20120726

We have SUN!! It has been dry and SUNNY for some days now. And it has actually been HOT. I had light sunburn on my calves (funny place, I know) while I struggle to get tanned on my legs as much as I have got on my arms (but my hands are actually pale – from wearing gloves). I hope this is going to continue for a while.

晴れです！ここ何日か晴れて、気温も２５度以上にまで一気に上がりました。腕の日焼けとバランスをとろうと短パンで足も焼こうとしてたらふくらはぎが軽くひりひりします。手は手袋のおかげで白いまま。ミッキーマ〇ス状態です・・・

 

I was working at RHS garden Rosemoor for the first two weeks on July. One of the trainees there had contacted us requesting a short-term swap and I jumped onto the opportunity. It was great to see how RHS Garden operates and meet a lot of other gardeners there. It is a bigger garden (ten times the size of the Garden House) and has more people working for. I enjoyed every single day there – even though the weather couldn’t have been worse (rained practically every day).

７月に入って最初の２週間はRHS ローズモアという別の庭で働いていました。とてもいい経験でしたよー。ローズモアもとってもいい庭。ガーデンハウスの１０倍の敷地があります。

Now back at the Garden House, with the sun, a lot of areas in the garden look lovely and colourful. There was a major incident while I was away – a (big) part of the walls or the Walled Garden had collapsed. It blocked the way between the Arboretum and Walled Garden – this meant that visitors have to come in to the Arboretum from the top, come down all the way down then go back up where they came from. It was not great for the flow of seeing the garden. Fortunately we managed to open a path along the way and visitors can now go through. 

さてガーデンハウスに戻ったのですが、私がローズモアにいる間に、ウォールド・ガーデンの壁の一部（とても大きな一部）が崩壊するという事件がありました。そのためふさがれていた通路が応急処置的ながら昨日開通。万歳。でも壁はまだ崩れたままです・・・

South African Garden is in colours. I was amazed by the colour variation (pictures below) in Californian poppies (Eschscholzia californica). True beauty of this plant can only been seen in full sun.

サウスアフリカン・ガーデンのカリフォルニア・ポピーの色のバリエーションが豊富なので写真をとってみました。同じ種でこれほど違うとは・・・

My vegetable patch is cropping well. Here is my own organic veggie box!

It has peas, broad beans, beet (for leaves), pea shoots, rocket, spring onion and nasturtium flowers. 

わたしのミニ菜園ではけっこう野菜がとれてます。

my vegetable patch

 

The Arboretum lake now has a boat called Nancy Fortescue, one of the daughters of Lionel who has been very helpful with the garden development over the years.

ボートも仲間入り。

lovely blue boat

 I have only a month left here at the Garden House. I already miss it! Hope I can make several blog entries before the end...
あとここで働けるのも１ヶ月です。がんばって何回かブログも更新したい！なー・・・

Bottom Walled Garden in sun

Bottom Walled Garden in sun

20120627

Where is summer? It is the end of June and... the temperature! 15? 16? My Japanese basil is just sitting there. I, very reluctantly, planted tomato out with not much hope. 

夏はどこ？もう６月の終わりだというのに気温は１５度？１６度？育てているシソもまったく大きくなりません。昨日はいやいやながらトマトを外に植えました・・・があまり期待してません。

Even without much sun, plants grow and flowers come and go.

太陽が出なくても植物は育ち、花が咲き、散り・・・

 

Perennial Foxglove Digitalis xfucata

Starfish?! seeds of peony.

 This Dock’s (Rumex sp. possibly hastatulus) flower is beautiful. Reddish if growing in sun, green in shade. It is a garden weed but we have a lot in Wild Flower Meadow and when the sun comes out (not often!) these flowers shine. I’ve been using these for my vase.
これはドックと呼ばれる雑草ですが、花がなかなかきれい。ちょっと赤みがかっているんですね。切り花としても使わせてもらってます。

 

Lime Tree Walk looks like a fairyland at the moment – grass is long and trees are in full leaves. Probably flowering up there but too high to see and too cold to smell them...
ライム・ツリー・ウォークは今ちょっと幻想的な感じ。

20120611

 

Last week was lousy. We had rain and rain and more rain, then a big gale on Thursday. Today, there were still more branches to be picked up even though the worst was dealt with on last Friday. A lot of herbaceous plants were blown over including Lupin in the Walled Garden. They were looking fabulous two weeks ago! As they were blown down to the ground, they quickly responded by bending the end of flowerheads up so when we staked these up last week, they looked quite bad. I was worried that they now might make second bend and look even funnier.... It turned out to be quite alright with most of the heads just straightened up.

