All posts by Jackie Elwin

Fabulous, hardy, garden ferns.

01/06/2022ferns, plantsJackie Elwin

What’s NOT to love about ferns? I simply couldn’t imagine my garden without them. I have some in the stumpery, in the raised bed, in holes of the wall of the raised bed, in the shady border, in the the sunny border, in the middle bed, on the patio in pots, in the conservatory and some in the house. I can only remember the names of some of them, and some have just popped up in strange places. I will however have to take a few out that are going to be a nuisance. They have self-seeded (spores) in the crevice between the harling and the ramp, also some of the larger ones have popped up in-beside a smaller species in some of the holes in the wall. Some are just way too big for the space. Debs chopped a large chunk from the Osmunda regalis purpurea (starts off very purple before turning green) from beside the ramp so we re-located that chunk into a shady damp area of the stumpery where it is doing well. Some have popped up in with a large pot plant (Beaucarnea recurvata – the ponytail plant). As you can see, ferns come in many sizes, shapes and forms. Some are evergreen, some semi-evergreen and some are deciduous. Some are low growing whilst others are huge. Some are clump forming whilst others spread along the earth or a wall with rhizomes. There is a fern for any location in the garden. I have many more ferns in the garden – too many to photograph. A previous post from 2018 shows a few crosiers before they unfurl.

Athyrium niponicum ‘Silver falls’

eared lady fern with reddish stalks and mid-ribs

Athyrium otophorum okanum

low growing fern with rusty coloured tips

Blechnum penna-marina

Dryopteris crispa congesta

Dryopteris erythrosa

Osmunda regalis pupurascens

Polystichum polyblepharum

hairy fronds of the Japanese tassel fern

Polystichum polyblepharum hairy fronds

Polystichum setiferum cristato pinnulum

Mix of ferns at the end wall of raised bed

Mix of ferns in the shady sided wall of raised bed

Polystichum setiferum plumoso multilobum densum

unknown fern in chimney pot on patio

Davallia canariensis

mixed self-seeded fern in large pot plant

Mixed self-seeded ferns beside Beaucarnea recurvata

World bee day

20/05/2022bee, world bee dayJackie Elwin

As it’s world bee day today I thought I would show a few photos of bees in the garden. These were not all taken today as I didn’t have time. As far as I can tell in these photos we have the common carder bumble bee (Bombus pascourum), the red tailded bee (Bombus lapidarius), white tailed garden bee (Bombus lucorum) and a small tree bee (Bombus hypnorum). We do get a few other species but I haven’t yet taken any decent photos of them yet.

Tree bee (Bombus hypnorum) a deutzia

Bees on cirsium

Bees (Bombus lucorum?) on centaura plant

Carder bumble bee (Bombuspascuorum)? on centaura

Red tailed bee (Bombus lapidarius) on veronica

Bee in a cherry blossum

Wheelchair gardening tools – gloves

18/05/2022gloves, wheelchair gardening toolsJackie Elwin

I have added gloves to the tools section as they are so important for comfort, protection, and grip gardening. Yes you can do gardening without gloves, but I have found that using a wheelchair, gloves that have a bit of ‘grip’ to them not only helps with pushing the manual wheelchair around in the garden but also helps me hold onto the tools easier. Having arthritic fingers means that I can’t grip as well as I used to and I kept dropping my tools, especially the unmodified ones. In both my front and back gardens I have some prickly shrubs so gloves can offer a bit of protection from these when weeding around them, and clearing their fallen leaves.

gloves that I wear when wheelchair gardening

Gloves that I wear when gardening from my wheelchair

As you see from the gloves pictured, I don’t have any heavy duty gloves which would offer good protection. I just can’t be getting on with them. I can’t feel what I am doing, and pushing the chair is more difficult with them, so instead I would just use my pruners and secateurs that’ cut and hold‘ to tackle any prickly shrubs so that I don’t have to touch them at all. If I am just going to do some sweeping up or scraping in between slabs in the garden, then I will use either my lambskin gloves or my Global leather wheelchair gloves (if they are drying off then I will use any old leather gloves or my old biker gloves). They not only keep my hands warm and clean, but also help my grip and prevent blisters. I won’t even pick up a cane without gloves on now after I had a very nasty infection in a finger from a skelf (splinter). It was extremely painful, required antibiotics (which mucked up my warfarin INR), and made it painful to do any wheelchair transfers.

