It was all about the weather

As I write this it is chucking it down as it has most of the year.
I have spent most of the year either squelching about in the mud or mouldering inside waterproofs.
We were lucky though as the driest month - October is when we took our only holiday of the year.
Gardening has taken a back seat this year to moving and starting new jobs.
Wincanton did not prove to be the best job I had - the biggest problem was the rabbits.There was a wire fence round the plot but it had great gaps all underneath which the owners would not accept  the rabbits could dig under.Even the mesh over the top was big enough to let blackbirds through so everything was at risk. The slugs were the worst I have ever seen and the damp weather made sure that the potatoes got blight. So not a happy place to work as all the blame was pointed to me.I found out later that the previous gardener had a gun and a terrier that he often used to leave in the vegetable garden all night.This and the fact that the rabbits had just recovered from a very long bout of mixamatosis had made my debut very difficult.The last straw was when they cut me down to one day a week for the rest of the winter until the middle of March.
Luckily I have found a new job at Stowell only a couple of miles away which will be all year round and will not interfere with Milborne Port or Mere which although affected by the rain still had a very good year.
As a Christmas present I got James Wong's book The Homegrown Revolution which names many plants that I did not realise were edible - such as the tubers of dahlias.This together with other delights such as tomatillos and goji berries will fit into our new garden well.It has given us a renewed enthusiasm which I think will get stronger when I start at Stowell.

 The first two pictures are at Milborne Port,then Mere and lastly our garden at the embrionic stage.



At Mere I planted thousands of tulips and narcissi which I am looking forward to seeing in the spring.This is essentially a large town garden, easy for me to keep to quite a high standard on one day a week especially as I go all the year round. Milborne Port is a stunning Manor - I look after the roses and the herbaceous borders for the wonderful owners who most weeks ply me with eggs and produce from the garden - the garlic from there this year was superb. I look forward to going there as everyone is so friendly.Dahlias did very well this year.I have grown from seed all the bedding plants for the pots and a huge quantity of delphiniums 'Pacific Giants' which will be going out this spring when I have cleared one of the borders.

I am really looking forward to 2013 ! Happy New Year.

I thought I had posted a blog here from my phone - back to the drawing board!

The excuse has been the weather

I know it has been a long time but apart from moaning about the weather not much has been happening. I have been busy its true, but it has been more of a steady grind than an enjoyable time.
The weather has been relentless but I suppose it has not been as disastrous as for some people in this area.Just once, when I was working at Rimpton was it a bit dodgy getting out of the village. The wet weather has meant more than too many slugs and not a brilliant harvest of anything really.
The very good news is that there are to be some changes for next year. I have finished at Wincanton which was too far to go and the relationship with the owners was not the best. They just would not accept that the rabbits were getting in everywhere and destroying everything - no a rabbit cannot get under a two inch gap under the fence and why would they eat all our vegetables when they have acres of lovely grass to eat! The trouble is the rabbits are just recovering from a prolonged bout of mixamatosis - for the last ten years they have been very little trouble but now they are back with a vengeance.They had already cut my hours and wanted me to do more next summer instead.
The really really good news is that I have replaced Wincanton with a job three days a week all the year round at Stowell a village just outside Sherborne about five minutes away.I beat off stern opposition to get this job and I am very much looking forward to starting.It is a formal garden very much like Brewham with loads of topiary which I have discovered I am good at. They have every new piece of machinery available and there is no penny pinching. I will be in charge and can get as much labour as I need so I think I will be looking for an apprentice.
My other jobs at Mere and Milborne Port will stay the same as I love going there and I would not let them down as they have been very good to me and they are lovely and challenging gardens.I will also fit in my less regular but still enjoyable jobs at Rimpton and Purse Caundle - maybe jobs for the apprentice eventually.
My last job at Wincanton was to prune all the old pear trees which were in a sorry state. At least my last job there was a good one as my memories are mostly of sloshing around in the mud and trying to keep the slugs away.

We have now gone into Christmas mode enjoying all the events in Sherborne.Yesterday the Town Band played carols as I was doing my Christmas shopping.It was a lovely day and I popped into the Digby Tap for a noggin on the way home.Today we are going to the French Market and hope to get lots of goodies for Christmas treats.I promise I will post again next week.

