Christmas Nearly Over

I think its been a good Christmas! The Musa family have had 3 days of entertaining (and probably drinking far too much!) and today are relaxing and recovering before going back to work tomorrow.

The picture on the left is a rare photograph of me, taken yesterday whilst I was out surveying the acres. And yes! I can now get out in the garden because we have had the new back door / window fitted!

Today, the ice on the pond has started to thaw and I’m pleased to see that Wattle, my goldfish, looks well, as does the herd of minnows.

For Christmas I got a new weather station as my current one is beginning to lose its LED display. I also got a new Manfrotto tripod for my camera and it really looks professional (unlike my photos).

I employed a theme of environmental conscience and recycling for my presents to Mrs Musa. They included a necklace made from electrical resistors, a necklace made from recycled magazines, earrings cut from the backs of old tea-spoons and a bracelet made from a dinning fork. These may seem strange but, in fact, look fabulous. I could tell that Mrs Musa was impressed!

 

The cold weather has meant that we have been able to keep bottles chilled by putting them outside. This relieves the pressure on our over-stocked fridge. The photo on the right shows a bottle of bubbly being kept chilled on an outside table. I added some snow around its base to ensure coolness. (I also added a glass for effect!)

It is too early to know what damage the exceptionally low temperatures have caused to plants in the garden. I’m keeping positive though.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally . . . . Happy New Year to all the mad people who read this blog!

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S

Merry Christmas to all the readers of The Musa Blog!

Also . . . . . .  Merry Christmas to Wendy and Kevin - Hope you have a good one!

Rob

Festive Pineapple

As promised, here is a photo of my decorated pineapple, pictured as the centrepiece of a festive table decoration:

I’ve decorated the pineapple in traditional manner with baubles and lights – I’ve not used tinsel as this is perhaps a tad OTT. The pineapple is set within a discreet and tasteful tableau of 2 Father Christmases (is there a collective noun?),  2 festive clockwork gnomes, 2 festive clockwork snails and a festive glass reindeer candle holder. I think you will agree that this decoration will give a certain air of sophistication to any Christmas table without being too garish. If one’s guests prefer a livelier table decoration then both Father Christmases can, at a flick of their switches, dance and sing, one of them is even sound activated! Of course, the gnomes and snails could, once wound, roam about the table to the delight of all. But – it is the pineapple that really steals the festive show!

Give someone you love a pineapple this year

Christmas Gift Ideas

 

It’s getting very close to Christmas and for all Musa Blog readers here are the Top 2 Musa Gift Suggestions:

1) An Electronic Weather Station

I’ve owned one of these for the past 10 years and I look at it every single day of the year. These ‘Weather Stations’ show the barometric pressure, humidity and temperature and usually indicate if each measure is rising or falling. The really cool thing is that they have a wireless temperature sensor for outdoors, this means that you can check the outside temperature from the comfort of your kitchen (or wherever you place the main unit). A ‘Weather Station’ is a particularly good gift for anyone vaguely interested in gardening. They can be bought from most electrical retailers and prices typically range from £20 to £45.

2) A Pineapple

This is a great gift idea! A pineapple is cheap; available in all supermarkets; it’s weight makes it an impressive gift when wrapped.

Did you know? . . . . . Pineapple is the only edible bromeliad!

A pineapple is multi-functional and has 3 main uses:

• It makes a really good Christmas decoration and is a good substitute for a tree. (I’ll post a photo of my pineapple when I’ve decorated it!)
• You can eat it.
• And . . .  after eating the pineapple, it is possible to plant the topknot and grow a pineapple plant! Another great gift for the gardener! Of course, it needs to grow indoors but can be put outside in the warmest summer months. The following are details of how to grow a pineapple plant, I must admit that I got these details from the web and now can’t remember from which site, so apologies if I am breaching copyright. Also, I’ve never tried this myself.

 

1 Pick a pineapple with a healthy green topknot. Cut this off about 2cm from the top of the fruit.

2 Trim off all the fleshy fruit and cut around the base to leave the clean central core surrounded by leaves.

 
 3 Carefully peel away leaf after leaf to reveal a length of stem. This is where the roots will develop from.

 

4 Finally, trim the base of the stem neatly, just below the leaf scars, removing all the white stem tissue

5 Fill a pot with gritty compost, then position the topknot in the centre, firming more compost around it.

6 Place it in a warm, bright position to root. New leaves will soon form in the centre of the topknot.

Christmas is coming . . .

