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Caerhays, Heligan and Cornwall - rather an interesting tree beehive at Heligan - something we could try here!
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Cold Late Spring
Since the last entry and the hopes that spring had finally arrived, once again here in Norfolk we are being plagued by a very cold onshore wind, drizzle and the need for a hat and gloves to walk the dogs.
However the preceding two weeks have brought great activity - the new shed, dog kennel arrangement has almost come to an end and the whole thing looks perfect. Once the oak and larch cladding turn to silver it will look as if it has been here forever. We just await the very last bits such as final electrics, the flooring and the worktops and shelves before Mr Horta can move himself back in with all the bee and fishing gear at present stacked up in the garage.
The garden despite the cold looks wonderful having had a good week last week with the tulips now putting on a good show. Half of me is grateful for the cool weather as it might hold them for another 12 days until the garden opening on 7 May - that would be wonderful. Irises are showing several buds, the Viburnums are poised and dear Maigold as ever is now just beginning to show a peak of her apricot colour - she is usually one of the showstoppers for a spring garden opening. Daffs are over so must be deadheaded, Cosmos seedlings now potted on look strong, the first courgettes are through as are the French Beans and asparagus is well on giving us our first pick on Saturday.
Having got the garden in tip top form I set off for Cornwall last week for a four day break with two good friends. We stayed in one of the Caerhays Estate cottages right on the beach at East Portholland which was lovely - a tiny little cove that joins with West Portholland at low tide. We were blessed with pretty good weather over all the UK last week and although never hot we did manage one late afternoon of sitting out with books! Caerhays garden itself and the castle is a most blissful setting - the National Collection of Magnolias and several Champion Magnolia trees - sadly not out due to the cold spring, but the rhodies, camellias, Pieris and smaller Magnolias that were out were beautiful. Gosh what those plant hunters brought back was nobody's business. A long morning at Heligan followed which was a wonderful experience - a bit more commercial than Caerhays and with 350,000 visitors a year understandable, but fact that it was only discovered in 1990 is extraordinary. Our last day was spent on a little tour - first to the village of Veryan famous for its 5 little round houses with thatched roofs and a cross on top. Apparently the vicar of the time built one for each daughter and they were round in order that the devil might not find a hiding place. They hold a special place in my heart as the last postcard I received from my mother was of those very round houses. Following a walk from east to west along Pendower Beach and a welcome coffee and sausage roll, Georgie and I walked the three hour walk back from Nare Head to Portholland west to east along the coast path going through Portlooe which was enchanting. Very very windy and the path is quite close to the edge but we made it - Common Blues, Wall Brown, Peacocks and Tortoiseshell butterflies, - pretty standard flowers but nonetheless very pretty primroses, bluebells, campions, pennywort, stitchwort - etc.
Home again to slightly better weather than expected so a big day in the garden on Saturday - planted out the things that had arrived in my absence thereby gap filling before the opening. Geranium Blue Cloud and sylvaticum Mayflower, Calamagrostis Avalanche, Polystichum for shady dry areas and still to do some small leaved Agapanthus Streamline which might be tougher for the pots where the larger leaved ones have perished this winter. Much had also arrived for the greenhouse where Jane aided by Simon and Mr Horta did a great job in unpacking rooted cuttings and potting them up for both my pots and a client. Quite a few bits and pieces for the plant stall and I still keep finding little bits - Saturdays swoop through with new planting yielded a nice bit of Sedum Jose Aubergine, Geranium renardii and Astrantia Ruby wedding.
The girls have been in very good and loving hands in my absence - Simon and Jane have walked them everyday - Inca has never done so much in a long time and need to recover! She has done a lot of sleeping since but was determined not to be left out. Bertha and Mavis have loved it and so after a quick refreshing training session on Saturday we set off yesterday for the Norfolk Gundog Club Novice Working Test at Sandringham. 35 competitors - I had both Bertha and Mavis. We expected cold drizzle and showers all day but Sandringham was like a micro climate - not only did we keep dry all day but we sat on the grass with a delicious hog roast at half time.
