Not a plant picture for December and January, but a winter picture, to remind us what the weather was like last year.  This is the family dog Raffy out in the snow, he thought it was wonderful, we still did at the time!

We have finally got the culvert finished this week, so now waiting for water to come through it, I am really wondering if we will ever have enough rain to get enough to do that.  The ponds are at least eighteen inches down from the top and there is no rain in site.  It has meant that we have got a lot of weeding and cutting back done ready for next year. We have also cleared out the barn ready [...]

Bergenias are a much under rated plant they are no trouble and very nearly pest free.  They are a genus of evergreen perennials with thick, usually large rounded to oval even spoon shaped leathery leaves with indented veins that make ideal ground cover.  Most varieties a hardy but there are a few that are tender, they will tolerate sun or shade and any well-drained soil.  On poor soil especially they can go a rich red colour in the winter and [...]

I have not added anything to this area recently as I can only say the same thing over and over, all I have been doing is cutting back, weeding and then spreading manure and you can only talk so much about manure, but last weekend and this we have done some work on one of the colverts. It had got very overgrown with large plants which has nearly hidden a very nice view of the ponds so we set about [...]

I have just got back from two weeks holiday in the south of France the weather was brilliant, but now I can not wait to get cutting down ready for winter.  The weather last year really caught me on the hop so to speak, so I am not going to get caught again this year, I have already started with the cutting back and weeding as it had been really windy while we  were away quite a few plants have [...]

Cotoneaster is a genus of deciduous, semi-evergreen or evergreen shrubs grown for the foliage, flowers or as in this picture berries.  Some species may be used as a specimen plant others for hedging and still others for ground cover.  Deciduous species prefer sun but the evergreen species are quite happy in part or even complete shade.  Non of them like to be water logged and so can be quite happy in dry soil and so are most useful for some [...]

I have been busy painting for most of the week, as the new doors for the barn have arrived and they were only in primer.  They now look really good in olive green with Californian sand for the door frames. It still does not rain I have never know anything like it and nor does anyone else, this was testified by my being asked to do a short interview on radio Lincolnshire on Thursday about the effects of the weather [...]

It has been the driest year I have every known here at Goltho, with only just enough rain to stop plants from actually dying, but now after the gales of the last week, the garden is looking very bedraggled and tired.  I can not wait now to get stuck in tidying up ready for winter and next year, we have already started a little by cutting some of the spring and early summer plants back and getting some of our [...]

Cyclamen hederifolium is an autumn flowering tuber.  The flowers are pendant and have reflexed petals in white through pale to dark purple-pink with a darker staining at the mouth.  Flowering usually starts any time from late July onwards often after a short spell of wet weather.  They will carry on flowering well in to October and sometime November if the weather is clement.  The leaves are just as attractive as the flowers usually ivy-shaped with silver-green marbling with never two [...]

In mid August we try to get the yew hedges cut so yesterday on Bank Holiday Monday we started.  My husband cuts the hedges while I have the really interesting job of putting down the dust sheets and picking up the clippings.  We had been hard at it for about a couple of hours (with a coffee break or two)when the little niggle I had had about one of the dust sheets finally came to the fore and I decided [...]