Mellow Fruitfulness

The weather is a bit drier now and become a normal summer. The consequences of this is that all the plants are catching up.In desperation I sowed a third crop of runner beans that shot up and now are being harvested and if anything are better than usual.
Mere has been the only place that just has not been too affected by the weather and I put this down to all the care that has been put into preparing the soil.All those loads of well rotted manure that I dug in during the winter and the underlying well drained chalk meant that it was only the cold that slowed plants up.It is true that even here the slugs took a terrible toll but we were still able to put on a good show.The plum tree is a good example - loaded with fruit but at other places I work virtually nothing.It being a sheltered town garden did help.Wincanton is exposed and prey to every predator this country can throw up.Milborne is in a notorious frost pocket and the others are probably down to lack of preparation.
The new phase has now been completed as I have traded in my beloved Mini for a sensible Peugot Diesel Estate which has loads of room for all my gear.It is also given us more room for when we go on holiday (not long now) it is only £20 a year road tax and 60 mpg so it should also be cheaper to get around - but not as much fun! I am just an old bloke now in a sensible car - I must have grown up at last.At least I have got a hangover this morning although it was mostly Pimms and white wine- my goodness what would my young self thought of that.I also have to admit that it was not much of either to get me squiffy.

We did the most fabulous walk yesterday along behind Sherborne Castle and over the hill that faces our house - this has gone down on record as one of my favourite walks,I will get some photos posted next week when I can find the camera!!

Its Show Time

You could predict that the weather would turn really nasty with the timing of the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show on Wednesday and true to form there were pictures in our local paper of stoic folk in the mud trying to look like it did not matter, but for small local businesses it must have been the last straw as at least half the people that were going to go did not bother.
I took the day off as it was so bad and sat at home and watched the weather do its worst.
At work it was spent re - staking plants that have grown taller than expected and getting to gripd with the bindweed which has been bad this year.

It is so satisfying when you find that a plant you have moved has done well and enjoys its new space. At home we put quite a few of the heucheras that we bought with us between the side of the house and the garage a shady funnel of a place and they look brilliant.At Milborne Port I moved a canna that had been stuck at the back of a border and got swamoed by anything else in a pot at the end of a walk.In the pot had been some hostas that had not liked the full sun and always looked toasted. Both look incredible now.

You can tell its the summer holidays

What I love about August is that the roads going to work each morning are so quiet.Apart from the odd combine sneaking out while it is quiet.There is nothing worse than one crawling along on a busy afternoon with a dozen irate and increasingly impatient drivers in its wake.The trailers that move the straw and grain around are worse as they seem to be in just as much of a hurry as the rest of us, indicators are for wimps must be their motto.

The battle with slugs continues unabated they do seem to be getting bigger and are becoming more desperate to get at young shoots.   I now know why they are so attracted to new plantings - apparently when you handle them you bruise them and the smell they give off is nectar to slugs, that will explain why self seeded plants do not get the same damage- obvious when you think about it.
The Olympics are coming to an end and normally I would be glad but they have been pretty good this time, done in the usual stylish British way. Even sitting outside our Post Office in Sherborne basking in the glow of our local boy who won a gold in the shooting made me feel patriotic, something I am not normally inclined to do as patriotism usually means dying for a cause in some senseless war but this - thank goodness, is a bit different.We did quite well which I hope will stand us in good stead in the very uncertain future where I feel we are going to need all the friends we can get.

Dry at Last

It has not only been dry it has been very hot. I managed to cut the big yew hedge at Milborne Port but the effort was soaked in sweat.There are loads of little box topiary features which are taking me an age to trim but they do look brilliant when they are done.I am amazed at just how quickly the muddy ground turns to hard dry soil and just how quickly the plants catch up. At Wincanton I have grown quite a few pumpkins which have sulked for weeks but now they are romping away and with a bit of decent weather should catch up very quickly.

The alpines that I managed to get for our garden are now beginning to grow and with a bit of time this weekend we will get planted.

