Panic, panic, don't panic

-
Dear Monty,

Sara Venn recently blogged about her own neglected garden - but she spends so much time helping others I don't think she needs to feel bad about it - but of course we all do.

I admire her honesty - it's like we should all have pristine plots at all times - tidied at the right times etc etc.

I admit to feeling slightly panicky myself as I watch Spring moving on apace and Dan Pearson is digging and delving and you Monty are gearing up to tell us what we should be doing right now.

I'm glad therefore for Anne Wareham who has just published her new book Deckchair Gardener - I have only read the introduction but already I feel better.


Here is my garden - with rot and overgrown grass and shrubs not pruned on time and a border not yet dug and plants not moved and paint peeling off walls. Pergola needs demolishing, shed needs new roof and window and door ! And supposed to be opening again in June with NGS.



'Pergola' needs taking down


Dogwoods need pruning back


Grass needs cutting

All needs a tidy

New border is meant to come out towards path edge

This patch is to be extended to where the sculpture sits and plants moved !

Paul

Comments

  1. JohnK7 March 2017 at 12:28

    Uh, according to the yellow peril you're opening for snowdrops next weekend! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hoehoegrow7 March 2017 at 13:24

    I feel better already! I have been fighting down rising panic as spring begins in earnest. Too much to do too little time. Now I will embrace those weeds !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul Steer7 March 2017 at 16:09

      A little here and a little there gets a remarkable amount done and plants are more forgiving than we are anyway. Here's to you enjoying a spring without stress. X

      Delete
  3. Anne Wareham4 April 2017 at 09:55

    Tiny pictures are a great help! Thanks for the mention - hope you get time to read it one day! XXxx

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pity the cabbage white

-
Image
Dear Monty, Having seen you protect your newly planted cabbages from cabbage white butterflies - it made me realise that I haven't seen many this year. Despite warmth yesterday - a brief interlude with blue sky and a light wind there was a dearth of butterflies in the coal tip garden. There were honey bees, bumble bees, wasps, hover flies, a gangly legged wasp, one hedge brown, one speckled wood and a common blue - that is all. Oh and a frog sheltering in the shady hosta and a silent peregrine falcon swooping overhead. What has happened to all the insects ? What has happened to all the aphids this year ? Is it just me that is missing them ? I have seen no ladybirds or ladybird larvae - because there have been so few aphids - was it the birds that have snaffled them ? I worry about the lack of insect numbers. We walked through a wild meadow full of meadow cranesbill and meadowsweet with the purple haze of knapweed in the grasses and yet there were one or two meadow br...
Read more

Letter to Monty Don 48

-
Image
Dear Monty, I know that despite these rambles being addressed to you, they never reach your eyes or heart, but this question is most certainly directed to you : Can nature be ugly ? I am pondering this question sitting in my cupboard of a 'studio' where I am putting the finishing touches to paintings of  British native orchids, pollinators and butterflies for an exhibition next weekend. Now I believe that you understand perfectly well the response you may get when you make statements on GW - including the one about spent buddleja flowers being 'ugly'. I too have always deadheaded my buddleja for the same reason, and as you said to promote new flower spikes. But this ugliness is an intrinsic part of nature - it sets seed to create the next generation, the flowers last but for a few days. Is this ugliness a kind of acknowledgement of the frailty of 'beauty' .... and the cutting off and tidying away a kind of denial ? ( Perhaps I think too much.) I ...
Read more

Monty, where does the road take us ?

-
Image
Monty, I see you have returned to France. Your film reminded me of my visits to Paris as an art student between 1981-83. It is a city that cannot fail to make an impression with its wide open streets, avenues of trees, the river and public gardens. I particularly remember Versailles with its long canal. At that time I was not aware of having a particular interest in gardens, but the gardens at Versailles were astonishing. I saw them in early morning light, when there were not that many people there. I also remember being intrigued by the garden at the Musee Rodin. Strangely for an art student, it was not the sculpture that caught my attention but the garden with pyramid shaped topiary. Perhaps what I was responding to was the sense of order, balance and harmony. It almost feels as though I was meant to visit, and that the encounters I had which were sensually intense, were pre-ordained. There is one incident, which has great significance only to me perhaps, but which was of ...
Read more