Over all my favourite gardening gloves are the pink Show-341 gloves. They are flexible, light, breathable, have a textured waterproof latex covering on the palm, and are machine washable. They offer some protection from small prickles such as nettles, and have a good grip. However, they are not totally waterproof and don’t have any padding on the palm, and can still be a bit slippery once they are wet but they do still offer some grip when wet. The rubber does wear off especially when pushing a wheelchair but then I can use them in the house when it is freezing or when I am playing with the dog throwing his ball around the house.

The Global leather wheelchair gloves have padded palms which not only help with grip but protect your palms getting sore when manipulating objects.

bruised and broken blod vessels fingers from gardening

Broken blood vessels on fingers

This picture shows my painful burst blood vessel and some other blood vessels near the surface which often burst when pushing the chair. This one burst when I was pushing a metal plant support into the earth. If I had been using my lambskin or Global leather gloves then maybe that wouldn’t have happened but I was just using my showa-341 gloves.

The main trouble I find when using gloves with a wheelchair is that the grip goes as soon as they get wet. I have found online some gloves from macwet that claim to keep their grip when wet but I haven’t tried them out. Once my hands get wet they get very cold and I have not yet found any gloves that are waterproof and that have grip when wet.

Therefore I would suggest you always have a good selection of gloves so that you always have some dry ones available. You need some that offer padding and more protection for certain jobs in the garden, but some lightweight gloves with grip for most of the light everyday gardening jobs.

Wheelchair gardening tips – cleaning your dirty tyres

06/05/2022wheelchair gardening tipsJackie Elwin

Even with all the new paving slabs in the back garden I still manage to come in with manky tyres. We get an lot of wildlife in the garden and therefore a lot of poo. The crows, magpies and jackdaws all sit on the various surrounding trees dropping the inevitable all in the same space, whereas the wood pigeons and pheasants wander all around dropping as they go. I can’t go around the entire garden hosing it all off every day, and I can’t always dodge in between the poops, so I will end up running through it now and again. Wheelchair tyres pick up all manor of garden debris and you don’t want to be wheeling it through the house. Even when I am in the garage potting up seedlings etc I end up with compost in various nooks and crannies of the wheelchair.

At the top of the ramp to the conservatory I keep a small wooden plant-pot stand with a collection of old, folded up towels ready to wipe down my tyres. I also keep two brushes to remove ‘stuff’ from the tyre treads and from the brakes (wheel-locks). The tough, green floor scrubbing brush gets into the treads and the narrow grouting brush can be used for the brakes and other harder to access areas of the wheelchair.

dirty wheelchair tyre with bird poo in the treads and dirty brakes

Manky wheelchair tyre and brakes (wheel-locks)

Scrubbing brushes

In the past people have suggested to me that coir mats (coconut mats) would help but I actually find them very difficult to push the chair over as they have a deep pile and you cannot drive in a straight line over them. These mats would need to be cleaned quite often too. We have carpets throughout our house which are either multi patterned or brown and these don’t show the dirt as much as other plain colours would.

If you have a small area at your entrance that can get wet then you could try using a Muddaddy. This is a tool that is used to wash down dirty dogs before they get in the car but can be used on your wheelchair and tyres. However you may have a job getting your wheelchair tyres dry enough to enter your home without dripping on your flooring. As I am often in a hurry to answer a call of nature or the door bell, then a quick scrub with the brush, or rub with an old towel is usually all that is required.

