There is no chronological reason for including this photograph. I took it in the garden of the Camden Art Centre last March. As the year draws to a grey, drizzly close I wanted to remind myself that spring is on the way. Not quite yet but it's coming... Best wishes for 2023 to one and all.

 The right tool for the job. This rake is lacking one important attribute: the actual rake snapped off the end a long time ago. However the handle is very useful indeed.

 By this point in the year a tangle of vines has deposited a thick layer of leaves on the roof of the porch; Grape and Chocolate Vines and Virginia Creeper merge as one. The roof of the porch is corrugated plastic and rather brittle. The pole is perfect for poking through the stems. The rubber grip is ideal as a claw to drag leaves down each channel without damaging the plastic.

 Back in the day I used to drink in the Coopers Arms in Hitchin, Herts. Before it was "modernised" in the eighties it was still a proper pub. One side of the horseshoe bar was carpeted being the saloon. The other side was floorboards being the public bar. The beer was a few pence cheaper if you bought it in the public (though they weren't too bothered where you sat and drank it).

 The Coopers had many joys; a roaring fire and a fairly rum crowd of drinkers to name but two. Also it had numerous archaic farming implements displayed around the walls. I believe they found them when they cleared out an old shed at the back. All were hand made of course and fashioned for tasks so specific it was hard to guess what exactly without having been a farm labourer circa 1900.

 I like to think I am following in that tradition. Perhaps I should patent "The Rakeless Rake" and make my fortune.  

 'Wildflower gardening' is in vogue but arguably a contradiction in terms. If plants are being deliberately cultivated is that wild? Nonetheless it is possible to garden to good effect using species more usually found in the wild.

 The sentiment isn't new. William Robinson's book of 1870 'The Wild Garden' was one of if not the first gardening books to advocate 'naturalistic' planting using native species. Earlier still the cottage gardens of old would surely have included wildflowers of the locality propagated as garden plants. The 'flowery mead' of mediaeval times was a lawn of fine turf dotted with flowers. Mead derives from the Old English "maed" -a clearing (i.e. meadow) where animals graze. No doubt this connection was reflected in the choice of plants.

 I planted a wildflower patch on the allotment using various natives I bought bare root from Shipton Bulbs. I also scattered seeds of a good many wild species though in my experience that approach is very hit and miss. Some species are now propagating themselves by self-seeding not just on the patch but around the allotment. To these we must add those wildflowers which go by another name: weeds. How desirable or undesirable they are is a matter of personal choice but it must be noted that weeds are the plants that want to be growing in that spot whether we like it or not.

 Which brings me to the question of how to garden for wildflowers and how is that different to standard garden maintenance? Today I weeded the wildflower patch mainly to dig out couch grass which will rapidly outcompete most of the wildflowers. I left buttercups and dandelions but couch grass is too wild if you want flowers. 

 I probably dug over some wildflower seedlings as I did so. Never mind, I will also have stirred up seeds in the soil that thrive on disturbed ground. Where I grubbed up a young plant by accident I popped it back in the earth as an instant bare root. I deliberately lifted several mature plants to tease out the thread-like roots of couch grass. 

 Wildflower gardening is a mixture of intervention and leaving things be. On a larger scale that is characteristic of many "natural" habitats; a hay meadow for example or a coppiced wood or a chalk hillside grazed by sheep. Their flora and fauna have a symbiotic relationship with human activity. The wild gardener needs to learn from both the mead and the maed. 

 Actually we're not having a white Christmas in southern England. I took this photo about ten days ago and the snow has melted now. Anyway it fits the bill as a traditional image of the season so season's greetings to one and all...

 I walked this way in mid-October. I described it at the time as a "A perfect autumn day. Cool but sunny, sky blue. Fields fallow, leaves on the turn." Two months later...

 Night falls on the shortest day. Take heart from the plants. The days become longer and the plants begin to stir. Admittedly it's a rather slow start but nonetheless: here comes the summer!

 A walk on the north-eastern fringes of the Chilterns. The pale sky, low raking sun, bare trees and fallow fields seemed to emphasise 'the lie of the land'. 

 I assembled this greenhouse for my father a couple of decades ago. It has fallen into disrepair; basically a bit of a potting shed now and general storage for garden stuff.

 In fact the garden is rather shady so tomatoes, cucumbers etc. aren't really an option. I'm thinking it could function as a cold greenhouse for growing certain plants that need protection but not too tropical. For example I have read that the California Pitcher Plant (Darlingtonia californica) will grow in a cold greenhouse in the UK. I saw these carnivorous "Cobra Lillies" growing in their thousands near Mount Eddy a few years back. [see entry dated 28th. July 2018]

 It would be novel to have a few on the go in Hertfordshire. Then again there's cold and there's cold. Several panes of glass are cracked or gone so I will need to undertake some repair and refurbishment.

 

 I recently enrolled on an online course "Design Your Site with Permaculture" developed by Aranya. I did a two week Permaculture Design Certificate with Aranya back in 2015 and several short courses 2016-19. Needless to say these were out in the field. Literally out in a field sometimes; the sessions were often open air and I slept in my tent at the various locations.

 Actually I hadn't really contemplated digital learning up till now but the online course seems like a good opportunity to revisit familiar topics and cover new ground. Perhaps it helps that I know Aranya and have encountered parts of the content before in a "live" setting which personalises it. Having said that someone who took the course without that context would find it informative as a thing in its own right. I'm looking to build on what I've learned on previous courses but the material would be equally suitable for a beginner. 

