Posted in Fun, Garden, Vicarage, tagged Alys Fowler, fashion, garden, skirt, Vicarage, Wellies on 10 June, 2010| 4 Comments »
I did some gardening at the weekend. To make sure I got it absolutely right, I tried to dress like Alys Fowler. But I only took a piccy of the skirt and wellies, as I’ve a long way to go to grow my hair and make it look all Pre-Raphaelite. I need to dye it red, too.
I’m sort of hoping that if the seeds see the look, they’ll behave as they would for Alys, but I may be being wildly optimistic.
Posted in Garden, Vicarage, tagged American gooseberry mildew, garden, gardening, gooseberries, gooseberry bush, mould, pruning, Vicarage on 26 May, 2010| 4 Comments »
I’d been getting all excited about our gooseberry bush. It is bursting with green berries. I had visions of gooseberry fool and pickles and pies and all sorts of yumminesses. And then this afternoon I saw it. MOULD. On the end of nearly every fruit-heavy branch.
What a sad waste - I hacked off about 100 berries
It seems that we have American Gooseberry Mildew. Just like the Yanks, coming over here and ruining our traditional summer desserts. So I went and hacked the plant back, following advice on websites, although it looks like I might be a bit late – you’re meant to do that in the winter. I don’t know if this will stop the spread this year, but I’m going to watch it like a hawk now. Mostly the advice said to plant resistant bushes. Not much good if it’s already there.
Anyone else inherited a gooseberry plant that was mouldy? Will I get any fruit this year?
Posted in Garden, Vicarage, tagged Children, garden, Kids, playing, snowdrops, spring, Vicarage on 8 March, 2010| 2 Comments »
Whilst I was away on a fab conference last week, the weather went all spring-like. This is normally an indicator of sprouting snow drops and daffs, of nesting birds and budding trees. But here in the Vicarage, Spring is heralded by the chirupping of the front door bell. Especially on Saturdays.
When I answer the door, I am confronted by two, three or even four hopeful looking little faces:
Can we come and play?
And so I’m dusting off the garden rules (no one in the garden if they’ve not said ‘hello’ to me, only one bouncer on the trampoline at a time, your mum must know that you’re at the Vicarage etc) and counting heads and enjoying (usually) happy squealing. And that’s it for the next eight months or so, with brief intermissions for bad weather. Now, where are my gardening gloves?
Posted in Garden, Kids, vicar, Vicarage, tagged Children, garden, Kids, quiz, Vicar's wife, Vicarage on 16 June, 2009| 2 Comments »
More blooms are appearing in the Vicarage Garden. Since this blog got tweeted yesterday, lots of new people have been visiting the Vicarage and I’m hoping that some of them are gardeners.
So, after success with the last identify-a-flower game, here are some more mysterious plants that I’d love to know the names of. Once they have a name I think they are less intimidating. Though I still only really get gardening when there are so many kids in the garden that I think there’ll be an accident unless I supervise.
Yesterday I failed to go out and my kids had a major blow out with each other cos the trampoline was full and the Queen wouldn’t let her brothers on. And there were only seven children in the garden – this is a low number for our garden. Ten is my must-supervise number.
Posted in Vicarage, tagged borders, flowers, garden, gardening, names, shrubs, Vicarage on 2 June, 2009| 10 Comments »
I am a gardening ignoramus. I know nothing about plants at all. And now I am (jointly) in charge of an old-fashioned garden with proper herbaceous borders filled with pretty flowers that are coming out in an impressively sequential manner. I don’t know what any of them are and I think it might be good to know. At least if I know their names I might feel like I was vaguely in charge.
So here are some pictures of some of the current garden beauties. If you can tell me what they are I’d be very happy.
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