curiosity about the ways of the world
Successes, mistakes and surprises
Suddenly autumn has arrived on my windowsill and dumped a load of red leaves at the back door too. Hard to believe we once doubted the weedy little Virgian Creeper would rise further than the garden shed. Now it has not only reached our roof but it is working its way along the houses on either side of us. Luckily we have lovely neighbours. Or maybe they just get a kick out of watching Ray collect the leaf mould from their kitchen roof every year. Continue reading
Maybe it’s a sign of my age, but I am getting quite a taste for purple. Continue reading
It’s working. Two years ago with Susie’s help, I planted a B&Q buy-one-get-one-free special offer of miniature narcissus round the stone cairn built by Richard. Moss is doing a great job of covering the stone but the ground was a bit of a problem: too many weeds and it was difficult to mow the grass round the cairn. So we tacked a bit of plastic sheeting round the base, more like dressmaking than gardening, and planted the bulbs into it. And for once one of my planting schemes has actually done what I intended. Continue reading
This wasn’t intended but every autumn the Virginia Creeper makes beautiful outside curtains for our windows and every year it creeps a little higher. A few years ago this was the view from the kitchen, now it’s at the top of the house.
Bees may be disappearing from hives across the world but they are crawling all over my herb patch. Good to know there’s something edible in the vegetable garden. The plot has never looked better since Ray made new paths and edged all the borders in wood during that spring heat wave. But it has never been so unproductive.
It’s a suicidal summer and the veg seem depressed by it too. Most of the seeds I ordered in March have disappeared without trace in the wet earth. For the first time ever my onion crop looks miserable, there are all of two pea plants struggling between the Jerusalem artichokes, broad beans are few and far between and the runner beans have hardly made it above ground. Only the herb patch is flourishing. But at least the bees are having a good time.
So, there’s frilly lettuce, multi colour Swiss chard and some mini pumpkins in the basket. But no onions. Having finally got round to ordering my seeds for the growing season I find that Marshalls has sold out of my favourite Red Barron and Gold Fen onion sets. Serves me right for being so slow. But since spring seems at least a month early why am I two weeks later with my online ordering than I was last year? Is it because the seasons are all blurring into one? Continue reading
© 2026 Fay Young
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