Temperatures have been down to –12 in my garden. I fear I may have lost my Tree Ferns, palms and lots of other stuff. Getting to work has been challenging in the snow. I’m on leave today as I had arranged for the patio doors to be replaced today and I’ve just learnt that the fitting company’s vans are stuck in the snow! So – I still can’t easily get out into the garden. I just hope that the plumber that is also due to come today will get here and fix our downstairs loo.

BUT . . . . .  Christmas is coming and I’m quite excited! I also love the snow! I went to the pub last night and on the way took a photo of the snowy scene in our town (below). I also took some photos on the way home from the pub when the snow was deeper but these turned out rather blurred?!

Snow, snow and more snow

Temperatures here in Musaland have been so low that the night-before-last the water pipes to the house froze. Luckily I managed to thaw them and restore the water supply without the pipes bursting.

This blog has been rather quiet for the past 2 weeks, the major reason for this is that the sliding doors to the back-garden have broken – that is the sliding mechanism has broken. I can only get access to the garden by going out the front, down the drive, opening the garage and then going through the side-door of the garage. One has to really have a major desire to get to the garden to go through this process and in this weather, it all seems too much! Never mind, on Tuesday we have new doors being fitted at a cost of over £1,000!

Yesterday’s snow was of the sticky variety and it stuck well to the branches of trees. I thought it worthwhile to take a photo of the snowy trees and a forlorn looking pigeon Of course, the photo was taken from indoors as I can’t get out into the garden.

Fighting the University Tuition Fee Increases

 

This is not about gardening.

The ConDem Coalition Government decision to increase university tuition fees will have the effect of denying thousands of young people access to a university education. Of course, the rich will be alright, they already have the greatest access to the top universities via the public school system. The role of the Liberal Democrats in this is shameful and I’m afraid just confirms that they have no real policies or principles of their own.

I suppose I have more cause to be concerned by the rise in tuition fees than some. I have one daughter just graduated (and got a job) with a debt of £20,000 and another daughter aspiring to go to university in 2 years time. I feel sad that despite my efforts to help them financially, they start their adult lives with such debts even before the word ‘mortgage’ is mentioned..

It is no surprise that students and young people want to exercise their right to protest against the tuition fee increases. What is unacceptable are the police tactics!! It is horrific that in our so-called free society that the police are being used as an arm of the government to brutally attack young people on our streets. Charges by mounted police into the crowd of demonstrators, use of batons and ‘kettling’. All this against a crowd that contains many schoolchildren as young as 15.

The Metropolitan Police use of the media is also unacceptable. Their press releases are misleading and seek to cover the truth of their brutality whilst putting all the blame on the protestors. It is also disturbing that police riot officers cover their I.D. numbers and thus take away any opportunity for people to take legal action against individual officers.

I hope the students and young people will have the courage to continue the protest. I will be putting my gardening gloves to one side and joining them!

Am I angry? Darn right I am!

Snowy Gargoyle

On the wall of the garage, I have a sort of gargoyle thing made of some sort of cement.  The face is about 12” in circumference and he usually peers out through a mixture of ivy leaves and fig branches. The recent snow has given him a fine crop of white hair! I think it suits him!

Snowy Night

Temperature down to –7! However, I braved the sub-zero temperature in order to capture some images for this blog. It helps that I have some low-voltage lighting in the garden but still it is a long wait for the exposure time the camera needs in low light. The exposure times were approximately 30 seconds but that seems a very long time when it is so cold outside.

The first image shows the olive tree, Miscanthus and Tree Fern. The tree fern’s snow-covered fronds have produced almost an igloo (see previous post):

The next photo shows the Fascicularia bicolor covered in snow and lit by one of the garden spotlights. I thought it looked very strange but now I think it just looks like a clump of snow-covered grass! Oh well!

