Twas the Weekend Before Christmas . . .

Six on Saturday is a weekly diary hosted by The Propagator & contributed to by gardeners from all over the world.  Check out Mr P's comment section & the Twitter hashtag #SixOnSaturday for more links.

Back gate too swollen to latch.

Rain.  I've had enough of it.

The week's been full of pleasant surprises, but let's start with a good ole rain moan.











1.  The big planter.

I got this planter during a Mr BigNoseDog health scare, the old guy being a hefty 16 years old.  He bounced back, unaware of all the fuss.  The planter got planted without his good self.

The planter is metal of some sort, with a different sort metal insert plus a plastic lining meant to prolong the insert metal.  You can see that the inside metal liner bends & waves - artistic self expression, undoubtedly.  All the above had drainage holes, so I did as I was told & used the three layers.

Of course, the planter flooded in all this rain.

Drainage was achieved via a few holes punched in the black outer shell with a behemoth nail, then drilling through the nail hole to create a 2nd hole in the inner shell.  A planter I wouldn't recommend.


2.  More blackberries.

A garden can never have enough blackberries - gives hope of them making it off the cane & into the kitchen.

With the addition of 2 more plants this week, that should now be about 40' of blackberries in this garden.  There's still a coupla naked panels left on that fence line, but I'm showing a little restraint.


3.  More castor seeds.

You may remember that I dead headed my castors to prevent them murdering me.  Then I learned I'd have to be proactive to be murdered.   Dead heading ceased, a few seeds were gathered, frost arrived.

Then I noticed this happening on what I'd assumed were spent flowers.  Instead, there turned out to be a good dozen ripe seed clusters like this one.

The things I find by not over tidying the garden in winter.

O joy, thy name is castor seeds. 


4.  Bergenia buds.

Other SoSers've featured their bergenia buds, some further along than mine.  These were transplanted last month, so I'm happy indeed that they're now in bud.

They're actually the normal quite-pink bergenia colour, but no matter when I took the photo - morning or avoe, rain or shine - the camera always gave them this faded rose tint.


5.  Nigella squatters. 

Love in the mist took over the laburnum's pot last year, & so got themselves evicted.

Or so I thought.  There appears to've been some self seeding.  They stayed in bud for yonks last year before blooming, so I expect the same again.  The foliage looks quite good despite several frosts.


6.  Paperwhites.

A few weeks ago, I'd lost hope the Paperwhites would show themselves.

For the most part, they still have not.  But there's always that one.

Cleaning the cracks.

And that's all for this week.

If there's any celebrations in your near future, I hope they're full of good people & good food.

Until next time, thanks for stopping by.