Summer at Last

It finally stopped raining on Wednesday.I had a clearing up job to do at one of Linda's friends whose daughter is getting married on Saturday.It poured with rain nearly all the time I was there.I had the luck of cutting the grass first before it got too heavy.It looked great when I had finished and the weather has been superb this weekend.
I am suffering a little from a hangover this morning as we had our first outside supper this year. The shorts got an airing and I made some homemade pesto and linguine and a nice bottle of French red hit the recycling box.We watched Bradley Wiggins clinch the Tour de France which has been brilliant this year and plotted and planned our garden for the umteenth time.I managed to get quite a few alpine plants from a cottage garden I have been renovating that is going up for rent so they wont miss them.We are planting these on the steeper bits to tie in the edges.Sedums ,houseleeks and some lovely phloxes.At last I was able to get out with the weedkiller and tidy up some of the dandelions that make up fifty percent of the garden.

We went to the Sherborne Art Club exhibition but there was nothing there we were desperate to buy apart from a Purbeck scene that had already sold.I think we have buyers remorse after spending so much on the Fiona Gordon Abbey painting that is sitting in our lounge.We have derived so much pleasure from it after admiring her work for years and cannot believe that we have bought one of her originals.

The weather has improved so much the hot air balloons are overhead again lets hope it stays the same until December.

I think it is lack of motivation that is making me so lazy in posting blogs.This is entirely due to the weather. I have been moaning about the cold and damp and the slugs but the weather has made the actual day to day working pretty miserable.
Yesterday I went to Wincanton to discover that the potatoes had blight - the most widespread and bad as I have ever seen. At Rimpton the roses are really suffering from mildew and at Milborne Port most of the roses have not even flowered going straight to that brown papery stage.

Last week I went to the RHS show at Hampton Court and quite frankly was underwhelmed - it was the only fine day and the plants were not used to it and were wilting under the pressure. I also think that economic pressures meant that only the biggest (and less interesting) nurseries were exhibiting. The show gardens were a bit uninspiring (or was it me) I think all the effort had gone into Chelsea and had now run out of steam. David Austen put on a good show and I think all the other rose exhibitors in that marquee were also rans. I think if I see another 'outside room' I will scream. I saw some interesting plants though the 'verbena rigida' will bee one I will try and there were some very unusual colours in the achilleas.I just love the gladioli in the picture - I have already ordered some.
I cannot grumble really as the trip to Hampton court was a present from a client and I have just added a lovely new client right in the centre of Sherborne with a very pretty walled garden. I just have to find the time to fit it in on a regular basis.

I have my own personal rain cloud

It has been another week of constant rain but  Friday was the  the worst. It was windy and threw down horizontally at times all day. I was asked to dig up some new potatoes and the hole I was digging was filling up with water faster than I could pick out the spuds. The potatoes were quite a good size, amazingly - probably the only thing that is growing well this year.On the way home as soon as I started climbing the hill out of Wincanton I could see the road was getting gradually drier. Sherborne had had the odd light shower but mostly had a good day. The weather forecast that evening showed nothing but a clear sky so how come I got soaked all day? Very strange.
I have been putting my new hedge trimmer to use this week - at Mere I was able to trim all that was needed from a short ladder - but boy is that tiring work.The garden looked great for the garden party they had last Sunday - it went very well by all accounts - I had loads of compliments.
At Milborne Port the garden is looking superb but the wet weather is playing havoc with the roses which is a shame as the winter pruning has spaced them out well and the bud formation was nice and even.The pots have come on well even though I have had to practically coat them in slug pellets. I sowed a nice thick row of wallflowers ready for the winter pots.
The wet weather has put me off doing any gardening at home but on Friday my main job was renovating a garden of the cottage the people at Wincanton bought next to their own to rent out. It had been empty for some time and the house has undergone a major refit.The garden was an overgrown jungle but once I had cleared all the brambles and nettles there were loads of unusual plants particularly alpines.Apparently the house had been owned by a man who had worked for the Forestry Commission for years and had collected plants on his travels.On Monday I am going up there armed with pots and compost ( I have permission) and will also take as many cuttings as I can. I am very interested in the alpine pinks which look absolutely fabulous and will look great in our garden!There are also loads of alpine sedums which will knit in the slope near the garage.

Typical Summer?

The lasy two weeks have been pretty awful - not only rain but high winds that have caused a fair bit of damage.Thank goodness I am a stickler for staking everything.It has also been cold which means things like carrots and peas have just sat there and sulked.
At Mere it has been very busy getting the garden in shape for a garden party today for which,mercifully, the weather looks good.It meant that I was cutting hedges last week in high winds and rain - not easy and even a bit scary at times.I must say the garden looks pretty good now though being on a chalky substrate it dried out very quickly.

