Mid July, flower combinations that work.

14/07/2023flowers, plants, wildlifeJackie

You often hear that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but within the garden there are certain plant combinations that work better than other. I happen to think that if there are too many different textures, colours and shapes all together then you can lose the overall effect, they all battle for your attention. I usually have a picture in my head of what the overall effect should look like when I pace my plants together and sometimes things workout the way I had imagined them and sometimes they don’t. For example I planted a purple leaved cotinus behind a pink climbing rose and a white astrantia: the flowers of the astrantia have a pinky/purple colouration in the centre when young and the zephirine drouhin rose is a nice pink and these should look great against the purple leaves of the cotinus. The dog had other plans and crashed around behind the cotinus and broke a few branches and it is still only about 30cm high. The rose doesn’t appear to like that spot and is struggling. I will replace the rose with a honey suckle to grow up the arch instead as it has purple tinges to it’s leaves but has vibrant flowers which should look good against the cotinus (once it does get going).

The pale pink climbing rose Generous gardener looks good against the purple leaved Sambucus nigra ‘Black lace’ and picks up the pink of the flowers too, but I will have to make a decision soon of how high I want the sambucus to grow as I don’t want a huge tree.

The relaxed habit of the moss roses go well with the rather straggly foxgloves in the woodland stumpery, and the purples look good together. The purple of the moss roses fades to almost lilac as the rose goes over.

The dark purple of the Munstead wood rose is picked up in the verbascums (possibly Raspberry ripple) behind it.

Rose ‘Munstead wood’ against Verbascum ‘Raspberry ripple’.

By the patio I have a pink combination that works well. I did have a struggle to get the Cistus parviflorus to thrive as the rather heavy wood pigeons kept trashing it. That area is quite heavy clay that holds the water well and these all thrive there now. The rose Gertrude Jekyll is still quite young but I do like the way that even though they are all pink flowers – all the pinks work together as the flower shapes are different, and each plant has a very different habit and leaf shape, so it keeps the combo interesting.

Gertrude Jekyll, pink astilbe and Cistus parviflorus combo.

Beside the ramp into the back garden is a shady, damp corner. The front of the corner gets a bit of sun and the cowslips enjoy that area. Being yellow they add a bit of colour in what could be rather a dull area. They go well with the ferns.

Primula sikkimensis with Osmunda regalis ‘Purpurascens’ and other fern.

As you wander around the garden your eye should travel easily along as the colours repeat themselves on the way. I have dots of deep purple in every bed, pinks, and blues with highlight plants with white or yellow or gold. It doesn’t matter if the colours are in the foliage or the flowers or even the containers or background.

Colours working together around the garden.

It goes without saying really that this applies to the pond too.

Purple Lythrum salicaria with Thalictrum flavium Glaucum yellow.

I just had to show a few other photos of plants that caught my eye this month.

I planted this fern (Dryopteris erythrosa ‘Brilliance’ or Japanese Rosy Buckler fern) a couple of years ago but the shrub along side it grew right over it so I moved it last year. It has taken a while to get going but I just love the vibrant copper colour it brings to the shady woodland area. It really shows up against the predominantly green background but goes well with the purple/bronze shade of the heuchera in the front.

Dryopteris erythrosa ‘Brilliance’ (Japanese Rosy Buckler fern)

In the conservatory it is the flower spike of the Sempervivum Mint marvel with the white flowers with reddish/purple centres that stands out amongst the pinky/peach colour of the other sempervivums.

White and reddish/purple flowers of Sempervivum ‘Mint marvel’

Wildlife I have spotted in the garden (and managed to get a photograph of) in the last couple of weeks include: a seven spot (?) ladybird larva, a mottled grass hopper (Myrmeleotettix maculatus) and a few meadow brown butterflies (Maniola Jurtina). The photographs are not great (taken quickly with my phone) and I have yet to see a meadow brown on an actual plant – I only see them when they have come into the conservatory).

Seven-spot ladybird larvae (Coccinella septempunctata)

Now it is back to rain, rain, and more rain so not much gardening happening just now.

House plants and cuttings update.

