this beautiful hand made blanket from my auntie Pam, I think it's one of the nicest presents I've ever been given. The work involved must have taken hours and it will be a treasured possession. I'm not sure about the suggestion that it travel up to Edinburgh with my daughter when she goes to university though, the state of her bedroom at home does not warrant such a pretty thing!
Auntie Pam mentions in her card that she recently put  one on e-bay and it sold within four hours, I'm not at all surprised, everyone would want a blanket made with such care.
So a big thank you to auntie Pam and uncle Bill for my lovely birthday present.

"It isn't the size of the gift that matters, but the size of the heart that gives it"
Eileen Elias Freeman

Chilly May #2

Mmmmm not much chance of drying my washing under these conditions. Blooming May!

"A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water"
Carl Reiner

Chilly May

The weather continues disappointingly cold, meaning I have been wearing full winter rig in May! My seedlings at home are sulking as are the dahlias at Norton Conyers, of which some have yet to appear at all. I hope we get some sunshine soon as there are only three more growing months before it's all downhill once more! It may be chilly but we are banking on there being no more serious frosts here and have planted the salvias out, this job takes a full half day but I enjoy seeing the borders fill up again. My own garden is coming along nicely and I have high hopes that some of the plants I have grown from seed will finally flower this year, and although my seedlings have not germinated very well, I think it is just as well being as there is no space left in my borders. I may have to offload some freebies to friends and family, but that gives me as much pleasure as watching things mature in my own space.

"Happiness held is the seed, happiness shared is the flower"
John Harrigan

Green Is The Colour

It comes as no surprise to me that the birth stone for May is emerald. Everywhere you look the land has awoken with a vibrant verdant lushness that can only herald the arrival of this most pleasant month.
Norton Conyers is now flexing its growing muscles and each day brings a new delight to cherish as Spring makes its presence felt. There is to be a grand dinner at the house on Friday hosted by Sotherbys, to present the HHA restoration award to Lord and Lady Graham, so we have been busy mowing with a vengeance and tidying up the clock tower garden where the restored summer house is looking lovely. We have still found time to wander down to the lake to admire the bluebells though, life is too short not to appreciate the things nature gives us for free!

"Green fingers are the extension of a verdant heart"
Russell Page

Glorious Day

I was reminded again yesterday how lucky I am being able to work outside on what was a glorious spring day. The colours of the garden appeared at their most vibrant set as they were against a cloudless afternoon sky. We spent most of the morning putting up the plant supports in the main border, a job I always enjoy as you always end up with such different shapes when you build them with hazel sticks. We are late doing them this year making pushing the sticks deeply into the earth rather difficult, especially after such a dry spell. After lunch we moved onto the eternal task of weeding, now that the temperatures are rising the weeds grow at twice the rate of the garden plants and we shall be waging a constant war on them until late September.

"For in the nature of things, if we consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver"
Martin Luther

Progress

One of the areas of the garden much in need of renovation is now nearly complete. The spring garden has been replanted and although it will take a couple of years for things to settle in, it is already looking more cohesive. Giles has laid a new path with a bird bath feature at the cross section, it has yet to be gravelled and the bath cemented in place but I can already see the pleasure the birds will have using it, and us watching them use it. He plans to grow a dwarf water lily in the receptacle which would look sweet, but I have a feeling that Shandy might take a liking to the odd bath too which might be troublesome!

One of the stars of the spring garden at the moment is this little plant on the left, Mertensia  virginica  it is fully hardy and once it has flowered completely disappears until the next spring. My photo doesn't do the colour justice as the blue is really intense and brightens up any woodland setting. Placed amongst hellebores, hostas and trilliums it will make quite a show.







"He who moves not forward, goes backward"
Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe

Spring Has Sprung

In the week since I was last at Norton Conyers the garden has sprung to life, thanks largely to the stunning Easter weather, who would have thought we would be blessed with such a good spell so early. We have been busy potting up the dahlias, dividing the sale plants and mowing the grass. It is now all steam ahead for the gardening season, the tasks naturally follow one from another at this time of year, when the willow hedge has been cut we shall have to turn our attention to sowing and planting.  The clocks going forward have shaken us out of winter dormancy encouraging us to extend the working day to eight hours, that will take some getting used to again!

A new garden gate has been ordered but I think Shandy will miss the old one!

"Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee"
Ralph Waldo Emerson