At Milborne Port I have been waging war with slugs - all my early dahlias which are now flowering have been beseiged with the blighters and quite a few of the self seeded nicotianas have disappeared. Luckily I am growing on more in the greenhouse for planting out as soon as they are big enough.They will replace the tulips and wallflowers that have been such a huge success this spring.

Jubilee Weekend

With the arrival of the long weekend I thought I would get a nice rest - no chance.B&Q took a battering as we got a kitchen unit to fit in the garage some curtain poles and then we went to Wincanton to buy a plate rack and another shelving system to finish off the kitchen. We stopped for a quick coffee ( and for me to put up the plate rack ) and then went into Sherborne for the carnival and Dorset Arts Week we ended up buying a painting from a delightful artist www.katechidley.com which we cannot decide whether to hang in the bathroom or the bedroom.
My main projects were installing the new rainwater butts which I have done and installing the new arbour which I hope to make a start on today.
Considering we have barely started on the garden I think it looks very full of colour.

The trouble with all this work is that there are too many distractions, during the week we were watching helicopters from nearby Yeovilton rehearsing for the Jubilee flypast ,hot air balloons and various carnivals.This afternoon we are going for a picnic at Pageant gardens to listen to local bands and look at more venues for the Arts Week.

This is almost a live blog as I have come in for a breather. I started early as it is so hot,although even at eight thirty it was too warm. I have been digging out the stump of the huge tree at the bottom of the garden which fell down during the winter,luckily into our garden. It had been taken over by ivy to such and extent that not only had it killed the tree but the weight had dragged it down. I have been pecking away at it for months but Linda stopped me doing too much in case there were any hibernating hedgehogs in it. We know we have them as we have seen the droppings.I had to chop it into pieces with a pickaxe as the saw got stuck too easily. I was going to borrow a chainsaw but that would have been equally dangerous and I was not sure if there was not heavy duty wire grown into it which would have been very nasty to deal with, it had been part of the boundary and I had already had to cut down old metal posts and wire that they used in the sixties.I remember cutting an old tree down when we lived in the Cotswolds and it had a fence wire growing right through it - the chainsaw spat back at me and twisted my wrist and I was lucky that that was all it did! Ever since then I have followed safety rules to the letter.The gap left by the tree is where the new arbour is going.

At Milborne Port I finally got all the dahlias out and this week will concentrate on getting the pots sorted. At Wincanton I am having a full scale war with the rabbits which ate all the tops off my sunflowers. I ordered some more netting to do a new strawberry cage which I will finish this week.

The weather has been cold and changeable and we even had a frost on Wednesday which was a bit cruel.I was watching people wander away from the Garden Fair at Sherborne a couple of weeks ago with pelargoniums and all sorts of tender plants and at the time I was wondering whether they would harden them  off or just plonk them out and let them shiver and sulk for a few weeks.The lady next door to me called me round to have a look at her pelargoniums (ooh missus !) it was sun scorch as I suspected - you would have thought that at 85 she would have known that by now.
The most prominent flowers this week for me have been the aquelegias - I just love them and all the gardens I look after have loads of them so I will be digging up a few seedlings soon for our own garden.

This next week looks as if it will be warmer so I will be opening the greenhouses and planting out most of the tender plants. At each place I have been bringing them out to harden off so next week will be very busy.

I have decided to return to blogger as wordpress has just got too buggy and awkward to use I am sorry I ever went away.

The weather has been atrocious over the last couple of weeks but all my gardens are responding to the addition of copious amounts of water by greening up almost instantly. This also includes the weeds which are infesting nearly all gardens,particularly bindweed, which appears to be the number one problem.The Milborne Port garden has been in cultivation for at least two hundred years but still is full of bindweed and ground elder - in my opinion there have been some very lazy gardeners over the last  few years as it is not a huge area to cover.The same at Wincanton which also has a couch grass problem as well.The top picture is at Milborne Port where the wallflowers and tulips have been a huge hit with the owners.
At home we are now making progress with the garden - we bought some feeding troughs very cheaply and they are now going to double as herb garden (pictured) and as vegetable gardens further up the garden.We have also bought a seating arbour which will go at the top of the garden so that we can sit and look over at the castle but that is stored in the garage until we are able to get round to it !