New directions

I've transferred this blog over to a Typepad site and I do hope you'll pop over and follow me there.

My personal blog on gardening and life is now at:

A Gardening Woman

To find out about my writing, please visit:

My website

And, finally, do drop into my website blog dedicated to all gardening women especially those in my latest book:

Gardening Women

Why gardening can be the best form of therapy - Times Online

Why gardening can be the best form of therapy - Times Online

Where have I been?

The answer is busy finishing my latest book, Gardening Women, Their Stories from 1600 to the Present. It's just about to be published by Virago. Needless to say, my poor roof garden has been somewhat neglected. Another reason for this is that I now have another garden in Suffolk - it's just under half an acre, the biggest I have ever had and I can't wait to get growing on it. So for the time being, do please join my other blog www.gardeningwomen.com Incidentally, I take it back about squirrels! The one job I did manage to do this winter was buy some beautiful tulips to brighten up the roof garden after our terrible winter. What did I see about a month ago but a squirrel digging them up! How did he get five floors up, for heaven's sake???

I'm back!

I can't believe it's month since I posted - well, I can because I've spent the last month working flat out on a book that's taken me three years from start to finish. But it is a history of women and gardening! And today I submitted it to my editor. Of course there will be a pile of revisions but tomorrow despite the heatwave we're having here in London at the moment, I'm going to get out there and tend to my poor neglected roof garden. Mind you I've been picking sweet peas daily and the strawberries have been delicious. But I'm in the mood to be drastic and I think I am going to find new homes for lots of things - the miniature and small hostas, for instance, every one except 'Mouse Ears' which is lovely. H. Sum 'n Substance I think will have to go. It looked great to start with but now the slugs have got to it - yes, the copper rings aren't infalliable - it's on its way out. That's the thing with roof gardens - if something doesn't perform and earn its keep, it has to go. So watch this space and let's see what stays and what goes. Pictures I promise!

First sweet peas!

I cut my first four stems of sweet peas yesterday - is that something of a record? There were sown last autumn and survived the worst of the winter weather and quite a bit of neglect. They are now in a large pot in a sunny spot and just romping away. One of my greatest joys is sinking my nose into their heady fragrance. I have a special little antique glass which is on my desk as I write perfect for holding just a few precious stems. I also took delivery at the weekend of my ladybird and lacewing larvae and some baby ladybirds. I know it seems ridiculous having to buy them but when you're as high up as I am sometimes shortcuts are needed. They seem to be settling in - they're on the strawberries and morning glory which have enough greenfly already to keep them happy I hope. Final update is that the copper slug rings really seem to be working. All my miniature hostas with the rings are untouched. My enormous hosta Sum 'n Substance has been attacked on one leaf but I think the pesky things got on it from a nearby Geranium maderense. Everything else absolutely flourishing! Exciting times. Ah, well, back to the book. Deadline looming.

Busy bees.... and Chelsea chops

So excited I had to post quickly. I've just seen several bees gorging themselves on my roof garden. I must be doing something right - or at least planting the right things. I've been really worried that my fruit and veg won't be pollinated because of the lack of bees so high up but despite the winds, it obviously isn't putting them off. My Discovery apple tree is showing swelling fruit already - so exciting - absolutely my favourite apple and impossible to buy in London during their short season. The bees just love the alliums which are beginning to open up. And the Salvia 'Mai Nacht' which is also in full bloom - isn't this very early? Any more suggestions for low-growing bee plants? Which leads me to ask, how does everyone feel about the Chelsea chop? This for those who don't know is about cutting back summer flowering perennials during Chelsea week to delay flowering. I've never done it before but my Aster Frikartii Monch is showing buds already - in mid-May??! What's happening to the seasons? Incidentally most of the beans I put out early are romping away. A few have been eaten by slugs or are looking a bit wind-beaten so I plan to sow some more at the weekend just in case. The best ones, by the way, are those in the Earthbox... interesting.

