Long Mizzle Garden

 Hello M' Allhalloweenen, One year and for one year only, the lower part of Long Mizzle Garden became a big pumpkin patch. It followed the autumn removal of the mutant Leylandii hedging by hire-a-dad-with-a-chainsaw (Leylandii must be the social vampire of the gardening world). The in-situ compost heaps that had sat all winter fed the soil. Monster shade casters and moisture suckers removed, life slowly started to seep back in. The spring sown Jack O' Lanterns loved it. By the following autumn, we had more giant pumpkins than we knew what to do with.  I wish I had a picture of the garden that year. This is how the patch looks today - a mix of Cordylines, Grisolinia Littoralis, Bay and Camelia. The pumpkin patch was truly magical, but without replacement hedging our garden would be overlooked by a number of houses. Not good for Nude Tuesdays. This week I have continued with hedge trimming in between the many showers of rain. This particular line has to be hard cut back once a ...

Hello m' handsome axe tossers, I've not forgotten about blogland. I've just been super busy working extra hours and trying to keep the house in order. That makes the weekend all the more special and a return to that 'Friday feeling'. I've missed Gardeners World on t' tele for the past fortnight, so I'm not sure what Monty at Longmeadow has as jobs for the weekend, but here's what's been going on gardening wise here at Long Mizzle. The hedge trimming has begun in haste. The blobby Camillia has had a drastic skirt lift trim, the scraggly budleja has been hard cut back and the bay tree re-pom-pomed. The Vebena Bonariensis is trying to steal the show here, but look at that text book pruning in the background!   Now I can adorn the new voids with hanging things - Take a look at these posh, fleece lined gloves the viking brother got me for my birthday...  Well, that's the nicest they'll ever look again as Monsieur, who normally does not partak...

 Hello m' berry pies, Sundays are for lie ins with tea and books, breakfast croissants, garden pottering, maybe a bit of painting. Here is the sound of a Sunday morning at Long Mizzle, courtesy of the local church bell ringers [video] - Picking flowers to dry - Helichrysum (above) and Statice (below).     From the greenhouse you can watch the lagging tomatoes slowly ripen.   This year's Braeburn apple harvest... thirty of 'em! Some destined for a pie.   If we are feeling adventurous... some blackberry picking, using an old wooden walking stick to hook and reach the high branches. The best ones are always out of reach! In old British folklore, we are told not to pick blackberries after Old Michaelmas Day (10th October), as the devil promptly pisses on them. I am pretty sure I have eaten pissed on berries in the past. It did not result in instant death, but it did simultaneously give me the squits AND make me a better guitarist. Saturday afternoons are for heavier...