Finally, you may have read in this blog about my small, temporary plastic greenhouse – Well, I keep a small frost-guard electric heater going in it (probably costs me a fortune in electric bills), the effect of this is that the snow on its roof gradually melts and forms icicles around the edge of the greenhouse roof. I tried to take a photo of these last night:

Snow on the Dicksonia

 

It’s been very cold for the past week or so and now we’ve got snow. So much snow that I can’t get to work and have to work from home. Although working, I can’t resist the temptation of a wander around the garden. The Tree Ferns fronds are weighed down by snow and have created a sort of white parasol:

I tried taking a photo from inside the Tree Fern parasol:

Frosted Fronds

It has been a very cold night! Down to –6 !

There is no snow here – yet! But it is set to remain very cold for at least the next week. The photograph below shows one of my Tree Ferns with frosted fronds. (Frosted Fronds . . . . .  could be a name for a breakfast cereal). The crown of the Tree Fern has been stuffed with fleece and I hope this will help it survive.

-3 Degrees

It is 8:00 pm and -3 degrees outside. For this time in the evening and for November - this is very cold! Although I've completed the task of protecting my plants as much as possible, I wonder if this could be the end for some of my more tender plants that usually survive the winter without protection.

• Is this the end of tropical gardening for me?
• Is there anything I could do more?  I think not.
• Should I just go to the pub?
• Yes!

RADIO MUSA

 

I've added some tracks to the music player gadget on the sidebar of this wonderful blog. I like a wide range of music but had real trouble in trying to think of tracks that I like enough to add. So much trouble that I don't think the chosen tracks really reflect my music taste  . . . . . But . . . . Hey Ho!

Really, I'm playing with this gadget. But . . . .  Perhaps also fulfilling a deep desire to run a radio station? As a teenager, I loved the pirate radio stations that operated from ships and old anti-aircraft forts in the Thames Estuary.

Anyway, these are the first tracks added to   'Radio Musa'   . . . . . . I might add some more!

By the way . . . The best radio station EVER is Radio Paradise – follow the link:

http://www.radioparadise.com/

Preparing for Winter

 

With the weather forecast to be getting colder, there were still a lot of jobs to be done on the Musa Ranch before the onset of winter. Luckily the weather stayed dry this weekend and, I’m pleased to announce, most of the tasks have been completed.

The compost heap was dug out and that yielded lots of black, crumbly rotted compost that was spread as a thick mulch around the garden particularly on the areas of poor soil and around more tender plants. The wooden sides of the heap had themselves rotted and so had to be rebuilt using anything to hand including an old door. With the structure complete, the top layer of the old heap was put back in and it soon filled as leaves and remains of plants were added. I always feel relieved when the dreaded task of digging-out the heap has been achieved as it is hard work but most of all because it gives space for the loads of other material that will come from the garden over the next few weeks.

Another task achieved was the wrapping of the banana stems with fleece. I wrapped both the Musa sikkimensis and Musa sikkimensis ‘Red Tiger’ in several layers of fleece and I hope that this year it does the trick. Fleece was also stuffed into the crowns of the Tree Ferns, this form of frost protection has worked well over the past 2 cold winters.

Above: One of the Musa (banana) plants just before being wrapped in fleece. The dead leaves were removed and added to the compost heap.

I also dug-up and potted some of my more treasured Colocasias and put these into the small, temporary, plastic greenhouse which is now completely full. I no longer worry about the basic Colocasia esculenta as they seem to survive quite well in the open, indeed, they are even mildly invasive.

Other tasks included raking the leaves from the lawn and clearing the pond of fallen leaves.

As I said, the small, temporary plastic greenhouse is now full. I have had to leave some of the Ensetes in the ground as there is no room for them.

Above: The dying leaves of an Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’ which will have to take its chances outside as there is no room in the inn or the small, temporary plastic greenhouse. (The leaves of the Hosta look good)

The garden looks better for a good clear up and we are nearly ready for winter.

Above: The Fatsia japonica continues to flower well. The photograph taken before I cleared the fallen leaves.

Dobrodošli na obiskovalce iz Srbija, Hrvaška in Makedonija na ta blog!