The girls went very very well - Bertha sadly did her beastly trick of putting the dummy down at one test which cost us a placing - the rest of her marks were consistently high so had she got the mark she could have at that point, I calculated 4th or 5th place. Pity but she ended with a really wonderful retrieve the memory of which I took home. Dear Mavis was her usual happy self - popping about over log and branch, not wanting to get into the rather cold lake but doing it, and just happy to be included and IMPORTANT. Next on the programme is an Open Charity Working Test next Sunday - maybe beyond Bertha's range but a great fundraising day so important to give it a go. My mentor is one of the judges so I shall hope for kindness!
The natural world is interesting as ever. Birds have taken up positions all over the garden - sadly the song thrush that was sitting tight in the clematis outside the sitting room window has deserted - eggs still there so clearly not predation. The always do seem rather nervous. Bluetits and greattits are in most of the boxes, Long Tailed Tits definitely somewhere in the garden and the usual blackbird, robin, dunnock, and wren brigade busy and established. We do get bothered by jays and a magpie but are trying to keep calm that this is balance. We are being visited by a swallow and sometimes two or three but as yet not in the garage and definitely not a pair. We hope that now the building team are gone and the garage quiet it wont be long but really until the weather settles a bit it is hard to see the situation changing. The common is becoming covered in Ladysmock and King Cups but still no frog or toad spawn anywhere.
Next up for the garden is a big blitz of the veg patch tomorrow and sowing some more salad - one lot is through but again slow. It needs a good weed and a lot of self sown Purslane needs taking out of both paths and beds.
Apple and Pear Blossom is at its peak so I am hopeful for the 7th May!
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Auricula Ruby Hyde in the greenhouse and one of the snakeshead fritillaries now starting to naturalise in the little meadows
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Slow Spring
Spring came in February but completely vanished throughout March save for two days when it didn't rain. The rain however was desperately needed and it is good to see the Panford Beck and the Blackwater running with conviction for about the first time in 18 months.
It has been a considerable time since I wrote due mainly to some technical difficulties with Tumblr. With a re conditioned Mac and a bit of time spent sorting things out, I am hopeful we are now good to go once again.
So, a brief first entry just to catch everyone up! First the dogs - we had a good winter and certainly much better than the last two or three now that Covid has stopped being the main topic of conversation. It was of course replaced by Bird Flu but we have overcome that and the girls had some lovely days out. Training recommenced in February and we are aiming for the first Novice Working Test at Sandringham in ten days time with both Mavis and Bertha. Mavis is a new dog now nearly 7! She has just had her back sorted out with a chirovet and is moving like a two year old. Bertha is in top form and I am hoping she will run well. Darling Inca still plods along, she attended every day in the field last season but it will certainly have been her last - she has been the most special and wonderful dog to have had in the team and she will now enjoy a gentle retirement, spending a lot of time in her favourite place, sunbathing up against the box hedge, under the holm oaks.
The garden looks magnificent utterly due to rain. Whereas last year we had a cold and very dry spring with clear blue skies this year has been the total opposite. The three spells of severe cold in the winter following a very very dry summer and autumn did leave their mark. We have had a few casualties - the Magnolia Susan had to be sawn off last week as despite one or two tiny tiny shoots it was pretty much dead. Viburnum bodnantense Dawn was an early victim giving up last autumn, surprisingly a couple of roses turned their toes up, and several clumps of Sarcococca humilis couldn,t take the lack of water. Chunks of one of the Prunus cerasifera Nigra are dead and will be removed in due course and one large branch of the Prunus Tai Haku has died but I was happy to see a lot of new growth on other branches.
However as ever it provides scope for new planting and I have ordered a Gingko to replace the Magnolia which should arrive this week. I have also ordered several new perennials including some ferns to put into those dry shady places that are always so problematic.