28/06/2023house plants, plantsJackie

Some good and some sad news about the cuttings I took back in April. I will start with the sad – the lovely big Easter cactus was in a very sad state, it did bloom but the leaves were never turgid and just got more flaccid as time went on. I took the plant out of its pot and it still had roots but the main ‘trunk’ was very damaged so it has gone in the bin. I had taken a few cuttings and they looked like they were doing ok and had roots but a couple didn’t make it. I have one cutting left that looks ok and I stuck a few leaves into a pot of compost so we shall see if they survive. I am upset that I couldn’t keep that large parent plant alive as it was one of Stephanie’s plants (who was terminally ill when she gave me it and has now very sadly died). Kate’s petrocosmia is not doing well. I removed it from the pot and could see a material-like pot surrounding the plug plant (from the nursery). The roots had not been able to penetrate that and had been trying to go over top of it. It also didn’t have any roots coming from the centre of the base. I took this material away and tried my best at re-potting it in a way that the remaining roots could reach the soil. I am not hopeful though.

The good news is that Stephanie’s palm is doing well, and my attempts to propagate Kate’s echveria have all been successful. I tried a few different propagation methods: taking heads off and planting them, taking the middle part of the long stump that was left and laying them sideways on damp compost, leaving the cut stump ends in the pot to see if they would grow again, and single leaf cuttings. The stumps are all sprouting, and one of the leaf cuttings is sprouting, a few of them have roots but are not yet sprouting. The heads are all thriving now and have put down roots. Some of the leaves look a bit shiny but should soon get their coating of farina on them to give them that soft matt look. The farina gives the plant protection from the sun and it also repels water to help the plant avoid rotting.

middle part of echeveria hybrid stump laid on its side to make cuttings from sprouts — middle part of stump sprouting

echeveria hybrid sprouting from old stump

Also, I saved another of Kate’s plants recently that no-one else had wanted, and it is doing well. I was reluctant at first to take this one on as it is a stephanotis floribunda and it can be tricky to give it the correct situation all year round. I have been waiting for weeks for it to open it’s buds and now it is creating a glorious scent in the conservatory. I will have to move it from the conservatory during the winter as it will be far too cold there so it may come into the dining room over winter.

And here are some of my own succulents in flower and about to flower.

a collection of sempervivums in flower — collection of sepervivums

This sempervivum Chocolate kiss doesn’t look like it is going to flower yet though. It is such a great colour as it is.

deep chocolately/ purple coloured sempervivum 'chocolate kiss' — sempervivum ‘Chocolate kiss’

Listening to the garden and woodland birds.

25/06/2023birds, birdsongJackie

When I do get time to relax in the garden I love listening to all the birdsong around me. I can identify a few of them but every now and then I hear something different and wonder which bird is calling so, when I heard of event nearby about the ‘Language of birds in gardens, woodlands and waterways’ I jumped at the chance to go. Chris Macefield was our guide and we met up in Jock Tamson’s Gairden one lovely Thursday evening a week or so ago. We thought that we would just be going around the garden but when we were asked if we wanted to go into Bawsinch nature reserve (I have always wanted to go there) of course we said yes. I thought that Chris meant that we would be going to the northern shore accessed via a road but actually he meant the southern shore. We said great, but we hadn’t really anticipated the terrain – we were told we would be going through a wild flower meadow then along a track to a bird hide. That all sounds do-able we said as Harry would be pushing me in my wheelchair. Well, crossing the wild flower meadow was ok, then the initial track was ok but quite bumpy, then came the narrower tracks with all the tree roots, hidden boulders, steep walls with ferns along them until we came to the hide. Lots of nettles along the way and some of the gaps between the walls were so narrow that Harry had to tip the wheelchair on it’s side to be able to navigate through them. When we got to the hide, I was lifted onto the area in front of the slit of a window to get a view of Duddingston loch. The scenery was fabulous in the calm, balmy evening light. We listened to different warblers,pigeons, swans, covids, wrens, blackbirds, blackcaps, chiff chaffs, woodpecker, tits, goldcrest and a few others that I can’t remember. Then we went further towards the loch through the reed beds with lots of yellow flag iris, this track was even more precarious as to either side was often still ponds which I really didn’t want to end up in. There were little bridges over some of the still water ponds and streams which were easier to negotiate than the narrow tracks. It was so lovely to go through that landscape with all the reeds, iris, trees, ferns and dead trees all around us and it was so quiet that you could not believe we were in the middle of Edinburgh. We came to the end at another hide that I couldn’t really get a view from. Then we had to go back through it all again to get back to the road (although we took a detour after the wild flower meadow to we wouldn’t have to tackle the narrow gap between the walls). Wow what a great chance to get to experience all of that and it is right on our door step. If you get the chance I would recommend going. However, in you are a wheelchair user you need someone who is strong enough to push you over very tough terrain and a word of caution – these motorised third wheels would be more of a hindrance than a help.

