No August slump in my garden - GBBD

I started last post by saying summers are a bit hit and miss here in Britain – but here in the South East we can’t complain about the weather the last 4 weeks, it has been just warm enough to be called summer, not too hot and with plenty of sunshine. Only thing missing would be rain for a few hours every night so I wouldn’t have to do all the watering – but I am being picky now! It has actually rained only once the last 4 weeks, it was a good rainfall of almost 24 hours, but being nearly 4 weeks ago it is now a bleak memory for my garden. The clay soil is bone dry and like concrete and I have given up getting anything more planted a long time ago, it will have to wait until the winter when we get proper, prolonged rain again.

Topsy-turvy weather in London – GBBD May-16

May is a month with all sorts of weather here in Britain – from really nice and warm during the day to night frost if you are in a more rural spot. It is hard to keep up with which plants are allowed to stay out and which are too tender so in my previous garden where I had no greenhouse, shed or even a garage I just had two choices: outside - or not at all. Here in my new garden I also have a third option; a shed, but I am pretty fed up dragging plants in and out of the shed so now I have stopped. Last week a tray of begonia seedlings died during a cold night. Oh well, not a big loss, didn’t cost me anything as the cormlets were free, but it was a bit annoying. But everything else has toughened up and looks fine and I assume this is it for cold nights – surely, this MUST be it?! The weirdest, coldest spring I can ever remember here in London.

EOMV – July - blowing hot and cold

July 2015 has been a month of contrast in my garden in terms of the weather. From extreme hot weather in the beginning to seriously cold towards the end of the month. Well, it’s not as if we have had any snow, but it actually dipped just below 10 degrees C one night and that’s rather cold for July in London. Spare a thought for those further north though, who had temperatures down towards zero that night. Brrr! And a week ago we had 24 hours with rain. Yay!! That was really good for parched gardens around here, would have liked to have a few more days like that, but according to most forecasts there won’t be a drop of rain the next 10 days. I am back to watering every evening.

In my new garden - GBBD May

Anyone following my blog will have noticed I have been preparing to move the last couple of months. I can now report I have moved and spent 4 days at my new house! I wasn’t sure what I would be able to show you for this month’s Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day but I went out yesterday to take some photos – in pouring rain. For once I don’t mind the odd days with rain as most of my previous garden has come with me and is now in pots and containers needing a lot of water. The free stuff from above is most welcome :-)

Moving house - and garden

Today’s Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day post will be a bit different than all the other I have made before. I am still waiting to hear if I have got the bungalow I have applied for, but it now seems likely that I will get it so I am continuing to prepare for a move. The most important thing I will take with me? My garden of course! Yes, most of my garden is coming with me, at least the plants.

March flowers in London – GBBD

Winter is well and truly over here in London and we have had spring for a good while now. Last year everything was incredibly early, this year most things are just about normal – if such things exist. Perhaps I should use the word average instead, as every of the 16 winters I have been in London seem to have been different. The first year I was here we had an amazing summer just like last summer and a mild winter just like last year’s winter. I foolishly thought that this was how the climate was in London. How wrong I was. But even though it varies, the two really cold winters I have experienced here were nothing compared to what I was used to from Norway and I really appreciate what I am able to grow here and the early spring we get.

End of Month View – February

It’s been nice and spring like the last week here in London, a bit cold at night but really good at 10-12 degrees C (53 F) during the day. And we have had some good sunshine too, I always long for some sun when we get to this time of year. Still no snow in my garden, last time I had snow was February 2013 so I really hope Mr Winter doesn’t bite back with some silliness like a snowfall in March. It has happened before, and although snow and frost in March is rare and never long-lived, it is detrimental to my lovely huge camellia so thanks, but no thanks. No snow this year either please.

The wacky aphids are back!

Two years ago I wrote about the yellow-orange aphids invading my lovely Dregea sinensis, maybe you remember them? If not, or if you are new to my blog since then, let me fill you in: the aphids are called Aphis nerii and if you are from Florida or southern Spain you have probably seen them and hated the sight of them many times. If you are from more northern parts of the world you have probably not seen them or not even heard of them.