Although March was wet there was little frost, so things are well on in terms of foliage already out - the countryside looks wonderful with blackthorn blossom giving that lovely smoky cloudy effect. Wild plum blossom is nearly over but the rape is already well out so the scenes of fresh green, white and vibrant yellow are everywhere in Norfolk. Deer abound as do badgers. We await the arrival of the swallows - always a tense moment, the blackcaps and chiff chaffs are here and most life on the common is as it should be save for the obvious lack of frog spawn. The long dry summer was not good for amphibians so we shall watch to see how the newt population has fared.
Greenhouse life is bang on target - tomatoes are through, the chard and beetroot plugs were transplanted today and I shall sow carrots this week. Garlic and shallots look strong and thanks to Mr Horta taking on a allotment for his retirement, we hope to have some decent quantities of potatoes this year. The bulk of the broad beans are also there with just a few here in the garden.
Hoping this is now easier for people to access I shall sign off and see! More to follow if all goes well.
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No Change
And so it goes on, France burns, England gets drier and drier and now finally an official drought has been declared - next week therefore in true British fashion it will rain. Leaving cynicism aside, we are forecast some storms and rain from about Tuesday afternoon and on through Wednesday but the satellite picture seems hit and miss and we could be unlucky. We hope not. As we are back in the mid thirties for a run of 5 days, the only difference to the very high temperatures of July is that the nights are a bit cooler and are in fact providing a considerable dew. So much so that we can see green shoots of grass already starting to emerge and our walking boots are pretty wet from the 06.00 starts with the dogs. Watering continues but we are beginning to use all the bathwater each day by baling it into flagons for some lucky recipient in the garden. The hose is used only for the vegetables which are just keeping going.
Sowing more salad seeds is nearly impossible but the landcress has germinated and so have the Winter Density Lettuce - the radicchio has also popped up but the seed tray is in constant shade. The tomatoes however are fantastic, I have never had such a crop. Courgettes hopeless, I think the special Italian variety have not stood the heat and lack of water nearly as well as the good F1 hybrid such as Defender - I have piled water on but they are sick and sad - will not be growing them again despite the success of last year.
The Novice Working Test in sugar beet was cancelled for today which was a relief - it would have been dangerous for man and beast. However the training session on Tuesday night went ahead and we learned a great deal more. Bertha was starting to overboil with all the excitement so at a lesson on Thursday morning we went back to basics which I will continue with until the next big training day on 31 Aug which is walking up in beet again. The Test has been postponed to September 18th which gives us plenty of time to settle her again.
Wildlife struggles, the birds love the bird bath as all the ponds on the common are dry. The swifts slipped away quite early this year - first week of August and they were gone. The third brood of swallows have fledged which is always such a joy - just 3 but that means 8 for the year and one complete failure. Pretty good considering the weather - they have to go quite a long way for water but the reservoir pond on Mark Robersons farm still holds a good level of water and in the evening when we walk the dogs that way we can see the swallows dipping and diving sipping water. My favourite sight though are the moorhens who must be pretty desperate who sit in the bird bath about every hour!! The water is warm but they dont seem to mind.
It will be interesting to see what we have actually lost in the garden. Certainly one birch tree - I have a little baby one in a pot and I would suspect a number of perennials. I am always amazed at how the roses survive and do quite well. The new Amelie Nothombs are a huge success but another interesting observation has been how the new bloom in the morning, looking fresh and beautiful gets burned during the day and by evening the petals are completely crisp and browned. Despite this the plants are throwing out masses of new growth and look incredibly healthy. This is a good rose!!
HORTA
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Success
With great aplomb Bertha won the Tuesday Night Training Trophy up against 7 other dogs. She did everything well, the water test being similar to that of the Flower Show, but the other two were new to her. The next night we had a Norfolk Club training night in sugar beet - 12 dogs, rotating in a line along field trial rules and again she was super though I sense she might overboil soon as so keen so I am doing some training now to just dampen her down a little. More having to look for things unseen rather than bang and a dummy being thrown out giving her a long run for a retrieve which seems to get her adrenaline roaring!
