Gardening
Workout outside today: a session on my garden’s hedges is at least as good a workout as a session in the gym. Keeps the hedges and me in trim: that’s the hedges less spiky and my upper body and core worked, plus chats with my Keswick neighbours.
Great to workout in such lovely cloud forest scenery! And then off to the council tip to recycle the four bags of cuttings.
Our Christmas Poinsettia, yes from a nursery but a while ago and doing fine at home by following the care instructions plus a plant light. Our family first associated the Poinsettia with Christmas in 1958, when my Father was a Research Fellow at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Latin name Euphorbia pulcherrima, known in France as « Rose de Noël ».
Wonderful deep red to the eye, one of those colours that only looks right in real life, never on a screen.
My cloud forest garden in Keswick is far from dormant this November. A neighbour says the growth spurt is because the council have now stopped garden rubbish collections for the year. I think it’s the rainfall, it’s had more than 310 mm of rain so far this month and growth continues: many late blooms and plenty of snipping to do. Much to enjoy while working in the cloud forest: the little birds are singing while nibbling the lichens and there have been some great sunsets.
More photos: Flowers from the clouds - Lake District National Park
More autumn pruning of my garden hedges in Keswick to trim the spike growth and maintain the illusion that the garden is a seamless part of the Lake District countryside. Protection very necessary against the sharp needles on this Juniperus horizontalis, it smells like Juniper but grows and spreads as rapidly as a Leylandi, except that it stays low.
Read more: Autumn pruning in Keswick - Lake District National Park
Autumn sunshine but past the equinox so time for pruning the Wisteria on my London patio garden. It’s been growing here since the Sixties at least, so deserves to be treated with care and respect; nonetheless it needs pruning hard to control its spread and keep it flowering. Then chopping up and bagging the trimmings.
