The Great British Garden Revival

I'm in my element this week with some proper armchair plant porn:

The BBC's new series of The Great British Garden Revival kicked off this week, along with a bunch of other gardening shows (Big Allotment Challenge, also on the Beeb; Titchmarsh gadding about in ITV). I guess this glut is as we look forward to warmer times, just like the traditional New Year holiday adverts. Gotta say tho', everyone on Allotment Challenge looks very weird on my TV with their sunburn whilst it tries to snow outside my window.

Perfect format

Garden Revival is just the right mix of horti-TV for me: educational, inspirational & rallying. Each show gives us to 2 gardening 'faces'. Each has 30 minutes to exhort us to make space in our hearts for some old but unfashionable stallwarts that are at risk of extinction.

They give us some history on the plants, visit gardens with amazing collections, address the brutal truth of why we've stopped buying these plants, show us how we can overcome those hurdles, & then light a fire under our arses to get out there & save them.

Your country need you!

Each segment is a rallying cry. During episode 1, I was so buoyed up from Rachel de Thame's campaign for old roses, that when Joe Swift did his intro & asked us to make space for climbers & creepers is was shouting "Ok, Joe!" at the screen... I felt like Po in Kung Fu Panda at the Pool Of Sacred Tears (Go watch it. Not to understand this reference, just go watch it). James' Wong's section on Rhododendrons in episode 3 was a revelation - the invasiveness of ONE hybrid has poisoned our view of a whole species.

Series 2 episodes

There's 10 shows in this series, some of which are already on iPlayer. There really is something for everyone:

1. Roses - Rachel de Thame
   Climbers & creepers - Joe Swift
2. Daffodils - Carol Klein
   Blossom trees & shrubs - Chris Beardshaw
3. Rhododendrons - James Wong
   Carnations - Christen Walkden
4. Scented gardens - Toby Buckland
   Tulips - Tom Hart Dyke
5. Lavender - Diarmund Gavin
   Knot gardens - Alys Fowler
6. Irises - Rachel de Thame
   Ornamental grasses - Toby Buckland
7. Conifers - Carol Klein
   Pelargoniums - Tom Hart Dyke
8. Lilies - James Wong
   Woodland gardens - Christen Walkden
9. Bog gardens - Joe Swift
   Soft fruit - Alys Fowler
10. Wildlife gardens - Diarmund Gavin
    Peonies - Charlie Dimmock

Now, to see if I can convert this inspiration & enthusiasm into motivation... & a plan.

One step at a time

The snow was back Sunday morning.
But I still have a tree to plant in stinky dog corner.
But I've got more structural work to do before it goes in, & that's going to take all day.
But it is quite literally baltic out there...

I bought the tree last weekend & it has already fallen over in its pot once, when the wind got up midweek. Fortunately it isn't damaged, but I do this all the time: buy something expensive & leaving it lying around neglected/rotting/dying.

But today is not that day.

Grasping at a very short straw (that it was very sunny for about 30 mins between the very brief snow showers), I decided to Carpe the damn Diem & get out there.

A quick jaunt to B&Q, filling up the passenger seat of little car with "rustic sleepers", then back to the ranch to use them as steps of the grand dog corner terracing plan.

An editorial aside: As (for me) this blog is about playing with blogging tech as well as gardening, I'm now going to try something new. Those waiting since the New Year for Japan posts will know that I'm struggling with a content backlog, so I'm wondering if a format change might help. For this post I'm going to try intro - piccies - outro, with all the explanation in the picture captions. I'd love to know what you think.

1st things 1st: Finish clearing the rest of the weeds from stinky dog corner.
All systemic weeds though so they're not going into my compost heap;
they'll go into the Council compost bin instead.

That's not vermiculite & meteors. That's snow.
I think my face has frozen.

Straight down the centre line:
I've still got the centre point pegged out from last year's path laying,
& the steps will respect that arc.

So, how far apart should they be?
A bit of shuffling the sleepers, measuring, & marking with bamboo pegs.

Cutting the steps out of the top soil.
A bit of level checking at this point too, so I'm at least in the ball park.

Weed barrier fabric laid in overlapping sections, with bamboo rails to
help keep the corners tight. Hopefully, by not using just a single run of
fabric from top to bottom, I'll reduce the risk of movement across the
whole run.

The sleepers placed on a bed of sand, levelled left to right, but with a slight tilt
backwards. The sleepers are not pegged down in anyway as this won't be a high
traffic area... I might revisit this decision if things start shifting though.

The rest of the fabric is covered with sand.
There'll be more gravel once I've nipped back to B&Q.

As you can see, there's more work to do: the rest of the terracing needs to go in. Then planting to soften the edges, maybe some low-lying things in gravel &, oh yes, plant the feckin' tree... still didn't manage that. But I was chuffed with my afternoon's work, and my ability not to trip up or stab myself while trying to think with an ice cube brain. & I learnt that it is waaaaaay easier to keep going than it is to get started.

So that's the end of the post - please add a comment to let me know what you think of this format. Thanks! :)

Apathy in the face of cold, hard logic

What a beautiful day. Big blue skies all day long. A welcome respite from this year's seemingly endless rain.

I've got the whole day free & I've got things to do. Top of the list is to plant out the bulbs I bought over a month ago... I do this all the time - get over-excited at the garden centre & then neglect my purchases as soon as I get them home. Such a stoopid waste.

A bag of these beauties lie neglected in a corner of the garage...

So the bulbs need planting out sharpish, but it's not as simple as getting out there & bashing them in. I'm planning on doing some more structural work this Winter so I don't want plant the bulbs now only to end up scything through them all when I'm in demoliton mode.

The plan

Plant the bulbs in pots instead. Then in the Spring I can place them out when all the heavy work is over.
Great.
Only, the are 2 slight problems:

1. I don't have enough pots.
2. I don't have enough compost.

No biggie. Easily solved by a quick trip to the garden centre.

Only...

I can't quite summon the motivation to get out of the door.

A leisurely lie-in with coffee & biscuits. Then a bit of Facebookage whilst watching the final of The Great British Bake Off; straight into MotoGP; then the last race in World Triathlon Series, Women's & Men's in New Zealand, watching Jonny Brownlee become world champ; now the British Touring Cars at a sopping wet Brands Hatch... I've only moved from the sofa for coffee refuels & a bacon sarnie.

& the most stupid, most infuriating thing is that this is my last free weekend til December, & I still can't stick a boot in my sorry ass to get out there. Yay for an exciting social diary, but the garden pays the price.

It's a done deal now - the shops will be shut & it's getting dark.

I need another plan...