Lack of rain continues. The benefit of last Sundays nice drizzle was gone within 12 hours as Monday and Tuesday were both hot again with strong warm winds. It is now a question of prioritising who gets watered aside from the vegetables and how long will it be before we get a hosepipe ban here in the East. We are fortunate enough to be on a borehole but one is still very sparing. We are now filling flagons from the bath water so we can use every last drop on the garden and all washing up bowls of water get tipped on to somebody!
The birds are clearly suffering and I suspect many mammals too. I watched a robin and a pigeon getting water from around the running hose as I was soaking my Viburnum plicatum Mariesii for the third time this summer. They were loving the pool of water collecting the base. Equally when the sprinkler was on the raised veg beds a sparrow was loving being in the chard getting a shower!
Mr Horta is incredibly busy with the bees - there is yet more honey to take and he is now preparing to close them down for winter! Comes early in a bee life cycle and they need to have the treatment for varroa mite. Wasps are everywhere and hornets too, it has been a good year for them. We had to do over one wasps nest in the roof as the number coming into the kitchen became intolerable. I found some old inedible crabapple jelly this morning when blitzing some shelves to make space for yesterdays Spiced Plum chutney production, so I have put that out for them to help keep them away from us!
The meadow strips are cut and raked up and the area outside the house has been done as well so next year they should both be better for having been cut with a blade and less mashed grass going back into the soil. Mind you with the grass so dry I am not sure it will be that nutritious!
The garden looks sad really and so many things have just shut up shop. We cannot cut hedges yet as until we have a good rain it would be cruel to ask them to sprout new growth when they are struggling just to stay alive. If necessary it will have to wait until October. I have however cut the bay bushes on the back of the house - hedgecutter needs sharpening so must get that in.
More training tonight and again Tuesday evening and Thursday morning, so really pushing on now while we can. All to soon it will be late autumn and the opportunities will be gone in favour of the real thing, when of course bad habits creep in quickly.
Winter Density lettuce sown and through, Landcress sown and more beetroot but not visible yet. Radicchio and another lettuce also but again no sign yet. Keeping them on the shady side of the greenhouse so they are cool. Cucumbers huge success and the spaghetti squashes are enormous so plenty to sustain us in the winter!
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The approach of Autumn
First of August - the relief that autumn is round the corner is both palpable and visible! A morning of gentle rain has given a modicum of relief to the countryside and gardens although we are back to the status quo today with a very warm day and a forecast of high pressure for the foreseeable. We are watching the garden shut down before our eyes. Leaves have been burnt to a crisp by the scorching temperatures and drying winds, and these are now fallen. The witch hazel is bare save for the leaves on the branch tips. Walks along the footpaths and tracks sound like autumn with the crunch underfoot of dried foliage. However being a true child of the autumn my spirits inexorably rise when I hear the somewhat mournful tune of the robin, see the rooks starting to gather on the common, and watch duck moving over the coast - teal and wigeon already arriving. But it is a bizarre time for whilst autumn is being heralded and indeed we are eating the first blackberries and watching sloes ripen, we are also witnessing the swallows having a third brood!
Harvest is mostly already gathered in - just some winter wheat in odd places, oats and of course the fodder beans still to go. Sugar beet looks miserable but there is till time for enough rain to save the day - I imagine the sugar levels will be incredible however.
The garden has perked up a little with the rain, with dahlias and the herbaceous plants looking a little better. The grass will take a deal of time to recover and I am still not minded to fire up the mower for some wisps of rye grass. This Friday we shall cut the meadows - with a blade strimmer this time and make sure we rake it all up and take it away. The walnut crop is stupendous - will be interesting to see how large the kernels are inside. Veg are struggling on - the rain has inspired the courgettes to greater things but they are not enjoying life! Most other veg are just about holding their own and I am thinking of sowing some more lettuce this week as it will be a little cooler after tomorrow. The fruit trees are laden - the small yellow plums currently on the go, but anytime soon we shall be able to pick an apple or two - James Grieve usually being the first. A good crop of pears too. As nature seems to always balance itself if we dont interfere, the heavy fruit crops are coinciding with a plethora of wasps - Mr Horta took 100 jars of honey ten days ago sitting solemnly all day in searing heat, fully kitted out in his bee suit, surrounded by literally hundreds of wasps and bees who were able to get into the closed shed with the door having shrunk a little in the dry weather. Remarkably he did not get stung but was completely exhausted at the end.