My photos from my phone don’t do the reserve justice. Thank you Chris for your knowledge and patience and, the hand out at the end is a great help, and thanks Harry for all that pushing. It is such a shame that it isn’t more accessible for the wheelchair using, bird watching community, but I realise there has been a lot of work already done to the reserve to maintain it, and it would take a mammoth effort and pots of money (not impossible) to make it more accessible. I am so thankful that I did get the opportunity to be there on the southern side of Duddingston loch to enjoy it on such a lovely evening.

loch with trees and wetlands — Bawsinch nature reserve

loch with trees and wetlands, Arthur's seat in the back ground — Bawsinch nature reserve

loch with wetlands and trees — Bawsinch nature reserve

picture of the slit window in a bird hide on Bawsinch nature reserve — Slit window in the Bawsinch nature reserve bird hide

A few links for those interested:

British Trust for Ornithology

Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust

Scottish Ornithologists Club

Edinburgh Natural History Society

What is flowering in June for the pollinators?

21/06/2023flowers, gardenJackie

Thanks to my wonderful physio Nicholas, I have been able to get back into the garden again to catch up on a lot of jobs. Harry has been helping me to dead-head and move a couple of things, but I have been able to do a lot more now, although I will have to be careful how I move the heavy pots on the patio. I haven’t taken many photographs so quite a few plants have gone over like the hebe, syringia, rhododendron, aqueilegias and weigela. They had been absolutely covered in bees, but now the deutzia and philadelphus are in full bloom along with the geraniums, foxgloves, cirsiums, clematis, catmint, centaura, candelabra primroses, heucheras, Lady’s mantle, and astrantias, which are great for the bees and other pollinators. The astrantia again have been a mixed bag where the slugs/snails are concerned. The white ones don’t even have a nibble whereas the dark red one (Astrantia major ‘Gill Richardson Group’) is almost entirely eaten. I am going to dig it up, put it in a pot on the patio and hope it survives.

In a corner of the stumpery where it gets a bit more sun than the rest of that area I have planted a few different plants to see which one likes it there the best. The erigeron was good there last year, the little red mossy saxifrage are ok, and the dark leaved geranium is now happier than it has been in the last couple of years. I am still undecided. The rogue foxglove will either come out once it has flowered or I will transplant it.

The seedlings from the golf course trees get absolutely everywhere in the garden and you really have to weed them out when they are tiny. I have to get right in amongst the plant to fish them out. Once the roots get hold when they are in the middle of the plant they are much harder to remove. The ferns especially are a nice moist spot for them to survive.

I am going to have to invest in some more plant supports for the bushy plants that hand over the edge of the path. I love how they soften the edge but it often means that I have to roll over them with my wheelchair to get past. I missed the boat again with the large Patty’s plum poppies and the keeled over in that very heavy rain we had just a day or so ago, and all the petals fell off. The roses have just started blooming now so I should get some pics very soon.

