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Simply..romantic February 3....

3/2/2023

5 Comments

 
For a few months each year I feel my garden is very romantic. I think abundance is romantic. I have not one white bark birch but ten. Not three or five plants of ox-eye daisies but 25 (so cheap and easy from seed). I really lovee that I can pick big bunches without the garden looking depleted.

Still looking for that floaty dress.

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Nature gives me this romantic effect for free, every year, with wild orchids thrown in too!
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My winter garden however, is not romantic. It looks like mud season here just now!

I used to advise clients and students to plant something special for winter interest at the far end of the garden, something to coax the gardener out on a winter day. Soemthing so beutiaul and exquisitely scented that made it worth the effort.

It is time to take my own advice. I am on the look out for witch hazel, daphne, sarcoccoca, viburnum, winter flowering honeysuckle....suggestions welcome.

We visiteed Anglesey Abbey winter garden on a still day and were intoxicated by the colours and the scents! See here.


Anyone else feeling romantic? What feels romantic to you?
5 Comments

Simply..to fence or not to fence....

24/1/2023

9 Comments

 

The fence between the front garden and the single track road and down the drive has rotted away and I got rid of it before the winter winds demolished it completely. It was the same as this bit which divides the front garden from the back. All the Swedish houses in the row of 12 had these modest picket fences at one time and I like it very much. It suits the house in its rural setting and is suitably simple to my eye.


But..replacing it is going to cost £1000 plus. (This quote is not for the fencing right around the garden but just part of it.)


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I think I have 3 choices.

To reinstate the original design. Expensive, not much maintenance required though I should probably avoid letting too many plants grow over it.
 
To plant a yew hedge instead. It will need cut once a year and is slow growing so will take time to create a sense of enclosure.  Considerably cheaper than the fence. Greener. Aesthetically pleasing once established.

To use shrubs and plants as the boundary. I don't have a dog to keep in, or young childresn, and although I want to keep the deer out they can easily jump a hedge or low fence..

What do you think?


I have so enjoyed visualising where you all live. Thank you!

Please note that posts may be a bit erratic for a few days....


9 Comments

Simply..whatever next?

21/11/2022

14 Comments

 

A herd of wild boar have been creating havoc in gardens in Strachur, a village on Loch Fyne  11 miles to the north of us and word has it they are heading this way! There are about twenty of them. I didn't even know we had wild boar in Scotland!

I wonser if the soap trick works with wild boar..
14 Comments

Simply..oh deer....

20/11/2022

2 Comments

 

Here is the beautiful viburnum plicatum 'Mariesii' in early summer.
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It appeared to die a number of years ago then over the past five or six years floourished again, mysteriously. However there is no mystery as to why it is now a stump. The deer have eaten it!

I don't usually get deer in the garden until spring, or when there is snow on the higher ground and I manage to deter them by putting down bits of strongly perfumed soap (works a treat to protect your tulips by the way).
2 Comments

Simply..not storm proof....

18/11/2022

10 Comments

 

I suspect the decoratons on my wreath  (see this post) are a bit delicate for the front door, exposed as it is to wind and rain.

The wreath itself is sturdy enough but the leaves will just have to take their chance..


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10 Comments

Simply..when it does stop raining....

17/11/2022

2 Comments

 
I have to get out there and enjoy it.
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Coffee for ten in my small sitting room today! Our village Conservation Group got together for the first time since Covid to tidy Coronation Wood and plant lots of bulbs in tubs. It rained. But we are hardy folks, and it was good to catch up and get to know some new residents..

Click on Menu to see the story of Coronation Wood.


2 Comments

Simply..hop bines....

27/10/2022

4 Comments

 


..make a lovely wreath. The days have been pretty wet and grey, but in a sunny spell yesterday afternoon I took apart the yellow wigwam which had the golden hop growing on it and made a wreath with the tangled but still supple stems. You just have to bully them into submission, tuck in the loose ends and leave flat to dry.

I will also press some leaves under the rug to decorate it with later.

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4 Comments

Simply..spectacular....

24/10/2022

10 Comments

 
Is autumn as colourful where you are? If you are in the northern hemisphere that is!
I'd love to know if readers from Australia and New Zealand are still with us...
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10 Comments

Sinply..prunings....

19/10/2022

6 Comments

 

Some large scale cutting back is going on in the garden, and much of it comes into the house for the few days it lasts

This is azalea lutea.

..
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6 Comments

Simply..looking ahead....

12/10/2022

0 Comments

 

I have bought lots of bulbs ffrom the supermarket this year, though Sarah Raven has tupios at 50% off right now (thank you Rosemary). Tempting. You can't have too many tulips..
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0 Comments

Simplt..sweet peas and snow?

22/9/2022

4 Comments

 


The sweet peas are still flowering, and there has been snow in Scotland!

Really.

In the Cairngorm mountains in the north.