The best success stories are in the dog world. Bertha continues to progress - we ran in the Sandringham Flower Show Invitation Gundog Test on Wednesday, luckily not too hot. As readers may remember from pre Covid days, this is a competition for pairs designed to test the dogs “picking up” ability, ie being able to find the quarry in challenging areas where there can be little contact visually with the handler. My partner was delightful and her dog also young - we had the youngest pairing. Bertha was brilliant all day - I could not have wished for more, Wren was a little sticky on a couple of retrieves but we came a very respectable seventh from fourteen couples. Great prizes too - a sack of dog food each and feeding bowl! My dearest friend with her little dog Elsie took the prize with her partner running Clova and a great cheer went up when she was announced the winner. Richly deserved.
Tonight we have the competition for our Tuesday Night training group - Bertha and I are going to give it our very best shot! She is doing so well, it would be wonderful to be in the placings. I have two training sessions coming up to prepare for a Novice Test on 14 August in sugar beet, followed by a training session specifically designed for retrieving rabbits ..... a slightly unknown quantity to Bertha so we have started practising for that too.
Ordered bulbs today from Avon Bulbs - tulips as ever for the pots, some extra daffodils for the wood area and some little gems like Wood Anemones and Iris reticulata for here and there! Always an exciting bit of shopping!
HORTA
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Oak Eggar moth in the trap - never had one of those before
Mapperton, wasp nest in the trees at Mapperton and Romney coultheri in full flower
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The water test last weekend - one marked retrieve from water and the second along the top of the bank hidden by the distant tree. Not known to the dog
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More Heat
We are in the grip of a very hot spell and dont we know it! We never stop being reminded by every media source of dangers to life and how to cope with heat but still few seem to really quantify the blatantly obvious fact that this is not normal and we are still not really addressing climate change. As Europe burns yet again and rivers here run dangerously low, there is still so much more we can do.
In the meantime we cope as best we can. The girls get walked very early when it is pleasant but even by 8am today it was already very very warm. Then we lurk until well into the evening before setting out again. Luckily the stream is still running enough to provide a good place to splash about and cool down. Training is on hold now until Wednesday when it should cool down considerably. Farmers are roaring ahead with the harvest and I think most winter barley is safely gathered in.
The garden just dries up - save for the veg areas which are watered every single day and quite generously too. The border looks ok and I am watering the dahlias but when you see plants such as Monardas wilting you know things are bad!
But going back a week, Bertha and I had a most successful outing to Hanworth Park last weekend for a Novice Working Test. In a field of 28 dogs, all older than her, we managed to finish the morning in 6th place which is a significant achievement and one that really spurs me on to greater things with her. She did so well and was not phased by anything. We made the cut at lunch time quite comfortably and then took part in a “walk up” in the afternoon based on a field trial. When our turn came to get a “marked” retrieve, she set off on a perfect line through very very long thick hot grass (perfect for hay) and must have just run a foot to the right of it. I was a bit slow blowing my whistle to stop her in the right place as I have got so used to her marking brilliantly and was sure she would suddenly wind it and flick round. But the heat made for no scent so she got too far wrong to be called back in to hunt the area. Therefore we went out but were in good company as several others failed their first retrieve as well. The winner was a very experienced 6 year old - Bertha is not quite 2 so we have reason to be chuffed.
