Welcome to my collection of seasonal gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan-friendly recipe posts; a round up of my gardening throughout the year, and the plants and produce I grow here in central Scotland. I wish you good readng, happy cooking and perfect planting!
Small pear and cherry trees in winter. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
Happy February everyone! Any thoughts I had of an early spring have gone out the window these past couple of weeks as temperatures in the UK have plummeted. So far, there has been little snow to speak of, but there have been many a frost-laden night and day. The saving grace amongst all the chilliness is a beautiful blue-sky and bright sunshine we have been blessed with most days.
So, on with my quick round-up of what’s going on in the garden right now. The snowdrops and crocus have been in flower for a couple of weeks and seem to be coping well with the sunny days and freezing nights.
Early 2019 snowdrops and golden crocus. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
The first Hellebore of the year has now been joined by a couple of other blooms, but other varieties are still firmly in bud.
Hellebore trio. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
Most of the winter pansies have been chewed. Each flower head lasts about 24 hours once it opens before some wee beasty makes a meal of it. I managed to capture this pansy’s delicate, pretty petals before it becomes part of another insect supper.
A winter bug’s next meal. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
It’s been a good season for the winter heathers. This pink heather is full of blooms. There aren’t so many pink flowers around at this time of year, so this one is a welcome burst of colour. Sadly the early flower heads of the pink rhododendron I photographed at Hogmanay have inevitably perished in the frost.
Pink winter heather in full bloom. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
Perhaps my next garden post will be more spring-like – who knows? So until then, wrap up warm and keep cosy. Have a good few days 🙂
A very happy new year to you all. I wish you good health and every success in the year ahead. I hope that you have had a good Christmas holiday, and now we wait to see what 2019 brings to us all.
My Christmas holiday has been very peaceful and relaxed. The weather has been mild considering the time of year and has given me the opportunity to get out in the garden and tackle a few jobs like pruning the old apple tree.
Recently pruned gnarly old apple tree. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
The holidays started on a very chilly note with a heavy frost on Christmas Eve which made everything look very festive and sparkly in the sunshine and crisp, fresh air.
Frosty garden on Christmas Eve. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
Out in the garden today, things were looking a little different from a week ago. No frost, just mild, breezy air and patches of blue in a heavily clouded sky. 2018 has certainly given us some unusual weather and I think this is having an impact on the garden now. Several plants are much more advanced than usual: the snowdrops are almost out in flower; the buds on the early spring flowering rhododendron are breaking open, and one Hellebore is already in full bloom. The usual oddities are around too: a solitary stalk of fresh flowers on a very sad-looking, bedraggled lavender bush, and a few new red-fringed orange carnation buds are about to open for a second flowering.
Hogmanay flowers. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
I’ll sign off this post with an image of some “lucky” white winter-flowering heather to bring us all good fortune over the next 12 months 🙂
Just a few apples left for the birds. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
I think it’s safe to say that Autumn is over now, at least it is here in central Scotland. A couple of weeks ago it was still mild and dry, but last week it felt like there was a definite season change. The last of the leaves came off the trees in heavy rain, the temperature dropped, and the daylight hours have dwindled significantly. The garden looks quite sad now. All things told, it certainly feels like December is just round the corner.
A frosty November morning. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
It’s not all doom and gloom though. There are signs of life amongst the fading foliage and fallen leaves. Spring bulbs are shooting up everywhere: in containers, borders and flowerbeds; they seem more advanced than usual.
Sprouting bulbs. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
The late flowering heather is just coming into bloom. Such a pretty colour and delicate flower for this time of year.
Just beginning to flower, Winter flowering heather. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
As a reminder of the forthcoming festivities less than a month away (I can hardly believe it!), the Santa-red Skimmia berries and the glacial-white snowberry, give seasonal cheer.
Seasonal berries, Skimmia and Snowberry
And, here is the most regular visitor to the garden at the moment. He seems to appear whenever I go outside, and chirps away from first light. This is his regular perch, in the hollow of a large conifer, not too far from the back door.
Master of all he surveys. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
And so to my final image. This Salvia was planted back in late spring and has been in flower ever since. A truly great value plant. Have a good week 🙂
Still blooming in late November, Salvia. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
The weather has been perfect for spending time in the garden this past week. Fresh and breezy, with the sun shining most days. There are leaves everywhere, and plenty of tidying up to do before the weather changes.
