Gardening
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
Great to be greeted by large flowers on one of the cacti in my balcony cactus garden in Marseille. Probably a variety of Echinopsis, maybe Echinopsis Formosa.
- My Marseille cactus garden
- Up-potting my Marseille cactus garden
- Weeding my cactus garden
- Cactus show time
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.
Lots of strenuous work in my garden in Keswick now that it’s the time for trimming and pruning. The meadow has had its cuts, firstly the strimmer, then the Flymo a few days later; That was a struggle so next year it would be better to cut earlier. And time to trim the hedges now that this year’s fledglings have flown the nests. The hedges are mostly accessible from ground level now, which saves the bother of a ladder and is safer for me.
More photos: August trim time - Lake District National Park,
