This wintertime ’s weather is turning out to be a bit of tease . We experience a short spell of cold , then it ’s back to mild again . When it does get frigid , my garden escapes the hoar , even if cars in the street are encrust with ice . The winds gets up for a few hr and then calm descends once more , unlike last yr when it shove along for weeks on end . I am not complaining ; indeed I am very felicitous for benign conditions to reign until spring . Alas I suspect they might not .
The biggest irritation this January has been the dull conditions . deficiency of winter sunlight is is a major challenge for houseplants . Even in my garden room , which is sufficiently bright for nine months of the twelvemonth , many plants are start to face a fiddling sallow . Feeding and watering is not the answer . They but need to be kept on the teetotal side and gratuitous from gadfly and diseases . Whitefly , greenfly and red wanderer mite can become a concluded pain in the neck if leave uncurbed .
This weekend The Beau and I sequester two wire plant supports to the back wall of the garden room . They are sold as wall artwork and have a very likable rust finish . I had flirt with a system of eminent - tensile wires , but decided this would not be cosmetic enough , so saved up and buy two handcrafted wire roundels instead . The largest is over a metre in diameter . I may add a third in due course . While I source appropriate climbers I have attach a few airplants ( tillandsia ) to the wires and go for they will enjoy the conditions . I am wondering whether orchid and staghorn ferns might be appropriate companions in due course of instruction .
Outside , The Jungle Garden is celebrate tight hold of its unripened Mickey Charles Mantle . This is quite usual for the time of yr . I savor the comparative simplicity of The Jungle Garden in wintertime , not to mention the generous quad . Just three month ago there was hardly room to swing a cat in front of the home . A glazed great deal fill with magenta - flowered Cyclamen purpurascens provides the only focal point and can be relied upon to continue doing so until narcissi and tulip take over in March . The brilliant flowers blind to a plummy - purple colour as they fade : I rive them off on a regular basis to ensure that more stick to .
In my pots , three living quarters of which are still sheltering in the workshop , there are sign of aliveness . Little green duck - bills labour up through coarse guts in search of light . As they appear I stand the heap out of doors and make certain they are kept watered , but not waterlogged . It will only be a matter of week before flowers begin to look in earnest . Before that there will be snowdrops and miniature irises , as well as a handful of early daffodils .
Meanwhile a break from physical horticulture is doing me good , resign up time for book purchasing and reading . I enjoy trawling the book on Amazon that are being sold off for £ 1 – a great opportunity to piece up old and specialist titles that one might otherwise have miss out on . Recently I was very happy to find a copy of Nori and Sandra Pope’sPlanting With Colour , as well as Roger Phillips’Herbs . Both arrived this week in mint condition , arrant books for browsing in front of a roaring fire whilst the impulsive weather makes up its mind . TFG .
Share this with others:
Like this:
Categories : Container gardening , Flowers , Foliage , House Plants , Our Coastal Garden , Plants , weather condition
Posted by The Frustrated Gardener
