Dinner’s ready!
Sparrows having a great time at the grease balls on my crab apple tree. Shy blue tits only come when the boisterous sparrows have flown away.
Year: 2018
Autumn Foliage Quiz
A little seasonal quiz to test your knowledge of plant foliage. Click on the thumbnail picture below to go and take the quiz.
November colours in the garden
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and…
Asian hornet visiting the garden
Hi all bug lovers! Just spotted this lovely (?) specimen of Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) in my garden this morning. Actually there were 3 individuals altogether, sitting either on a chrysanthemum plant or on the foliage of my choisya. On the choisya they were licking the honeydew on the leaves.
European Heritage Days in La Ballue…
On the “European Heritage Days” we went to visit La Ballue jardins, located somewhere between Rennes and Mont St Michel. The weather was perfect, just a little cold at first. The gardens were OK, great if you are fond of topiaries (which is not our case), great view to the…
Papi Jo’s tomatoes, continued
Placing those plastic crates under my tomatoes to deter the slugs did not quite work as expected. The specimen on the right was attacked, but the slug only ate the skin, which is a good thing because the skin of those tomatoes is rather hard and not very edible. So…
Papi Jo’s potager!
This “surprise tomato plant” grew from seeds in the compost at the foot of my ‘Celina / flower carpet Yellow Sunshine’ rose-tree this season. I could pick the first ripe tomato this morning and am looking forward to a few more…
French National Day 2018
To celebrate today’s French National Day I got some help from the following 3 flowers in my garden (from left to right): Geranium Rozanne, Hydrangea paniculata PASTELGREEN and New Guinea Impatiens. I had to alter the colour of the G. Rozanne flower to make it match the real colour of the…
New decking for the terrace & garden stairs
When we bought the property and renovated the house, a terrace and a large set of stairs were created to give access to the garden. We opted for a cheap stuff, which was nice at first but got rather ugly and hard to maintain after a number of years. This…
Virtual visit of the garden
On our “open garden” day a gifted young neighbour captured a video of some garden scenes. Thanks Estéban!