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The stems are very short indeed but the scent is still srong.
4 Comments

Simply..press the pause button....

20/9/2022

4 Comments

 
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4 Comments

Simply..the last rose....

5/9/2022

2 Comments

 

Well, hopefully not the last rose of summer as we seem to be having a heatwave! I leave you with this while I take a blog break. May the weather be kind wherever you are.
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2 Comments

Simply..a gentle day....

29/8/2022

6 Comments

 

..in the garden. A very pleasant 20 degrees. Some light weeding and thinking, as gardeners do, of what I will grow next year. Sweet peas Gwendoline and Anniversary, wave series petunias in lime and lilac, lots of gypsophila Covent Garden..

All the meadow areas in the front have been cut and it feels very spacious and calm.

There is a little robin which is becoming quite tame.



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6 Comments

Simply..drawn to the light....

28/8/2022

4 Comments

 

Even when they are dying the dark coloured flowers are seductive.

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They are attractive, and interesting, but I think my summer love aafair with the deep dark tones is over. We are not truly compatible, not at the deepest level...

My heart is always drawn to the light.


4 Comments

Simply..beach life....

17/8/2022

6 Comments

 
..is somewhat curtailed  due to rain, but gardening continutes between showers. I am so lucky to have both. It's been a long journey from a tenement flat in Glasgow with two window boxes! Today I picked the most luxuriant and sumptuous bunch of flowers I have ever picked from any of my gardens.


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With so much warmth and rain the roses were floppy, their bloms facing the ground, so I thought I would cut them to enjoy them better, and also to prune them a bit in the hope that later flower stems will be sturdier. The clumps of agapannthus are so big now that I can afford to pick lots without diminishing the effect in the garden.

I doubt I could afford to buy this from a florist!
6 Comments

Simply..grandasies....

16/8/2022

2 Comments

 
Thank you to Sheena and to Lynne who identified these gorgeous flowers I photographed in Shetland. They are argyranthemum Grandaisy series and I hope to grow them next year.

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2 Comments

Simply..vibrant....

6/8/2022

2 Comments

 
Nasturtium and cornflower.

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2 Comments

Simply..a day's gardening....

5/8/2022

8 Comments

 
The preparation is all-important..
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Charge up the cordless tools - a hedgetrimmer and a small strimmer for edging. I am taking Carol Bruce's advice to heart.  She says  'With the right tools and methods it is not difficult to manage a garden on your own.'  I do get occasional help with the grass and the hedges, but Jim couldn't come  and everything is growing so fast..
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Charge myself up with a protein breakfast.
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Set up the coffee for laer.
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And the hammock!
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I have some pleasant company.
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15 minutes with the lawnmower, 15 minutes in the hammock. I have arthritis in my shoulders but I can get through a few hours this way (I actually use a timer!). Works for me.
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View from the hammock. Every cloud has a silver lining.  It rained in the afternon, so I eased my long-Covid aches and pains with a daytime bath which feels great.


On a different subject, do tell me, has being made to feel guilty ever made you alter your behaviour for the better?





8 Comments

Simply..blue....

4/8/2022

12 Comments

 
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The horse in the second photograph makes me think of a Chagall painting!
12 Comments

Simply..failures....

30/7/2022

12 Comments

 
There have been many failures in the garden this year. I was going to photograph them, but who wants to see slug eaten dahlias, miserable stunted little cornflowers, pathetic trays of seedlings with about 5% germination. I even failed with 'easy' annuals like night scented stock!

The peat free composts available are just waste products, not soil, and I think they may be to blame....or is it just me?

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The very inexpensive little fuchsias from the supermarket have done well and are prettying up the greenhouse and hiding the scrawny and feble schizanthus which are producing plenty of flowers at the end of the straggling stems.

There's always next year!

12 Comments

Simply..back home....

29/7/2022

6 Comments

 
..with warmth and regular rain the garden has grown like crazy! I am very happy with some of the new sunptuous flower colours I tried this year. Breakfast outside while I think about what to tackle that day is a simple pleasure.


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Sweet pea Matucana, rose  Timeless Purple and a few navy blue buds of agapanthus look great in a vase. I brought them indoors and the scent as I write this this evening is divine.
6 Comments

Simply..skywatching....

10/7/2022

2 Comments

 
One baby cloudlet above the meadow.
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2 Comments

Simply..darker....

3/7/2022

6 Comments

 
..and yet darker.
Rose Timeless Purple gets even darker as it matures.

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I think it gives a lovely depth to an arrangement.

It's going to be a treasure.
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6 Comments

Simply..Timeless Purple....

2/7/2022

0 Comments

 
The new rose is as sumptuous and as scented as I hoped it would be.  It's standing up to the rain quite well too, poor thing!

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0 Comments
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    An artist seeking a simpler life - (but not too simple!)

    All words and images copyright Freda Waldapfel 2010 - 2020

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