Long Mizzle Garden

 Hello m' clearance mince pies, Imagine my surprise and delight when BBC  Gardeners' World contacted me earlier in the year. A very nice producer asked if they could come to visit Long Mizzle Garden for a new winter special. I said "of course!" And so, in December I had a knock at the door. Low and behold, there stood none other than Adam Frost, the producer, a camera guy and sound woman.  Promptly I popped t' kettle on and whipped out the best biscuits from my posh tin. I could tell Mr Frost was eyeing up the craft beers in m' cupboard though, so I put some in the fridge for after the shoot. He didn't bring his cat, but my neighbour's cat couldn't stop following him around. If you listen carefully you can hear it going for Adam's 'Catnip Cologne'. It has been so hard keeping this a secret from my friends, family and bloggy chums, but now I  can officially share the footage, that unfortunately did not make it onto the winter special... ...

 Eh up m' jolly baubles , It has been a long month full of rain, then ice, then rain again. Some people would call that a sh*t sandwich, I call it a slushie surprise. Tomorrow will lead to our longest night. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice is upon us. Being part brown bear, I have officially been in semi-hibernation. Aside from the mince pie and cider stash, I'm not feeling particularly organised this year. Soon I will have to leave the comfort of the cave and venture out for extra supplies. Please don't adjust your screens - that is a real Christmas tree sat in the corner.  I finally succumbed to working parent guilt and took the kids one weekend to Travena Cross Nursery near Helston.  It was actually a hoot : singing reindeer, dancing penguins, a story telling owl, a giant polar bear to sit on, a sporadic flurry of fake snow from a 90s foam party machine, toasted marshmallows that were still on fire, mulled wine to legitimately get pissed on in...

 Hello m' fellow bridezilla's, I have news ... Monsieur & I got married! It was a small, quiet ceremony at an old Cornish mining site. We told only a handful of people, including our two lovely witnesses. I picked my outfit from my  wardrobe that morning - plum velvet dress and vintage embroidered Chinese jacket together with my sturdy leather work boots. The flowers I picked fresh from the garden- river lilies, snapdragon, lemon scented geranium, cerinth and trailing ivy.   I cried. Monsieur welled up a bit too.  We were back by tea time to collect the children and treat ourselves to a nice takeout (Indian cuisine & a cloudy cider for me, fish & chips with juice for them). Gardening duties have happily been on pause.  We've been treated to whole array of different types of rain:  drizzle, mizzle, spittle, danky-do-don't-go-to-town deluge, silver sleet sheets, splutter gutter downfalls, piss pop drops, neck floss splodge, flippity-freezing ...

 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' peggies, Propagation stations are go! I'm plotting for car boot sale domination next spring. I shall sell plants to feed my plant addiction AND hard biscuit fund. Well, action is necessary seeing as there's an energy crisis, a cost of living crisis and a beyond bobbins government crisis! This is why I've been working extra hours. Working like a dog and sleeping like a log.       The pink river lilies burst forth on Monday -  (Hesperanta coccinea)  This fantastic book is on loan from the library. I'm not ready to give back yet - The window ledges are fast turning into aqua propagation stations -     Miss Amarylis (Hippeastrum) is having her second bloom of the year, out on the top patio table - Her little bulb offsets sit in pots beside her - At this time of year , the Aoniums start putting on some serious muscle. Here's some Tree Aenoium stems, with adventitious roots already developing. They will readily strike when placed in a pot...