MEET @ MALVERN

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  • Wrong kind of Snow? January 14, 2010
    Remember in 1991 when we had the wrong kind of snow for British Rail to keep the tracks clear, well I have the wrong kind of images for the image editing workshop! No seriously, amongst my 1,000’s of images - I never seem to have taken photos of interesting doorways, signs, vintage writing or wonderful faces.  [...] […]
  • Clear March Skies March 9, 2010
    The weather here continues to be amazing. With glorious days, lots of sunshine (no coats needed). And clear, clear sky – meaning the night-time temperatures drop to about -7c The plants are confused – but I’m happy […]
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Of Chickens and Chocolate brownies

Those of you that follow me on Twitter will know where I have been today.

For those of you that read a lot of garden blogs – here is a clue

I spent a wonderful few hours visiting Elizabeth at Welsh Hills Again and could have spent days gazing at the play of light on “her” mountains

It was beautiful – even though it was not a glorious spring day with sunshine, but rather grey with the promise of rain before long.

We had a lovely time – I met some of the other residents,

The peacock was rather camera shy

The cockeral, however, knew that he was just the bees knees and very, very, handsome.

Actually all Elizabeths chooks were lovely to look at, and it was a real treat to watch them scratching around the garden.

Whenever I see chickens – I always want to have them here – but as Elizabeth so sensibly pointed out, I dont really have anywhere to keep them.

I am going to work on pursuading my neighbour to have some in her field – then I could go and visit them every day.

Elizabeth gave me a great lunch – with the most wonderful chocolate brownies for pudding

And we spent our time chatting about this and that – but as is the way of gardeners, coming back time and again to gardens and plants.

It was lovely to hear about the ethos behind Elizabeths plans for her land and her garden.

And so nice to visit it during the early days, when the trees and hedgerows that she has planted are still youngsters.

(I also got to take a piece of brownie for the car journey home!)

G.B.B.Day – March 2010

We have had wonderful weather here in Wales.  Well, wonderful for me, no wind, no rain and lots of sunshine during the day.

Less wonderful for the plants in the garden as until recently we have had freezing night-time temperatures.

This combined with high daytime temperature and no rain for a month has confused the garden.

Generally things are about 4 – 6 weeks behind last year, (and the year before).

One of the loveliest plants has been the iris “Katherine Hodgkin”, which is a new arrival in the garden this year.

My favourite flowers the hellebore are only just getting into their stride.

And even the dreaded forsythia is not showing any colour yet.

You can hover your mouse over the images to see the names

And click on them to see a larger view.

Despite the flowers in the Artists Garden being a little slow this year.

The cold winter has had no effect whatsoever on the dandelions, who have started to bloom …. prolifically.

For more information about what is blooming around the word – please visit Carol at May Dreams Garden.

My Reading List for March -

This is a post of two parts.

Yesterday was St Davids Day here in Wales,

Unfortunately my hosting company had a problem with one of their servers so I was unable to post yesterday

So a belated

Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant

Happy St Davids Day

The Clock House, Barmouth

At the beginning of February I decided to follow 12 blogs more closely for a month.

This worked well for me and I enjoyed it.

So for March I have picked another 12 to follow.

Again a mix of familiar (to me) faces and some

New (to me) blogs

My March reading list is:-

Staying with the welsh theme Welsh HIlls Again

Frances – Faire Garden, Frances, now you will get comments from me not silent visits!

Midnight Brambling, Lia Leendertz’s new blog.

If you read just one of her posts make it “The Horticultural is political”

Bush Bernie’s Garden Blog, Bernie is in Australia and it is the first day of Autumn there.

Anne Tannes Kruidenklets – ecological and wildlife gardening

Notes from a Somerset Garden, A blog I have been enjoying for some time now.

Claire at Plant Passion – some useful gardening knowledge can be found here.

Emma Bond at The Orchid Studio again another blog I would like to get to know better.

The Idiot Gardener, who has a very individual style

Flowerpot, who I am not sure posts very often, but her images of labyrinths have ensured she goes into my google reader just in case …

The last two new blogs that I would like to draw your attention to are more food orientated:-

My friend Christina now lives in Viterbo Italy.  She is both a fantastic cook and a garden designer.

She has set up a blog together with Donica Mesing, if you like Italy and food go visit Buonaforchetta

The last blog on my list to-day, is published by a certain “JD” and is called The Fourth Plate, it is thoughts about “life in the pursuit of food”

I enjoyed my February Blog Reads – the links for those blogs can be found in the “Monthly Reads 2010″ tab at the top of the page.

End of the Month View - February 2010

overviewThe main change in the overview of my garden this month, is that our neighbors have built a chalet in their garden.

As it has been too cold to do the roof – it is currently covered with a blue tarpaulin.

It is similar to my studio, so when it is finished I am sure it will be fine.

There has been no change at all to the middle pond area, or the top garden.

I am growing things like mad to plant in these areas later in the summer

seedlings

These are just a few of the many, many seed-trays that are sharing the house with us at the moment.

kitchen garden from the studio

The area that has received most of our attention has been the new kitchen garden.

As you will see from the picture above – there are still a few areas which are rather rubbish …..

But the new beds are (mostly) built and we have started filling them up with soil and compost.

kitchen garden

And I have even marked out the position of the lettuce plants in the furthest bed

But, perhaps most importantly, we have got our chairs in place!

The next image gives your a clearer understanding of how the new kitchen garden is slightly lower than the rest of the garden

Which is why the pattern the raised beds create is important to me.

There is still one more small bed to go in the very center.

Shedman’s seat is on the right of the picture – you can tell this by the handy pick-axe next to the chair.

I fully intend to go into more detail about the decision making process for the raised beds in a later post.

The “End of the Month Views” are brought to you by Helen The Patient Gardener

It is a great way to observe the changes in all or part of the garden so why not join in, post your end of the month views

And leave a comment on Helen’s End of the Month View post.

The things I do ….

…. To get the photograph!

So happy to-day.

My second double hellebore opened

Isn’t she beautiful.

Yes, I had to lie on the ground again.

But fortunately it was another beautiful, if somewhat chilly day.