Six on Saturday - 28 November 2020

What a variety this week: a dry and warmish day: great for gardening;  a dry and cold day: wasn't feeling on top form; rain: great for reading; we don't have climate, we have weather in the UK.  I remember a geography teacher, explaining this to our class.  Whatever the weather, we can enjoy our gardening inside or out. We had our first proper frost, not just on the top of the conservatory, and this has at last turned the leaves on the corner acer an attractive colour.  Jon, the propagator who this week is busy trying to fit in border line plants into his conservatory, again is bringing us all together. Always worth seeing what he and others have posted this week.

1. Primroses...

Having a little tidy up under the Fuchsia, I found a little clump of pink primroses in flower, a little soggy and well nibbled.

Primula vulgaris subsp. sibthorpii

2. Veggie Growing. I've cut down the runner beans, and am preparing to use the 'potager' to a much greater extent next year.  

I've been following Charles Dowding on Facebook, and hope to be able to build in sowing, and planting next year to make the most of the small area.  In readiness, I have spaded round the Lemon Verbena, ready to move it somewhere else in the garden.  Where to has yet to be sorted out! As I just sow a few of several things, the small packets from Moreveg are just right.

3.In print!  Thanks to this weekly meme, and my blog, over the years, I have enjoyed writing about my gardening.  I try to come up with something for the small garden too for our 'Covid' monthly gardening club newsletter.  This week, from somewhere quite different,  the Somerset Federation of Gardening Clubs magazine dropped through the letter box: I remember offering this article when I sent in some changes regarding our club, to be added to their webpage. 

I am sure there are many of you already contribute to local magazines and groups such as the HPS, and specialist groups. Through this one our gardening club links into county support systems, with lists of speakers, and sharing information with other clubs.

4. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  On one corner table in the conservatory where I like to set the table for breakfast and lunch, and dinner on milder nights, I placed my new Fatsia plant.  It is destined to be outside, but for its first winter, I thought I would have it as an attractive conservatory plant.  Mr S asked me kindly,' not as a criticism', but as an 'observation', what was wrong with the plant. I quickly turned, to find the plant fine, but it was the patterning on the leaf, he thought it had some sort of disease. I did take a good critical look, and explained the variegation on Spider's Web Fatsia, and that each leaf was a little different. To me patterning on leaves is a thing of beauty. Then I spotted another 'ugly' thing: I had only recently brought the pot inside, and just plonked it in a 'cache pot' I happened to have lying around, and with the cache pot being too shallow it just looked ugly. 

Fatsia japonica 'Spider's Web'

 A quick change around  has made all the difference, to my eye, and Mr S is getting to appreciate the detail or at least my interest in it,

5. On the dry and mild day this week, I went a little too mad with the cutting back of the herbaceous plants, and now have an area of low cropped plants.  I also quite rightly removed some plants, which I feel did not quite work there. I hope that over the next few weeks to gain some ideas on how to give a little winter structure to the area.  I'll be viewing all the other weekly Six on Saturdays for inspiration.

6. Newly planted this year, rose Munstead Wood is slow to close down for the Winter. This bloom has come through rain, frost, sun and wind, and with another rose bud just starting to open, there will be roses in December. Yes a perfect sunny day yesterday, but I have loads of house cleaning to catch up with, so not much gardening.

Rose Munstead Wood