Photographic Blues

It is well known that photographing blue things is difficult. Why?

I would like to understand this so that I can make suitable adjustments to my technique - if indeed this is possible.

The other day I photographed some "purpley" Iris Reticulata at the base of my Crab Apple tree, and the colour-reproduction seemed just fine, but when I photographed them again a few days later they appeared much bluer. Similarly I photographed some Hyacinths that we bought as cut flowers, and the photos made them look really blue, whereas they were actually a deep "lilac" colour

Is it something to do with the levels of natural light, or the quality of the light? A while ago I took some pics of the Crocuses in my garden, at a time of low light levels (I remember saying they were reluctant to open up) and they looked like this:

When I photographed the same group of flowers on a day of bright sunshine, on the photos they looked a completely different colour - almost mauve rather than blue (which is how they look to the naked eye).

Today I photographed this little flower, (is it an Anemone Blanda?) which has self-seeded next to my path. In my photo it appears to be bright blue, but "in the flesh" it is pretty much the same colour as those Crocuses. When I took the photo it was late afternoon and the sun had gone down.

Can anyone help me with this matter? Any advice you can give would be gratefully received!

Re-vamping the front garden

For a long time I have been wanting to do something about the front garden of my house. Well, the term "garden" is a bit of an exaggeration actually. It's just a tiny patch, but it has given me a lot of grief. Over the years I have struggled to make it look respectable. The little area of grass has never been any good - full of moss and weeds despite the addition of copious quantities of various chemicals - and it's not a good place to grow anything much because it is very exposed. For a few weeks every year the Crab Apple tree looks nice (it flowers in late April), and the miniature daffodils and irises can normally be relied upon to create a nice splash of colour for about a month in the Spring, but the rest of the time the whole thing is a liability.  Anyway, to cut a long story short, I have now finally got round to having this area properly sorted out...

You may remember this photo I posted a couple of weeks ago, showing the daffs and irises (and the little sticks to stop people trampling on them). But just look at the scruffy grass...

This is how it looks now...

Much neater! Unfortunately I think the Iris Reticulata have been done away with by the workmen. I was out at work when the task was being done, but Jane tells me that one of the workmen said "We have managed to keep the daffs, but I think the bluebells (sic) have had it"... I may have to plant some more in the Autumn.

This is what the whole area looks like now:

The light-coloured areas (where the grass was) are 20mm shingle, laid over a weed-suppressing membrane. We have had a line of paving stones laid alongside the drive so that when you get out of a car you don't step into unstable shingle. This will be a great improvement on the muddy "grass" that used to be there!

To the right of the front door I have a large plant-pot sunk into the surface, and into this I can easily slot a pot of whatever plant I have that is flowering at the time. Right now it is daffs, but later on I will replace these with Geraniums or something. This will help to make the area look a little less austere.

And I've just had another nice thought -- I can get rid of the lawn-mower and free-up some space in my shed. For the last few years (since I had the grass in the back garden removed) it has hardly seemed worth getting the mower out to cut those paltry 5 or 6 square metres of grass out at the front, which was another reason why the area tended to look less than picturesque!

The cloches come into action

First thing I want to say today is that I was very touched to receive so many messages of goodwill on my Birthday from my blogging friends. Thank you all very much!

I received lots of lovely gifts too - including a very comprehensively-featured carrying case for my camera and all its bits and pieces; a couple of photography books; some more plastic mini-greenhouses, etc. Also through sheer coincidence I received some plants that I had ordered about a month ago, including a very handsome addition to my Cornus collection - Cornus Kesselringii, a black-stemmed variety. Finally, this week saw the completion of a task I had long been anticipating: - the removal of the tatty apology for a lawn outside the front of our house. This has now been replaced by brickwork and shingle in the same style as the main part of the back garden. I'll write a post about this soon...

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I have put my new cloches into action for the first time now - I used them to protect some newly-sown beetroot and parsnip seeds. Actually, the cloches have been in place for the last couple of weeks, helping to dry and warm the soil. So I had to remove them temporarily while I prepared the raised bed and then sowed the seed.

