Scaffolding in preparation for the new roof
Scaffolding presents pruning opportunities that working from ground level or on a ladder does not. No sooner had the builder departed for the day than I was up there with my loppers cutting back the branches of the mimosa that had been overhanging the roof. No neck ache, no wobbling on a ladder. Very satisfactory.
Scaffolding presents useful opportunities
I decided to take a gamble this year and leave outside some of the larger half-hardy plants that have a tendency to survive rather than thrive. Plants like the elderly Brugmansia that demands far more cosseting than I’m prepared to give it, the Leonotus leonurus that doesn’t flower until November, a yellow-flowered Argyranthemum that is 15 years old and somewhat straggly, and several other dubious performers. If they all emerge from the current cold weather reduced to a mush I shall heave them on to the compost heap and plan more satisfying replacements. Should any survive, they will have earned my respect and may receive better treatment next year. It’s a tricky dilemma this – if you’ve had a plant for a long time it feels like a betrayal leaving it to die, but sometimes it’s just time to face the fact that it needs to go.
Mimosa Flowers are beginning to open.
Lemon Blossom in the conservatory.
Tiny cyclamen seedlings are springing up in the woodland area.