先週はひどい天気でした。雨、雨、雨、そして強風・・・落ちた枝を拾い集めたり、風と雨にやられて倒れてしまった植物をおこして支えたりと、主な処置は金曜にしたものの、今日もまだ多少の後処理。

先々週まできれいに咲いていたノボリフジもバタバタ倒されてしまって、茎が折れやすいので起こすのも一苦労。また見れるようになりました。

 

 Kalmia, Alchemilla mollis and Cornus kousa / florida are in flower.

なかなか暖かくならないものの、次々と新しい花が開いています。ハナミズキなんかがきれいに咲いてます。下の写真はカルミア。

Bright Kalmia flower

Today I have noticed that Chilean evening primrose (Oenothera stricta) are in two different colours depending on which side of the path they are. As you go in, ones on the left are bright yellow whereas ones on the right are very pale yellow. It is unlikely that this is due to variation of colours of the same species because they are not mixed. I wonder if I can solve the mystery...!

サウス・アフリカン　ガーデンではチリ産のマツヨイグサが咲いています。ところが、下の写真のようにはっきりと違う色で咲いているんです。しかもそれが混ざり合っているわけではなく、道の右側と左側で咲き別れています。なぜでしょう。みなさんのご意見お待ちしてます。

 

Now most of red campions are going over, cottage garden looks calmer, still full of colour though.

たくさん咲いていたレッド・カンピオンが終わり始めて、ピンクの量が減ったので落ち着いた感じになって来ました。

part of Cottage Garden

In my vegetable patch, I am trying out this white radish ‘White Icicle’ (on the left) hoping that it may replace Daikon radish, heavily used in Japan. They look a bit too small for that... but I am getting reasonable crop :)

私の個人菜園では白い二十日大根を作っています。（右の赤いのはお隣さんからおすそ分けでもらいました）大根の代わりになるかなーと思って。小さいけど、まあまあ採れてます。

two kinds of radish

20120530

Delicate colour of Aquilegia

Glorious weather has been encouraging all the plants to grow and flower. .... including weeds! Lupins, Aconitums and Nepitas in the Walled Garden are in full bloom, giving a lot of colours there. We planted Dahlias out today as well. Head Gardener is changing the colour scheme slightly from the last year so I am looking forward to seeing it in full in late summer, just before I have to go away.

close up of cow parsley

The other day, I was weeding out some Oxalis and here is a picture to show you why it is very difficult to get rid of them completely – you have to dig up all these bulblets. If you leave some, they will regrow!

 

One of the first Carifornian Poppy in South African Garden

 

Wisteria is looking beautiful and the air is filled with scent – I actually don’t enjoy some of Wisteria’s scent but bees are loving it.

Wisteria Bridge

Most of cuttings we took last autumn / winter are growing happily.

20120523

 

Arboretum is greening up with all the grass seeds germinating. After a week away, things are growing fast! ... probably not as fast as it should be as the temperature had stayed relatively low for the time of the year – but now the forecast is looking like we are going to have a bit of summer.

We are busy ‘Chelsea Chopping’ now as the Chelsea Flower Show just had started, so I am busy after work trying to follow some of the TV coverage. ‘Chelsea Chop’ is a technique used to delay flowering time or to make more bushy plant (so that they won’t need supporting) or to keep the height shorter, or combination of these reasons. We take half to one thirds off (or less in some cases) the growth of certain perennials. Here at the Garden House, main causalities are Sedums and Campanulas.

Plants that are looking good in the garden now are Viburnum plicatum at the entrance under Acer trees, Various Rhododendrons (R. yakushimanum is just starting) and Wisterias. The Wisteria Bridge will be looking perfect towards the end of this week.

Wisteria Bridge

Lindera obtusiloba New leaves

part of the Walled Garden, there was nothing here in the winter!

Cottage Garden is already looking full of life

Bottom of Acer Grade

Lime tree are just coming into leaves

20120417

Taking time off with Easter and that, only today I have noticed I haven’t made ANY entry this month yet! Shocking. Well, spring is definitely here and the Arboretum is definitely coming along. We are spending most of the time planting trees at the moment and I am trying to look up trees that I plant – Today, it has been Styrax hemsleyanus. It is native to China and has more attractive flowers and leaves than Styrax japonica which I like the growing habit of. It is a small tree growing to 8m, white flowers in May – June.
今月１回も書き込んでませんでしたね。イースターホリデイ等あったとはいえ、だめですねー。　最近はもっぱらArboretum に木を植えています。今日はStyrax hemsleyanus　という木を植えました。中国原産の珍しい小型の木です。

New growth of Japanese Maple is so lovely but it reveals where branches died back... (Acers tend to do this quite a bit).
もみじも芽吹いています。

One of the entrances to the Arboretum. Matching paving to the other side (Walled Garden) is laid today beautifully by the contractors.
Arboretum　への入り口に今日は敷石が敷かれました。キレイにできてます。（私ではなくコントラクターさんの仕事ですが・・・）

I love this flower! Forget me not...
忘れな草。