An Unexpected Visitor

The other day I was happily weeding a flower bed, when I very nearly weeded a frog who was lurking there.  I'm not sure who was more shocked to be honest, me or the frog.  I jumped, he jumped, I jumped even more!

Now, I have nothing against frogs on the whole, as long as they are kept at about a hundred paces.  I certainly wouldn't want to pick one up, so to nearly grab one when weeding nearly gave me palpitations.  I'm really not sure what would have happened if I had been a centimetre nearer but the back of my hand definitely touched frog.  I was actually quite surprised to find it was actually quite soft and warm, not at all what I had expected.  I still wouldn't want to hold one.

I guess I shouldn't have been that surprised to find a frog in a flower bed, I have found one under my bed before, still alive, courtesy of one of my cats.  I left the room in a hurry and called for reinforcements to deal with it.  So why all these frogs in my garden?  I have no idea, as I don't have a pond and there are no public ponds, rivers or streams for quite some distance.  I can only assume that other people in the vicinity have got ponds in there gardens, although I have no idea of the hopping range of a frog.

Having had a quick on the internet, I have discovered that my frog was a Common Frog.  I was slightly disappointed for him.  I thought he would have been slightly more exotic than common.  Who knows, he may have been a bewitched prince.  I wasn't going to kiss him to find out though, trust me!

From Glass to Glasshouses

If you have an interest in art glass, then you may have heard of the glass artist Dale Chihuly.  I have always had a love of coloured glass, although I am usually terrified I will break it!  Last autumn, I visited a small gallery in Las Vegas that had an exhibition of some of Dale Chihuly's work, including some of his naturalistic forms. The Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas also has a permanent installation of Dale Chihuly's glass flowers on the ceiling of the reception area which is well worth seeing.
 

As well as the clusters of flowers, I also love the huge, bright green cactus like sculptures that he creates.   I find it remarkable that something so fragile as glass is put on display outside in public gardens, with sculptures sprouting from the middle of water features or placed amongst the specimen plants.  Some exhibitions have also been staged in public conservatories, one of which was the glass houses at Kew Gardens, London in 2005.  I really wish I had known about his work then, as I would have loved to have seen the exhibition.

More details of Dale Chihuly, his work, permanent display pieces and forthcoming exhibitions are available on his website .... http://www.chihuly.com/home.aspx.  I really recommend you take a look!

 

Spring Is In The Air

Now the evenings are getting lighter again and the temperatures are warming up (well slightly), I am starting to think about actually going into the garden again.  I have to admit for the last 5 months all I have managed is a quick sprint to the compost heap.  Even that was under duress, when  I couldn't shut the lid on the kitchen compost bin any more!

It seems like the winter went on for ages and if it wasn't snowing, it was raining.  Or it was just plain freezing cold.  The daffodils came up a few weeks ago and have stayed the same height since.  They obviously had second thoughts.

Having ventured out the other day, for a half hour tidy, I was quite surprised at how much damage had been done by the frosts.  Pots that I have had for years have taken a real battering and will definitely need to be replaced.  Surprisingly my cabbages and rainbow chard seem to be thriving with new leaves appearing.  I may even manage to eat some this time before the caterpillars appear.

I must admit, I was a bit bored with the lack of colour in the garden now, so I decided to do a bit of instant gardening and plant some red and yellow polyanthus in the metal planters on the fence.  The splash of colour has made a huge difference to the garden.  They are definitely a welcome sight from the kitchen window.  Hopefully the daffodils and tulips won't be long now as well.

  

The Problem With Plastic

Like a lot of people, I am a conscientious recycler.  I always put the paper, cardboard, food tins, plastic bottles and glass out for the recycling collection every week and take my batteries, aluminium foil, biscuit tins, rags and other recyclable items to the local Council waste site.  I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination though and a whole host of food packaging that can't be recycled ends up in the dustbin without too much more thought.  Let's face it, out of sight, out of mind.

A few days ago, I came across an article about the Plastiki Expedition.  The Plastiki is a boat made from 12,000 plastic bottles which is sailing the oceans raising awareness about plastic pollution, particularly in the seas.  Unfortunately, plastic does not biodegrade, once plastic is manufactured, it will always exist - somewhere.  It may crack into small pieces but it will be there, in land fill sites and in the seas.  Apparently there is an area of ocean near Hawaii that has an area polluted with plastic from all over the world that is twice the size of France!  Small pieces of plastic are suspended in the sea and are referred to as mermaid's tears.  Sadly these plastic fragments are being ingested by the marine life.  Needless to say, it is not doing them much good.  A lot of the plastic is tipped overboard from ships but lets face it, we are all guilty of plastic pollution.

So where does this fit into a gardening blog?  Well, plastic was obviously on my mind when I glanced out of my kitchen window.  It suddenly struck me how much plastic waste gardening creates, from plastic plant pots, labels and garden ties to plastic bags the compost comes in.  Whilst I am sure keen gardeners will clean and reuse their plastic pots, most households will no doubt throw them away.  Plastic plant ties are great and can be used again and again, until they snap.  Then what?  They get thrown away.

Brown or black plastic pots really aren't attractive, so it is not surprising that people transfer their newly purchased plants into ceramic pots.  Maybe if the plastic pots came in bright colours they would be more acceptable.  I have got some Thyme growing in a purple plastic pot which I don't mind too much.  We really do need to get away from plastic altogether though and don't even get me started on polystyrene seed trays.

