... of the piles of wonderful books that I will be able to get back to reading once my RHS Level 2 exams are over tomorrow. In a vase on Monday is hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
Tag: In a vase on Monday
A Jam Jar of Spring
Isn't May a glorious month? Suddenly so much to choose from! So when picking a quick hand-tied posy for a gardening friend this afternoon, I had no trouble in finding a good handful of airy, laid-back stems. Here we have an allium from my cutting bed, the last of the Narcissus 'Cheerfulness', Geum 'Leonard's Variety',…
Calm, collected rationality
When I'm faced with the tulip catalogues in August with their cornucopia of offerings in bright jewel colours and curving shapes, just two outcomes prevail: either I go bananas and order almost everything in sight (2016) or I dither until it is too late and there's nothing left (2017). I blame Sarah Raven entirely for…
First tulips from my cutting garden
I admit that when I write 'cutting garden', it sounds much grander than the reality: a single raised bed of about 150 x 150cm constructed of wooden boards that the builders brought down from our rotting roof last year. I didn't know what (if anything) these ancient roof boards had been treated with, so the…
Thalia: grace, muse, goddess
Depending on which Wikipedia entry you read, Thalia was a Greek goddess of comedy and idyllic poetry, one of the nine muses, and/or one of the three Graces responsible for rich banquets and festivity. The name 'Thalia' is Greek for abundance; perhaps Narcissus 'Thalia' was thus called because of the abundance of flowering heads on…
Quince Charming: a fairy tale
It seems that some malevolent witch or wizard has decreed that it shall be winter forever. We have not had a frost-free week since November (I'm keeping count: it's how long I've been waiting to finish cementing my maze), and this weekend saw the garden buried by blizzards once again. It was as though the…
Simply snowdrops
February has few attributes to recommend it, save its shortness and the occasional warm day towards the end of the month when spring really does feel as though it is coming upon us at last. Some of us might feel, come February, that winter has outstayed its welcome; but others, myself included, reckon that the…