October GBBD in London

It’s that time again, Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, and I can’t understand it’s a whole month since last GBBD post! October so far has been chilly and the rain we didn’t get all September we certainly have got the last 2 weeks. I went outside yesterday to take some photos for this post, in pouring rain with an umbrella, realising that I had not been out in the garden for more than a week because it’s been raining every time I wanted to go outside.  The forecast is promising us some warmer weather the next 4-5 days, and possibly no rain during the day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday – but you never know, that might change again by the time we get to the end of the week.

September beauties from London

It’s the middle of the month again, time for another Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day post. In my garden it’s still very much summer, and with the glorious weather we have had the last 2 weeks – and is expecting the next couple of weeks, summer is very much on the agenda. In fact, by Thursday we might get above 25 degrees C, which we haven’t had since the first week of August – since August turned out to be the coldest in 20 or so years. The days are getting shorter and the leaves have started to fall, but as long as we have summer weather, who cares?!

End of Month View - July

I heard on the BBC weather today that here in the south-east of England we have had warmer than average weather for the last 8 months in a row. I can believe that! We had an amazing summer last year, I didn’t think we would get a repeat this year, but here we are at the end of July and it looks like we really are repeating last year’s amazing summer. Long may it last!

My bountiful July garden

Can you believe it – it’s middle of July already! Here in London we have had amazing weather for a very long time, actually since it stopped raining in  March, although it was rather cold in March and April. But since May we have had summer basically, and not many days below 20 degrees and many days hovering around 30 degrees C. The last week we have had some welcome torrential rain, but although it has been good for the flower beds, all the pots and containers still need watering almost every day. I am glad I have managed to reduce the 350 or so pots down to a more manageable 200 plus!

June GBBD in London

Did you see Gardeners’ World on BBC this week? Monty Don said it was only one word to describe the garden this month and that was ‘Lush’. I couldn’t agree more, although in my garden, lush seems a bit inadequate word these days, my garden is filling up and has already started to take on the jungle feel it gets in the late summer.

Tree following - hard pruning

It’s time for the monthly post about my two Magnolia soulangeana, the two trees I have growing in containers on my patio. Last month, in May, the leaves had come out and the trees looked very different from April’s photos. This month the changes are more subtle.

End of Month View – May

People say a picture says more than a thousand words, I tend to agree, but I also believe a movie says so much more than pictures. So for my very first ‘End of Mont View’ I am posting a movie of my garden – instead of the 50 or so photos I would need in order to show you the same. My garden is growing like mad and my inner London paradise is starting to take on the secluded and secret look it gets during the summer and autumn.

May flowers in London

For us gardeners it seems difficult to talk about anything else than our gardens and the weather, yet – we seem to have a rather short memory when it comes to past weather. Do you remember what kind of weather we had last spring or the spring before? Well, I do, because I have written it down, but I also do because it was so extreme! I suppose for many of us, EXTREME is the word we could start using to describe the weather by in the future, no matter where we live.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy New Year – welcome spring 2014!

After the storm

The storm a week ago swept through my London garden with ferocious winds and it rained buckets for about 18 hours. I had prepared my garden for the storm, but you can’t really plan for any possible event, no one knew where the storm would hit hardest. It turned out I was lucky. I had put all my pots on the ground and had lied down the magnolia growing in a container, and hoped for the best. It went better than I had hoped.

A monster for Halloween

I suppose it is rather fitting to have a monster plant presented on a day like today - in a bright orange colour, my monster will be known to a lot of people as something they initially put in their garden as a nice, small plant they picked up at a nursery - and then forever regretting doing that.

October in London

October is a funny month here in London, it goes from one extreme to another. We had 10 days of nice, warm weather well into 20 degrees C during the day and even if the evenings are colder and it gets darker sooner, it still felt like summer and often nicer than many days we had in August. And suddenly it all changed, the temperature fell to barely above 10 degrees and that bone chilling wind you get here in London set in and we skipped from summer to feeling like winter in just a few days. It is Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day today, and it might be autumn, cold and windy and you might think that there can’t possibly be much to see in flower in a garden in London, but as usual I have lots to show you.