Monday took me to Dorset to see Laura in her lovely rented cottage in the idyllic Dorset village of Nettlecombe. The area is simply stunning and we enjoyed two visits to the beach - Eype being my favourite which was gorgeous and I even swam! Highlight of the trip was Mapperton - the house used in the latest Far From the Madding Crowd and what a treat it is - the most beautiful house and the gardens are staggeringly beautiful all set in a sleepy combe which seems to transport one back in time. Dorset has had much more rain than East Anglia so when I returned on Thursday it was quite shocking to see how even drier we had got in just four days.
We lie low now until this passes - the Tuesday Night Training Trophy competition has already been postponed until early August so the next target for Bertha is the Sandringham Flower Show.
All I can do is keep watering although I did a massive tidy up of the veg patch yesterday pulling up bolted lettuce and cutting back all the spent Verbascum chaixii in the gravel areas. Shallots are gathered and drying - best crop I have ever had. French beans excellent, courgettes etc needing so much water but the squashes despite being the same family seem to do better in the drought - I assume the courgette roots are perhaps a little shallower. Tomatoes are in full swing - wonderful and so sweet with all this sunshine.
Wildlife is quiet, a lot of roe about in the evenings, the egret back near the stream, still some quite young blackbirds being fed on the table. Swifts screaming overhead and shooting under the tiles - how they dont knock themselves out is beyond me. Swallows are around but do not appear to be trying another brood. Female sparrowhawk zoomed over the birdtable yesterday and the hobby falcon is in evidence. But this is the first summer in 33 years we have not heard a Turtle dove on the common.
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Delicious wild cherries - Prunus avium or geans, marsh helleborine and southern marsh orchid at Burnham Overy, a happy relaxed dog and Mia, the chihuahua belonging to new garden help who completely rules!!!
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Heat
The lack of rain in the east is now becoming critical. We had a small amount of rain on the Sunday of the Jubilee but owing to incessant drying winds, any benefit that might have given was soon eliminated. I am having to fill the reservoir in the greenhouse and even my rainbutts which make watering so much easier have had to be topped up with the hose. Large shrubs are looking sad so several in particular the Viburnum plicatum and Cornus kousa have had a good long soak. But watering is time consuming! Am managing to keep the veg going and we are getting some great results. French beans are just kicking off having now pulled up the broad beans - think we had the best season ever for them with plenty in the freezer - I must remember Suttons Long Pod for next year - they have been excellent.
Covid struck but thankfully not badly and my trip to Italy was never in jeopardy until my traveling companion developed a violent toothache the night before departure. We postponed the trip - late August now, and actually maybe lucky as we would not have had great weather and my friends in the mountains reckon that by the end of August most of the summer crowds are falling away. As long as the airlines work we should be ok!
I have got some interesting squash/courgettes now producing - the Tromboncino on the frames - they are delicious - am not sure how large I am supposed to let them get but on the basis that small is good they can be eaten as per courgettes and if i let them get bigger will be treated like squashes.
Roses are mostly over so a huge dead heading operation yesterday. However we are now starting to see the early autumn colours in the garden - purple sedums, dahlias flowering and the first michaelmas daisies just showing colour in their buds. I have removed a bit of catmint from the front of the main border as although it is wonderful in May, we really have too much! I went off to West Acre Gardens again this week and bought a plant I use a lot for others but dont have here, which is Stachys Hummelo - a Piet Oudolf special - being only 40cm high when flowering and with neat rosettes of leaves, it is a perfect front of border plant. Sadly they only had two so I shall have to wait to put in the second little patch to balance things. I also found another bright red Monarda Fireball so patched that in to the border to keep the repetition going. They are also flowering now along with the Achillea so colours are improving after two quiet weeks.
A dog test for Bertha on Sunday - it will be incredibly hot but I am hoping she might go well. I went for a quick sharpen up lesson this morning - she is very responsive now and learns fast. Fingers crossed we have a good run.
Winter veg planted out! how quickly the seasons zoom by. Purple Sprouting broccoli and Cavolo Nero plus the few leeks I got to germinate. I have also sown some Fennel - I try this most years with mixed success - it certainly needs a lot of water so as soon as it germinates I will be super vigilant.
