my gardening DIARY

MONDAY All our lovely pelargoniums from Fibrex Nursery have been taken into the small greenhouse where they can tick over for the winter. Spring is probably the best time to take cuttings.

TUESDAY Among the delightful white flowers of the Gladiolus murielae, which have graced our terrace for the last couple of months, two distinctive flowers emerged. They’re deep pink and speckled. I’ve marked them and when foliage dies down, their corms will be separated and we’ll see what happens next year.

WEDNESDAY Forty years ago, my mum gave us an acer ‘Ōsakazuki’, which every autumn glows red; the best autumn colour in the whole garden. This year there are lots of dainty, winged seeds. I’ll collect a few and sow them outside.

THURSDAY All along the back of our top veg raised beds is a run of hazel poles. Because it’s at the north of the bed, this is the best place to grow tall climbers, runner beans, climbing French beans and their ornamental cousin – sweet peas. Now that production of both flowers and pods has ceased, they’re cut back to the ground and added to the compost heap.

FRIDAY A couple of weeks ago I cut a couple of old seed heads from Agastache foeniculum and since there was a compost-filled seed tray handy, shook some of the seed onto the surface, covered with grit, watered and left them on the greenhouse bench. They’ve already germinated and have true leaves.

SATURDAY Up in the hedge alongside the field behind the house stand three old Scots pines. Since we’ve been here, these trees have been the home of a small colony of ravens. During the last few weeks they’ve been particularly noisy.

SUNDAY I want to grow watsonia; to me they’re the most glamorous of all the South African iris relatives and this year I got hold of a few for the very first time.