I am disappointed with a couple of plants that I bought for the pond a couple of years ago. The dwarf bulrushes died, and the variegated yellow flag Iris not only didn’t flower last year but it failed to flower this year too, and is not variegated. It looks like it might be the tall yellow flag iris which will be too vigorous for our pond. Grrrrr!

this iris should have been the smaller variegated yellow iris

I do love sitting on the patio relaxing with a cuppa but I tend to just see all the things that I need to get on with. U have hardly done anything in the front garden so it is a monument to weeds and the yellow irises are now past their best. I had been rethinking the front garden and have not come up with any ideas yet. I was going to take up a few more slabs but that was when I had a garden help and they were going to help keep the weeds under control. I may just take up all the slabs and just have keep the border but add a couple of drought tolerant plants. I just don’t know – something to think about while I sit on the patio in the sunshine.

Quiet time in May.

31/05/2023wildlifeJackie

Usually I am rushing around in May keeping the weeds down, clearing the duck weed from the pond, scraping in between the slabs on the patio, front garden and back garden, sowing seeds, taking cuttings and photographing the changing scenes in the garden as spring turns to summer. However, this May I was laid low with pain. My whole back, shoulders, upper arms, neck and head were all far too painful (despite painkillers) to do much of anything. I saw an NHS physio and followed their instructions which didn’t help AT ALL. Just the other day I saw a private physio who released some of the very tense muscles and gave me different exercises to follow so I am hopeful that I can soon be as pain free as I can to carry on gardening. So in the mean time here are a few quick snaps of some of the wildlife I found when I did get into the garden. I still haven’t seen the newts so Harry took the newt photo in the evening.

The ladybird was sitting in the little notch of an indoor cyclamen leaf.

ladybird sitting in the notch of a cyclamen leaf — peek-a-boo ladybird

I found a few of these tiny pea clams (fingernail clams) Sphaerium corneum in the pond and that is the first time I have seen these. The photo is just taken quickly when I put it on a towel on my knee before I returned it to the pond.

pea clam found in our small pond — Sphaerium corneum

I know this is a very poor photo but I just quickly snapped this holly blue butterfly while I was watering the patio plants. I have seen a few of these this year flitting around the holly bush. I think this one is a female.

holy blue butterfly on holy bush — Celastrina argiolus

House plants and cuttings

24/04/2023house plantsJackie Elwin

I never think a house can feel like a home without house plants. The rooms tend to look bare without fresh living foliage. They can be incorporated into a room design or just dotted about as you please, as long as they have sufficient light and the room stays at a temperature that suits the plant. There is no point trying to grow a fern that requires a moist environment in a hot, dry centrally heated room as it just won’t be happy. I have plants in every room of the house but I sometimes have to swap them around rooms as the seasons change depending on their individual likes. As they grow larger they may need re-potting or even split and re-potted. This is a great opportunity to make new plants to give away to friends and family or to charities to sell on. I take lots of cuttings from large plants, split the peace lilies many times to make new plants and pot-on the chicks from the sempervivums to sell at Duddingston Kirk Plant Sale. I have been given a few plants (that have needed a bit of TLC) recently from friends and I am waiting to see if they come through or not. Steph gave me an Easter cactus that was very old and had split leaves dead leaves,old woody leaves etc so I gave that a good trim and potted up the cuttings. I don’t have a before photo but I did take a snap after I had given it a haircut.

Steph’s Easter cactus after it’s trim

Steph’s Easter cactus in bud

Steph also gave me palm which had been very neglected so I trimmed off the dead leaves and re-potted it and it is looking much better.

Steph’s palm before

Steph’s palm after

I have been given a few plants of Kate’s (who passed away recently) and it was quite a difficult decision to make, whether or not to alter anything about them or leave them as they were. The Echeveria hybrid was looking very leggy and distressed so I cut the heads off it and a few single leaves too. These were left to dry out until the ends calloused over, then were planted in a free draining compost mix. I have left the rooted plant stumps in the hope that it may get new growth from the stumps bottom part. The leggy bit in the middle I have just placed on compost to see if it will root from the stem (just an experiment). Hopefully one of these will take and I can keep it going. She also had a Christmas cactus which was growing mainly in one direction so I trimmed off a few bits and left them to dry for a few days and potted then up, and hopefully I can get some new plants from it. Kate’s Petrocosmia had been very over-watered so I re-potted that and it is trying to dry out, I took some damaged leaves off it but I don’t know if it will survive. I will take a photo if it survives. I really hope I can keep them all alive for Kate’s memory.