I realised that the cloches are wide enough (at 45cm) to accommodate two rows of seedlings, working on the assumption that the cloches will probably be removed when the seedlings get to about 15cm tall. So, with two cloches side-by-side, I can put 4 rows of plants in one raised bed. Here's a pic of my two rows of parsnips going in. Actually it is one-and-a-half rows of parsnip ("Panache" this time), and half a row of Hamburg Parsley, which appears to be closely related to parsnips. I have never eaten or grown Hamburg Parsley before, and I am growing just a little of it this year in order to see how it performs and whether it is nice as a kitchen ingredient.

The photo doesn't really show the shallow drill that these seeds are sitting in, but it is about 2 inches deep. As you can see, the parsnip seeds are quite big, and it is perfectly practical to sow them individually when you are only dealing with a small quantity. They are very lightweight too, so choose a still day for sowing or they may blow away! You will probably say that I have sowed the seed too thickly, but I know that not all of them will germinate, and even if they do I can thin them out when it becomes possible to see which are the strongest ones. Ideally, parsnips should be spaced so that the roots do not touch when they are fully grown, so I would allow about 8 - 10cm between seedlings, after thinning.

As well as the parsnips and Hamburg Parsley I also sowed two half rows of beetroot - Boltardy and Red Ace. I think you will see from the next photo why it was two half-rows rather than one full row. I intend to sow two more half-rows of beetroot when one of two things happens (whichever is the earlier) - I acquire a fourth cloche, or the weather warms up a fair bit more.

Can you see what's missing???

After watering-in the rows of seeds, I replaced the cloches, and it's now just a question of waiting to see how the seeds perform. I have sown these seeds about 3 - 4 weeks earlier than I would have done if I did not have the cloches. This, in my opinion, is exactly why you buy cloches - to extend the growing season. And of course, in my case, to stop the foxes digging up the seed-bed!

Fleet Pond

This post is about the town where I live - Fleet, in Hampshire, UK, and its pond.

The name Fleet is derived from the Middle English word "flet" (or "flete"), itself derived from the Old English "fleot", meaning river or stream. A prominent feature of our local landscape is Fleet Pond, an area of wetland surrounding a sizeable pond. Almost a lake in fact - by English standards, that is! In the 9th Century AD the pond was known as "Fuglemere" (wild fowl lake), and was probably a place where the local gentry went to shoot water-fowl. The pond is also said to have supplied fish to monks in the city of Winchester, although this is hard to credit since Winchester is about 20 miles away and probably had its own more convenient ponds.

One of the major factors affecting the development of our town was the construction of the railways, in the 1830s and 1840s. Fleet is on the line from Portsmouth to London, via Basingstoke, and it was not long after the railway opened that Fleet had its first railway station. It was built near the pond rather than in the town centre, because it was thought that lots of people would travel to Fleet specifically to enjoy the area of natural beauty around the lake. I have read that it became a favourite Sunday picnic destination for people living in the suburbs of London. Today, the railway station is still a significant feature of the Fleet landscape, and many of the town's inhabitants commute daily into London (about 50 minutes on the train).

I thought some of my readers might like to see what Fleet pond looks like. It's a bit "off topic" for me really, since my blog is primarily about my garden, and if you're not interested in reading the rest of this post, then fair enough, stop here. I hope you will return again some other time...

On a recent day off work I took a stroll around the pond, camera in hand. This is what I saw. The Pond is quite a substantial body of water, and plays hosts to a lot of birds, such as these swans. Many of them are adolescents, presumably ones born here last Summer.

In the background (on the left) of the next photo you can just see a line of Cormorants sitting on a log. They show up as black dots against the light brown reeds. There are also lots more in the trees on the little islet to the right, which is obviously a favourite roosting place - see how the trees are white with Cormorant guano!

The Pond is surrounded by areas of woodland and dense reed-beds. The cover provided by these is a major attraction for wild birds. In times gone by I expect the reeds were also popular with people, who would have used them for thatching their roofs. They grow to a height of about 8 feet.