 Inevitably the conversational element of a class is absent though there are various interactive features like webinars. The lessons take the form of videos which can be studied as and when suits. And it's useful to be able to backtrack and repeat them to get to grips with the subject. There's a lot to know!

 Online study is different to studying outdoors with analogue Aranya- I've experienced plenty of weather on those courses. I'm happy to say however that Aranya's stream of consciousness mind map whiteboards still appear in the form of drawings that can be downloaded. 

 The idea of the course is to apply it in practical ways to design an actual site using permaculture principles. I'll aim to record that process in this diary as it unfolds.    

 Acanthus mollis is hardy and evergreen here in the UK but flops to the ground in frost or snow. When it warms up the stems and big lush leaves rise up again. That happens to the one in the garden every year with no lasting damage. 

 I'm not sure if the same can be said of this Echium wildpretii which is a triennial in its second year of growth. The blue flowered E. pininana is naturalising in warmer parts of the UK and becoming cold hardy by a process of natural selection. Both hail from the Canary Islands but the red flowered E. pininana is still a rarity over here and probably hasn't acquired the same resistance as yet to British winters.

 No more snow (in Hertfordshire at least) but the snow that fell on Sunday hasn't melted in the countryside after days of sub-zero temperatures. NB This isn't a black and white photo; the landscape is drained of colour at the moment. 

 Plants native and naturalised on this island are cold hardy and adapted to include winter dormancy as part of their growth cycle. For example some seeds require a period of chilling underground as a pre-requisite for germination. Plant growers sometimes mimic this with a 'cold stratification' i.e. putting seeds mixed with a bit of compost in the fridge.

 A distinction is made between endo-dormancy and eco-dormancy. Endo meaning something inside the plant and eco being environmental factors. It occurs to me that dormancy is a major topic in plant science about which I know very little.

 Anyway, one thing I can assert with confidence: it's dormant out there.    

 The temperature has barely risen above zero for days now (and the nights are colder). In southern England it has become uncommon to have frost and snow before Christmas. Winter is nature's re-set. In the epoch of climate change and global warming a cold winter is to be welcomed. I say that as someone who isn't freezing or hungry; others aren't so lucky. 

Awoke to a thick blanket of snow.

Bitterly cold, the landscape etched in a hoar frost.

 Probably my favourite photos this year. Thinking about it my favourites are usually of a pollinator on a flower.    

 December is a bit late in the year to be planting but it's not out of the question. Earlier in the week I divided a pot of Primrose (Primula vulgaris); they were outdoor grown -rather than in a polytunnel- and hardy enough to go in the ground.

 I also planted some bulbs of Tulipa viridifolia 'Spring Green', a white tulip with a pronounced green stripe. In fact a later planting for tulips is preferable. They are prone to 'tulip fire blight' in early autumn when the weather is warmer. Being a fungal disease it is less prevalent in cooler conditions.

 Seems we are due for some frosts in the days ahead so it will probably be spring before I do any more planting. 

 The African Bush Daisy (Euryops chrysanthemoides) in the front garden can be relied upon to flower profusely as winter approaches- and flowers in spring too in fact. Seems to be entirely hardy in London though it's a long way from its native habitat of Southern Africa.

 On a bright but chilly day it was attracting pollinators. I've never seen a bee on it but a variety of flies are drawn to E. chrysanthemoides.

 Britain is a damp kingdom not withstanding periodic droughts. That has implications for building outdoors in wood. I constructed this deck about 18 years ago and it is reaching the end of its useful life. Some of the boards and joists are rotting to the extent they're no longer trustworthy.

 I used pressured treated (i.e. tanalised) timber which is claimed to have a lifespan of decades but realistically expect 15-20 years. Take a fence post for example. The length waving in the air might last for decades, so might the bit encased in concrete in the ground. But where the post meets the ground there is an inevitable accumulation of moisture and matter which hastens rotting causing it to snap at that point.

 I lived in California back in the day where decks are very common but that is a dry climate. I remember the first deck I built when I was back in the UK; the end result was pleasingly Californian. I happened to be working in the next garden several years later and looked over the fence- the deck had turned green! Algae, lichens, liverworts and moss thrive in damp places and particularly in shady spots.

 A while back I was chatting with the distinguished botanist Roy Vickery. He mentioned in passing that he spent seven years of his career studying lichen at the Natural History Museum. Indeed after his retirement he continued working on the lichen collection one day a week. Botanically speaking this deck has a lot going for it but as a place to hang out on its days are numbered. 

 Thought I'd try these on the allotment. Field Beans are the same species as Broad Beans (Vicia faba) but a different variety. They are a smaller bean but a more vigorous plant therefore a higher yield. In the UK Field Beans are sold as a green manure but they are edible and grown for eating in other parts of the world e.g. North Africa and Egypt.

 They are cold hardy and will germinate from a September-November sowing. I've tried Broad Beans in spring/summer with unspectacular results. Free draining soil and drought doesn't suit them. There should be enough water from the sky during the winter months so I'm wondering if Field Beans might be a better bet.  

 Perhaps I'll get a cover crop to dig in or perhaps I'll hold out for a harvest. Or perhaps I'll be disappointed!