Willow weaving......of sorts....in a rudimentary fashion

Every year in March I coppice one willow tree. This one willow tree produces the most vividly coloured stems.

I sort the stems into different lengths in the potting shed......

 ....... and then it's a race against time to use it all up before it is too brittle to bend. 

So, over the course of the next month or so you will find me weaving frantically to produce structures that will have various uses in the garden.

This year so far I have made two hazel and willow wigwams for runner beans and other climbing legumes......

.....and about 500 million (that's what it feels like!) circular plant supports. These supports are designed to sit above a growing herbaceous plant in Spring ~ think open top stool. The willow circle sits on 3 or 4 bamboo cane legs, which are plunged into the ground around the plant. As the herbaceous plant grows upwards in Spring it passes through the circular top piece. Come late Spring or Summer, when the plant is really going for it and producing loads of flowers (hopefully), the circle of willow will provide support to stop it flopping over should the flowers or the rain showers prove too heavy.

Here are the 500 million plant supports in storage. I will be putting them in place in over the coming weeks. - I am aiming for 750 million. (In reality ~ as aposed to my little fantasy gardening world ~ there are probably 25 or so). 

Willow is wonderful to work with. It is gloriously bendy when first harvested. With practice I hope to be able to weave much more impressive structures.

Last year I managed a couple of spheres. This one has been outside for nearly a year and is still looking fairly smart. It looked great with wild flowers growing up though it during summer 2014. 

More than anything willow is just so wonderfully pretty when it is newly harvested, brutally manipulated and set against the bluest of blue skies. 

Or freshly mulched soil

It is well worth having a go. I highly recommend an RHS short course. Go on, look it up at www.rhs.org.uk. You will never look at a willow tree in the same light again.........you will be staring at it, probably with head askance, pondering all the gloriously practical things you will be bending the stems into. 

24th March 2015

It has been a really, really pretty day

Happy gardener. 

A different view on this whole blogging malarkey

A recent visit to Bletchley Park - home to the Enigma code breakers during WW2 - has inspired me to rethink my blogposts. 

My Grandmother was one of the women who worked at Bletchley Park but she shared very, very little of her experience there with us, her family, and this has been more than a bit frustrating. We managed to find out where she worked (Block E if you're interested - communications - she would have been listening to information on headphones, typing what she heard and passing it on) but we know absolutely nothing about her day-to-day life. 

One of the Turing bombes used to decipher German codes during WW2 ^

From now on I will be writing my blogposts with two aims in mind:

1 ~ To show existing and potential clients that I have sound horticultural knowledge and acres of practical experience

2 ~ To speak to my (hopefully!) future grandchildren - to show them that their old Grandma was once (before babies, mortgages and other such responsibilities) an intrepid traveller with a strong desire to be precisely where every other tourist most definitely wasn't ~ plus being the owner of a stomach of steel.......that last bit is a lie; South Western Chinese food nearly polished me off (mainly because it was so delicious, I kept going back for more).

I kept detailed diaries throughout my times working for the great and the good of South West England....I wonder if there are any publishable nuggets.....?.....hmmmm.....I feel a novel coming on........

Spring 2015: so far so good

I could describe all of the horticultural tasks that I have undertaken so far this spring but instead I will bombard you with photos. It's prettier! 

Tending to the houseplants. 

Watching the Pelargoniums come out of their winter dormancy. 

Getting far too excited when spring bulbs break the soil surface. These are the Fritillaria imperialis 'William Rex' that arrived really late. They're doing their stuff.....eeeeeeeeeee!!!

More stunning spring bulbs around every corner!

Huge amounts of spring pruning. Whatsinmywheelbarrow? Hydrangea and Buddleja prunings. 

Colourful willow prunings. 

Here's a good photo to illustrate how to prune a Hydrangea macrophylla. Simply prune the old flower heads off, cutting back to a nice big pair of fat, green buds. 

I have already sown lots and lots of seeds and when the get to this stage they need pricking out into separate modules or pots. In this photo there are lupin, Coreopsis and Nicotiana seedlings all fighting for space. 

I have started weaving plant supports and wigwams in preparation for when the growing season kicks off in a month or so. 

I have sown onions outside......

......and garlic.......

.......and potatoes.

Summer and Autumn flowering clematis has been cut back.......

......and now I'm off for a sit down. Not for long though - it's all happening and it's beautiful. 

Ruminations: Spring 2015

Tag line: I'll never top the success of Swamp Donkey so I'm not going to even try. 

I haven't written anything apart from 'To do' lists in over 1 month. I could fib and say that this is because it is March, one of the busiest gardening months, Spring is happening....right now.....stare at your garden for long enough and you will actually see it unfurling before you.....I have signed up for an exhibition of my visual work (a mishmash of doodles, photographical botanical studies and whimsy) 

so I am producing like there's no tomorrow. It is a lie. Well it's partial truth but the real reason that I haven't been able to write is that I got such a thrill out of writing 'Swamp Donkey' that I didn't know how to follow it. So that's it. Two distinct time zones: Before Swamp Donkey (BSD) and After Swamp Donkey (ASD).  

I am hoping that, by posting this, I will get over my ASD slump and jolly well get on with sharing my thoughts on Spring 2015. And while I ruminate further ~ here is a pretty, springy photograph from a pretty springy morning last week.