Gwenfar – Page 2 – Gwenfar's Garden and other musings

A couple of brick raised beds ,and you can see the green shoots of this seasons garlic coming up.

Garlic 2024

9 March 2024

Wow, for the 1st time in 15 years I’m going to have to buy garlic. Usually I grow enough for our household for the year, plus some to give away. However, because of of moving and stuff, last seasons garlic …

Two very large flowers (bigger than my hand) facing off opposite sides of the large central stem. The colours are faded to lime green, with strong dark red markings running along the ridges on the petals, making it look stripy, except in the middle where the colour has joined up. It's a fabulous flower and wants us to know it.

Amaryllis ‘Papilio’

8 January 2024

In the depths of winter, one of the great floral delights that we can grow indoors (in the UK), are Amaryllis. This is A. ‘Papilio’, which is now in it’s third year of flowering. I have two others that flowered …

Focusing just of the tepals and you can see the detail of the curling with the purple-blue edging, and then the pistils & stamens extending out further again.

Billbergia windii in flower

2 January 2024

My friend Kate gifted me a Billbergia windii when we first moved to Penarth 18 months ago, and it’s now decided to flower. The flower is really quite something. I found it hard to photograph, but here a few that …

A large pond with lily pads sitting on the surface. Behind are lots of trees changing colours, some really bright oranges and reds. Further back are fields with sheep, and even further, cows on a hill - looking surprisingly large given how far away they are (that's the weird perception thing).

Autumn at Aberglasney

8 November 20238 November 2023

For my birthday this year we decided on an autumn visit to Aberglasney Gardens. Autumn has been very mild, and instead of the usual freezing temperatures for my birthday (end of October), it was quite pleasant, and the colours were …

A large flower, the size of your hand span, facing towards the left. The outer petals are white, and then it has lots of purple and blue coronal filaments that really add the wow factor. It then has yellow-green stamens, then purplish dotted small stems leading to the two dark yellow pistols that meet at the top. You can see raindrops have collected amongst the filaments.

A brief passion

18 September 202318 September 2023

I did not mean to go nearly 3 months between blogposts, but between visitors and having pinched a nerve in my left shoulder, I’ve not been able to type much. It’s slowly improving but still a way to go. Honestly, …

Three people, two white, one a person of colour. One white person sitting in a beach wheelchair, the other two people above and behind. Everyone is smiling and happy. To the left you can see the sandy beach and the edge of the water.

Beach scenes: Barry Island and the beach wheelchair

14 May 202424 June 2023

I don’t recall the last time I walked on a beach. It’s been years, then some more years still. To be fair, we either lived in Oxfordshire or South Yorkshire, which are no where near the beach. But mainly it …

Black ‘n White

16 June 202316 June 2023

Got a little planting today today, including this gorgeous purple-leaved Geranium. This is Geranium pratense ‘Black ‘n’ White’. I guess ‘aubergine-purple and white’ didn’t have the same ring to it! I picked it up on a recent visit to Aberglasney …

The blended scapes have been spooned into individual ice-cube tray sections.

Garlic scapes: preserving by freezing

11 June 2023

If you grow hardneck garlic, you’ll end up with scapes in late Spring/early Summer (full info here). A simple way to preserve them is to freeze them, viz: Step 1: First, cut them up roughly. Step 2: Put them in …

A view of the whole greenhouse looking from the front left to the back left side. There are some plants and a wooden seat alongside the greenhouse wall.

Enter the dream: my new greenhouse

5 June 2023

Gardeners frequently dream of bigger, better etc. More space, more plants. And I’ve definitely had that dream. But my health can no longer manage a big garden, and our new garden is about a third of the size of our …

Blue Camassias in the foreground, and in the distance you can see a hint of the bluebell wood. There is lots of lush green growth and it all looks very vibrant.

Garden visit: Aberglasney Gardens

7 May 2023

Aberglasney Gardens is a good example of a the value of second chances. We visited Aberglasney, in the Tywi Valley, Carmarthenshire (Wales), more than 15 years ago, and all I recall is it felt dim and uninviting. It was towards …