Musings from the heart of Wiltshire, erm Chippenham actually... Gardening, GYO, Food, Travel & Lifestyle
Things in Unusual Places #3: Pink Umbrellas
Every time we drove through East Rudham village we couldn't miss the bright pink umbrellas outside Brownies tearooms and kitchen/garden shop. They looked like they'd be more at home at a beachside bar in Mallorca* than in a tiny sleepy village in Norfolk. However, we did look out for them every time we passed by!
*= I'm not being snobby about it, just truthful as it's exactly the kind of thing I see when I go out there on my research trips, particularly at my friend's bar in Muro ;)
I think we must be following each other around VP -I was rather taken by them too when I spotted them last month. Perhaps we are both just attracted to very pink things!?
the color certainly attracts the eye! some years back, when i would give directions to the place i worked, all i had to say was 'turn down the road where the pink house is at the corner'. that house was as pink as those umbrellas so everyone knew it.
There was a large pink pub at a junction near our place which was a bit of a landmark. (Had to be careful with directions as it was called The Organ). It was then painted grey, and I think business must have dropped off as within about a year it was repainted and is now a tasteful lemon. Someone somewhere must be an expert in use of colour for marketing...
Ryan - it would be lovely to collaborate, but one of the aims of my research is to ensure it gets handed over so that local scientists are taking responsibility for it.
RO - what an amazing coincidence! You weren't in London on Sunday by any chance?
Juliet - the warning was there in the title - especially for you ;)
Petoskystone - good point. Here a lot of the navigation's via prominent pubs
CIMS - and the rest of the pink decor ;)
PG - yes it is - you can't miss them!
Joanne - no, we didn't sample their fare. There were lots of squeals coming out of the shop when I was taking the photo. I think they may have spotted me!
Neva - welcome back! I think we might another time
SG - that's an interesting point. I don't suppose a shade in keeping with their name (Brownies) would be as effective
Commonweeder - they seem to be pretty popular judging by the search hits I'm getting for a similar picture on my photography blog :) Perhaps I'll get a nice free cup of tea the next time?
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it
I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing
I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener
Some fetching lettuce 'Freckles' seen at the rather special Easton Walled Gardens earlier this week I thought it would be a good idea to start with the above photo more as an encouragement to me that it IS possible to grow lashings of salad outdoors this year. It's been so wet over the past few weeks, and once again most of my leaves have been eaten down to their stumps by the hordes of voracious slugs and snails which have invaded my salad area. I know I'm not alone - I've seen too many moans on Twitter about the problem! So I'm about to try a different tack with my salad production and turning my attention to those leaves which don't mind wet feet. It probably means we'll get a heatwave now, but hey, that's a win-win situation, right? Growing Watercress - you don't need loads of water as commercially available seed can be grown successfully in damp soils. I grow mine in a big pot and make sure the drip tray is kept well topped u
Part of Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court I've been pondering VP Gardens a lot lately. Last year's drought conditions set me off initially, then our harsher than usual winter combined with this summer's flip and flop weather means the thinking continues. It's a huge topic which I freely admit I'm struggling to get my head around. Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at Hampton Court recently tackled this topic brilliantly and was a timely interlude which gave me much food for thought. There he encapsulated the detailed research he'd found which informed both his show garden and book of the same name. I think it's one of the most important show gardens I've ever seen. It's clear the way I garden needs to change so that I have my own resilient garden. I haven't worked out the exact details yet, but Tom's book plus a couple of others (see below), alongside the rainwater management handout from the show garden's sponso
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the
The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom: Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter,
Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee
Me in my summer garden with a trug full of allotment produce A few days ago I was contacted by a TV company to see if I'd like to be filmed advising a 'lovely retired couple' on how to grow vegetables. Yes, of course I would. However as our chat went on, it became clear the enthusiastic researcher - and fan of my trug - thought we could show something similar to the above image... in early March. On Facebook a little later, I joked that perhaps I should recreate the above photo and reveal the reality of my garden right now. Sara was quite taken with the idea, and so after some thought the #mygardenrightnow project was born. NB I chose the rather apt courgette font for #mygardenrightnow Join me on the weekend of 4th/5th March and take a picture of yourself in the garden (or on your allotment, or wherever you usually garden) which shows how it looks at some point over those 2 days. Don't worry if you don't have a nice summery picture to recreate lik
The gimmick works though?
ReplyDeleteI think maybe we should collaborate on a research project? What you reckon?
Ryan
I think we must be following each other around VP -I was rather taken by them too when I spotted them last month. Perhaps we are both just attracted to very pink things!?
ReplyDeleteEeeek, more p*nk!
ReplyDeletethe color certainly attracts the eye! some years back, when i would give directions to the place i worked, all i had to say was 'turn down the road where the pink house is at the corner'. that house was as pink as those umbrellas so everyone knew it.
ReplyDeleteTies into the pink chalkboard sign....refreshing and fun
ReplyDeleteWhat a clever advertising campaign.
ReplyDeleteWell they clearly caught your eye was the tea nice too or were they not that eye catching enough?
ReplyDeleteit makes for an interesting photo and I would feel inclined to stop in for some tea!
ReplyDeleteThere was a large pink pub at a junction near our place which was a bit of a landmark. (Had to be careful with directions as it was called The Organ). It was then painted grey, and I think business must have dropped off as within about a year it was repainted and is now a tasteful lemon. Someone somewhere must be an expert in use of colour for marketing...
ReplyDeleteRyan - it would be lovely to collaborate, but one of the aims of my research is to ensure it gets handed over so that local scientists are taking responsibility for it.
ReplyDeleteRO - what an amazing coincidence! You weren't in London on Sunday by any chance?
Juliet - the warning was there in the title - especially for you ;)
Petoskystone - good point. Here a lot of the navigation's via prominent pubs
CIMS - and the rest of the pink decor ;)
PG - yes it is - you can't miss them!
Joanne - no, we didn't sample their fare. There were lots of squeals coming out of the shop when I was taking the photo. I think they may have spotted me!
Neva - welcome back! I think we might another time
SG - that's an interesting point. I don't suppose a shade in keeping with their name (Brownies) would be as effective
I love the idea of pink umbrellas (I am a rose person) and the idea of having a lovely tea under one. I hope you did have a lovely tea.
ReplyDeleteCommonweeder - they seem to be pretty popular judging by the search hits I'm getting for a similar picture on my photography blog :) Perhaps I'll get a nice free cup of tea the next time?
ReplyDelete