 

Добродошли на посетиоце из Србија

Dobrodošli na posjetitelje iz Hrvatska

Добредојдовте на посетители од Македонија

 

Nedavno sam posjetio web-Svet Biljaka koja je vrlo zanimljiva i ljudi koji koriste web-mjesta su vrlo prijateljski. Mislim da su neke od njih možda su posjetili ovaj blog, a ja samo želim reći hvala i dobrodošli!
Ja sam ne siguran što jezik za pisanje ove u, ali su odlučili iskoristiti moje najbolje Hrvatskom!

 

The website Svet Biljaka or in English ‘World of Plants’ covers the region of Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia. I found it because I noticed that there had been quite a bit of traffic from that site to my Flickr photos. Since then I’ve got into conversation on their plant forums and the people are very interesting and welcoming. The above is my attempt to write in their language!

There is a link below to their site but if you click on the ‘English’ tab on the site’s menu, you will be taken to an English version of the site that is completely different and, I think, not as good.

http://www.svetbiljaka.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=15141/postdays=0/postorder=asc/start=15.html

Refugees

The small, temporary, plastic greenhouse is starting to fill-up. So far, it is mainly occupied by Ensetes (bananas), Aeoniums and Colocasias. There are a couple more Colocasias to be dug-up and these will join the refugees but I had hoped to dig-up and add some more of the large Ensetes but I fear there is no more room for them. They will have to take their chances outside but will almost certainly not survive. Things will not be that great for the plants that have managed to win a place in the small, temporary, plastic greenhouse. It is a damp and overcrowded refuge at best but it will also be cold, the electric heater is set just to avoid frost. Today I will wrap the large Musa bananas in fleece, fill the crowns of the Tree Ferns with dry fronds and/ or fleece and cover the succulents with plastic propagator lids.

I wish all my plants good luck over the forthcoming winter and hope to see them safe and well next Spring!

 

 

 

Left: The refugees of winter

Black Bamboo

I worked from home this afternoon and the sun was shining! The garden looks a mess and this weekend I must do some tidying work. But the Black Bamboo, Phyllostachys nigra, looked good in the sunshine – so I had to take a photograph:

The clump is now about 12 feet high and I continue to take out some of the oldest, thinnest canes each year to try and keep it open. I also remove the lower branches so as the canes can be seen. Last winter caused a lot of the foliage to shrivel in the frost, I hope this winter will not be as bad.

Can’t Get No Inspiration

 

But I did take a photo from the dining room looking out into the night garden. There are various reflections including palms, cannas etc in the garden, table and chair in the garden all mixed with reflections from the dining room – including a blurred me.

Lacking Inspiration

Apologies to all my ardent readers for not having added any new posts over the past week. Truth is that I'm finding it difficult to find inspiration! Of course, I'm now in the situation of dark when I go to work and dark when I come home. I needed to do some work in the garden this weekend but as it has mostly been raining, I've opted to do work work - that is my Monday to Friday work. I reason that by so doing, I can, with a clear conscience, take a day's leave when the weather is dryer and get some garden jobs done.

There are 3 pressing tasks:

1. Cut down dead growth in the borders to allow for mulching.
2. Dig out the compost heap and mulch.
3. Dig-up plants like Ensetes and Colocasias and put them in the small, temporary, plastic greenhouse.

Anyway, inspiration will return soon  (I hope)

English Trees by Crowded House

The Blog Musa is proud to announce the arrival of music!

It has taken me days to figure out how to do this BUT to the right you will see what looks like an iTouch player. Clicking on the play button will / should play the Crowded House song 'English Trees'. I love this song and think it is very apt for this blog and for this time of year.

Crowded House are a great band and I was lucky enough to see them 10 years or so ago. They hail from New Zealand and Australia and are probably best known for the track 'Weather With You'.

English Trees is a track from the album 'Time On Earth' released in 2007. It is said that the song has references to the tragic death of Crowded House drummer, Paul Heston, who took his own life 5 years ago. I'm not sure if that is the case - I just know it is a beautiful song written by Crowded House singer / songwriter Neil Finn.

The player (to the right) is rather dominating and I will only leave it there for a few days. I might use a smaller version or remove it altogether until I think of another track I want to share. I hope it works OK also I'm not sure it will work in all countries.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy the song!

