Gardening
A few flowers in my cactus garden on my balcony in Marseille; this plant works in fives (five main flowers, ten off-shoots). But the aromatics (lavender, thyme and rosemary) have again failed. These plants survive in abundance in the harsh conditions on the calcaire mountainsides of Provence so I’m disappointed that specimens from nurseries can’t take the more reasonable conditions I’ve offered them.
Nice lemons growing on my patio in West London, a reminder of Mediterranean lemons in Menton. Lemons are not the only fruit, there are a few mandarins ripening but my lime tree is disappointing this year. Anyhow, some tidying up and up-potting in the warm spring sunshine, that’s a Rosemary and an Oleander.
Plenty of growth on my balcony cactus garden in Marseille since last year’s up-potting. That means weeds too, the most effective control is weeding by hand, but it’s dangerous...
Spring has arrived here in Keswick so it's time to dig in a few new plants in my garden. Rhododendrons, hazels, a laurel, rosemary, lavender and a syringa. This is filling in gaps where the previous plantings have failed. Going for largish plants so hopefully for some result this season. It feels really positive putting in new plants, though only the herbs went in easily; all the rest were struggles with existing roots, non-Roman terracotta pottery and plenty of rocks the glacier left behind. So this photoset shows several sessions of gardening. I’m sure they’ll look great when they’re established and when I’ll be complaining about even more plants to snip to keep trim!
More photos: Digging in new green in Keswick - Lake District National Park
Trimming and shaping the pavement side of my hedges in Keswick, surrounded by birds singing happily. There’s plenty of new growth even though it’s winter; whilst there have been frosts and there’s snow still on the tops of the highest fells around, my garden certainly hasn’t lacked water.
