The merry month of May – it’s a poetic thing.

One of my friends suggested that the homepage title of the ‘Merry, merry month of May’ sounded a little … Christmassy!? (’It’s a bit too Merry, like Christmas …’)

Somewhat bewildered I mentioned ‘the Merry Month of May’ nursery rhyme to him. NO response.
So here it is; a sparkling spring gem:

‘In the merry month of May
When green leaves begin to spring,
Little lambs do skip like fairies
Birds do couple, build and sing.’

Ahhh! But there’s also this fab poem courtesy of Thomas Dekker, a poet of Elizabethan fame:

‘THE month of May, the merry month of May,
So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green!
O, and then did I unto my true love say,
Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my Summer’s Queen.

Now the nightingale, the pretty nightingale,
The sweetest singer in all the forest quire,
Entreats thee, sweet Peggy, to hear thy true love’s tale:
Lo, yonder she sitteth, her breast against a brier.

But O, I spy the cuckoo, the cuckoo, the cuckoo;
See where she sitteth; come away, my joy:
Come away, I prithee, I do not like the cuckoo
Should sing where my Peggy and I kiss and toy.

O, the month of May, the merry month of May,
So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green;
And then did I unto my true love say,
Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my Summer’s Queen.’

Okay, so I may have added another ‘Merry’ into the title, but I reckon it’s worth it.

James

May update

With the newsletter just released, the ringing of my ditty from my Grandmother, ‘Ash before the Oak and we’ll have a soak, Oak before Ash and well have just a dash,’ has grown louder in my ears: the heavens have opened, rainwater pours from the guttering.
Nevertheless, loads to shout about here. Plenty of lovely offers on the site and some top new products. The Easy Hammock has to be the bargain of the summer. At £40 I had to confirm the price twice. Anyway, dear readers, there are only 30 of them and they won’t last and when they’re gone they’re gone (WIGIG). And I’m in for couple, so we’re already down to 28. Another WIGIG is the Grand Central Terminus outdoor garden clock – quite small but perfectly proportioned, this is a real cracker. Perfect for a patio or driveway.
The very popular black Luytchens bench is joined by it’s cream twin, and I have a feeling this one will do just as well.
The office has had a rather spectacular filing cabinet upgrade, although while shiny and impressive they are just a fraction too grey and dreary.
Building work continues on the new warehouse next door. Apologies to those of you whose calls have been interrupted by jack hammers, angle grinders and mouthy builders. But I managed to sell a few Hanbury teak chairs to one of the brickies. ‘Blimey, all your stuff that reasonable.’ He bought four at £50 each, and then his mate came along and bought another four. Bargains galore, or they’re selling them on somewhere.
Finally a new addition to the site appearing (as we find the time) in drips and drabs, is a wonderful range of stone features, from stone benches to magnificent stone urns. These are costly to transport so please be aware there are additional delivery charges subject to your postcode.
Better get back to the packing.
So long.
James

Magnificent Cow parsley

Cow parsley, also known as Anthriscus sylvestris boasts fresh, dainty, green fern-like leaves and frothy flat heads that line the lanes and roadsides in May. And I can’t remember seeing a better show than this year; it has been a joy to behold.  Also known as Queen Anne’s Lace it is one of the winners among wild flowers at this time of year, benefiting from the heavy use of fertiliser in the fields, and possibly an over-dose of nitrogen from traffic fumes.

I remember, as a child, using the hollow stems as a pea-shooter but now I use it in  flower arrangements, setting off the illustrious colours of flowers such as the bold, elegant tulip. And like most umbellifers, it is attractive to a huge number of insect species.

Good old cow parsley.

Bumble XX

Re-cycled Boxes

Thanks to Mr R from Kent for his recent comment regarding an order that arrived from The Garden Factory.

‘Dear James, I appear to have been sent a consignment of fireworks. If you look at my order I ordered a Deer repeller. Whilst fireworks will probably do the trick, it isn’t exactly what I had in mind…’

I quickly wrote back noting that;

‘Dear Mr R,
Please open the box. Inside this box you will find the full contents including one deer repeller. The box is for packaging purposes only and fulfils our requirement of getting your goods to you undamaged and in good shape. There are no fireworks…’

It is worth pointing out that I have just moved house. Therefore, as I am a conscientious recycler (why throw away perfectly good boxes?) you may find, on buying, say, an obelisk a few strange scribbles on your boxes like, ‘children’s toys’ or ‘kitchen pans’.
Therefore, do not be alarmed. Open your box, check your obelisk is there in perfect, pristine condition and then recycle this box in the knowledge that it has performed a task greater than that of moving pans or pictures.
Final note. My daughter has lost one pink sock and a bear with ‘Barcelona’ on the tag. If found, please return.
Thanks
James

