The wind is roaring round the house as I write this. The good news is the house roof is back on and fully restored. Ace builder Alan finished it off today, up there on the scaffold top, in the teeth of gale and squall, painting the gable tops, realigning a dodgy gutter. He said it was freezing up there. What a hero.
The re-laid slates are looking pretty smart, but the grand reveal will have to wait till the scaffolding comes down at the end of the week. In the meantime, it’s good to know that the weather will now stay outside the house and the fragile gables stop crumbling into the bedrooms.
In the garden, spring is happening despite the perishing wind. Our gnarled little apple tree by the compost bin has dared to open three buds, but you can tell they’re shivering. I think it’s a Crispin. We had a few good apples from it last year. The other two apple trees that came with the garden, had to be hard pruned, as in eight feet of top growth removed, so we’re not expecting much from them for a while.
*
In between rainstorms, and wrapped up in sweaters, padded parka, fleecy pants and woolly hat, I’ve been a) digging up the lawn to create more vegetable growing space; b) attempting to dig out and unpick ground elder, Spanish bluebell and Mexican cigar plant colonies*; and c) continuing to disengage the hedge from chicken wire and the ivy overburden. This last activity is proving slow going. My presence causes the sparrows to dive from the hedge-side feeding post and into the hedge, where they shout loudly until I go away.
*Now for the plant pest and a note of caution, as in beware of letting Mexican cigar plant (Cuphea) loose on your property. In our garden, it’s like ground elder on steroids. Even the tiniest root fragment will turn into a shrub; the new roots spreading several feet in fleshy festoons, thick as macaroni – under paths, into lawns. When in flower, it has a trillion tube-like blooms that also make seeds. Only if you have the chance of entertaining humming birds should you have it in the garden, and only then in a container.
Needless to say, we do not have humming birds in Bishops Castle. It’s also astonishing that a tropical plant should make itself so at home in this rather draughty, frost-prone corner of Shropshire, although I gather there is at least one variety of the the 250 that is winter hardy.
When we moved into the house last August, this promiscuous entity was sprawling out of our garden, admittedly from a very sheltered, sunny bed, and up over next door’s garage roof, i.e. two metres taller than it’s supposed to grow. Though it did occur to me that perhaps it had found some ancient long-drop W.C. to root itself in. It was also giving itself a leg up along the length of a pine tree that was growing horizontally across the back of the flower bed. But I keep wondering if I’ve misidentified it; maligning an otherwise innocent shrub.
Any thoughts, gardeners? The serrated leaves are puzzling me, but when in flower, it looks like THIS. And descriptions of the swift growing/spreading roots/long flowering season fits.
Tish Farrell 
Don’t you go upsetting those sparrows, Mrs. F! At least you’re draught proof now.
Yep. That’s a big step forward. As to the sparrows – they’re eating us out of house an home 🙂
🤣🩵
Good to have a new roof. We need somone to sort ours out, but it’s proving difficult to find a tradesman who wants the job. I don’t envy you the garden issues, but I have no doubt that you will conquer all. Your cigar plant reminds me of my phygelius which proved to be a thug in the ground sending runners everywhere. It’s now in a container.
Phygelius – now that’s looking a very likely candidate (many apologies to Cuphea lovers). Brilliant, Jude. I think you’ve nailed it. The leaves are serrated too. I see it’s susceptible to figwort weevil (presumably a South African species along with the plant). Don’t suppose BC can come up with few 😉
Thank goodness your roof is sorted now! I really don’t envy you the task of sorting that Cuphea….aargh
Brilliant Jude, has put me right on the Cuphea. Think it’s more likely to be phygelius, which she describes as a garden thug. However, knowing what it is and dealing with it are 2 different things. It’s infested all one side of the garden and into next door’s. Yikes!
aaargh indeed
🙂
There is nothing like a good sound roof over our heads. As for the crazy bush you are trying to get shed of. here its privet…..every seed that drops sprouts .Horrible.
‘Crazy bush’ I like that term, Beverly.
Gosh, you’ve got your work cut out in that garden, especially with that pesky cigar plant, which is a new one on me. Keep digging!
Pesky plant is actually growing in the lawn, along with the ground elder, The previous owner simply kept mowing it. Which I suppose is one strategy!
I thought that was supposed to work – eventually (maybe 20 years??).
Heavens! That’s something to look forward to then 😉
I may also have been guilty of mowing the elder that ended up in the lawn!!
It is one strategy, Becky! Short of digging up the lawn or weed killer-ing it, seems the easiest option.
yikes a garden thug that is worse that ground elder – good luck!
Oh goodness, the roof back before those recent winds. Great timing! But your photos speak of Spring blooming against as ever all the odds! Lovely images.
Yes, the roofing gods smiled on us, didn’t they. Today is even colder than yesterday, but at least my spinach and kale are growing really well 🙂
Welcome spring.
🙂 🙂 🙂
I’m glad to hear your roof is now sorted, that’s a big step forwards. I can’t help with your gardening dilemmas but in any case I see that Jude has already done so 🙂
Yes, Sarah. A big step forward, though a bit of roof fall-out (literally) inside the house to put right.
You’re making progress Tish. New roof and getting out into the garden is probably just the start.
Yes, Anne. Am thinking there’s a long ‘to do’ list ahead. But at least it’s supposed to be getting warmer tomorrow which helps make the outstanding jobs seem a bit less daunting.
😊
Thank goodness your roof was fixed before the storm. I do not envy you the ongoing garden struggle with that “cigar plant”. Hope your weather soon improves
Thanks for those good weather wishes, Pauline. It is a bit warmer today, but v.v. gloomy.
🥴
We’ve gotten some really dreadful vines that in summer, take over everything. They get really HUGE and have trunks like small trees — and they climb. We have done our best to get rid of them — and there are at least three different attackers. They have all traveled north from the south. It has gotten so much warmer here that they grow fine. Oddly, THIS spring has been cold. Not winter cold, but not spring warm either. Weird weather with too much rain and trees dying because they can’t live in mud.
Oh those strangling vines! We thought the wild morning glories were a bother until we got bittersweet and kudzu. I think the constant rain may have killed some of the invaders — along with the guy who came and tore it out of the ground, or at least as much of it as he could get at without knocking down a fence or the garden wall. I have never hated a plant before, but the bittersweet and kudzu are like something out of science fiction.
Nothing worse than plants in the wrong place, but when they come in invading hoards, it truly is a nightmare. I have to say, your awful situation has cut my problem down to size. I can at least keeping digging my invaders up. They are not tree-size. Also I may resort to weed killer on the stone paths that are harbouring them and where I can’t dig or unpick them.
One problem is, people become enamoured with particular plants, and put non-indigenous species in their gardens, without knowing what they might do. Water hyacinth is a good example – belongs in South America where it has natural predators, but now has infested the rivers and lakes of Africa, escaped from colonial gardens.
I’m truly sorry that you have such a jungle. V. oppressive.
Re-doing the roof? OMG. And in this season? Glad it’s over. My brothers and I re-did roofs at the Normandy house, in summer though…
Compliments. One thing done…
As for the garden, I’m delighted that you should have apple trees, but I will not make any further comments. (Definitely not a gardener…)
Kwaheri sassa Memsahib.
Compliments on one job done much appreciated, Brieuc. The roofers were fast workers, and got the felt on double-quick, so we were more or less watertight.
Fast and good apparently. Perfect…
Thank you Tish for sharing… I saw these flowers on trees on the road, and was trying to find the name… you have answered my question 🙂