Garden News: Alive, alive-O!

Yesterday evening I watched Carol Klein’s Life in a Cottage Garden, the only programme I’ve wanted to watch all week. I had to leave the garden I’d toiled in for nearly thirty years and abandon my lovely plants to the unworthy inheritors, so I felt pretty jealous of Carol, still working at Glebe Cottage after thirty two years. Then, watching her strenuous activities and reminding myself that she's older than I am, I felt ashamed of my current sloth where the garden is concerned. It was weeks since I’d even looked inside the greenhouse, although considering the weather I think that’s forgivable. So this morning I braved it. I was thrilled to find that the cuttings of perennials, taken in late summer and left in an unheated greenhouse, have all survived, in spite of our -12 temperatures! They were tucked up inside a plastic propagator covered with fleece. Today they’re getting a breath of fresh air. There are several jobs I’d like to get done this month but I think it’s coming on to rain again now…