Salty Treasure

I was talking to a visitor in the garden this week and they gestured to the beach below saying “and you have all the seaweed you could want”.  Um.  Well this is true.  What is also true is that there is a rather steep hill in between. We have used various methods in the past to transport seaweed up to the garden.  We have filled trugs and loaded them into the back of Hero’s estate, we have requisitioned the builder’s dumper truck and borrowed one of those really cool motorised wheelbarrows.  But the truth is it still has to be deposited at the gate and manhandled up steps or barrowed around the garden.  Not quite so easy.

The benefits of seaweed as a fertiliser and soil conditioner are undisputed, free and just down the road being two big ones, but there are also negative aspects.  It is obviously very salty which basically is a plant killer.  It is best piled onto redundant ground and the salt allowed to be washed off before any plants are introduced.  We have brought up piles of the stuff that are rife with some kind of fly larvae who, to be fair, are probably pretty surprised to emerge so far from the ocean (100m).  That is a long way if you are a fly.  The main problem is what is lurking within the weed.  Plastic mainly.  Lots of discarded plastic that pollutes our oceans and our beaches.   And fishing lines.   And knickers.  Sorry can we rewind a moment “knickers”?  Yes, I was showing a visitor around the garden and to my horror noticed a pair of knickers on the newly prepared and previously seaweeded Pastel Border.  I can only hope she didn’t assume they were mine.  Not my style at all.  Anyway today I found this little man in the vegetable garden and I guess that he is the lost toy of a child somewhere. The smile is a little creepy. I hope he doesn’t give you nightmares.

Eschscholzia californica “Jelly Beans” – Californian Poppy

Eschscholzia californica, a favorite in our garden but always a challenge in the spelling department, how can a word have so many consonants and still be pronounceable?  It is probably safer to stick with California Poppy, this particular one is called Jelly Beans.  Flowers and sweets, perfect.  We also grow a beautiful buttermilk coloured variety (name lost in the seas of time) and the bog standard, but equally wonderful, pure orange.  Appropriately, it is the state flower of California and 6 April is officially California Poppy Day (diaries out folks!). If only I had known we could have had a party.  In this country it is generally classed as an annual but in reality it is a tender perennial which in milder areas can be over-wintered.  We have varying success but generally it is the wet that “does” for them as opposed to the cold.  They conveniently seed themselves far and wide and as the foliage all looks the same (to a mere mortal anyway) it is always a surprise which variety will emerge out of the greenish-grey ferny foliage.  Transplanting is fraught with danger so to avoid disappointment I would just leave them to get on with it where ever they land.  I’m not sure if I should be telling you this, but apparently an extract from this poppy is a sedative when smoked.  Unfortunately it doesn’t say how to produce this extract and anyway I am probably sedate enough as it is.

For anyone following the story, Crazy Golf is on!

Cunning Plans

There are two choices in life, moan about it or do something about it.  Yesterday I moaned, today we instigated Operation Badger the Badger.  This involved three separate manoeuvres.  First thing this morning I stealthily trailed Brock, a la Ray Mears, to the perimeter fence at highest part of the garden, where I found that the previously mended repair had been breached.  I did my best to make it secure again and will be knitting a new square as soon as I can, perhaps I should use a stronger yarn next time. I then piled rocks from the quarry in front of it, as large as I could manage.  At the end of our day we scattered peanuts in the orchard at an attempt to divert them away from anything of worth.  Sounds perverse to feed the enemy but desperate times call for desperate measures. Lastly Hero created a trip-wire/badger scarer using old cat collars (complete with bells), some sticky back plastic and a couple of washing up liquid bottles and strung it across the entrance to the lawn.  How can this fail?

We do have a back up plan, there is a slim chance that these cunning schemes won’t work, which is to abandon the garden to wildlife and create a crazy golf course using the holes in the lawn.  We have had some ideas on local themes for the structures which Betsy Bee has kindly offered to make out of papier mache.  We had a brain storming session and so far have in mind a scale model of Lundy Island, The Taj Mahal (this suggestion was from a garden visitor and he obviously isn’t a local boy), Bullpoint Lighthouse, The Landmark Theatre and my favorite, a badger with Josh biting his bum.  I do have to run this idea past the Bosspeople but I can’t see they would have any problem with it.

I don’t know who hired the bus but the garden was extremely busy today.  Some were returning visitors, some locals, some passersby and some who had seen the article about us in this months Coast magazine (plug, plug).  They were the young, the not quite so young, and the downright doddery.  They brought babies and dogs and one couple gave us chocolate biscuits.  All were jolly.  All paid. This eminently sociable day culminated with a surprise guest appearance from the The Brookdales, long distance supporters, and very nice it was to see them.

All Things Bright and Beautiful

“All Things Bright and Beautiful” has been going round and round in my head all day.  Unfortunately in an ironic way; I have been singing it through gritted teeth.  Although it was a troublesome start, conveniently accompanied by cloudy skies, things improved as the day progressed.  The sun came out, I picked up the pieces and got on with the jobs that needed doing.  This naturally meant more weeding, planting, watering and strimming, not necessarily in that order.  Good progress was made and that always means a happy gardener.  Then the tune came back into my head and I remembered ….

For those of you of a delicate nature please do not scroll down to see what the badgers did to the granite trough full of beautiful pansies that were just reaching their pink peak.  All creatures great and small ………

Saxifraga x urbium – London Pride

Much as I hate to drone on about watering so early in the season, at Cliffe we are unaccustomed to this drudgery and it has rather come as a shock to us softy westerners.  Generally once plants have been released from the greenhouse into the big bad world they pretty much have to fend for themselves.  Considering our average rainfall statistics this is not generally a problem, but the unprecedented heat of the last few days has coincided with lots of planting out.  It would be counterproductive/cruel to expect these newly liberated specimens not to have a little after-care so today I did an awful lot of watering.  The terrain (mountainous) is such that it is a mammoth task carrying watering cans up and down steps and only the most needy were attended to.  Black clouds kept forming with the promise of a shower, but they were just teasing as they quickly dispersed without a drop falling.

I don’t have much time for fashion in gardening (some might say it is also lacking in other areas of my life) but I realise that, as in all things, it is inevitable.  This Saxifraga x urbium or London Pride is not considered “on trend” (cringe) at the moment but as drought tolerant plants are “in with the in crowd” this will surely change.  I imagine it wont be long before it is found on the front page of French Vogue or the gardening equivalent.  It has pretty pink flowers held above succulent rossettes and is sometimes called Look Up and Kiss Me which could cause all kinds of fun at the Garden Centre.

Anemone coronaria “De Caen” – Poppy Anenome

I popped over to the garden this morning to check on the greenhouse after the scorching weather yesterday.  Hero returned to the garden Friday evening, as late afternoon it was just too hot to close up and get the babies bedded down for the weekend.  Today everything was fine but a few things benefitted from a quick water.  It is par for the course at this time of year to suffer from seedling paranoia (too cold, too hot, too wet, too dry).  Soon it will pass and life will become a little more relaxed.  Whilst I was there I did a quick tour just to make sure that the badgers hadn’t dug up and discarded any more plants to die a slow and painful death (am I getting a little carried away?).  In my wanderings I came across this Anemone coronaria “De Caen“, the first flower of a group planted in the Family Border.  The badgers had just concentrated on destroying the lawn;  we must be pleased for small mercies.

Tree Watch – Together

The copper beech and the lime stand side by side enjoying the long-awaited sunshine.   The scantily clad lime appears to be in need of a well crafted toupee whilst the voluptuous red head towers resplendent above him.  I am sure the warmth of this lovely weekend will ensure his tonsure is well covered very soon.