Magical bluebell wood in Suffolk

Just back from nearly a week in Suffolk and Norfolk. I was mainly working on my book but couldn't resist visiting a few of my favourite nurseries and this heavenly bluebell wood. I hadn't been in the area at the right time for years and although they were nearly over, it was still a magic sight. Very few people know about this wood - you have to tramp along a long path to get to it and there are no signposts but it's worth it as you can see. Just something about the stillness, being the only person there made me feel very, very lucky. Then on to Woottens in Wenhaston to load up with a few new pelargoniums. I won't say which ones as I plan to blog them later and in more detail. But the next stop was at Read's Nursery at Hales Hall just over the Norfolk border. They specialise in fruit and vines together with tender plants for conservatories. I came away with four treasures: a small lemon bush, a dwarf peach tree, and something I've been after for a long time - a variegated aspidistra. It doesn't have too agressive markings but is definitely something rather special. The fourth plant is a bougainvillea - not the purple but a fab hot pink variety. I haven't had much luck with bougainvilleas before but I'm determined to ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd [NB why do cats climb over the keyboard just when I'm in the middle of my blog??] I'd also stopped off at the Walled Garden nursery near Glemham, my absolute favourite for unusual summer plants. They grow all the annuals like nigella and bells of Ireland that none of the commercial nurseries will touch but I love. So the car was pretty full and now I've just got to plant everything up. The bad news is that when I got back the wind had done for my tiny Hundreds and Thousands tomato plants. I knew I had put them out too early. The Gardeners' Delight are fine as they are in a more sheltered spot as are the beans. But the wind is blowing fiercely so I must watch out that my new precious purchases don't dry out.

Time to plant up Earthbox but what with?

Not only do I have limited space on my roof terrace but I also have to balance the needs of a non-gardening husband who actually wants to sit out with a book and a glass of wine occasionally! A ray or two of sunshine and visiting family and friends descend (or should that be ascend?) and also want to spread themselves. Therefore there is a little battle going on over just how many pots and plants I should have out there - people or plants first? No contest! I was therefore intrigued to see an advertisment for Earthboxes (www.earthbox.co.uk), a US idea which 'guarantees' easy veg growing, self-waters AND are on wheels so can be moved out of the way when visitors arrive and wheeled back into the sun when they are gone. It's basically a plastic trough on wheels but with a cover that you make slits in, a 'magic' fertiliser and a self-watering base. How many holes you make depends on what you are growing - instructions come with it. So, here goes, I've bought two and I think I'm going to try my 'Moneymaker' tomatoes in one and beans in the other. You're allowed sixteen slits for beans so I may do a pick 'n mix (or mix 'n pick hopefully!) of my 'Purple Teepee' seedlings and my dwarf runners, 'Hestia'. If anyone has any experience or suggestions, do let me know!

Where are the birds and bees?

I've just read a piece about protecting apple blossom in April but it's made me a little worried. I have planted two apple trees this year in pots - James Grieve as a pollinator and my absolute favourite Discovery. It seems to me that it's only worth growing apples that have a very short season and are difficult to find in the shops if you can only have two trees on dwarf rooting stock. My fear is though that they won't pollinate because I never see bees or even small birds up on the roof. Don't they like flying five floors up? I try and grow plenty of plants to attract them but it is early in the season. When I had a little peach tree, I hand pollinated it with a soft brush. Should I be doing the same thing with my apple trees? My column plum tree only seems to have about three fruits developing as well. It's all very worrying.

Gardening heroes

Instead of gardening yesterday, spent the day listening to four Chelsea medal winners and watching slides of beautiful if unobtainable garden dreams. One of them was Carol Klein who I've been a fan of for more years than I can remember. With Carol, what you see on tv is just how she is, no front just years of plant-growing expertise. Completely different was Tom Stuart Smith whose gardens I have adored at Chelsea and rightly has won several gold medals - as Jinnie Blom wittily said when he was late, 'he's probably at home polishing his medals' - well, she does share an office with him so that's ok! They were are so much more inspiring than the dreadful tv gardeners we've got at the moment (Carol excepted). I mourn for Gardeners' World. No serious gardener I know can bear to watch it now - they make so many mistakes! Still I suppose with this obsession with 'youf', we're not the target audience any more. Tom has some astoundingly original ideas that I came away quite depressed that I couldn't put any of them into practice on my tiny roof garden. But then actually I can. More repetition and fluidity in the long border would help. When you're trying to grow flowers, fruit and veg in a small space it really is hard to avoid a 'bitty' look. I can't afford the luxury of tall clipped trees and topiary statues but I can encourage wildlife with my green (and blue and red and yellow) roof and I know they'd all approve of that. So today was back to work and it is non-stop at the moment. Most frustrating and then satisfying was setting up the new water feature (photo to follow). Various seedlings potted on. And I have planted out the beans but don't worry they will be well cossetted at night!