Swallows everywhere on the common - we wonder if our pair will have another brood. We are endlessly amused by the moorhen family which seems to grow and grow - about 4 different age groups now come to the bird table! Plus a family of mallard have arrived on our pond which is one of the few on the common to still have water.
Dorset next week for a few days and a catch up with a very old friend not seen for many years.
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Peony Duchesse de Nemours
The squashes etc now on the frames
Border view and garden view
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Cutting Back
We are all cutting back on lots of things - fuel most notably but the title of this entry is more concerning the first big cut back in the garden! We always laugh in this house at how we nurture and encourage all the plants in the garden only to start cutting them back towards the end of June early July. This year seems to have brought this phase on even earlier, due one supposes to the kind spring and then in this area the chronic lack of rain. I understand that most of the UK has had a fair sprinkling of rain but here we have really only had perhaps two or three moments of rain since mid March, and each of those was accompanied by a strong wind which dried us up almost immediately.
The lovely underplanting in the borders of early perennial Geraniums such as G. phaeum, Tellima grandiflora and Brunnera all need either dead heading or cutting back to the ground to promote good new growth again in 6 weeks time. None of these are repeat flowerers but look the better for being refreshed albeit ghastly to have a temporary hole. The same applies to catmint - for the last 6 - 8 weeks this has been a lovely blousy splash of bluey purple and now even the hues of the spent flowers provide colour, but if one is bold it is best to cut it back as it will flower again on second growth in September. Not as floriferous but nonetheless valuable. I always feel bad hacking it off, still covered in bumble bees but I stagger it a little and always leave an odd plant. In the borders here, it is beneficial as lovely purple leaved Sedum Jose Aubergine is often lurking underneath and it is good to let it see out as it starts to prepare for its flowering time.
The borders are looking good - the best year ever for the peonies so all the early watering and feeding paid off. Roses are mostly past their best now and I aim to dead head a great number before going away next week. However the Ghislaine de Feligonde and Felicite Perpetue climbers are at their best. Dahlias are already budding up - they benefit from being watered if one has time but it is hard work getting round everything here. I am just keeping an eye on newish trees such as the step over apples but many things have to learn to cope with the endless droughts that we experience in East Anglia.
Barley is already turning in the fields - in some cases almost seeming ripe and the grain becoming hard - if this weather keeps up it will be an early harvest. Hay is being made on the common - for the last time by the Cooper family as the farm is on the market - how much change will there be we wonder.
The sky over the garden is full of swifts and the baby swallows are safely on the wing. Whatever went on the first time is still a mystery - were we maligning the third one and he or she wasnt nasty at all! Could there just have been death in the whole clutch and the parents threw them out - they have moved nests for the second brood so one does wonder. We really should put a camera in there one year.
Bertha is improving - she has not been lame now for 6 days despite some heavy exercise and training - maybe the course of antibiotics has worked and it was simply and infection. We go back tomorrow for a check and it might be worth having another course while I am away just to be sure. We have been doing some early and late walks which they love and Inca springs along first thing then collapses in one of three favourite places - up by the holm oaks, under the garden table or just inside depending on the heat levels! Good training at Sandringham on Tuesday night - lots of water retrieves and I am pleased that in the main I am managing to get Bertha to hold the dummy on exiting the lake until she gets to me. It is still not perfect but will be by 10 July I hope.
Gooseberries are pretty much ready so I must pick all of them - thank goodness they will freeze until I get back and then I can process them. I am letting the birds have the bulk of the redcurrants as we don’t need any jelly this year. Rhubarb is over for another year as with little rain it would be unfair to make it work harder. I also need to pick and freeze another batch of broad beans which I shall do this afternoon. Normally I would be podding them in front of Wimbledon but as that has been pushed back a week now, it might just be sitting at the garden table - they do stain ones hands so I tend to wear gardening gloves!
Next week the Alps so a report on the flowers there - I understand it has been very hot and dry there too though the current forecast would leave me to believe otherwise! Better next week all being well.
HORTA
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