Sophie's Gardening Year

This week was one of those where I didn't have any interest in going to the garden.  They don't happen often, but when they do...  It's only because of writing something here today, and my partner wanting to go as well, that I went. And then of course I spent a beautiful two hours or so there, in the sun, on my own rhythm.  Just weeding the front flower garden.  I'm not done yet but today promises to be another glorious sunny late-summer day so we'll be headed back there I'm sure.  Still not too excited but that's okay. I think my lethargy stems from the oncoming autumn.  A few trees are changing their colors and it's getting colder at night and the geese have pretty much left (at least, I don't see them practicing their phalanxes anymore).  The worst part of the year for me is on its way and I'm in mourning already.  I'm like a flower, a spring and summer child.  I get my energy from sunlight and I can feel it dwindling.  And even t...

The first full week of September threw full-on fall weather at us: wind, rain, a significant temperature drop.  The kind of weather that makes you want to sit inside your house, under a blanket, with hot chocolate and a good book.  All of which I did, but, because I promised myself to write about the garden each week here, I made it out there yesterday, with Bart (having someone else to go with helps!). And we stayed for a good 2 hours.  In the sunshine.  Because it's always sunny in the garden.  Even when it rains.  :-) But before I go into what we did yesterday I want to highlight a wonderful app for novice gardeners like myself (and after a decade I still feel like I know nothing): Pl@ntNet .  Don't know what that plant is?  Upload a picture and find out!  Which is how I now know these gorgeous yellow things that make me happy are Rudbeckias: I'm hoping to catch them come seeding time.  I've been quite good at collecting see...

Let's talk apple trees.  Because I'm learning a lot from mine this year. First of all, our tree is around 16 years old now (just as old as our child!).  And I think I've cracked how to prune it.  I've been pruning it for the past few seasons, with a little help from a book that's now in my garden and not here so I can't link to it (will edit it in later), and have been rewarded with what I think is a happy tree and approximately a million apples in the making. That's what it looked like about two months ago, or a month-and-a-half ago.  So. Many. Apples.  I was already beginning to sweat a little trying to think of ways to process them.  But then we had a few blustery days and a small storm or two, and now the tree looks like this: I think it's obvious where the wind comes from, no?  :-)  Also, on the side with apples left our neighbors have a hedge. The wind's not the whole story, however.  We have lost so many apples to simple...

Well, here we go! And straightaway this was a tricky week where the only time I was able to go to the garden was on Friday morning, and then only to have a look and take some pictures for this space, hahaha.  The rest of the week went up in a haze of work and birthday prep and actual birthday.  So mostly a wonderful haze, just not a gardening one. Still, this was the week that the anemones started blooming so I was very grateful to see that.  I adore anemones.  They are so elegant and their flower petals so delicate but their hearts are so sturdy and full.  And the bees adore them, too, always a very big plus for me when it comes to plants. I have a white and a pink anemone.  I don't know their official names, but having a look around the interwebs it would appear they would both be grouped in the Japanese (or Chinese) anemones area, since they have yellow hearts (stamens)(learning as I type here).  Also, her name is derived from the Greek ...

As a birthday present to myself I'm going to commit to blogging about my allotment garden once a week for a year, from my 44th birthday until my 45th. I think it'll be a present I will both love and loathe, but then, that's the idea!  After all, I hope to expand my gardening knowledge, and the only way to do that is to go out and garden, but I don't always have or make time to go to the plot.  Now I'll be forced to (calamities aside). Also, I never make time to record what I've done, except through making pictures to post on my Instagram.  But knowing what plants I've planted will help my knowledge increase, too, I should think!  So this is my Cunning Plan to get off my phone, into my garden, and learn about what, exactly, I've done there that week. I'm hoping to learn more about my garden, which has given me so much joy and peace over the past decade.  I'm planning to keep a separate page filled with the plants I meet, and there will be a ...