UPDATE 3 Jan 2011 - The track English Trees by Crowded House is not currently available on the music player, I guess that is because it has been deleted from You Tube. When / if it becomes available again, I will put it back on.

Fig Tree - November

 

My fig tree has now lost nearly all of its leaves and the bare branches just carry the fruit that failed to ripen during the summer. The branches and figs look a little sad silhouetted against the November sky.

Above (Fig 1) Fig Tree in November

I grow the variety Ficus carica ‘Brown Turkey’ planted up against the wall of the garage. It is said that to get a productive fig tree that you should restrict the roots by lining the planting hole with some sort of impervious product. Mine is planted into virtual rubble and I hope / think that this achieves the same objective. In this country, planted outdoors, figs will only produce one crop a year unlike if grown under glass or in warmer countries where 2 crops are achievable. This is why, as you will see in the above photo, my tree has a lot of figs that will now not ripen. These should ideally be removed leaving only the very small pea-sized embryonic figs that will produce next year’s crop if they survive the winter.

Our crop varies from year to year, the number of figs harvested depends on whether the birds or maybe squirrels get there first. I could protect the crop from birds with netting but then . . . .  I don’t much like figs"!

Above (Fig 2): A nearly ripe fig produced on the Musa Estate

A Bit More Information . . .

The Fig is not exactly a fruit, the so-called fruit is, in fact, a cluster of flowers held within its skin. The flowers are pollinated by small wasps, each species of fig has a specific species of wasp able to enter the ‘fruit’ through the small opening at the end of the fruiting body. I believe some species of fig are also pollinated by ants. By the way, cultivated figs such as Brown Turkey are able to produce ripe ‘fruits’ without pollination, which is useful as the required species of pollinating wasps are not present in the UK.

So,  Ficus carica is not able to set seed in the UK. However, there are wild fig trees growing along some of our river banks in England! It seems that these wild fig trees are the result of germination from seeds contained within sewage pumped into the rivers. The seeds must originate from imported dried and fresh figs and have passed through human digestive tracts. It is also likely that germination had been aided by higher water temperatures caused by the outflow of industrial cooling waters as these wild fig trees tend to be found along the banks of rivers passing through former industrial areas. Most of these wild trees are now very old and I hope this signifies that we are no longer pumping sewage into our rivers or industrial cooling water.

I believe that California has a problem with the invasiveness of Ficus carica introduced to that country but but that is not caused by the above reasons as I understand they are trying to eradicate the relevant pollinating wasp to control the spread.

I find the subject of the cultivated fig interesting as it has many historical connections to the ancient civilizations of Greece, Rome and Egypt, an interesting botany and, of course, several biblical references. I don’t think there is a book currently in print on the subject but I will have a browse on eBay.

As an aside . . . . I used to notice tomato plants growing on the high spring tide mark of a bay nearby. These plants also germinated as a result of sewage being pumped into the sea. I’m pleased to say that this no longer occurs  . . . . .  or perhaps I just haven't looked lately!

Above (Fig 3): The fig tree in summer

I like my fig tree for its structure and leaves with prominent veining. I’m not keen on eating figs but I like having the tree around!

Bonfire Night

 

Youngest daughter had some friends round for November The 5th. They had no fireworks but seemed happy to sit round a small bonfire made in our trust BBQ burner, listen to music and watch the fireworks of other houses. I would like to have joined them but I guess I’m too old to mix with a group of 15 and 16 year olds!

 

Our trusty barbeque was bought many years ago from Homebase for £35. It is solid cast-iron and I like it a lot. It is used for cooking (mmmm  sardines!) but also just to burn a few logs and bits of wood from the garden. It lives in a corner of the garden next to the pond and has a bench and some old chairs around it. It’s a good place to sit and contemplate, even better when the fire is alight on a chilly evening. And even better with a glass of wine!

Above and below: The trusty BBQ – Nov 6th

Fatsia Japonica

 

I’ve been working from home today so took the chance for a stroll round the Musa acres. I noticed that the Fatsia japonica shrub has started to flower and how intricate the blooms are.