Kate’s Echevaria hybrid before

Kate’s Echevaria hybrid stumps

Kate’s Echevaria hybrid small head potted-up

Kate’s Echevaria hybrid large head potted-up

Kate’s Christmas cactus trimmed

Kate’s Petrocosmia begonifolia before

I am loving me Aeonium Voodoo just now as the colours are just fantastic! The top of the stem is bright green and these leaves go such a deep, rich, burgundy which contrast beautifully with the lime centre. I don’t know when I should take the head off to replant – I may leave it another year or so.

Aeonium Voodoo head

Aeonium Voodoo plant

Aeonium Voodoo under leaves

Aeonium Voodoo stem and leaf joints vivid colours

Aeonium Voodoo stem with leaf joints

And recently purchased are these fabulous living stones: Lithops. They can be tricky to grow so I am going to have to be very careful with my watering of them. I have potted them up in a very gritty, free draining compost and have given them one watering so far. Fingers crossed I can keep them alive.

Lithops

I do have a few air plants that I bought in 2020 but so far they have not flowered for me. As soon as they I will post a picture.

Just a few of the cuttings that will be on sale at Duddingston Kirk Garden Club plant sale on Saturday.

Cuttings

Mid April in the garden

24/04/2023gardenJackie Elwin

Strange weather again, one minute we are basking in warm sunshine, the next we are down to freezing. I have been trying to harden off some cuttings but don’t really want to put them out in this icy wind just in case they get a shock so they are staying undercover for a few days until it warms a little. Of course I just ordered the vine weevil nematodes the other day, but now I will have to keep them in the fridge until we have had a spell of rain and it warms a bit. You can’t apply them to dry soil as they need moisture to move around in the soil and find the weevil grub. Most of the narcissi did well this year, except the Segovia and Ice wing. Only 3 Segovia came up and two of those had their flowers eaten before they opened (exactly the same as last year). No Ice wing came up at all. The good news is that the narcissi Actaea poeticus did really well. Last year most of them were eaten by snails or slugs either before they flowered or once they flowered. They look great beside the berberis as the colours of the eye of the narcicci are almost the same as the berberis flowers. The tulips Mystic Van Eijk are still looking good as are the Erythroniums. The cherry blossom have just gone over now and will soon be blown away in the wind. It is too cold for me outside so I will concentrate on my indoor plants this week.

view of the garden from the patio April 2023

View from the patio April 2023

Stumpery bed April 2023

Stumpery April 2023

Raised bed April 2023

orangey yellow Berberis alonside Narcissi Actaea Poeticus

Berberis and Narcissi Actaea Poeticus

Long handled tool for wheelchair gardening.

10/04/2023Tools, wheelchair gardening toolsJackie Elwin

Long handled tools – are they worth it? There are so many tools to choose from and it mainly comes down to individual preference. You can get long handled adult tools, children’s tools, telescopic handled, adjustable handled, or even no handled – just tool heads only. I bought a load of different long handled tools thinking they would help me reach further into the garden to work, however, some of them were just plain useless. Some of the children’s tools were robustly made and do actually help when using the rake, hoe, and little fork. The spade was more difficult to use. I could use them all in the shallow border but not so much in the deeper border. The heads are all small so jobs like raking could take longer than if you used a normal sized rake. The weight of the children’s tools were not too bad but as they had wooden handles they do have some weight in them. I still found digging the most difficult job as it is much easier being above the tool and using your weight to push down (or your foot if you can) which would often mean getting right into the flower bed. This is ok when planting out a new bed but not when it is an established bed. The lengths of the handles of the children’s tools are between 81cm and 98cm long.

The tools on the right of the photo are the ones I use all the time: the Draper long handled tools and an oscillating hoe. The Draper long handled fork and trowel are great because they are stainless steel and are quite light and easy to use. I like the T shaped handle as I can hook the handle over my shoulder and have the tool part resting between my knees so I can carry them up and down the ramp easily. The T handle also means I can pull the tool from the earth easily plus it gives you something to push on. The handle lengths of the Draper tools are around 72cm.

