The trees in apple orchards With fruit are bending down." - Childrens song
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Colchicum autumnale
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Goodness, we are getting all the weather, especially wind and rain! The gardens are looking very windswept but there is still lots of colour and interest and inspiration for late season gardens. Helenniums, Rudbeckia, Colchicums (pink and white), Echinaceas to name a few are in full flower. I am still working through the grasses stock bed, potting up, dividing and tidying. We will have even more varieties of grasses available on the stock list next year! I have more than filled the poly tunnel with propagation already! Seedlings, cuttings, divided plants in small pots. David is building large cloches to house the rest of the propagation over winter!
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Fennel (foeniculum vulgare)
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Useful plants form the garden - Artemisia absinthe
This herb has gained notoriety as the main ingredient of the alcoholic beverage known as absinthe. This drink is historically described as a highly alcoholic, distilled beverage at 45 – 74% proof! Much like gin it’s flavours are derived from botanicals with it’s dominant flavour being aniseed. The three main herbs always used in absinthe are Artemisia absinthe (grande wormwood), Pimpinella anisum (green anise) and Foeniculum vulgare (Fennel).
Traditionally the drink is a lurid green colour but may also be served as a clear liquid. It’s colour depends on the botanicals used during distilling. It is commonly referred to in historical literature as la fee verte or the green fairy. Often referred to as a liqueur it is in fact a sprit, bottled with added sugar and diluted with water before being consumed.
Originating in Switzerland in the late 18th century, it became popular in 19th and 20th century France, especially amongst Parisian writers and artists. Notable drinkers of absinthe include Erest Hemmingway, Henri Toulouse-Latrec, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Goch, Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, Edgar Allan Poe and Lord Byron.
The drink has often been portrayed as a dangerous addictive psychoactive drug and hallucinogen and by 1915 it had been banned in much of Europe and the United States despite it not being proven to be any more dangerous than ordinary spirits. So, in short despite all the myths Absinth won’t drive you mad. A revival began in the 1990’s after long standing prevention of its production and sale and by the early 21st century more than 200 brands were available for sale.
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Artemisia absinthe
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To serve absinthe, pour a shot of the drink into a glass then rest the absinthe spoon over the glass and sit a sugar cube on the spoon. Water is slowly poured over the sugar cube to evenly disperse the sugary water into the absinth to a ratio of between 3:1 and 5:1.
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Pimpinella anisum (green anise)
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Serving absinthe (google image)
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Its that time of year again. Our pick n mix spring bulbs are now available. Buy as many or as few of each variety as you need. Enough to fill a small pot or a whole collection of pots. We have a selection of Narcissus, Tulips, Alliums, Crocus, Scilla, Fritallaria, Camassia and lots more.
We still have a selection of plants with autumn colour, Asters just about to flower for autumn interest, dwarf conifers for evergreen winter interest, autumn and winter flowering heathers and some lovely items in our wee shop, ideal as a gift for some one of yourself.
We're open 10am to 5pm, Wednesday to Sunday.
I'd like to say that now our open season is getting on a bit I've got less to do, but that's certainly not the case. However I am trying to make some time to do fun little projects to make me feel better, do something different from weeding and potting and then share it with my lovely customers and followers on social media. So here is one of my creations this week.
If you've lots of broken terracotta pots lying around, why not make a succulent tower? This took me about 20 minutes to put together using one large broken pot, 3 smaller ones, not so broken, some compost, grit and a selection of cacti and succulent babies from my collection, so completely free and recycled, perfect. If you visit the nursery in the next few weeks you can see it on the counter when you pay.
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Recycling clay pots
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Quick dog walk along the river as far as the long grass because woose dog can't cope with long grass or the river gurgling as it went over the stones! Oh for a proper dog!
I am working my way through all the potted plants that are my own personal plant collection moved form my last garden 6 years ago. They moved with me to the last place we rented until last December when we moved yet again. We made the desision to move them all to the nursery in December and they are slowly being incorporated into the nursery gardens and I can get bits back when we finally have our own house and garden again. This is introducing more unusual and interesting plants to the nursery gardens and stock list and eventually available for sale to my lovely customers.
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Althaea officinalis
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Astilbe 'Ellie'
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Echinacea purpurea 'Baby White Swan'
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Finally got to do this walk, and it was great. 7 miles from the cottage to St Mary's Loch along the Southern upland way. Great views, warm, decent weather, a small fuzzy dog, amazing fungi in the forest, so many red toadstools all over the forest floor. First decent walk in a long time and not as sore or tired as I thought I might be, so that was good 
many thanks to David for picking us up at St Mary's Loch, making the walk possible. Details of the walk will be in another blog on it's own.
A tale of two walled gardens on our day off together. We visited Amisfield Walled garden near Haddington and then headed over to Archerfield for lunch and a wander round their walled garden. The weather was warm and it was a lovely day out, very relaxing.
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Achillea, Amisfield
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A door on one of the corner pavilions,
Amisfield
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Amisfield walled garden
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Amisfield, the sensory garden
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I love the look of your bulb display! Lovely views from the walk and the gardens.
ReplyDeleteThank you, September in the main has been a great month, especially the weather.
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