Tag: Daffodils

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers4 Comments

Signs of spring

Reclaiming Paradise

After all that snow, and various life and family stuff taking over a bit, I am pleased that there are some tiny signs of spring again.  The first daffodils have finally appeared in the bit at the back of the garden that gets the sun: I took the chance of this slight springishness to prune the autumn fruiting raspberries, to bravely, sow a few salad seeds under a cloche and plant out a couple of broad bean plants in the cardboard covered raised bed.  It really is too cold out there to expect much to happen outside but the overwintered … Continue reading Signs of spring

Recycling and reusing1 Comment

Spring connections

Reclaiming Paradise

Today I spent the day unable to focus on very much so was advised to get down to the allotment and do something practical.  So I put up all the guttering and stuff for the water butt.  I’ve been collecting up all the bits of guttering over the last few weeks, some new and some bits of ‘useful’ piping that I’ve had lying about for years. It took ages and it snowed a bit.  When I tried pouring water on the shed roof, it came out in the right places Then I connected everything up using one of those drainpipe … Continue reading Spring connections

Cooking and eating from the garden19 Comments

Daffodils and rhubarb

Reclaiming Paradise

It’s a strange combination I know but it seems to work.  And look down there in the corner, there are some lovely primroses too.  The daffodils are absolutely at their best today.  What’s more the sun was shining at last on this little dark corner of the garden.  The thing about my daffodils is that they come out in stages.  This was wholly unplanned but they start in early March and keep coming until the end of April.  Here are today’s front garden gems: And these ones are still waiting to come out. Today I moved various garden projects forward. … Continue reading Daffodils and rhubarb

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, Why I garden2 Comments

Green shoots

Reclaiming Paradise

I’m in my mother’s garden again.  It seems that spring has arrived. But the thing that pleased me most was in my own garden yesterday.  The clematis alpina ‘Pamela Jackman’ is almost in flower. This has a lovely purple flower that appears just when you need it in the spring. I grow it in my mother’s honour (she is another Pamela) and have been trying, and mostly failing,to take cuttings for years.   Yesterday I had a quick peek in my seed house to see if the broad beans and sweet peas had survived the frost – they had – and look … Continue reading Green shoots

Why I garden2 Comments

Daffodils

Reclaiming Paradise

Ok, life happens.  It’s been another of those weeks.  It would have been my Dad’s 83rd birthday.  I spent it with my mother in a very unplanned way.   If the February flowers belong to me, the daffodils belong to Dad.  So here are some from my mother’s garden, with an elephant: and some more, planted by my mother, near where they used to have a caravan: For Mum and Dad, let the daffodils bloom!   Continue reading Daffodils

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers5 Comments

Swimming in the garden

Reclaiming Paradise

I got into the garden for a little while at the weekend but not as much as I’d hoped. It was very very wet on Friday night and I could have gone for a swim in the garden: but instead I set off on my bike to the local swimming pool:   no – that’s just the cycle path but I did see a blackbird swimming in it and it was great fun to cycle through. On my return to the garden, I moved some compost between the compost bins, pruned the roses and planted out a couple of birthday … Continue reading Swimming in the garden

Why I garden3 Comments

February garden secrets

Reclaiming Paradise

January kind of disappeared in a fog of work and other worries but now it’s February. I think it would be true to say that I haven’t even been in the garden in the last month (apart from putting stuff in the compost bin, letting the cat in and out and walking through the front garden to get to and from the house). Meanwhile the rest of the garden blogging world is making grand plans, sorting out tools, sowing seeds and generally being very busy. I haven’t ordered a single seed or made a single plan but here at least … Continue reading February garden secrets

Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers3 Comments

More spring purples

Reclaiming Paradise

.. and reds and yellows: Yesterday I got on with the big task of pricking out seedlings. I seem to have an awful lot of purple sprouting broccoli and rainbow chard. So that’s next year’s multicoloured spring sorted. I also sowed all my runner bean seeds in paper tubes, ready to be planted out once the cold weather really has gone: and dug my runner bean trench – see last year’s post on how to do that. This year there were no musical scores in the trench but there were some other bits of writing drafts which I’m delighted to … Continue reading More spring purples

Why I garden4 Comments

Winter garden

Reclaiming Paradise

There’s dark corner of the garden that never gets any sun.  I keep my compost bins there but I also think of it as my winter garden.  It is right beside the house and so the first thing that we see when we look out at this bleak time of year.  I keep this is as my special place for plants that flower in January and February.  Sometimes you have to look quite closely to see them: But here is where you will find primroses, a lovely hellebore,  a hamamelis, a camellia in bud but not yet in flower: and lots … Continue reading Winter garden