I'm coming back!

I've let this blog go for a little while because I've been too busy.

However, I'll be back soon, especially now the weather is less winter-like and thoughts turn to those green shoots bravely pushing their heads above the ground - look carefully and you'll see them everywhere.

Thanks for visiting anyhow, we've been getting a few hundred hits without posting, nontheless.

See you soon!

Green Fingers are Good for your Health

As reported in 'Hello' magazine, Mind (a leading UK mental health charity) is calling for people to get outside to guard against the winter doldrums. Gardening expert, Rachel de Thame is quoted as saying 'At this time of the year it is vital that we all take advantage of the theraputic  effects of the great outdoors and look after our own mental wellbeing'. 

Mind has developed ideas as to how we can all get off our butts and build some 'eco-therapy' into our lives.

http://www.mind.org.uk/ecominds

Their website reports 'Research shows that those who are more active have a greater sense of wellbeing and have lower rates of depression and anxiety. Even simple activities like taking a stroll in the park, or doing some gentle outdoor exercise can have big benefits for our mental wellbeing.  Improve your mental health by getting outside into nature.'

To further motivate you, they have an outdoor activity picker.

http://www.mind.org.uk/ecominds/activity_picker

So, get out there into the garden or local park or square, feel the sun on your face, maybe the rain on your head and the wind in your hair.  Enjoy!

Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.

Albert Camus

" Designing a garden is a bit like having an affair with another man's wife: you have an intense relationship, knowing that at some point you will have to leave" 

"Gardening should make you happy"

James Alexander-Sinclair
http://www.blackpitts.co.uk/blog/

Just read an interesting interview with this outspoken garden designer in the magazine 'Gardens Illustrated'.   Lovely magazine for dreaming.  Great photos.

Hanami

or 'flower viewing' is the traditional Japanese custom of viewing flowers, namely cherry blossom.  The blossom forecast, a little like the weather forecast begins in February and aims to forecast the optimum day for wiewing the cherry blossom (sakura), which depends on the weather conditions.  Blossoms peak only for around one or two weeks.  Outdoor parties  where special food and drink (particularly sake) are served, are held in celebration either in the daytime or night (a night time hanami is called yozakura, literally 'night sakura').  Lanterns are also hung to light up and decorate the parties.  It must be wonderful to see huge numbers of people celebrating the natural world.  Literally thousands of people fill the parks to view the blossom. 

Elder people prefer the plum blossom parties as they are less crowded and noisy than hanami.

I've been receiving regular updates from a Japanese woman living in Tokyo.  She's been sending daily reports about life in Japan after the earthquake - the numbers of lives that have been lost, the people living in gymnasiums or schools because they have lost their homes, the levels of radioactivity in the tap water and she paints a bleak picture of the aftermath although what does come shining through is the spirit of the Japanese people, their stoicism and ability to get on with life under terrible conditions.

Here's wishing all the survivors of this terrible disaster some peace and a chance to enjoy the cherry blossom again sometime.

This was taken in Parc du Bercy.

My front garden :-(

We're getting connected to the sewers.  It's messy, muddy, dusty and there's rubble and workers everywhere.  I've been growing, pruning and caring for a box hedge surrounding the garden for 7 yrs and I have two robust slow growing bamboo plants that had reached a good, bushy size.  One morning with workers swarming over the garden, digging deep deep holes = garden destroyed, plants pulled up and tossed aside, even the robust bamboo.  I was pretty sad when I got home.  Nothing I didn't, in my heart of hearts expect, but the brutality was all too much.

After the hole was partly filled, I was able to partly save the situation by replanting the bamboo and even the hedge is partly back in place.  They were only out of the ground for 48hrs and even then they were resting in a huge mound of soil. but who knows if they will survive.  I'm watering a lot hoping to get the roots established.  Unfortunately there's also a whacking great grid in the midde of where the garden used to be so some creative solutions need to be found.  Here's some photos of my 'malheur'.

Christmas past.......

In the Bleak Midwinter

I love this haunting Christina Rossetti poem and really enjoyed singing it at school.

