Gardening

I’ve been out gathering up the window boxes and tubs and putting them together to hopefully take some cuttings of the geraniums and perennials and gather seeds from others in readiness for next year. Then the tubs will need storing safely in the shed over winter as they are liable to blow away in a gale.

I’m really pleased with my grey willows that I planted last year. The first photo is them early this summer and the second photo is them this week! The poor things are being a little foolhardy poking their heads above the dyke (stone wall) as the next westerly gale will blast them with salt. However they grow well all over Orkney and these will learn not to stick their heads above the parapet too much!

The last few days I’ve been sorting out my conservatory - which is laid out as a sitting room rather than being totally full of plants. However I do have quite a few large indoor plants there, as well as smaller ones. During the summer they get a bit neglected (apart from regular watering) as I spend most of my time working with outdoor plants. So some had got very leggy and were shedding leaves etc. and needed trimming back, taking cuttings etc and moving some of the more tender plants away from the windows. Although the glass is double-glazed the temperature varies quite a bit by the windows during the winter depending on wind direction etc. Some of my plants really don’t like that (who can blame them!) so I move those to a cosier spot.

I’ve also started moving to a cosier spot – we’ve had a couple of days of breeziness and rain, so I’ve been using the sitting room in the main house again now. In the summer I live out in the conservatory as the views are stunning from Warbeth in the West to Orphir in the East. But in the winter I prefer the cosiness of the sitting room.