Hi all. I will dedicate this to Jane ref her comment on looking out on a wintry scene and thinking forward to better weather and the garden ( Misc Pics topic). Heres a varied selection of things to come - starting with the Roses as they are favourites of so many - will send a few each day but have to avoid double posting so a small comment on each lot would be appreciated so I can keep going. It will soon all be happening again - Spring will come. Syd.
I really hope you're right Syd as I'm getting tired of snow, frost and gales. Your photographs have certainly cheered me up though so many thanks for posting them.
Syd, you are so kind! Your photos are lovely, and thank you so much for posting them. And here is a rose for you--Lady Hamilton just ready to bloom.
Hi Eileen, Jane, all. So glad you like the idea and the pics but please note these are selected, some from last garden, from my folders and some will have been posted in different topics by me before. However, regardless of that not everyone by any means will have seen them and of course theres new folk joining all the time. The idea is just to give a little cheer to all you good folks wherever who are still having wintry, even harsh wintry weather - a little pick me up - a little encouragement and a little light ahead to when you will all be out in your own gardens again seeing similar - have faith it will happen. I must say that in our corner of England really we have not had a winter - very little snow - frosts of course but nothing really severe. Jane many thanks for the Rose, it is beautiful. Heres a few more pics and I can name any of interest if required - will be getting to the "heftier" stuff after this posting. Syd.
What's your secret with the Hostas Syd? Mine always look filigreed as the slugs love to munch on them but there's no holes in yours that I can see.
Hi Eileen. Those pics came from my last garden - I used them as they were growing more or less individually - better for pics. Ref Slugs/Snails well its continuous war and funnily enough though the soil had more body there and was moister there was less of them than here where it is sandy and much drier. I watch over them and examine them regularly, picking out any intruders and also the evening/night-time darkness visits with a torch finds them. Also I grow more in containers now where its easier I find to keep things under control - the plants love it. Having said all that I admit that as the season runs on they do gradually get holes and the "varmints" always win - but by then its autumn and all the herbaceous stuff is going over anyway so I let it go. There was another very important factor involved there and that was we always had Thrushes in the garden who mopped up quite a few - here in this desert in 4 years I have (to my very great sadness) only seen one - nuff said. Foliage is my thing above flowers and Hostas are definitely the backbone of it all - theres so much to contrast with their foliage shape/ colour. In the woods next to us (and they do visit) we have these very large Snails - twice the size of the usual biggest and they are a protected species - for interest I am told by the locals that years ago ( if not still) they had Snail races with them. I actually did measure the length of one out of its shell crawling and it was near 4 inches long. Syd.