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April 2022
It may look lovely but April can only be described as a month of destruction in our garden… It began with the apple step-overs. One of the first things we planted when we arrived at Crofton over 20 years ago, this is an old espaliering technique where you cut out the leader at the first pair of lateral branches so it is low enough to step over (hence the name). It is only small garden area, one we walk past daily and yet had slipped beneath our view over the years, until now… To be honest the makeover was fuelled by an idea that had been brewing for a while.…
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March 2022
March rolls in with cool mornings and evenings, which means the watering frenzy is slowing down, thank heavens. Despite this, the garden is not really slowing down, the Lasiandras are starting to flower as is the lovely Plectranthus ecklonii. The Crocus and Colchicums are nearly at their best. Even more exciting, the bulb catalogues have started to arrive. There is nothing like buying plants by mail. The impatient waiting, the fear they may be left in some post office somewhere too long, the excitement on their arrival. Bliss. We made some purchases from Tesselaar this time – Cottage Gladioli Mix for cut flowers, Tulip Turkestan because it’s an unusual shape…
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February 2022
It did not bode well for the month of February as we stood staring at the snapped trunk of the Robinia ‘Frisia’ mop top. We had planted it the week before in a nicely protected spot, making heartfelt promises of watering it daily so it could survive the end of Summer. It was a bit whippy, so we staked it in the proper manner at the base. ‘That should protect it from the wind’ we declared. We failed to consider the possums. In our defence, possums are not high on our list of priorities. They run about the roof having fun at night, they did nibble one of our Oak…
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December 2021
Well, December has come and gone. We had quite a bit of rain and it’s been cool so the garden is looking ok. This is evident by the generous growth on our Cercis ‘Forest Pansy’ and Cornus collection, who usually have started showing signs of crispiness by the end of the first month of Summer. Earlier in the year we planted a hedge of Hydrangea ‘Blueberries and Cream’, one of our better moves. Unfortunately, we forgot that it is near a group of Clivias, orange flowering ones. Not the best combination. They were given to us by a friend and at the time we were grateful. We would never have…