I completely understand the use of plastic.  It is no doubt cheap and certainly convenient, as well as practical.  If plants were sold in ceramic pots there is far more scope for breakage.  Paper labels would be useless as they could tear and would certainly go soggy when wet.  With more packaging being made from corn starch perhaps there is some possibilities there.

Unfortunately, I don't have the answers.  I know one thing though, in future I will try to be far more careful about the garden products I buy and use.  Why use plastic plant ties after all when you can use a piece of string or a old pair of nylon tights cut into strips?

http://www.theplastiki.com
http://recycleplasticflowerpotsandplantseedtrays.com/

Plants By Post

Back in June, my husband gave me a gift voucher for a company called Rocket Gardens.  The voucher entitled me to a compact herb garden mini plant pack.  I didn't really know what it was all about, so just followed the instructions to redeem the voucher on their website and thought no more of it.

A couple of days later, I arrived home to find a cardboard box on the doorstep which said "Plant me, grow me, eat me" on the side.  There's nothing quite like coming home to a parcel, it's a bit like your birthday or Christmas, you can't wait to open it and see what's inside.  Quickly opening the box, I was met by a whole array of baby plants, all neatly  packed for transit.

As I carefully unpacked the plants, I could not believe the variety I had been sent.  I had expected some herbs and herbs I got, rosemary, chives, thyme, parsley, mint, sage, basil and marjoram to be precise.  Not only that, I got various types of lettuce, calabrese, cabbages and rainbow chard.  It was an absolute feast!  Well it would be when they had all grown.

I have to admit it did take a while to plant them all.  As there was far more than I was expecting, I had quite a job scouring the garden shed for pots.  The lettuces ended up sharing but I don't think they were bothered.  As well as the plants, which were all clearly labelled, there was also clear instructions for planting and care of the various plants.  You couldn't really go wrong.

I did wonder how well the plants would do, particularly with my tendency to forget to water for days on end in the summer.  The plants were really healthy though and all thrived, in spite of me.  The only problems I encountered were with the caterpillars which I have already mentioned in a previous blog entry.  Even now in the depths of winter, with a foot of snow recently, the herbs, cabbages and rainbow chard are all still flourishing in there pots on the patio.  The cabbages have made an amazing comeback having been stripped bare by the caterpillars.  Even the calabrese managed a small head despite having hardly any leaves.  I haven't had the heart to eat it!

Looking on Rocket Garden's website, www.rocketgardens.co.uk, you will see that they offer a whole range of plant packs suitable for the window box gardener to allotment gardeners.  All of the packs clearly show the number and variety of plants in the pack, as well as the space required for planting.

The pricing seems to me to be very reasonable for the number of plants and the quality.  Obviously it would be cheaper to by packets of seeds and grow your own from scratch but if you don't have the time or a greenhouse, Rocket Gardens offer the perfect solution.  I will certainly be using them again next year, so roll on the spring!

Christmas Wreaths

During the festive season, like lots of other people, I like to hang a wreath on my front door.  For years , I have been buying a holly wreath and spending £6-£10 each time.  A couple of years ago, having just bought one, it suddenly struck me that I could probably make my own pretty easily and save myself some money.  In the New Year, I simply took the wreath I had bought apart and kept the wire ring base for future use.

Last year, I took the plunge and couldn't believe how easy it actually was to make.  This year, I have done the same again.  Besides the wire ring, which you can easily buy from a garden centre, recycle from an old wreath or make yourself, the main material is foliage.  If you have a garden, you can simply raid the shrubbery, if not, there is plenty of free holly and ivy in the countryside.  You don't even need very much.

I used the shrubbery in my garden and decided to use mainly honeysuckle and mulberry. The honeysuckle is really useful as it is in long, flexible tendrils.  I'm sure someone somewhere will tell me that they are not traditional or have the wrong connotation in Victorian flower language but it's my wreath and I will use whatever comes to hand.  That's the joy of making your own, you can use whatever you like!

When I had stripped the wreath in January this year, I left all of the wires in place, together with the bow and pine cones which were on the wreath when I originally bought it.  Leaving them on not only saved time but also offered anchor points for me to thread the honeysuckle into.  I only roughly secured each piece as I planned to tie it all in more securely at the end.

Having covered most of the base in honeysuckle, I then added the mulberry.  I quite like the speckled leaves as well as the different leaf size and shape, I think it adds more interest.  It is worth remembering that if you do decided to use holly, wear gloves so you don't get prickled.  That's another good reason to raid the shrubbery!

Once I was happy with the foliage, I wound a long piece of gold tinsel around the wreath.  Not only does it give a bit of sparkle, it is also really useful for tying in the foliage securely to the wreath and also hides a multitude of sins if you have stalks and gaps showing.  Finally, I jiggled the bow and pine cones into more prominent positions and it was ready to hang on the door.

Winter Wonderland - Again!

I can't believe the garden is completely covered in snow - again!  It only seems a couple of months ago since the last lot.  To be fair it was 10 months ago but still, so soon?
 
I have to admit the garden does look lovely when the snow is undisturbed and a thick carpet.  Not very practical though.  The cats peer out the door and don't want to go out.  They seem to develop bladders of steel.  We end up digging paths for them from the door to the bushes which they then happily trot up and down.

As for the poor birds, who knows what they make of it all.  It really makes you realise how important it is to leave food for them.  My garden was a veritable bird buffet this morning.  Pigeons were lined up on the fence, a whole flock of blue tits were feasting on the peanuts and seed.  They were swiftly joined by a robin, dunnock and even a magpie pecking at the fat filled coconut shell hanging from the shed roof.