Veg Plotting

We noticed immediately Lent is a much bigger deal in Austria because everywhere we went there were all kinds of traditional decorations on show. Wreaths and painted eggs were to the fore, and I loved this arrangement I found in a garden in  Selzthal . Austria's population is 70% Catholic, so I'd expected churches there to have special decorations. Naturally they'd taken it a step further at St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, where we saw Peter Baldiger's dramatic installation, Sky of Stones . Here it is lit in purple for Lent; then it will be in gold for Easter, and finally red for Pentecost. The installation of 1,332 'stones' (they're made from paper) is on view until June 10th 2019. In the cathedral's precinct, Blumenhaus zum Dom was stacked and decorated with gorgeous wreaths and blooms. They go for pussy willow in a big way in Austria*. As well as these little bunches for sale at the shop, I saw someone dwarfed by her purchase ...

We spend lots of time celebrating our floral highlights (and quite rightly so), but I've pondered floral death recently. I'm currently greeted by plenty of hellebores in their final throes when I step outside, and I've decided I really like them. It means they add a couple of weeks extra interest after they've strutted their stuff round the garden. This is of particular value in the areas I've guerrilla gardened, where I tend to leave things to fend for themselves. The pictured patch of "June's hellebores"* - of unknown parentage and given to me by June (RIP) from choir - have slowly spread themselves out and formed a couple of lovely clumps at the side of the house despite the challenging conditions I've given them. Admiring them in their death showed their promise as a seedbank for future guerrilla gardening. I walked along the public land yesterday and there are plenty of potential spots for them which will make a cheery sight when I walk...

There's hardly a day that goes by when I marvel at the strangeness of blogging and social media. It's attracted a lot of attention recently for its downsides, but today I'd like to celebrate its positive side. When I tentatively set foot online with my blog in 2007, I never thought it would give me all kinds of opportunities; best of all are all the new friends I've made here in the UK and all over the world, all connected by a love of nature and gardening. One of the earliest of these was Lucy, who has a wonderfully different way of looking at the world and generously shares it via her blogs and photos . I had the good fortune to visit her and her family a couple of times when they lived in Weymouth, but now they are much further away in Halifax. Those of you who read or create Tree Following posts may not know that it was Lucy who created this meme, which has helped many of us slow down and view one object over time and in finer detail; something she does ...

Great to have my mate Mark  contributing to this blog again, albeit via a new media - he usually emails them to me! We've had wellies previously* ( here and here ), so it was only a matter of time before flower-filled boots were found. They're quite apt seeing Mark spotted them in the Lake District. * = There may be more in the future as I've spotted some in Rowde outside a farm along with a flower-filled tractor tyre. I just need the courage to stop on a busy main road and snap them. Sadly the "face" I spotted a little further on is no more.

O the pleasure with trees! The orchard—the forest—the oak, cedar, pine, pekan-tree, The honey-locust, black-walnut, cottonwood, and magnolia. Walt Whitman (1819-1892) from Poem of Joys  - in: Leaves of Grass The magnolias are magnificent this year, helped by the unseasonably warm weather of the past few weeks, plus the lack of frost. Views like this one of my neighbour's tree reaching peak magnolia, and those at Westonbirt Arboretum last week (like the one below) make my heart sing. The pleasure with trees indeed.

On Wednesday I took part in a project commissioned by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. They invited anyone and everyone to write a quick 150 word nature diary to mark this year's spring equinox. Regular readers know I love this kind of project, reminiscent of the fun we had with #MyGardenRightNow a couple of years ago. You can read my [lightly edited] entry below. 80+ submissions and photos from around the country are available here . It's a wonderful celebration of this year's arrival of spring. How's spring (or autumn) looking in your neighbourhood? Today's dawn was special as the first chiffchaff of spring announced its arrival. It's a fitting way to celebrate the vernal equinox. Nature's changing so fast now. The apple boughs have just burst into leaf and my herb bed tells me there'll be mint for our potatoes this Sunday. My small urban garden is full of microclimates; demonstrated admirably today by my potted St George...

Big birthdays and anniversaries demand big holidays, and so NAH and I found ourselves touring the delights of Vienna, Bohemia and Prague for ten days recently. The weather on the whole was more March lamb-like for us compared with you and Storm Gareth . However, packing was still a bit tricky as we knew the forecast held both snow and temperatures in the low 70s Fahrenheit for us. And surprisingly it all came true. The above photo summarises that packing dilemma as it depicts the plentiful catkins we saw, along with chilly, snowy peaks in the distance. In the woods I was delighted to see wild cyclamen and hellebores in bloom; the latter are called 'Snow roses' in Austria. Being Lent, we found many places decorate their homes and businesses with flowers and greenery in a similar way we do for Christmas. More of those delights to come, along with some unusual public planting and an international edition of The Great Green Wall Hunt ...

Write away is an occasional series on my writing experiences and what I've learned along the way. It's inspired from joining a WI writing group last year, who've gently taken me to all kinds of places and forms of writing I never thought I'd go. In this post, I'm going to tell you a little more about the practical side to my recent Postcard from Fishguard , where I joined a workshop aimed at gaining an income from travel writing... My previous experience of writing workshops isn't good; for me they usually result in writers' block, so I approached a whole weekend immersed in the world of writing with some trepidation. I needn't have worried - and once again I did have a (temporary) block - sympathetic and knowledgeable tutors, a great location (and weather!) with the company of 50 or so like minded people made the whole weekend an enjoyable one. Our tutor Simon Whaley created a relaxed vibe for his class of just two ladies. He has a ...

A poem by moi, for once; I must show it to my Creative Writing group. This is what happens when you're trying desperately not to quote that poem for Muse Day 😉

Houseplants are trendy. Houseplants are cool. And who wouldn't be tempted by this spectacular  Alocasia x amazonica  (aka Amazonian elephant's ear) when it's going for a song at their local supermarket? Not I for one. Luckily I knew what I was getting as I lust after them whenever I see them at a show or in a heated glasshouse. Why lucky? Because there was no care label anywhere to be seen and most of the information out there rates these as Difficult. Later, I checked at several such outlets, then my local DIY store and found exactly the same situation: tons of attractive and tempting houseplants, succulents and cacti... all with zero information to tell the buyer what they are and what to do with them. In this instance the amazonica in the name is the clue. This is a plant that likes plenty of humidity and warmth. It needs rainwater instead of my limy tapwater and requires misting every day. It's currently around 10 inches in height, so I need to prepare my...