Ducks and Drakes

We have been trimming up hedges and ditches, chopping down unwanted trees, bushes and fallen branches and storing the wood for next winter. We are reshaping the climbing roses, and tying them up so that they bloom more beautifully and are safe from snapping in the spring winds.
We are deciding when to prune the others (my husband always says it should be the Grand National weekend) and also planning patterns and plants and where to put what, where.
I hardly dare mention the word Spring as the weather is so inclement but there have been the most spectacular swathes of snowdrops in gardens and along the roadsides.The polyanthus and daffodils are beginning to show their colours and the ducks on our pond are wandering around the garden making a dreadful mess trying to find worms, a place to nest and a suitable husband – in that order.They seem to waddle around in groups of three – two drakes to one duck –and they don’t give there favours lightly!
I was tempted to put out the large pot plants but didn’t, thank goodness as the weather became bitter.I also haven’t dared look at my poor banana trees and the datura which were covered and left in the garden over the coldest winter for 20 years. It will be a miracle if they are still alive.
Bumbleworld

Farewell to Autumn

The colours of autumn have been quite breathtaking this year with the leaves of the field maples leaving carpets of gold along the road verges. The trees, a kaleidoscope of red, orange, yellow, ochre and purple, a last burst of glory before the realities of winter – and of our financial crisis – take root.

Gardening could become an essential part of our lives but also a wonderful hobby in the next few years. It will help with the family budget to grow your own vegetables, whether in a small patch of garden, alongside existing flower beds, or in pots. It is surprising what you can get into a medium sized pot on a balcony and it is so satisfactory to grow and eat ones own produce. Children love digging in the mud filling up pots and planting seeds. It is fun and good to encourage our future gardeners!

I was very surprised to find a group of ladybirds and bugs huddled together on the outside of a North facing sash window, last week, when it was very cold indeed. I wondered why they hadn’t chosen a nice warm cavity in a tree. It then occurred to me that they had a better chance of survival than being breakfast to our spotted and green woodpeckers! I must get a couple of bug boxes! as bugs have also an important part to play in the gardening world.

Now that the winter is upon us and we have had the first severe frosts, snow and wind, we have been protecting all the delicate and ‘foreign’ plants in the garden.

We have wrapped them in fleece, put straw around the bases and then made a ‘tepee type’ structure of bamboo and hessian to see them through the winter.

It seems a little excessive but as we are getting older and the plants are getting bigger it is much harder to find space for them in the greenhouse and it is extremely heavy work shifting these very large pots. So….we hope the banana trees, datura bushes, azaleas, eucalyptus and the mimosas, amongst others, which we have planted in the garden, will survive. I will let you know in the spring!

xx Bumble

Garden Factory March update

Moving from the North East to the South East, I presumed that the weather would be warmer, that the chill of winter would be less bitter. But no. It has been a cold couple of months here at Domsey Chase.  The warehouse is suitable for hanging meat, and the office printer froze. But it has given us a great opportunity to work on the website and the product ranges.

Regulars will notice a huge amount of exciting new products and some really supreme prices on the site. We had a great response to our birdcare offer in February and now we’re focussing on a ‘Grow your own’ theme for Spring, with some terrific promotions to our Newsletter subscribers.

Every year at about this time, with my enquiring children, I spend a very messy afternoon  filling up seed trays with compost, sowing the seeds, labelling each one, adding a  little water and finding a suitable spot in the conservatory or by the boiler on the kitchen windowsill. It is huge fun. And week by week we inspect their progress, watching with excitement the process of germination. I never cease to be amazed, and it gives me such a thrill to know that soon winters course will have run and the slender shoots of life will quickly burst-out over the garden.

So we are astonished as those tiny seeds change into green plants with flamboyant flowers, radiating with colour and sweet smells. Our reward for bearing the bitter chill and ghosts of winter has nearly begun.

James

Christmas tidings

Christmas is coming and the geese are getting fat
Please put a penny in the old Man’s hat
If you have no penny a halfpenny will do
If you have no halfpenny God Bless You!

And that seems like the order of day with worries about money, putting a little aside for the difficult times ahead, and cutting back on Christmas presents and cards and maybe even a smaller turkey!

There are, however, still wonderful ways of passing ones time, walking, talking, getting to know ones neighbours, starting and resurrecting old hobbies and looking at this wonderful world around us. Ponder and prepare – rather like a garden. Cut down the old and bedraggled plants, remove the weeds, mulch the flowerbeds, and remember where the lovely plants are that stay and take out or transplant the ones that are not so good. And if you haven’t done it all already, you can sit back and do it all in your mind! Count your blessings.

After a foot operation, I have had the convenience and fun of getting most of my presents on line. It takes practice and if the website isn’t good it can also be a little stressful as well… but the savings are really worth it. As this is a gardening site, and because I got most of my stuff through the Garden Factory, I found out how easy it was to order and most everything arrived the next day. No heavy bags of fertilisers, bits of equipment, bags to lug and no unwieldy packages to wrap and post (I gave a great many birdbaths/feeders for Christmas!) they did it all for me. A real blessing

I wish you a happy Christmas and a great 2009.

XX  BUMBLE