Making more Rosemary

 I've been rather remiss about this blog. Over the summer, I've made sure that paths stay passable and generally kept things ticking over.  My attempts at growing things from seeds mostly met with failure with the honourable exception of Californian poppies and lettuce.  Mum had much more success with her cosmos.

Our existing Rosemary has become oversized and tatty.  About a month ago, we saw Monty propagate some herbs on Gardeners World. He made it look easy.  I dutifully cut some pieces about 15cm long, stripped off the lower leaves and pushed them into some compost - made up from garden soil, sifted garden compost and grit. I even made a mini greenhouse for them by cutting the top off a bottle and pushing it into the pot.

While I was at it, I took a few more cuttings and threw them in a pot of water.  A couple of weeks went by and a tiny root emerged from one of the scars left behind when I stripped the leaves. It grew quite rapidly and was followed by another, and another.

Three of the four cuttings in water had rooted. When planting them up, I recycled "compost" from an old pot, refreshed by some grit scraped up from around the Olive tree and some sifted garden compost. A good soak and they are ready to graduate to the conservatory. Hopefully, they will survive.

As for the ones in the mini-greenhouse - Mum thinks that, when they are ready to plant up, roots will show at the bottom.  No sign yet.

Mint - slung under the hedge

At the back end of last year, Mum gave me a pot-bound, raggedy mint plant to "dispose of properly".  The intention was to get something new this year. Given that refreshing our herb stock doesn't constitute an essential journey, I thought that we would have to do without.

Of course I didn't get round to dealing with the discarded mint!

Fortunately, my idea of disposing of a plant properly usually comprises removing it from its pot and slinging it under the hedge, intending to get back to it later and - of course - forgetting all about it.

Splitting the mint.

I divided it using the classic two-forks back-to-back method. Or at least, that's how it started. I ended up doing what I always do and ripping the thing apart and hoping that at least some of the leaves would stay attached to some of the roots.

Two mints for the price of none!

Given that we are unlikely to be able to more compost or grit until the end of the crisis, I wanted to avoid using any of our stock for our recycled mint. Instead, I mixed our overly heavy clay soil with the rough bits of compost - the bits of stick etc. that I sieved out when sorting out some of the good stuff for sweet pea seeds.  I'm hoping this "roughage" will provide some much-needed drainage.

Finds from my BSBI Garden Wild Flower Hunt

I wouldn't want you to think that I spent the whole weekend doing proper gardening. On Good Friday, I spend some time doing the BSBI's Garden Wild Flower Hunt.

I'm sorry - I've disgraced the name of name of lazy gardener

I don't know how to say this.

I've done a bad, bad thing.

I've disgraced the name of lazy gardeners everywhere.

Our eighteen year-old lawn mower.

I mowed the lawn.

There's a pandemic on and I really can't justify asking someone to travel to do a job I can do myself.  So I dug the mower out of its honourable retirement and mowed some of our grass. I'm not sure which of us was most shocked.  The only reason that we still have a mower is that I couldn't be faffed to get rid of it.

So I mowed the lawn and dropped the clippings on the compost heap, where it will turn itself into a fairly respectable mulch.

Jasmine prunings, ready to create a wildlife refuge.

Talking of disposing of garden waste, I pruned a winter jasmine and needed to get rid of the clippings. They are too coarse to go on the compost heap and, during the crisis, Wealdon won't be collecting garden waste. I've decided to stack them in a corner, where they will provide a refuge for insects and other small creatures.

7-spot ladybird

While, I was pruning the jasmine, I found and rehomed a 7-spot ladybird - a real sign that spring is arriving.

Winter Passion and Brazen Hussies

One bit of sunshine and I've succumbed to the urge to buy a plant. I should have planned, cleared and all those good things but ... it was red.

Winter Passion Perennial Wallflower.

So I hurriedly cleared out the worst of the invasive Lesser Celandine from a patch of ground and bunged it in with a handful of grit, some of our own compost and an apology. As usual, I had been distracted by bees. Our first Hairy Footed Flower Bee of the year - a male - had put in an appearance and it led me a merry dance before I could identify it. Then a Buff-Tailed Bumble Bee had to be removed from the conservatory. No wonder I don't have time to clear weeds properly!

Brazen Hussy in the path.

While I was working, I noticed plants in the gaps between the paving stones. The one in the photo is Brazen Hussy. This bronze-leaved Lesser Celandine is a little less invasive than its wild cousin but I still need to keep an eye on it.