Wheelchair gardening tip – cleaning your dirty tyres:

keep old, small towels at the door
use a tough scrubbing brush for getting debris out of the tyre treads
use a grouting brush for reaching harder to access areas like brakes, crossbars, foot-plates etc

Mid April 2022 has been a mixed bag.

22/04/2022flowersJackie Elwin

It has been pretty cold and wet for the first half of April but has now started to dry out and get a little warmer. Some of the plants are earlier, some are later, and some haven’t come back at all!

I planted smallish yellow tulips Budlight a few years ago, and as they are a species tulip I thought that they would come back each year, but there is no sign of them at all this year. There are two larger yellow tulips which were planted as a clump of about 7 years ago (can’t remember what they are called) and only two have come back this year. All very disappointing.

The tulips Mystic Van Eijk are a little early this year but are looking good in the raised bed.

Tulips Mystic Van Eijk

Most of the narcissi have come up, all except the 10 Segovia that I planted a few years ago in the stumpery. Only three came up this year, and two of them have been eaten so that only a few inches of stem are left. Tete-aTete came up earliest, Pontresina are looking good right now, and Pipit are just coming out now. There was a nice display of narcissi Ataea pontifica in the right hand border but now they are getting decimated by snails or slugs. The white spirea Bridal wreath is looking good just now, as is the
foliage of the pieris Japonica Forest flame in the right hand corner of
the garden. The berberis is flowering away merrily. The hellebore
below it however looks rather tatty. Going over now is the pink Corydalis, in the middle bed, which is spreading like mad. I keep taking clumps out and giving them away. The yellow marsh marigolds in the pond really brighten up that area. The purple hellebores are still doing well, whereas the white ones and paler ones have gone over sooner.

Narcissi Actaea Poeticus eaten by snails/slugs

Back right hand corner

Right hand border

Right hand side of garden and pond April 2022

Corydalis solida

Debs brought round lots of yellow erythroniums and planted them in a few areas of the stumpery (which is on the left side of the garden) and they are doing well despite being nibbled.

Erythronium yellow

Stumpery April 2022

The smaller white erythronium Snowflake have gone over now but the marble foliage still looks good. Also in the stumpery is the pasque flower which is very pretty, and I love it’s fluffy foliage. It is very slowly making a couple of clumps. In flower at the back of the stumpery is purple honesty, brunnera and pulmonaria. There are a few catkins on the tortured witchhazel, and some tiny perfumed white flowers on the osmanthus right up in the back corner of the stumpery which you can’t see here. I had planted a winter flowering honeysuckle beside the osmanthus and although it did flower a little, I thought it might have put on a better show.

Pale purple Pasque flower

On the patio there are narcissi Pontressina in flower and in a blue pot there is a lovely pink heather: erica Westwood with a small struggling hellebore in a pot beside it.

Erica Westwood

What I would like to do, within the next week, with the area in front of the patio, is to dig up a clump of the red astilbe and maybe put in the red rose that was actually dug out because it had such large prickles, and also to move the cornus a little to make room for the lovely rose Gertrude Jekyll. We were afraid that our new dog would come a cropper to the huge rose prickles but I am sure we can make sure he doesn’t go near it now that he has been with us for a couple of years and is now used to the garden. The conservatory is still to be fixed so we are still waiting for the builders to come up with a date for that work. Otherwise it is mostly watering any newly planted seedlings, putting in plant supports, dead-heading spent flowers, and disposing of slugs.

March 2022 on a cold but sunny Edinburgh day.

30/03/2022flowers, garden, wildlifeJackie Elwin

We have had some wet, windy, gloriously sunny and warm days in March, but are now back to very chilly weather and it is trying to snow/hail/sleat in between sunny spells. No wonder the frogs left it a little later this year to spawn. In 2019 and 2020 the first spawn in our pond was spotted in February (in 2020 it was as early as the 5th) but this year the first spawn was on the 18th March. We can now count about 7 clumps of spawn which means there are at least 7 female frogs around the pond. We haven’t seen any newt spawn yet.