Th oscillating hoe came as just the head only. Harry attached it to an old broom handle (86cm long). I find that I can push and pull it fairly easily. It is most useful when working between rows of plants. You could always just shorten any full length garden too handles that are the broom handle type.

You can get tools that are classed as midi-handled which would be around 60cm long. Maybe they would be just right for using in a raised bed from a wheelchair.

My long handled tools

You can get a telescopic handle that fits onto a variety of tool heads. This one I bought years ago and I find that I really only use the small spring rake head. What I find very annoying with this particular telescopic mechanism is that it doesn’t stay put while you are working with the tool. You twist the handle the pull it out to the length you require the twist it to lock it in place. It just untwists while you work. Also on mine the middle telescopic part has stuck. It is great in theory but not great in practice. It is quite light to use and should go from 55cm – 120cm and I use it mainly to gently scrape dead leaves and debris from plants.

Telescopic multi-head tool

The adjustable handled net (PondXpert) that I have for my pond is great as the mechanism is at the head end so when you screw unscrew it and pull it to the length you require, then screw it back tight, it stays fixed in position and won’t budge until you unscrew it again. I keep is shorter when scooping leaves or duck weed from the front of the pond and longer when I need to reach the back of the pond. The longer you have the tool, the more strain it puts on you hands and wrists (unless you can support it with your other hand). This one extends to 1.8M and you can get different sizes and shapes of net that fit the handle. Ideally I would like to use it with some kind of arm support. I know you can get some long handled tools that you can use a support cuff with (PETA Easy-grip tools and arm support cuff) although I have never tried these and some look very awkward to use.

Adjustable handled small pond net

Colour in the garden mid March.

24/03/2023flowersJackie Elwin

Again, I haven’t done much in the garden at all due to medial epicondilitis and biceps tendinitis in the right arm, triceps/deltoid pain, acromioclavicular joint pain in the left arm, and shoulder and neck pain from osteoarthritis. No fun at all, but now things are a little better I can start to move about more as long as I don’t overdo things. I am getting back out into the garden again to see what I have been missing. The flowers that are going over now are: snowdrops, crocus and small iris (Katherine’s gold). The witch hazel was looking great in January with it’s lovely deep orangey, spidery scented flowers but they have gone over now. The indoor plants that are still in flower are the fabulous cyclamen (although they will soon be over so I will start to dry them out for their summer rest period), peace lily, and the trillium. The trillium ought to be in the stumpery area of the back garden but the slugs kept getting them so they are in a pot in the conservatory for now. I took a few cuttings from a very old Easter cactus that I rescued from a friend and they have tiny buds on. I did find a couple of leaves on them which were stuck together and when I pulled them apart I found a small green caterpillar inside some woven silk threads. It could be a Tortrix moth (either Carnation tortrix – Cacoecimorpha pronubana, or the light brown apple tortrix moth – Epiphyas postvittana). I don’t know if it was already on the plant when I got it or not. I had thought the small eaten areas on the leaves had been slug damage.

In flower now are: mahonia, hellebores (some lovely large clumps and some rather spindly specimens), large daffodils, tiny tete-a-tete narcissus, pink heather, yellow epimedium, winter honeysuckle, white periwinkle, rosemary, chionadoxa, primrose, erythronium snowflake, pulmonaria, the pink corydalis and a few grape hyacinths (that I keep forgetting are there). The hazel is monoecious which means they have male and female flowers on the same plant. The male and female flowers of the tortured hazel look so different to each other – the male flowers are the lovely yellow catkins that dangle and are blown about in the wind so the pollen lands on the tiny red female flowers. However they can’t be self pollinated, they must be pollinated by another hazel. There are only a few flowers on the Pieris so maybe there has been some frost damage – we shall see if we get more later.

It was March 13th when we spotted the first frog spawn in the pond. It was difficult to count the individual clump but I would guess that there are at least 5 clumps, so we have at least 5 female frogs about. We did find a couple of dead frogs in the pond after winter but I have no idea what sex they were.

