Ravendale House

Another sunny, if cool day and I did one of my most favourite gardening jobs. Planting things that I’ve grown from cuttings or seed out of their pots and into the ground.

(more…)

Our cat, Dulcie, is quite old now and doesn’t have the best of appetites, so during each day the food she leaves goes outside. Originally it was intended for the local stray cat and the hedgehog, and I know the food I put out after dark certainly goes to those two, as I saw the cat last night and the hedgehog the night before.

(more…)

Today we have tadpoles. Not as many as previous years, and not as many as the amount of frog spawn earlier in the year would have indicated, but we do have tadpoles. The pond level was pretty low, so I carefully filled it up, that’s the second time this year, just shows how dry it’s been.

(more…)

I’m very fond of my garden birds as you know, and one of my favourites is the robin, probably because he’s so cute and so cheeky. All robins are born with the ability to ‘strike a pose’, usually a cute one, perched on the handle of a fork or spade for ultimate ‘ahhhh’ effect.

(more…)

Today my plug plants arrived, 40 begonias and 40 geraniums. First impressions were good, well packed in strong cardboard boxes, 84 little modules. (They send extra to allow for casualties).

(more…)

The flowering cherry trees are an absolute picture at this time of year, I’m so glad Peter made us have white ones and not pink. Against a blue sky they are majestic, trouble is the sky isn’t blue this year, so I’ll just have to use my imagination.

(more…)

As predicted, today was little better than yesterday, so I decided to pot up some of my 126 hardy perennial seedlings.

(more…)

Today was a typical Easter Sunday, grey and damp with tomorrow’s forecast being little better. Good old Bank Holiday weather, along with death and taxes, it’s just about the only thing you can rely on.

(more…)

I’ve finally realised that in a garden of this size there is no room for passengers. (It’s only taken me 10 years!) As a result I now expect my plants to look after themselves to some extent and not expect the mollycoddling they might have enjoyed in the past.

(more…)

Frantic bitter lemon drinking and a rummage in the dark recesses of the garage have provided some more Schweppes cloches, so today I planted out 12 cauliflowers. My idea is to leave them about a week so their roots can get established and them I’ll remove the cloches and cross my (green) fingers, as they certainly are a bit wimpy looking.

(more…)