Reed-bed

Close-up of a flowering reed

In some places the reeds have been "managed" - in other words trimmed-back to stop them taking over completely. The open patch in this next photo looks like firm ground, but I can assure you it is VERY boggy!

There are also a fair few bulrushes to be seen, although at this time of year they do look a mite tatty.

There are paths all around the pond (you can walk the whole way around it in about an hour), and in some places a proper made-up walkway.

There are lots of places where you can get down to the water's edge, to enjoy the view, watch the birds (or take photos...)

There are fishing platforms

There are places from which you can launch boats (the sign says "No powered craft. Life-jackets must be worn)

There are a number of viewing platforms, some of them at water-level, some of them raised for more distant viewing

 Around parts of the Pond there can still be seen a number of  WD (War Department, now Ministry of Defence) markers that delineated the boundary of the Government land.

Of course I saw lots water-birds, like this lovely Swan

And these noisy Canada Geese

And this diminutive Coot. You can clearly see his bald pate. Have you heard the expression "Bald as a coot"?

If your eye-sight is really good you may be able to see in this next picture a Great Crested Grebe. A lovely bird, very graceful; a very speedy underwater swimmer; fairly common in our locality.

Not all the birds I saw were water-fowl. I think these are sparrows of some sort. Yes, there are TWO birds in the photo. Their camouflage scheme is pretty good, isn't it?

I also saw some beautiful plants, like this Lesser Celandine, positively glowing in the bright sunshine

And this rather more restrained clump of Ivy covering an old tree-stump

Bringing it all into perspective though, let's not overlook the proximity of the Industrial Estate (buildings in the background of next photo) or of the railway (the station car-park is behind the brick wall at the right of the photo)

So that's Fleet Pond. A wonderful facility, full of interest, and above all open to everyone - for FREE. Long may it stay un-developed, to enrich our lives.

Seedling update

I have got LOADS of seedling on the go now. Fortunately the weather is reasonably mild, allowing me to get my seedlings outside in the garden most days, although I am still bringing many of them indoors at night-time. This year I am trying very hard to give my seedlings as much light as possible, to stop them going drawn and leggy. In past years the weather has often been cold and wet at sowing time, and I have usually ended up with every windowsill in the house loaded with trays of seedlings in little pots. I am making full use of my two little plastic mini-greenhouses, but I have also acquired 4 propagator domes which fit over seed trays.

These are effectively tiny greenhouses in their own right, and being so small are easily portable, so once the seeds have germinated (indoors) they can be moved in- and out-of-doors whenever required. If the weather allows, my propagators are taken outside in the morning and brought in again in the evening.

Here are pictures of some of my seedlings:-

Miscellaneous brassicas

The brassicas are pretty hardy, and I don't feel the need to bring them indoors at night-time. I think that inside one of the mini greenhouses they will be OK. The tomatoes though need a bit more TLC, so they come indoors each evening.

Rainbow Beefsteak tomatoes

You will have noticed that I have started my seeds "collectively" in small pots, rather than in individual modules. My plan is to choose the strongest-looking seedlings of each type and prick them out into bigger pots in a couple of weeks' time.



 The Baby Leaf salad has just begun to appear.

Baby Leaf salad mix - aka "Daddy salad"

When my daughters were tiny, they used to call mixed Baby Leaf salad "Daddy Salad", because it epitomised the type of salad I used to grow. Of course I have moved on to greater things now! :)

I think the two nearest seedlings are Cress of some sort

The chillis were the first seeds I sowed this year. They went a bit leggy in their first few days, but I think they will be OK.



Everything is looking OK so far - except the Celeriac, which has still not germinated. Patience is a primary requirement for the gardener...

Friend or Foe?

Can anyone help me to identify this bug?

It's what I would call a "Shield Bug", but A) I'm pretty sure that is not its proper name, and B) I want to know if it is good to have such things in my garden or not.

It was crawling about (sluggishly, obviously feeling the cold) on the wall of my house, next to the Blueberry plants.