The crab apple that we planted last autumn has survived the winter and has tiny buds on so I am hopeful that we get some blossom when the weather warms up a little. At the moment it is sunshine and showers with a drop in temperature due at the weekend. We have put up blinds in the conservatory on the left side only as this is the direction that it gets the sun from. We will wait and see if that is enough shading for the plants but we may have to get a couple on the ceiling too. It is may favourite place to be in when the sun shines just now.

On a very sad note: Kate Dick, our Duddingston Kirk Garden Club president has passed away after a short illness. She will be sadly missed by us all at the club. RIP Kate.

Hamamelis intermedia ‘Diane’

witch hazel Diane orangey red spidery flowers

Hamamelis intermedia ‘Diane’ flowers

Berberis x lologensis ‘Apricot Queen’

Lonicera fragrantissima

Pieris japonica ‘Forest flame’

Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’

male yellow catkins and tiny red female flowers of hazel

Corylus male and female flowers

Primula vulgaris


Hellebore double white with purple spots

Hellebore single, white

Hellebore single, purple

Hellebore single, dark purple

Hellebore double, Picotee

Erythronium ‘Snowflake’

Frog spawn March 13th 2023

tortrix moth larva in silk threads on leaf

Tortrix moth larva on Easter cactus

Baltic Edinburgh in December 2022

18/12/2022UncategorizedJackie Elwin

Wow it has been absolutely Baltic so far this December! We didn’t do much in the garden over November as I managed to hurt my right elbow (medial epicondylitis) and on account of being paraplegic having to do many transfers, this meant that I over-used my left arm when compensating for my sore elbow, so now have painful left triceps and shoulder. Harry tweaked his back, and Debs (my garden help lady who comes for 1½ hours per week) also tweaked her back. We did however manage to plant a tree during national tree week. That is the Royal ‘we’ – Harry did the work while I supervised. It is a Malus sylvestris Evereste half-standard. Hopefully if it survives being planted then immediately getting snowed on and plummeted down to -8°C, it should have lovely blossom in the spring, followed by green foliage in the summer and beautiful autumnal foliage in the autumn with crab apples fruits. This tree should hold onto it’s fruit throughout winter.

We live in an old bungalow which we have tried to draught-proof and had insulating throughout, but it still remains a very chilly house. At the moment in this Baltic cold spell being around -3°C and under we are really struggling to keep the place warm. The heating goes on for a few hours in the morning and the same at night and it is costing us around £20 per day and we are still not warm enough. If we have to put the heating on all day this will easily go to £35 or more per day! I have an oil heater on in the craft room and the room barely gets to 14°C so I am typing this trying to keep warm with scarf and fingerless gloves, hot-water bottle and a lap blanket. I am wearing at least 3 layers of clothing and am still shivering. I feel the cold terribly and I know part of it is from having poor blood circulation and lack of muscle mass. I also have Sjogrens syndrome which can cause reynaud’s disease where your hands and feet have much reduced blood flow and they turn yellow then blue, and when the blood does finally return to them they are very painful. It isn’t just the humans feeling the cold but even the house plants are suffering. So this year I have had to move some plants from the conservatory as it is too cold for them. Normally I would keep the conservatory just above freezing (around 5°C)
using a greenhouse fan heater. This year however with the price hikes
and cost of living being so high I dare not put on the fan heater. Therefore I am not having a nice Christmas display, but instead am having to cover the remaining plants with fleece and hope for the best. In the coldest of nights we have succumbed to putting a small oil filled radiator on low just to.keep the place form freezing, Harry and I are just getting over having a cold which was absolutely miserable especially when you just can’t keep warm. I would have loved to go out and get take some beautiful crisp, frosty photographs but all I could manage was one frosty rose on my way to feed the birds. If it is like this now and it is only December, then I do wonder what it is going to be like come February when we normally get hit with the real icy cold and snowy weather.

Malus sylverstris Evereste

Frosted Rose

View from the patio

fleece over some plants in the conservatory

Fleece keeping some plants warm in conservatory

Cardesque Garden

Gardening from an ageing, paraplegic perspective.