Pumpkins Patch

28 Jun '07 11:55 am

For the first time since I started my garden I actually managed yesterday to get out in it very early in the morning ( I am off work atm ) with a camera while it was still frosty. A simple leaf looked so pretty, the grass so fresh and the air still. Here are a couple of pix ...

Oh, and Quill inspired me to photograph my birdhouse the misty morning before. It is no bird palace but I love the lichen Very Happy

28 Jun '07 4:56 pm

Hi Pumpkin. now that it's past the summer solstice, it isn't long until we have frost too. At least I feel that way. Your on the way to spring too.

Christopher

29 Jun '07 4:33 am

Dear Pumpkin, how nice to see your lovely, frosty pictures. I love your foggy birdhouse and also your row of plane trees with their daisy skirts. We have missed hearing from you since you started working more. Glad you had a little time off to "potter".

29 Jun '07 9:58 am

Thanks for that happy thought Christopher!
The idea of Spring on the way certainly cheers up a thoroughly nasty winters day like the one we are having now, although it does serve to remind me this years garlic hasn't been planted yet and I had better get a hurry on Wink

Thanks Faith Very Happy

I love my bird-house too. My brother built it for one of those special 'big' birthdays a few years ago. It was for doves but a few other birds thought it was the perfect spot to raise their young, so....we'll see
Work is unfortunately one of those things that are unavoidable and the garden has got away terribly over the last season. I had huge plans for the next few weeks in my very neglected garden but splooshing about in the driving rain and gale-force wintery wind definitely wasn't one of them, hence I am sitting beside the heater inside today, hiding Very Happy

It does give me a chance to go through my older pix...

These few attached shots are of one area I built up a couple of years ago. I am working here at the moment cos as I said above it was totally neglected, oops, so grew and grew, in fact it went nuts, absolutely weedy Confused

The soil is very fertile although it gets hopelessly water-logged in the winter and very dry in the summer.
We built a house over the last year and now live here so hopefully the garden will develop and I will be a bit more consistent Wink

3 Jul '07 10:00 am

I was SO happy, dear friend, to see these lovely photos!! Especially the first ones!! They are such lovely captures, so descriptive of the Winter garden morning! You work so hard and you will soon have the results of your good work! The news about the new house are lovely!! At the beginning you have an empty feeling inside, but soon this will disappear, when you start feeling more connected to your new home and surroundings..Everything will be O.K. and your garden will flourish from next Spring on!! You'll see! Concerning the water-logging, just think of adding some pebbles at the base of the plant-holes (my Belgian garden is water-logging, too).

4 Jul '07 4:04 am

Pumpkin, I thought your garden looked lovely even in it's "wild" state. You should have seen mine a few weeks ago. It looks a little better now because I pulled out all the cornflowers that had bloomed so beautifully for three months. They were about bloomed out and were choking out so many plants.

I have the same problem with my garden being very wet in winter. For that reason, I have to rely on plants that can tolerate wet conditions and let annual re-seeding plants fill in the gaps. I have lost so many plants that I tried in there. They grew beautifully all summer, but then rotted away over the winter and never came back.

Your Nicotiana sylvestris is lovely. That is one of the plants that seeds itself around my garden. Fortunately it isn't as abundantly re-seeding as some of the others, so it just pops up here or there. UNfortunately, the spot it chose this year was right on the edge of the path, so it wanted to drape itself all over the path. I tried tying it up for a while, but finally had to remove it.

I know your garden will be lovely next year now that you are "on site" and will be able to devote more time to it's care.

6 Jul '07 5:40 pm

..for the encouragement!

Liza, your idea of pebbles is one I had not thought of. I will try it Wink

There is nothing sadder than planting trees and having them drown the following winter. Quite a few were lost this way before I realized just how bad the problem was. Since then I have started to plant on large mounds of topsoil, so if I add the pebbles as extra drainage then things should be much better! Very Happy

The Nicotiana sylvestris certainly is a lovely plant Faith, and even more-so as the seeds came from a wonderful garden I visited a wee while ago Wink

It has self-seeded since then and pops up where-ever it thinks it is needed Very Happy

That garden bed went very wild (too wild) and I have removed nearly everything so I can start again. This time I will be a bit more vigilant when it comes to dead-heading and pruning. Problem is I hate to cut anything that still looks like it is alive Very Happy

I have been walking around outside today between the rain showers and so many things are growing! It feels like winter has just started properly and already the daffs are pushing through the soil and jonquils are blooming Very Happy

The vegetable garden is filling up with broad beans, peas, cabbages and leeks. Carrots and parsnips have totally taken over one bed with seeds from last summer. I had let a few of each plant go to seed for the bugs to feed on and to save some for next season but they have sown themselves everywhere already, as has calendula! Very pretty Very Happy

7 Jul '07 5:14 am

Pumpkin, you have so many pretty things blooming in your garden. I can't believe it is winter there! What kind of lily is that with the very interesting bloom? It looks like milk pouring from a pitcher. Very nice. Also, your photographs are great BTW.

12 Jul '07 4:30 pm

Hi Faith,
Sorry it has taken me a while to reply..
I think the lily is a Calla, I'm not too sure, but it is a bulb. It came to me from an old gentleman's garden. There were about 6 different bulbs in the bagful he gave me and this is the first season I have had them. This is the first to sprout and bloom, the others are growing leaves. It's exciting to get plants this way, a bit like that box of chocolates... Wink

~

There has been so much rain this last week that has bought terrible flooding further up north from us. Homes have been destroyed, and land ruined. Our power/phone here was off for a few days and in some places it has not yet been restored.
We have had gale-force winds which have destroyed so many plants in the garden. The vege garden has been burned black and one of our 80 year old pines has been toppled. Sad because this was one of only two huge old trees here.

Thoroughly nasty, even the ducks gave up trying to fly...after one had an emergency landing on the birdhouse!

12 Jul '07 4:43 pm

Pumpkin, I'm so sorry to hear that your garden was affected by the nasty northern weather! It's horrible when change is pushed on us, and we don't get any say in it. Sorry, and hope that there's no more to come.
Look at those lovely Nicotiana Sylvestris plants! How beautiful! I'll bet they're not standing up any more! Be of good cheer...

Pumpkins Patch

Pumpkins Patch

Frost

Frosty morns

I do love Winter but...

Wow!! What a productive gardener!!

Wild garden charms

Thank you Ladies ...

Pretty things

Winds of destruction...