Six On Saturday: Another inspiration

/ n20gardener

I am a great admirer of Dan Pearson’s garden writing and have an email subscription to his online magazine, Dig Delve.  Dan unfailing comes up with beautiful words to describe the progress of his garden and Huw Morgan supplies the stunning photographs.  Last week’s edition A New Year was no exception. The very first sentence caught my attention: ‘Winter is a time to look.’  And so I did.

One

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The seed head of Echinacea purpurea

Two

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Seed heads of Agastache ‘Black Adder’

Three

Seed heads of Rudbeckia fulgida  ‘Goldsturm’

Four

The flower of Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’

Five

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I also managed to do some gardening this week.  It was the coldest day of the week and I had some digging to do.  I had been smugly admiring the newly cleared plot on the north facing border.  It looked lovely but I know that soil can be deceptive and underneath lurk the roots of the very worst of weeds.  One end of the plot turned over quite nicely.  I only needed to remove the odd blackcurrant root that had been left behind.  I gave the dug over patch a mulch of leaf mould and as the toes were tingling I retreated inside for some warmth. The next day I set out to tackle the second half.  A different experience unfolded.  The weeds were lurking at this end of the plot and as I dug the roots out I remembered the enchanter’s nightshade that loves this corner and then the creeping cinquefoil  came to mind.  I really don’t like that one.   A couple of trugs full of roots were removed and I know I still haven’t got the upper hand.

Six

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The first rapid fluttering of a nearby robin’s wings always makes me jump out of my skin but we soon get used to each other and this robin seemed very happy to pose for the occasional photo.  In return I turned over a few worms for him.

It’s been cold but beautifully dry here so I’m hoping to finish off my digging this weekend.  I’ve then got roses to prune and some perennials to cut back.  I’ll be leaving those seed heads standing until the new growth starts to come through.  Wishing you all well with your garden jobs.  To take a look at what has been occupying fellow SOSs this week stop by at Mr P’s blog and links.

21 thoughts on “Six On Saturday: Another inspiration”

  3. Your photos are wonderful! That dirst obe of the Echinacea is stunning! I LOVE that you leave the seed heads on the perennials, I think they look so unique in the Winter time! Just this morning, our resident Cardinal couple appeared outside and I wished I could get a closeup like you did of the Robin!

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  7. I hurt myself on Thursday pulling up brambles! I was already sore from coughing from the nasty flu, and then went out to pull brambles of blackberry and roses. It was not particularly difficult, but apparently, it was strenuous enough to pull a muscle. I do not know the technical term for it, but it hurts now. Those thorny brambles are nasty, but are fortunately not as difficult to get rid of as other creeping weeds are. It was more pulling than digging and tilling.
    How cool that you got good pictures of the remains of blooms. So many are in such a hurry to get rid of such carcasses. Some complain that there is not much going on in the garden this time of year.

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  8. I remember reading something about Dig Delve around its launch, thanks for the reminder. We have robins in the garden but I rarely dig, so that don’t hang around for food. I rarely see them at the allotment site, presumably they don’t have territories up there.

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  12. I used to have a resident robin but have seen very little of him recently….. maybe our resident cat has scared him off. I cut back my rudbeckia last week, I didn’t realise how much it had spread. Good value and plenty of colour for a long time late summer/ early autumn.

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