I left a lot of dead annual plants standing over winter instead of clearing them away. Found lots of ladybirds hibernating in them and then as soon as spring arrived the garden filled with them so they were ready for the aphid onslaught on my fruit trees. The ant farmers are loosing this year! Normally they’re well established by the time the ladybirds arrive. Keep your gardens messy! #gardening
If you find yourself in the greater Seattle-Tacoma area this weekend and you're interested in cool plants, come to Blue Poppy Day at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden. Meconopsis 'lingholm', the Himalayan blue poppy, is renowned for its incredible color--and is famously difficult to grow. This place has just the right conditions, and they have thousands! They also have hundreds of species of rhodies in bloom. #gardening #bloomScrolling #PNW #seattle #Tacoma https://rhodygarden.org/events/blue-poppy-day-2024/
Happy 39th wedding anniversary to my partner in the garden and best friend, @SusanRollinson
To my Lilly of the Valley from your dandelion. Looking forward to the next 39! 😀 #gardening #allotment #anniversary
I noticed some of the compost in a few of the herb pots was raised today. Assumed they'd been nudged accidentally or the cat had investigated. But this evening I noticed a pale yellowish lump in one and it's a mushroom! There's one in another too.
I did not plant mushrooms. Wtf? Can I eat them? How did this happen?
When we moved in last autumn, an old rose grew up the holly (left trunk), along with brambles & sycamore maple saplings. Red rose hips dotted the holly, thick rose branches hung down to grab anyone close. Love this year's new growth, so thinned most of it out, leaving 2 old stalks, as well as the mature sycamore (right trunk), since I'm not a lumber jack. Hoping the new growth will skirt the trunks while the rose hips do what they did last year. #gardening@gardening
The loropetalum started blooming in early spring before its cousin, the witch hazel, & is continuing to bloom as we head through May. Such a great shrub. #gardening@gardening
It’s always interesting to find out what’s shaped a garden - personal taste, visits to other plots or, as in the case of Charingworth Court, a holiday.
I’ve been out to this Cotswold garden ahead of its open days for the National Garden Scheme and discovered a touch of Japan.
Everyone is talking about this NPR story about USDA hardiness zones shifting. It's a great story and the shift is real and it's evidence-based. But a couple things about USDA zones:
It's based only on the minimum winter temperatures and nothing else. For example my new zone is 9a, which is the same as a lot of Georgia. My climate is nothing like Georgia except for this one statistic.
1/2 #gardening #ClimateChange https://apps.npr.org/plant-hardiness-garden-map/?name=Seattle&state=WA&lng=-122.351538&lat=47.619335
The removal of the tomatoes from the greenhouse benches gives us room to get the first planting of sweetcorn (Flagler) started. We put 5 seeds to a pot and 32 pots make a row. Once those are big enough and the weather warm enough they will get set out in to a row and another planting will be started. We try to have 2 weeks between plantings to extend the season. Last year we brought ~ 230 ears of corn to the table. #gardening #allotment #zone6b #NewEngland #BeetBear #Today #sweetcorn