Oh, to have 100 gardeners

The weather in London has been unseasonably warm for April - up to 21/70 degrees some days. I have a makeshift watering system rounding round the edges of my roof garden to reach the largest tubs. All the smaller pots and seedlings, etc, I water myself so I can keep an eye on them morning and evening. I gave the system a bit of an overhaul last weekend so was feeling rather pleased with myself. Pride, etc... Stopping to admire Hosta 'Sum and Substance' this evening looking healthy and un-slug eaten (those copper slug rings are working perhaps?) I noticed something lying in the folds of the leaves: little twigs from my mimosa/acacia which was a mophead of yellow recently. But oh, dear, looking up I saw that it has dried out even though it is in the biggest pot on the roof and is supposed to be drip-watered regularly. A hasty hosing hopefully will save it - it's come through snow and drought before so should be ok. It did make me think again about the woman gardener I've been writing about today in my book. In 1897, Gertrude Jekyll called her 'the greatest of living women-gardeners'. And at one point, she had 104 - yes that's not a typo - 104 gardeners working for her. Ellen Willmott inherited a ton of money, never married and spent her fortune on her garden at Warley Place in Essex, and one in France and one in Spain. Her passion was gardening - or more specifically plants. There are still dozens named for her or for Warley (Cerotostigma wilmottianum, for example, and of course, 'Miss Willmott's Ghost'). It took her a long time to spend all her money but she managed it. When the bank were about to foreclose, she disappeared into her garden to weed. Her beautiful garden became a ruin but it has now been taken over by the Essex Wildlife Trust. All good gardeners know about Gertrude Jekyll but few know about Ellen Willmott. How sad. But I don't think she'd have changed a minute of it.

Awesome Wisteria

IMG_0249
Originally uploaded by Emerald House

This stopped me in my tracks today. This wisteria literally drips off the roof of this shop in Chalk Farm Road, NW1. What a marvellous way to brighten up a main road, full of traffic and pollution but does it care? Does it heck!
If you're in the area, go and see it. If you're not - hope you enjoy the photo.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Peat or coir?

Having watched the Gardeners' World special recently on the depleting peat bogs, it made me more aware than ever that the horticultural industry really isn't doing as much as they could to make it obvious to us how much peat is in multi-purpose composts. Perhaps it's time for legislation that would should a percentage figure? That said, it is still difficult to find alternatives to some things - peat pellets and peat pots, for instance. Apart from the advantage of no root disturbance, it's good not to be contributing to the plastic mountain as well. So it was with great relief that I saw that that brilliant company Lakeland are now doing coir pellets for seed growing. I haven't seen these anywhere else - they import them from France exclusively. The good news is that they work a treat and everything I've planted in them recently is growing great guns. They sell a version for cuttings as well. This isn't quite so good. You get an extra pouch of rooting gel but apart from that they are identical to the seed pellets. The fuchsia cuttings I took a couple of weeks ago are showing no signs of rooting and I think I could have done just as well with them in a glass of water.

... and another thing

Whow - two postings in one day! That's because I'm so excited at having got all this underway. And also I'm excited about finding www.myfolia.com which is a great (UK?) website for gardeners across the world to list their plants, sowings, etc, etc. Do have a look. Now I'm up to speed, I've uploaded photos of my seedlings which are growing like anything in this weird mild weather we're having. The big question is - just because it feels like June, surely it is too early to plant out tender things such as my runner beans which are just romping away. I've gone for a Robin Lane Fox recommendation (White Apollo) which he recommended for containers (and also good as the white flowers don't attract the birds). I'm hardening them off in my tiny mini growing house but even so I'm going to be cautious if space allows. Still there's always time to grow some more...

Welcome to my new blog site

Well, here it is: the permanent home I hope for the blog on my roof garden. This year marks two 'firsts'. This is the first time I've written a blog on my garden other than notes in my gardening notebook (which goes back to 1991 - another garden, another marriage, another story...) The second 'first' is that this year is the first time I'm attempting seriously to grow a good selection of fruit and vegetables in containers on the roof. I have in the past had some limited success with a dwarf peach (no longer with us I'm afraid) and a plum tree. This year, after many years of flower gardening, I'm joining the veg brigade with carrots, runner beans, French beans, tomatoes, chard, courgette, cucumbers, onions and more. To be honest, although I've won prizes for my previous garden and seen both gardens featured in magazines, this is completely virgin territory for me and I'm a little nervous. Added to that I'm supposed to be finishing a book on the history of women and gardening at the end of June, it's going to be a balancing act trying to fit everything in timewise. So welcome, to the blog, stay with me as over the next few postings, I'll bring you up to date with what I'm growing from seed and how they're doing. In the meantime, if you're interested in seeing what else I have in the garden, visit my website at www.emerald-house.co.uk.