"Don't knock the weather.........

- nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while." - Kin Hubbard

May always passes in a blur or work - potting, propagation, busy with customers in the nursery, weeding, watering. Blink and I miss it. I do try to make sure I take a walk around the gardens every few days to see whats new in flower, growing or needs attention. What makes it all worth while though is the love the nursery and gardens get from our customers, their lovely comments, compliments and support, it means everything to us.

Plants with history - I bought Rhododendron ‘Little Ben’ when I was creating the garden of the house my ex and I built in 2000. Eldest son is called Ben so it was inevitable I would search out plants with their names. Rhododendron ‘Little Ben’ is a low growing Forrestii. The size after 10 years is 25 cm. The flower colour is bright red with round dark green leaves. Because the branches grow very close to the ground I have found it layers on occasion. This has meant I have been able to bring a plant with me when I left that house and garden and also been able to give family a piece of it too. So now having spent 9 years in a pot I have planted my ‘Little Ben in our new garden here in Peebles. My son little Ben is no longer little and was 29 on his birthday earlier in April!

If I can't garden outdoors I'll garden indoors. That's all the house plants had their annual pot up, feed and tidy. Great to get them sorted and they seem to be enjoying their new homes in our new wee hoose. Its important to note like my belongings or stuff as David calls it, my house plants can also cause disagreements, that is very evident in the fact there are NO plants in the spare bedroom / Davids office. No clean air for him then, I tried, he rejected the spider plant.......

Its all very bucolic looking out from the back of the nursery these days, Morag and Maggie, the sheep and the wee lambs and a lot of baaaaaahhhing :D The chickens are out and about and all the wild flowers are e,erging on the woodland walks.

Whitmuir farm is really coming to life again and its great to see it all being tidied, loved and farmed.

April's walk around the nursery and gardens, the daffodils and cowslips are the highlights at the moment. But there are lots more gems beginning to show and everything is greening up

we are open Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm

Whitmuir cafe and Junkshopantiques same days 11am to 4pm

Scopolia Hlandnikiana (S. carniolica var. brevifolia)

Colour in my own garden this week

Tulipa 'Grand Perfection'

Tulipa 'Queen of the Night'

One of my favourite genus of plants are Epimediums. I love them for their wonderful flowers and colourful foliage. They are evergreen, grow in shade and often dry shade, they look exotic but are tough wee things. Over the past few years I've been adding to my collection and propagating them so that hopefully in a year or two I will have some of these and more available for sale to my lovely customers. Gardening is all about patience and the satisfaction that comes from nurturing and growing the best plants.

Epimedium 'Jinto Shan'

Epimedium 'Valor'

Epimedium 'Zhushanense'

Lovely to spend the day with Betty and Dan at the nursery when they came down for the garden railway running. Then back to ours for dinner. Chicken and mushroom pie, my special roasted new potatoes and baked blueberry cheesecake for dessert which worked yay! No photos of them or the railway just the food

Sunset on the loch

I've been feeling very disillusioned with my painting lately, I dont feel I'm improving, getting anywhere with it and in fact getting worse. I'm not looking for sympathy or any thing, that's the way it is. So I haven't picked up a brush and at this time of year neither do I get the time I would like to paint either. I decided to try a very simple landscape as I really wanted to paint, I'm happy with this one, especially the sky.

Sunset over the loch

A relaxing day off pottering about in my own garden. Now the focus turns to the back garden…. I’ve done a few bits and pieces here already over the months we’ve been here, but there are big changes coming. More on that later. For now I have got my potting shed yay! When we moved in last year we stored a lot of stuff in the shed, now all that is in the attic or sold I can now sort all my gardening things out and get them into the shed. A cheap piece of lino off the internet cut to size helped by Maisie standing on it, not! We found the wooden shelves under the bench in the shed so I've put it on the wall to store all the hand tools and bits n pieces. Now the greenhouse is emptied I can rehome it and make plans for that corner of the garden. I also finished clearing out the bamboo. It looks a bit sparse but there a loads of new shoots coming up so it will look great soon. A take away lunch from Coltmans out in the garden, a fine day off.

Before

Bamboo after its thinning out

Patio tidied

Lunch from Coltmans

Millium effusum 'Aureum'

Maisie helping not

Still keeping it simple. So if a highland loch isnt your go to escape how about a tropical beach at sunset, or sunrise?

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