Tapered Drone Fly (Eristalis pertinax) pollinating a Brazen Hussy.

The sun-like flowers are very good for pollinators. The photo shows it being visited by a Hoverfly. 

Neat edges and a bird box

There is a fine line between a wildlife-friendly garden and a total mess. The key differences are neat edges and a bird box.

The bird box can look after itself. I know some people diligently clean them every year but ... that involves ladders. I did try it once. I got three steps up and chickened out. So now the Blue Tits have to sort it out for themselves. They've been looking at the box and got into a right strop when another Blue Tit went near it.

Shaggy Edges.

It has be said though that our grass edges are very shaggy. Really the ground is far too wet to do the edging properly but I've gone round roughly with edging shears and things already look a lot better.

Hooking out mud and moss.

In a few places the edges had become a muddle of mud and moss, so I used a half-moon tool to cut a neater edge and hooked out the carved out muck with a weeding tool. The Lazy Gardener does not worry about having a straight edge. Instead, if it is beginning to look wavy, I exaggerate the bends and dents into graceful curves. No pegging out lines, no fretting over bits that don't line up. Just go with the flow.

Angle-Shades moth caterpillar

Luckily, I was going steady otherwise the Angle-Shades moth caterpillar might have come to a sticky end. I hid it amongst foliage amongst foliage nearby.

Buff-tailed Bumble Bee queen on Winter Heather.

The caterpillar wasn't the only distraction. I had to wait while a Buff-tailed Bumble Bee queen feasted on the Winter Heather and pause while the Robin checked the disturbed soil for worms!

Why a compost heap is the lazy gardener's best friend

I'm sure more diligent gardeners would have finished disposing of their Christmas trees by now.  However, the lazy gardener has to spend time exploring local heritage, rescuing bumble bees, sketching plants, counting birds, and so on.

A mix of Christmas tree clippings and compost from the heap

This time, I'm making an ericaceous mulch for a somewhat underpowered Camelia so I've mixed Christmas tree clippings with compost from the heap. A compost heap is the lazy gardener's best friend. Instead of findings ways to dispose of prunings and vegatable scraps, I just sling them on the heap. A few months later I have a half-way decent mulch. I don't go in for the sophisticated systems that create compost that is so beautiful you could write a poem about it but if that is your thing, go for it.

Robin doing a quality check on the mulch, plus underpowered Camelia

I threw handfulls of the mix round the Camelia and was delighted to see one of our garden Robins. It daintily picked up a worm that must have come from the compost heap. .

The compost heap - do not disturb!

Our compost heap is a very basic pile of prunings and vegetable scraps. In the warmer months, I'll  turn it every now and again but until all chance of injuring hibernating wildlife has passed, I'll just add more material to the top.

A compost caddy just outside the back door saves time!

We keep a compost caddy to save having to keep trudging down to the heap. Lining the bottom with one of those awkward-to-recycle compostable magazine covers saves having to clean the caddy.

Protecting the Rhubarb.

Finally, our Rhubarb is getting a little ahead of itself, so I used a couple of the old Christmas tree branches to protect it from frost.

Just call it a wildflower and leave it alone

I'm not too fussy about weeding but I try to keep on top of anything that will obscure or swamp more favoured plants.  As the old American saying goes "One year's seeding makes seven years' weeding" so any self-respecting lazy gardener will deal with weeds as quickly as possible. Obviously, you can minimize work by calling most weeds "wild flowers" and leaving them alone.

Trimming Ferns so I can see the snowdrops.

I tend to leave last year's fern leaves as long as they still look reasonable. However, the snowdrops are showing colour, so it's time for a short back and sides.

Pulling up cleavers seedlings.

While I was uncovering the snowdrop flowers, I noticed cleavers (goosegrass) seedlings coming up. These overtake, and start sticking to other plants, very quickly indeed so it saves a lot of time untangling them if I whip the seedlings out before they get a chance to do that.  A quick glance at the photo shows that I have left the magnolia leaves where they have fallen in this woodland area.

Bird table back in its rightful place.

A month or two back the bird table came crashing down in high winds. It has been waiting for me to fix it ever since. It clearly wasn't going to happen so I've bodged it up with some wire and will deal with it properly later. Much later. At least this way, it's in place for next weekend's birdwatch.