Will it eat the Blueberries? Will it lay eggs on them that will produce larvae that will eat the Blueberries, or will it just eat the aphids on the nearby rose bushes? Answers on a postcard (aka Comment) please...

The allegiance of this one is less in doubt. My No.1 enemy...the Fox.

Sowing Peas and Beans

I feel as if I have REALLY made a start on sowing now - I have sown my peas and Broad Beans.

I hate to see my raised beds sitting empty, but I know that sowing seeds too early is a waste of time, so I have just had to be patient. Saturday was a nice fine day for us, and I finally deemed the soil to be "workable"  - i.e. reasonably warm and dry enough to crumble and not form soggy lumps when raked - so I decided to sow my peas and Broad Beans.

First task was to prepare the soil. I raked it over, breaking down the lumps and removing all the bigger pieces of twig deposited during the compost-distribution the other day, and then levelled it down, creating what gardeners call "a fine tilth" of small soil crumbs. Much of this work had already been done for me by the Blackbirds scratching around in the new compost looking for insects. A useful aid here is a garden sieve or "riddle". Mine is made of sturdy plastic, and has holes about 1cm square.

I then erected the support system for my peas. I use this every year, but since I employ a crop-rotation system, the pea-supports have to be erected in a different bed each year. I put in two hardwood stakes about 1.8 metres / 6 feet tall, hammering them in with a 4lb club hammer so that they are really secure. I then stretch between the two posts a piece of chicken-wire, and secure this to the posts with several lengths of wire garden-tie. The final step is to put in three bamboo canes, woven into the chicken-wire and then pushed a few inches into the soil surface. This gives the structure added rigidity. This is what the finished article looks like:-

So, with the support sytem in place I moved on to sowing the peas. I "took out a shallow drill", along the line of the chicken-wire, using my onion-hoe. In other words I made a little trench, about two inches deep and about 4 inches wide. Into this I placed the peas. I do this by hand, placing the peas individually. In a bigger garden this would be impractical and very time-consuming, but in my little plot it is a 5-minute job! I sowed a short length (60cm) of each of four types of pea: Misty, Ambassador, Early Onward, and Kelvedon Wonder. They are all early varieties, because I will want to plant other things in this bed later in the season so I don't go for successional sowing, but I'm hoping they will mature a few days apart.

I always sow my peas much more thickly than is normally recommended. I would say that in each 60cm section there would be about 50 peas! I know from experience that they won't all survive. Some will not germinate; some will be eaten by mice; some will be dug-up by the blessed Blackbirds, but enough will survive to give me a viable crop. Having placed the peas in the trench it is simply a matter of carefully covering them over with soil and watering them in.

After sowing the peas I sowed two rows of Broad Beans, each one a different variety. This year I have Jubilee Hysor and Imperial Green Longpod. I like to grow more than one variety of each veg because it increases the chances of getting a good crop. One variety may succeed in a year when another variety fails.
My method for sowing the Broad Beans is really simple. Since the seeds are so big, all I do is lay them in a line on the surface of the ground and then push them into the soil with my finger. In each of my rows I sowed 24 beans - i.e. at a spacing of 10cm. I also sowed a couple of extra ones at the end of each row as spares to replace any casualties.

In between the rows of peas and beans I sowed three rows of radishes, which will grow much more rapidly than the legumes and will give me a bonus crop from the same piece of ground. [This is called "catch-cropping" in case you didn't know...]

Final task: protection. Regular readers of my blog will be well aware that I have lots of problems with foxes, so I have covered my newly-sown bed with another large piece of chicken-wire, held in place with some sticks. This will remain in place until the peas and beans are well established. It doesn't look pretty, but it will hopefully have the desired effect!

I also prepared one final set of defences: I laid a line of sticks (more prunings from the Philadelphus tree) flat on the surface of the soil, along the line of the wire, where I have sown one of the rows of radishes. This is intended to make it difficult for the Blackbirds to root around in the soil. I know it won't be 100% effective, but it's better than nothing I suppose!

Notice that I also (roughly) swept the paths! How long they will remain this neat is a moot point...