Above: Fatsia japonica flowers

Fatsia japonica is also sometimes known as the False Castor Oil Plant (the real Castor Oil Plant is Ricinus communis). It is a well known houseplant as well as a garden shrub. It has very large, lobed, glossy, leathery leaves and is evergreen. It hails from Japan and flowers, in my garden, in November with creamy-white balls or umbels of flowers, these are followed by black fruits.

The most useful thing about Fatsia japonica is that it grows well in full shade and is perfectly hardy. I’ve grown mine for the past 10 years on the north side of a high fence and in the shade of a large fir tree. It is now about 6ft high and I doubt if anything much else would grow in such deep shade and the poor, dry soil caused by the tree roots. True, it does suffer a bit from the poor soil and lack of moisture, I do try and give it a mulch of compost and the occasional watering in the summer.

Above, Fatsia japonica in my garden, November 2010

I think I will  try and give it a bit more care and attention next year as it is a fine plant that looks quite tropical. The appearance of my plant is rather marred by the splashes of bird poo on the leaves, the overhanging fir tree has a large population of birds including doves.

 

Below: a couple more images of Fatsia japonica taken today:

Autumn Leaves

 

The clocks have gone back, it is now dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home. I think that’s why I use garden spotlights, because otherwise I would never see the garden Monday to Friday. I have been quite depressed about the onset of Autumn and Winter – the loss of the light evenings and warmth. But . . . . .  now the clocks have changed and it is definitely Autumn / Winter, somehow I feel happier. I can accept the cold and dark, appreciate the misty, frosty days . . . . enjoy the colours of Autumn and the, soon to be, skeletons of trees. I’m also looking forward to the garden being largely clear of its summer lushness and being able to get more distant views. I think . . . . .  I might . . . . like Autumn / Winter!

Here’s a quote:

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
Albert Camus

The lawn is now getting covered in leaves and the garden is looking very autumnal:

The once tough-looking Hosta ‘Frances Williams’ is looking like a very old person – a bit wrinkled and wizened but very colourful and full of character:

Hosta la Vista!

So . . . for some reason I feel very positive and I’m going to scuff my way through the fallen leaves to the pub tonight! . . . . It is KMS!

Pond Puncture Repair

 

Unlike the Titanic, the hole in my liner was able to be repaired. It was a muddy and wet exercise, digging down through the almost liquid mud at the side of the pond to reach the hole that had been created by some idiot (me!) spiking it with a garden fork. Needless to say that despite my carefully selecting likely products at the shops yesterday to repair the whole, these were not the right products for the job. Having located the hole, I messily squeezed silicon filler in and around it and backed this with tape that did not stick. Somehow, the silicon filler appears to be holding.

The pond is now full again and my goldfish, Wattle, looks less worried.

Below: The repaired and replenished pond, 31 October 2010

Halloween Party

The youngest Musa decided to invite a few friends round for a Halloween party. My initial concerns when permission was sought for this party were – House full of 16 year olds – Drink being taken – Devastation – Pestilence – Pillaging and Plunder!   Then I thought . . . . . It’s a good excuse for Mrs Musa and I to go out for the evening!  Permission was granted.

Prior to disappearing to the pub I helped prepare the house for said party. My job was exterior decoration and mainly involved candles and jam jars. We decided to get the skeleton out of the closet and I arranged its head and hands to give the impression it was rising from the grave.

As can be seen from the photos above and below, the skeleton is emerging from a patch of alpine dianthus next to Echeveria runyonii 'Topsey Turvey'. I added a flower to its hand for added drama and pathos.

I think I’ve said in a previous post that I like candlelight in the garden. For the party I attached a small glass candleholder with a nightlight to the top of a stem of Arundo donax (the Giant Reed). I did this by bending the stem down to reachable level and then allowing it to spring back to vertical, thus I had a candle 12ft in the air. Great!

The party seemed to go well and the house was still standing when we staggered back from the pub. The only slight disappointment was that I had not been able to watch Kevin’s Halloween party on his webcam (see earlier post). I did see the start of his party - it is very strange to be the fly on the wall.

Teucrium fruticans

I’m very pleased that my Teucrium fruticans has found a new lease of life. It had seemed almost dead a few months ago and I cut it hard back. But now it is storming back and flowering.