This time last year, I had 3 beautiful Nerine bulbs in bloom. Sadly the snails ate the shoots from the other 2 a few weeks ago, but this beauty survived. It looks like a plant that should be out in late spring or early summer, but at this time of year, it is very welcome and a stunning splash of colour.
Another favourite with the slugs and snails is the Perennial primrose, which also looks out-of-place in Autumn. I was lucky to capture such a perfect bloom for my photograph before the beasties started their lunch.
On the whole, there is not much going on in the garden in Autumn, just leaves tumbling everywhere. However, there are a few plants having one last hoorah before the winter weather begins. All round the walls of the garden, creeping Campanula grows from spring and throughout the summer. This little patch of greenery on a sunny part of wall has just burst into flower again this past week.
Creeping Campanula. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
Back in July, the cotton lavender was ablaze with tufty yellow flowers. After cutting it back to remove the dead heads at the end of summer, there is still plenty of fragrant, silvery foliage to enjoy when the sun shines on it. Here we are a few weeks later, and the plant has bloomed again, but this time, with just one solitary flower.
Cotton Lavender bloom. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
I think I mentioned in my last garden round-up that I was hoping for more rose blooms this Autumn. The heat and the dry weather didn’t seem to suit them earlier in the year and the petals faded very quickly. I was delighted to see fresh buds on my very fragrant favourite rose, and now the blooms are fully open, the garden around them is smelling sweet and aromatic again.
Rosa Felicia. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
There are several Hebes around the garden. It was a good year for blooms, and like the cotton lavender, these 3 bushes have started flowering again this past week, each with only a few small clusters of flowers.
Blooming again, Hebes. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
These eye-catching seeds or berries are all that’s left of the native Iris (Iris foetidissima) apart from the green, spear-like foliage. I don’t recall that many flowers this year, but the seed pods develop and open out to form the exact same pattern of the Iris flower-heads. You can see that there are quite a few pods, so I must have missed a lot of flowers.
To round off my post this week, something suitably spooky for the end of October. With Hallowe’en just round the corner, this image fits the season perfectly. This small espalier Comice pear tree only produced 4 pears this year. The small ones fell off a couple of weeks ago, but the largest one has been clinging on ever since. Now all the leaves have blown away from the tree, the bare branches made an eerie shadow against the wall this sunny afternoon. Have a good week.
One Comice pear on a pear tree. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
Still blooming, white Japanese anemones. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
When I posted my last garden round-up back on August 9th, only one or two of these beautiful white Japanese anemones were in bloom. Here we are some eight weeks later, and they are looking magnificent in the flower-beds. Having survived the storm of last week, and the breezy weather we have had recently, they continue to flower when most plants around them are dying back.
Meadow cranesbill enjoying the afternoon sunshine. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
I have a lot of meadow cranesbill (hardy geranium) in the garden. I love the fragrant bright green foliage which trails over just about every wall. I cut back the first flowers when they started dying back a few weeks ago, and now there are new fresh pink blooms about the flower-beds to keep summery thoughts alive.
However, it is autumn, and these lilac crocus are popping up all over the place to remind me of the change of season. I love these strange, top-heavy flowers that poke out of the bare soil with no leaves and long mauve stalks. The rich, golden stamens smell of saffron, and on a warm day, the aroma is truly delicious.
Fragrant Autumn crocus. Images: Kathryn HawkinsOld fruiting Lord Derby apple tree. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
It’s been a fantastic year for fruit. The old cooking apple tree is laden. I’ve been busy cooking up the wind-falls while the main crop still remains on the tree. I have two miniature eating apple trees in another part of the garden. These rarely produce more than half a dozen apples, but this year, I have enough to fill a large fruit-bowl,
Mini eating apple harvest. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
I am particularly pleased with the crop of Concorde pears on a small tree at the top of the garden. I have had the tree for about a decade, and it hasn’t fruited very well until this year. The pears keep very well, so I will be able to enjoy them over the next few weeks. I’m sure there will be a pear recipe posted from me in the next few weeks.
In the same part of the garden, the Autumn-fruiting raspberries are ripening. I never have very many at a time, but a few berries ripen every two to three days, and are just enough to occasionally scatter over my morning granola.
Concorde pear tree laden with fruit. Images: Kathryn HawkinsEarly Autumn-fruiting raspberries. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
It’s not been a good year for the roses in the garden. Too dry I think. However, there are a few second buds forming now, so if the sunny weather continues a while longer, I may get a few more blooms like this beauty. Until next week, my best wishes to you.
