Tag: gardening

Six on Saturday is a weekly meme originally hosted by The Propagator but now in the tender care of Jim at Garden Ruminations.

This week has seen another dry spell so it’s watering cans at the ready again. There’s no end in sight to the hosepipe ban until, Thames Water inform us, there has been a substantial period of rain. That means months, not weeks. Of course if we get that we won’t need to use a hosepipe anyway…

One – A very hungry caterpillar chomping away on the leaf of a rose bush. A search online reveals it’s the caterpillar of the Grey Dagger moth.

Two – A fuchsia I thought was dead has turned out to be very much alive. I don’t know the variety as it was a gift from a neighbour who doesn’t do labels. To be fair, she probably told me and I’ve forgotten.

Three – I have a lot of crab apples to clear before I can do anything with this border.

Four – Very baby carrots. I haven’t grown carrots for years and they’ve really struggled because of the dry conditions. Taste good though…

Five – A clump of penstemon, some dead and some alive. It kind of sums up this year…

Six – The cream, highly-scented flowers of Elaeagnus ebbingei. It’s alive with bees at the moment.

Do check out the posts of other participants by following the links in the comments section of Jim’s post. If you fancy taking part yourself but don’t know where to start, here’s the participant’s guide.

Six on Saturday is a weekly meme originally hosted by The Propagator but now in the tender care of Jim at Garden Ruminations.

No sooner had we been celebrating the arrival of rain than it’s disappeared again, at least here in the south of England. It would do wouldn’t it just as we’ve installed two additional water butts to collect water from the guttering on the new potting shed. Any sign of rain, I’ll be rushing out to check how much they’ve harvested.

One – I don’t think I’ll need to be sowing borage again next year as there are already loads of seedlings.

Two – ‘Bishop of Dover’, the final of the three dahlia varieties I grew this year, has finally made an appearance. All the dahlias are growing in raised beds in our south facing front garden so I haven’t yet decided whether to risk leaving them where they are or lifting and storing them.

Three – I thought the squash had given up when it produced two fruits that have already ripened nicely, but it had other ideas. This fruit is growing rapidly and if we get enough sun just might ripen too. It’s another plant growing in our sunny front garden in a raised bed. I’m planning to turn over one of the four raised beds completely to vegetables next year. Courgettes and squash are the front runners.

Four – A bee enjoying the flowers of Sedum spectabile ‘Autumn Joy’ as much as I am.

Five – Suddenly the rosemary is blooming again.

Six – Cyclamen hederifolium are popping up everywhere at the moment.

Do check out the posts of other participants by following the links in the comments section of Jim’s post. If you fancy taking part yourself but don’t know where to start, here’s the participant’s guide.