Whenever I see the bare tree branches and the cold winter skies behind them, I think of the title and the bare branches add to the cold, chilly winter feeling, making me shiver.

However, life would be really boring if all trees kept their leaves all of the time. Trees measure the passing seasons and their bare winter branches are part of that amazing year round process.

It also occured to me that sometimes, if we stop to look, the bare branches have a beautiful look, like the patterns they make were designed by an artist. This came to mind as I was passing by the Jardins du Luxembourg in central Paris. I really liked the crazy branch patterns that are contained in the shape and form of the trees in this avenue leading into the gardens and the watery blue winter sky behind the branches looks beautiful. No snow like in the poem, (it's been and gone and no doubt will be back) but this winter, don't forget to look up and you'll be humming the song before you know it.

Can I buy a Christmas tree and be Green?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/12/christmas-tree-green-fairtrade-fair-tree

I bow to Lucy Siegle on ecological/green matters and I love her weekly column in the Observer; she seems to answer all those little niggling questions about ecology and it's great to have her detailed research for us 'trying our best to be green' public, so here's what she has to say about buying a Christmas tree.

Fake or real?

I'm talking about Christmas trees! We always used to have a real Xmas tree when I lived with my parents. Mum used to clear up the fallen needles on a daily basis (I think there was a bit of heavy sighing to accompany this task) and I was always sad to see the tree disappear on 12th night. When it came to choosing a tree for my own family, we opted for a fake because we lived in a small flat with a very small baby who ate anything that fell on the floor (and Xmas tree needles weren't part of his reccomended diet). So we've stuck with our cute fake (quite real looking tree) for 8 yrs now and it's still going strong although I can see signs of ageing this year (can't we all?).

I love the smell, the look and authenticity of real Christmas trees but when I see them lying in their hundreds on the road in January, waiting for the dustbin men, I wonder about the sense of cutting down loads of trees and then 2 weeks later throwing them away. I'm not taking the moral high ground here, I know the trees are replaced in the forests and grown for that very reason, and I know that some households buy trees with roots that can be replanted, and many trees are pulped and used for other purposes, so in effect they are recycled, and I know that in France many households buy a special bag in which to dispose their tree and the proceeds go to charity, and yes, is it more damaging to the environment when we'll eventually dispose of our fake tree, but still I'm wondering.....

Here's a photo of a whole load of trees that form part of our town's Christmas display. I must admit it looks great now it's all covered in snow, but again, I think these trees will also be thrown out by the end of January...

Magnificent Municipalities!

I'm lucky to live in a nice town not too far from Paris, next to a river, a huge park and lots of houses with gardens. But today I wanted to just say a big 'thank you' to the local Council for our green spaces. I know, the taxes are high so we pay for them and so forth, but personally I'm grateful that they have decided to spend some of their income on making my town as pretty and well-kept as possible.

In our 'quartier' the streets are tree-lined and those trees are pruned and shaped with care 3 times a year. Yesterday there was guy crouching at the bottom of each tree, cutting off all the small offshoots from all the trees really carefully. Last week the excess branches were cut away and the new growth neatly shaped in ALL the roads in my town. The flower beds and green spaces have had their summer overhaul and, although I find the little additions such as these ladybirds, a bit twee, my children really like them and they add a touch of fun and maybe the trees are pollarded to within an inch of their lives, but......it looks great! Here's a modern day version of a municipal fountain that was constructed last year near our home. And an avenue where they've planted two types of trees for a lovely effect. I think it's backbreaking work being a municipal gardener and probably quite monotonous at times but really those spaces do make a difference to the overall 'feeling' and pride of living in this town and I'm sure they brighten up the day of not only gardeners like me who are especially sensitive to green stuff, but to anyone who drives or walks through. And the great thing? Up to now, I have never seen the public green spaces vandalised and it's seldom that one sees litter in the flowerbeds. We are not all angels or Stepford wives who live here, it's no 'model village', but maybe the locals respect these spaces because they are well kept and it's nice to have them around?

In Praise of Elderly Gentlemen

There's not much new in gardening, it's all pretty much been done before and for thousands and thousands of years human beings have been sustaining themselves and making their environments beautiful with plants and vegetables.