Above: Flowers of Teucrium fruticans taken today (30 Oct 2010)

Teucrium fruticans common name is the Shrubby Germander or Tree Germander. It is an evergreen small shrub of the Mediterranean area with aromatic grey-green leaves that are silver-white underneath. It’s small blue flowers are said to appear in summer, however, my plant will flower at any time of year.

I find Teucrium fruticans a rather lax and sometimes untidy looking shrub but this may be because it faces a lot of competition from surrounding plants and it really prefers full sun. The less than perfect situation may explain why it flowers at all sorts of times through the year. I particularly welcome its flowers in January, sometimes amongst the snow.

Above: The haze of blue flowers in January 2007

I’m not sure, but my Teucrium fruticans may be the variety ‘Azureum’. I must get better at keeping the names and varieties of my plants!

Above: Close-up of flowers, January 2007

New Format

I've applied a new format template to the blog today. Not sure yet if I like it or if it needs tweaking? The main column for posts is wider, only trouble is that the photographs now don't share that width. Oh well! I'll live with it for a while.

Halloween

Kevin, in a comment to this blog, wrote:

Getting ready for the annual Halloween/bonfire party this Saturday, been cutting up all the old wood I have collected since last year to burn on a small bonfire and the chiminea, it’s amazing how much they go through. Every year I say no bonfire as it annoys me looking at the large perfectly round brown burned patch of earth in the middle of my lawn, but the kids know how to read me, after a few glasses of wine they start on me and sure enough I’m out there with my chain saw cutting up wood, so this year I have decided to play it safe and prepare in the light and sober.


The kids are all getting older and apart from my oldest (20 year old) my youngest, nieces and nephews still carve out pumpkins, then burn all my canes on the bonfire. A few fireworks, my amazing chilli (even thou I say so myself) a few sausages and burgers for the kids on the bbq, what ever puddings my aunty, mum and sister decide to make/buy, my wife’s promise of an apple, rhubarb and ginger crumble and a few bottle of red I’m looking forwards to a good evening.

Keep an eye on the webcam, ww.com/keving3

Happy Halloween and a safe bonfire night to all.

Dark Evenings

The clocks haven't gone back yet but already it is dark by the time I get home from work. Almost too dark to wander around the garden, too dark certainly to potter. This weekend and the clocks changing will mean even after an early work finish, it will be too dark. November is probably the worst gardening month, although I enjoy bonfire night and an excuse to burn some of the woody stuff and broken fence panels. December has the build-up to Christmas and it should be dark and it should be cold. Often we travel to my sister’s in France for Christmas and New Year and that is something to look forward to and to plan for. This year we will be at home and I’m thinking of garden lights both electric and candle powered. By Christmas the evenings are just beginning to get gradually lighter and I count the days to the 7th of February. Why the 7th Feb? Because that is the date that sunset has got around to 5:00pm and heralds the possibility of leaving work in daylight!

January should be cold and dark like December and it should have snow and it should have ice and I should not put my hands in my pockets when walking to the pub! I walk to the pub down a dark path next to a stream. In winter the path can be very icy and not much used. I have to remind myself  to keep my hands free of my pockets as I reason that should I slip on the ice I would not be able to use my hands to break my fall and if injured I could lie on that path a long time before anyone would be likely to find me. 

But February brings lighter evenings and the promise of Spring!

Just got bloody November to get through! We  will survive on red wine and lots of books.

Cold Night Coming

It’s 9.00pm and the thermometer, just outside the house, shows just +1 here at the Musa Acres. It is a still night without a cloud in the sky and I reckon it could the temperature could drop a lot more before dawn. Perhaps I should have moved more plants into the small, temporary, plastic greenhouse?

An even more serious problem is that it is K.M.S. night and that means I will have to make the trek to the pub. KMS stands for ‘Keep Mondays Special’ – a few friends and I meet up at the pub on a Monday eve. I shall have to seek out my scarf and gloves as it will be a cold walk. I wonder if the rest of the KMS crew will brave the icy conditions? On a brighter note, the weather is set to get a lot milder . . . . But wetter. Oh well!