Frog spawn 18/03/22

Some areas of the garden are looking better than others right now. The stumpery is looking fine as some the spring bulbs are coming through such as the narcissi and chinadoxa, some of the primroses, anemones, pulmonaria, hellebores, vinca and erythroniums are in flower now. Although some of the narcissi have gone over, there are others still to come out. Some of the tulips are just ready to open. A couple of shrubs that have scented flowers: the mahonia out the front, and the lonicera fragrantisima and osmanthus burkwoodii out the back are flowering well. There have been quite a few bees and butterflies out in the warmer days taking advantage of these flowers.

I found this dark edged bee fly ( Bombylius major) sitting on a tulip leaf as it was watching a wasp very closely. I have just read about it, and have found out that the bee fly will follow wasps and single bees to their nest, they will then gather some sandy soil with their feet, and flick this, along with their eggs, near the entrance to the wasp/bee nest. The larva will attach itself to a wasp/bee and it will be taken into the nest where it will then find a wasp/bee larva to feed on. After which it will turn into a pupa, hatch and fly away undetected.

Bombylius major (dark edged bee fly)

I will need to put the pot of Iris Katharine’s gold in a better place for next year. It is one of the earliest flowering plants in the garden and I had the pot under the garden bench just to protect it from some of the heavy rain. By the time I remembered it was there it was almost finished flowering.

Iris Katharine’s gold

There are lots of jobs still to do: over the wall is now rather overgown and needs a good sorting out. The vinca major is now acting like a climber and is growing up the fence and smothering the hydrangea petiolaris. It actually looks ok but it needs cutting back. There are ferns and lots of few-flowered-leek popping up everywhere so they will need to come out. The ivy needs to be kept in check. I am going to be quite ruthless now and any plant not earning it’s keep must go. I have started getting rid of some of the plain brunnera in the stumpery. It does look ok when it is in flower but it is rather plain and I wish I had planted the Jack frost version instead. I had let a few hellebore seedlings grow a few years ago but I don’t actually like the colour of the flower so it has gone now to another home. I don’t bin these but they go to other peoples gardens, or the local park takes any plants that would do well in the park. I also put them in the plant sale at the Duddingston Kirk Garden Club plant sale (which this year will be held on Saturday 30 April 10:30 – 12:00).

CVinca major growing up and over hydrange petiolaris

Overgrown vinca major all over hydrangea petiolaris

Here is the view from the patio. You can just see in the background one of the large ash trees has had a huge bough snap off during the strong winds. The entire tree is pretty dead and I think most of the ash trees in that golf course are going to have to come out. That is good news for us as we may get more sunshine into the garden. What with all the shade from the trees and all the recent rain, the ‘sunny’ border hasn’t been able to dry off very well. I have lost the nepeta again this year which were in the ‘sunny’ border. I will just hae to keep taking cuttings each year.

View from the patio

This is how the stumpery is looking right now. I love the dappled shade in this woodland area, and spring and early summer is the best time of year here before the tree canopy develops allowing less sunshine to get through. The whole garden will soon have plenty of colour.

Stumpery in March 2022

January garden to do list.

19/01/2022wildlifeJackie Elwin

January has been a pretty quiet month in the garden. It has been cold and wet so far with a touch
of frost. There a few things to be
sorted out before spring though, such as, moving the Rodgersia and the Royal
fern, as they are far too close to the walls now. This isn’t good for the walls and it also means
that the plants are forced forward and tend to collapse on the plants in front
of them.

the corner by the ramp with rodgersia and royal fern

Ramp corner Rodgersia and Royal fern

I would really like
the large Polygonatum multiflorum to be completely dug out. It used to be on one side of the chimney by
the ramp, but it has spread to behind and around the other side of the chimney
and is now coming up in front of it too.
Also I have found the very beautiful, but very destructive Liliocerus
lilii (scarlet lily beetle) on it. It
has had it’s leaves stripped by slugs, snails, saw flies and now this so I have
had enough.