Which is why I love elderly gentlemen! My generation are lucky enough not to have lived through any major wars taking place in their country, we don't know rationing and growing your own through absolute necessity. Most of us in Europe grow because we can and because we like to do it. Mabye this will change? But for the moment, we are living alongside another generation of gardeners - ones that HAD to garden to survive and eat healthy food. Such as my neigbour who, unlike me, has converted his whole garden into a potager (vegetable garden). He grows throughout the year and has a large array of crops - fruit and vegetables. Also he grows flowers that his wife cuts for the house (did you know that cut flowers are the worst offenders in terms of chemical usage and some have a huge carbon footprint?) He has lots of herbs useful for cooking and grows some flowers that help protect his crops such as marigolds that can fend off bugs and so on.

We are often gardening at the same time. He's interested in my (feeble next to his achievements) efforts and he drip feeds me all sorts of useful information, tips and history of the area. I was bemoaning the poor soil quality. He said, what do you expect? This was once the flood plain of the Marne river, it's sandy and not so great quality soil, you need to dig some heavy mixture into it so it'll retain the moisture. Now for me, the Marne is a few of streets away, but that was after they built the barrages to control the flooding.....I don't like to grill him, but I am always really grateful when he ventures an opinion and he's always right! He built a little wooden frame near to our shared hedge and planted a vine on it so the children could see how a vine grows until one day in September, he met us at the door and said in a serious voice 'it's time for the vendage' so the children were delighted to pick the grapes that they had seen develop.

You might not have a fabulous neigbour like Monsieur Voisin but there are loads of elderly gentlemen ready and willing to impart valuable advice if you look for them. I thank the Portugese chap who was kind enough to advise me to throw out the tomato plants from my shopping basket in Truffaut, and to wait another week or so. As he says 'one frost and kaput' (followed by cutting of throat gesture). I'm going to wait a couple of weeks for my tomato plants in fact.

So next time you're in the garden or the garden centre, dare to speak to that elderly gentleman hovering over the aubergines and basil seeds. He's not a pervert (probably), he's a novice gardener's living bible!

Ode to Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils

The Daffodils, William Wordsworth

This week our first daffodil burst into flower. Now we have a group just underneath the forsythia which has also burst into golden yellow flowers. I'm so pleased this little tableau at the bottom of my garden has worked out, I can see it from my kitchen window. I planted the daffodils a few years ago and the forsythia hadn't been pruned for years when we moved here and didn't flower any longer. I've pruned it hard for a few years now and this year it is covered in flowers. The hard work has finally paid off!

ps This photo is of daffodils at Derwentwater in the Lake District, UK. I held the record for swimming Derwentwater for many years.

Disappointments of winter

Gardening, for me, is all about trying new things and seeing how they succeed. I feel great when I see a plant or planting that succeeds - hits the right spot, well placed, happy, thriving.

However, to go with the successes there are bound to be some disappointments. This winter for example I purchased some beautiful cyclamens for the window boxes and the pots on the staircase. Pretty jewel colours, I was looking forward to appreciating them all winter. But it wasn't to be. Every single one perished, no matter how carefully I watered them. I was really disappointed. I wonder if it's the extreme cold or the wind, or just bad luck? All the plant info says 'hardy, easy to grow, light or shade, thrive in winter etc' Don't understand!

That's the other thing about gardening, there are no guarantees and sometimes there are no answers when things don't go right. Still, I'll be planting for spring at the end of March but I won't be buying cyclamens next winter.....Maybe I'll ask the cyclamen Society what I'm doing wrong? http://www.cyclamen.org/indexCS.html Amazing what you find on the web...;

ps the pansies are thriving, though, nice big colourful clumps....

It is Saint David's Day today, the patron saint of Wales. Normally patriotic Welsh people wear either a leek or a daffodil in their buttonhole but there's been a distinct lack of daffodils in UK, not one to be found in flower due to the harsh winter. I guess they'll won't be wearing Welsh daffs in the hillsides today but imported ones!