Bonsai – Ginkgo biloba – At night – By candlelight – And a pig

I was given a bonsai tree about 10 years ago. It is a Ginkgo biloba ( the Maidenhair Tree) tree and it lives in a tiny moss-covered bowl of soil, the same soil and pot for the last 10 years. It gets shoved around and put in some out-of-the-way places and lives outside sometimes in sunlight, sometimes in shade. Every now and again, I re-discover it and it gets pride of place for a while. I re-discovered it today and placed it on a table outside the backdoor. It is sharing the table with a candle lantern and a wooden pig.

I’ve never been attracted to Bonsai and sometimes I want to release this poor tree into the garden and give it a chance to reach its full potential – to spread its roots – to grow a trunk – to have birds nesting in its spreading branches. But today, I like it as it is. I like pigs and I like candle-light. So, the following photograph is not a good one of the Ginkgo but the pig looks good!

October Night Garden

Fuelled by a pre-dinner gin & tonic and bottle of wine with the boeuf bourguignon – and feeling pleased with earlier completing the erection of the small, temporary, plastic greenhouse – I thought the garden looked quite good, so I stumbled outside to take some photos. The following photos show the Olive Tree, Miscanthus sinensis ‘Malepartus’ and Tree Fern (Dicksonia antarctica) lit by the garden spotlights. Also there is a rather odd shot of a candle lantern with a gargoyle next to it (sorry about this!).

The Small Temporary Plastic Greenhouse Is Up!

Always, as Mrs Musa calls it, a landmark day in the calendar – the small, temporary, plastic greenhouse has today been erected! I always require the help of Mrs Musa with the erection as I find it difficult to do alone. It is a daunting task! You start with several dozen different lengths of tubular steel and a large piece of plastic sheet. Today we got the thing up in record time and somehow got the right lengths of tubular steel in the right place first time. Hooray!

Of course, ground preparation takes a bit of time, I have to cut-back the climber, Solanum jasminoides Variegata, I put these cuttings through the shredder before composting. There is a slight problem with the small, temporary, plastic greenhouse in that mice, in the garage where it has been stored, have chewed through some of the guy ropes and even chewed 2 holes in the plastic cover. I think the mice have gone now, they had found the garage quite a luxury pad as we had stored there some of my youngest daughters old soft toys with the intention of giving them to charity. Some of these toys had been stuffed with dried beans and, of course, mice enjoy the odd bean or two. The soft toys are gone now and, I hope, the mice are too.

So far, I’ve only put the Aeoniums in the small, temporary, plastic greenhouse, I think the other stuff will survive the weather for the next couple of weeks despite what looks like being a cold night tonight. Tomorrow – I dig-out the compost heap – another landmark day!

Coming soon . . . The Definitive Guide to Overwintering

AND . . .

The wonder technology of garden webcams with a profile of Kevin’s cam (Kevin is a frequent contributor to this great blog)

After The Frost

The night before last was a very cold night for this time of year and I think there was a slight frost last night as well. The frost has killed the leaves of many of the Colocasias:

Above: frost damaged Colocasias

Below: the frost also caught the Bananas – both the Musas and the Ensetes

Below: Musa sikkimensis leaves look quite sad

But all is not lost! The Colocasia will survive and I will eventually get round to saving some of them in the temporary plastic greenhouse. Some of the Ensetes I will also put in the greenhouse but I need to dig these up and that is an easier job once their leaves have died back. The Musas will stay in the ground and I will eventually wrap fleece around their stems – this doesn't always work!! The Tree Ferns are OK and will be fine for the next few weeks and then I will cover their crowns with dry fern leaves and / or fleece.

I’m planning on posting some more specific ideas for overwintering Bananas, Tree Ferns etc. I will include the comments already made to this blog by Kevin and Jon but it would be really good to have more ideas / advice please.

As I said, all is not lost – this morning the tall grass Miscanthus sinensis ‘Malepartus’ looked really good in the early sunshine with a Tree Fern behind it:

. . . . and even some of the Colocasias and Ricinus still looked good:

Above: Amongst other stuff are the shiny leaves (with some frost damage) of Colocasia Fontanesii