Lilioceris lilii (scarlet lily beetle)

The front hedge has been rather poorly cut last year (sorry
Harry) and it is really needing a proper cut.
This will have to be done before the birds start nesting, although if I
was a bird I wouldn’t nest in it looking like that!

Front privet hedge with bad cut.

Behind the garage we used to have 2 apple trees which have
now been re-homed to our good pals shared tenement garden. The apples were tasty but were not keepers
and I am the only one who eats apples here.
Now I can choose what to do with that area. That small border only has a few cyclamen in
it, but it only gets sunshine from the one side. Maybe a clematis or honeysuckle would cope
with that area?

Behind the garage.

There are a few bulbs just popping up here and there, mostly
snowdrops, and some of the hellebores are flowering a bit. There is still plenty of greenery in the
garden due to the many evergreen plants and shrubs so it doesn’t look
completely barren just now. Roll on
spring for a bit more colour.

Easy spray bottles for use with arthritic hands.

18/01/2022Tools, wheelchair gardening toolsJackie Elwin

I have found that over the years that spraying my plants makes my hands very sore. The spray action of many spray bottles is exasperating. Sometimes, just to get them going,you have do the spraying action over and over again and you only get a tiny squirt out if you are lucky. Some bug sprays are just useless and won’t spray at all. The tiny glass pump action spray bottle (at the front of the photo) looks great but because of my swollen, sore, arthritic fingers I find that these can be a bit fiddly. They are ok if you can stand, and have them at hip height, but when spraying from the seated position I find that I have to get my elbows really high which then makes the pressing action difficult. I do have an absolute favourite spray bottle make and that is the Hozelock pump action type.

You just need to pump a little pressure into the bottle, then press the button (with thumb) when you want to spray. If you want to keep on spraying, over a large plant say, there is another button to press just above it for continuous spraying. You can also adjust the spray by twisting the nozzle. I have decanted some organic bug spray into a Hozelock bottle as the original spray bottle was useless, but you do have to remember to label the bottle if doing that. One gripe with the Hozelock ones are that there isn’t much grip on the side of the bottle so when it comes time to refill with water trying to twist the top off can be difficult if you have problems with your fingers. Also, the level indicators could be a little more visible but at least they do have some.

I did buy an inferior type from Amazon (the bright green one at the front right of the photo) and it broke within a couple of months so,it really is worth getting a good make. I have a couple of very large plants and a collection of air plants which I keep in the bedroom and they require a lot of spraying so I really do need an easy spray bottle for using with my arthritic hands.

A selection of spray bottles for plants

Autumn colour

11/11/2021fungi, garden, plantsJackie Elwin

Let’s start off with the weather again! October had lots of rain, and so has the beginning of November. I have had to move a lot of the cuttings, that were on the patio table, indoors to the conservatory as they were water-logged and had no chance of getting drier. Other plants are sheltering under the table and under the bench (with a cover over the bench seat).

The Japanese anemones are still looking good, and so is the salvia Amastad. A couple of the hellebores are doing well while other hellebores are struggling to get going. The cyclamen flowers are over but their foliage looks amazing and creates a lovely patterned carpet along the garage border.

purple salvia amistad, pink rowan berries

Salvia Amistad and Rowan Pink pagoda

Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum Garnet’ is putting on a fabulous show by changing it’s deep purpley/green foliage into bright red before losing it all. I tried to get a photo from inside the dome of the small tree.

Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum Garnet’

The view from the top of the ramp shows the continuation of the red theme in autumn, going from the persicaria amplex ‘Blackfield’ down to the acer then across to the deep pink berries of the rowan. If I had taken the photo from inside the conservatory I may have also got the indoor red cyclamen and a few of the red weigela ‘Bristol Ruby’ flowers too.

dark red colours in the garden flowers and foliage

view from the top of the ramp

The earth-star fungi apparently pops up anywhere in the garden. It starts off looking like a bulb that someone has forgotten to plant, then it opens up to form a star shape with a little puffy ball in the centre. When it rains, the rain drops are heavy enough to dent the ball sending the spores out to start the cycle again. This looks like the collared earth star Geastrum triplex.

Earth star fungi (Geastrum triplex)

I am attempting to plant the awkward area at the far corner behind the garage. The ivy was a mess there so now there is a Hydrangea anomala petiolaris in it’s place, and in front of that, a Farfugium
japonicum ‘wavy gravy’. In amongst them Debs planted some yellow erythronium that she brought round. We also spotted some pink flowered persicaria that had popped up beside the deep red one, so we removed that and planted it next to the periwinkle. That should all fill that corner nicely.

corner with tatty old ivy

corner with farfugium and climbing hydrangea

I will finish with a gloriously coloured, fallen leaf from the witch hazel, Hamamelis
inter Diane.

colourful leaf from Hamamelis inter Diane

Hamamelis inter Diane leaf

To chop, or not to chop?

10/08/2021UncategorizedJackie Elwin

Yes that really is the question. I have debated for a while whether or not to give the tree heath (Erica arborea estrella gold) a good chop. It has been getting rather too big for the bed and the Japanese anemones are struggling to get past it now. As far as I know, you only really prune the spent flowers off straight after flowering and you get lovely new bright lime green foliage. They should respond well if they are cut back into the old wood but I just couldn’t decide how much I wanted to remove, so for the first chop (after discussing with Debs – our new garden help) she chopped some of the underskirt off first to see if any new growth would appear. Later I just decided that we should just go for the big chop now so that it had a chance to put on some new growth this year. So we chopped a bit more off but left a few woody stems at each trunk. We still can’t decide if we should go even lower than that. So maybe next week we will have made a final decision. It certainly lets a lot more light to the plants on other side of the bed.

Erica arborea estrella gold

tree heath after the 1st chop view from upstairs

Erica arborea estrella gold after 1st chop

tree heath after the 2nd chop view from upstairs

Erica arborea estrella gold after 2nd chop

tree heath after 2nd chop view straight on

Erica arborea estrella gold after 2nd chop

This week when Debs came round it was peeing down so we decided to stay indoors. Time for that big cactus to be re-potted I think. It has been one of those jobs that I have been putting off because I knew it would be a bit tricky. As the plastic pot it was in was rather old, it pretty much fell apart which gave Debs a half pot to use to hold the prickly cactus with. It definitely looks much nicer in this pot.

Cactus variety unknown

Another job I had been putting off was to sort out the tree fern. I still don’t know if it is a Dicksonia antarctica or squarrosa. As the label said antarctica I will go with that, but did have someone round a few years back, who was from New Zealand, and they thought it was a squarrosa as it had a few ‘trunks’ and not just a single trunk. It has been in the same pot for years now and has grown 6 trunks and is very congested. I know that only the top parts will grow back so I asked Debs to cut 3 of the smaller trunks off to leave the 3 larger ones. Debs needed a bit of help from Harry as it was pretty hard work. She then cut the ends of the old stipes back to neaten it all up, and it now looks great, and instead of being a bit jaggy looking is now looks ever so hairy. Of the 3 bits that she cut off, only 2 might grow again as the growing tip of the 3rd one just came off. So we are experimenting with the other 2 to see if we can get them to grow. The first photo is a few years old but you can see the new trunks growing up and the jaggy ends where I had cut off the old fronds.

tree fern congested before being chopped

Dicksonia antarctica (or squarrosa)

Dicksonia after being chopped

Dicksonia close-up of hairy ‘trunks’

Cardesque Garden

Gardening from an ageing, paraplegic perspective.