Autumn love in the five minute garden
Hello Friends!
Welcome to my second newsletter, and thanks so much those of you who so sweetly wrote to me to say you had enjoyed the newsletter last week. It was the loveliest thing EVER to get those messages and it means a lot to me. Massive massive respect for taking the time out to be supportive and kind... you didn't have to, but you did it anyway, and you've inspired me to be a bit more vocal when I find something motivating, inspiring or just plain pretty.
To those of you who are new, this is just a weekly roundup of my five minute sprees in the garden, along with some extra, in-depth stuff that I had no room to say on instagram, and finally some ideas on five minute jobs I might have a go at next week. The whole idea is to give you some inspiration for your own gardens...nothing more than that...to which, I apologise for the terrible presentation here...I'm still learning with Tinyletter!
This week's five minute forays:
Monday: I got down and dirty in my path, which is becoming more and more of a weed fest because it is made of gravel. I purposefully wanted gravel, because I wanted it to be a GROWING path...but I neglected to plant anything into it...and now of course I have lots of unwanted stuff, doing what unwanted stuff does best (i.e. proliferating). The lesson here is a simple one. If you have bare earth, or gravel, make sure you plant something in it that you want. I'll be doing a random sowing of annuls into this gravel as soon as I get the time, but of course it must be cleared first.
Tuesday: On a whim I dug out my drill and started drilling holes in the shed, putting hooks into them and then threading wire through to create a climbing frame for the Cobaea scandens which has been growing apace since I sowed it back in February. This was a very typical five minuter - totally slapdash and rather badly done, but with massive results. It's often difficult to think about doing something like this, especially if it involves using special equipment - I always want to put it off until I have 'time to do it properly' or 'money to employ someone to do it properly' but the fact is that my own efforts worked fine, and I'm so excited to see the shed get all pretty.
Wednesday: Autumn suddenly put me in the mood for curry. And I CAN'T have curry without coriander. Quick fill-up of a shallow pot, and I pushed in a few seeds. Coriander likes things cool and damp, otherwise it bolts like a terrified bride. I'll be keeping the pot watered and will probably sow another one like it in three weeks or so, to keep it coming. Apples were also picked, and crumble made (although apple-to-crumble ratio means there will never be an end to this glut, so I want to have a go with an apple membrillo type thing....watch this space!
Thursday: It was an apple picking fest - my tree fruits every other year and is so pretty that although the apples are VERY much cookers, I forgive them and use as many as possible (adding copious sweet stuff to make them delicious. If you've been following me for a while you'll know that I try to thin the apples dramatically to reduce their numbers, and ensure that they're big enough to bother with, but I still get loads of windfalls - too many to compost/leave in the flowerbeds (my terrace already smells like cider). I also made a wreath (on FIRE, me). Don't judge me, I also rather wince at the whole 'Fall wreath' thing...just bear with me...how to (and more importantly WHY to) below.
Friday: Oh how it rained here in London... This was the perfect time to grab my indoor plants and put them outside for an imitation of a tropical rain shower. Plants like Howea Forsteriana (Kentia Palm) and other rainforest-dwellers do best when given a deluge of rainwater every so often, and it's warm enough still to do this without the risk of shocking their little socks off. Hardly gardening really.
Autumn wreathery - the hows (and more importantly) the whys.
It's not that I'm trying to be all Martha Stewart...really I'm Not. That. Person.
And I am in NO way qualified to spout about floral art (as you can see from my efforts above!)
...but I AM a five minute gardener, and as Autumn wends its merry way into my life, I inevitably start wielding my secateurs in my usual slapdash way, chopping and snipping off bits of stuff that are past their best. The trouble is that lots of this stuff that I have to keep on top of to maintain a low-maintenance garden is actually a bit of a wrench to get rid of, and that is where the wreath comes in...it's just like another vase for me, somewhere to plonk beautiful stuff while it's still beautiful, and something to cheer me up when I come in the door. But it only works because it is as easy as putting flowers in a vase - no wire, or glue, or conditioning; I literally gather stuff and poke it in. For this you need something a little bit different from your average wreath form. Mine is made from lots of twigs bent to form a circle, and I just thread my gathered stuff through the gaps as and when I feel like it. I've had this wreath thing for ages, but I've found one online here, which is almost identical. Here are some ideas of things you can poke into your wreath. Note that this is not something to take slots of time with - if it doesn't have a stem that I can use to poke it in with, then it generally doesn't get a look in. If I had the time I'd wire up little crabapples and nuts and stuff, but no, that's for another life, sans kids. At this point I'd avoid the usual christmassy stuff like holly, ivy , eucalyptus etc and stick with things like:
- Tree clippings (Mine are from the apple, pear and plum trees in my garden)
- Any other shrub clippings you gather as you're pruning
- individual fallen autumn leaves
- Anything with berries that you're pruning
- Ferns, ferns and more ferns
- Any and all flowers, particularly ones with amazing seedheads like echinacea, which look amazing even when the petals have all shrivelled up, but equally go for it with roses, anemones and all the rest which will last less time but who cares because this is your ROLLING WREATH....honestly, I could go on and on...(I won't, don't worry)...you can keep this thing going on a gentle roll, removing and adding, removing and adding as and when you tidy, up until christmas when you can do a final switch-up with all the festive stuff.
Five minute things I might do next week:
Buying (or ordering bulbs)
Ordering a netted frame to put over my pond, to make leaf clearance easier
Planting up a neglected patch of ground that I've been meaning to address for, ummm, months
aerating my lawn (which is basically me, jumping all over the lawn on a prong-type-thing....good workout)
Sowing more pea shoots...easy peasy greens for the table
I'd love to see pics of the results of your five minute gardening projects - just tag your pics with #thefiveminutegarden so I can feast my eyes!
Love, and all the good things, always,
Laetitia
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