Second time around, Gertrude Jekyl rose. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
The more traditional Scottish summer weather has returned this past week. It is much cooler now; there have been a few more rain showers, and the garden has rehydrated and is greening up again. Earlier today, I was having a look back at my garden post of this time last year; several of the flowers I featured then are well and truly over by now due to the heat and dry of the past few weeks.
Goldenrod (Solidago) and globe thistle (Echinops). Images: Kathryn Hawkins
There seem to be plenty of bees (and butterflies) in the garden this year which is very good news. The Goldenrod and globe thistles were alive with sound of buzzing while I was capturing these images. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed quite so many different kinds of bees and flying insects as I waited to capture the pollen collecting action.
Vibrant-coloured poppies. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
The poppies add a brief splash of colour when they bloom. The fragile petals are like tissue-paper. Once in full bloom, each flower head looks radiant for about 24 hours before the petals are shed, on by one.
Japanese anemones. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
Just as fragile looking are the Japanese anemones, but although they look so delicate and pretty, the flowers last for many days, if not weeks, and seem to be able to tolerate any wind, rain, heat and chill that a Scottish summer has to offer.
Crocosmia (Montbretia). Image: Kathryn Hawkins
Year after year, the back garden flowerbeds become packed out with the long stems and leaves of Crocosmia. The weight of several flower heads per stem means that they do appear to grow horizontally, particularly in the sunshine; in the shadier parts of the garden, the stems hold their heads higher as they reach for the light. For me, it is the bright orange flowers and lush green foliage of this plant that represents the peak of summer like no other.
My final images are of another orange flower in the garden: very tall and elegant tiger lilies. I love the way the petals fold back so neatly at the back of the bloom, just like a beautifully tied ribbon. Until next week, my best wishes to you 🙂
Fuschia-pink peonies in full bloom. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
I hope you have all been enjoying some warm sunshine these past few days. The temperature has shot up in the UK and we have all been experiencing long, hot, summer days, and records have been broken every day this week.
I am away from home this week and I know that when I return at the weekend, the lush garden I left behind last Saturday will probably be looking less so. This week’s post is a look back at one of my favourite garden flowers, the peony, which I captured before I headed away.
Sunlight through peony petals. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
There are 4 varieties of peony in the back garden. All have the delightful sweet fragrance that these blooms are renowned for, and to me, they are one of the quintessential old-fashioned blooms of and established flower garden.
Blue and white Columbine (Aquilegia). Image: Kathryn Hawkins
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It’s been quite a week in the garden. Long, warm days, plenty of sunshine, no rain, and everything is flourishing. As the spring colours fade and the bluebells diminish, the garden has come alive with all things blue.
Columbine (Aquilegia) grow very well in the garden and seed themselves each year. They are a great value flower, and fill in lots of the spaces in the borders and beds with their delicate broad-clover-like leaves and dainty ballerina-like flowers. They are also flower for a long time.
Hardy Geranium or Cranesbill. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
Also long flowering are the geraniums which grow over the walls and trim the pathways round the garden. They love all the sunshine we’ve been having. The lupins are also doing well, and with no wind to blow them over (so far!) they are growing tall and straight and look truly magnificent.
Blue-mauve Lupins. Image: Kathryn HawkinsBusy bee collecting pollen from a Meadow Cornflower (Centaurea). Image: Kathryn Hawkins
There are plenty of bees around in the garden which is a good sign. They seem to like lots of the flowers in the garden, but the Meadow Cornflowers are a particular favourite and the many clumps around the garden are alive with activity from lots of buzzing wee winged creatures.
Last spring I planted a couple of Himalayan poppies (Mecanopsis). I love these delicate, unusual coloured flowers but have been unsuccessful in getting them to flower. I was delighted to see that one has produced a long flower stem with lots of buds. The other is very much alive, so fingers crossed, it will flower next year. These poppies prefer a shady situation, my 2 are growing deep in a flower bed which doesn’t get direct sunlight. The flower is such a stunning shade of blue, you can see it right across the garden.
Delicate and delightful, Mecanopsis. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
One final image, my gorgeous blue iris has opened up this week. It stands alone in a corner of a flower bed in the front of the house, and is greatly admired. I just can’t resist inhaling the bubble-gum aroma every time I walk past. Have a good week and enjoy the sunshine 🙂
I’ve been working away from home since my last post. When I arrived back at the weekend (a gloriously sunny one), I was delighted to see the garden so full of colour, and the tulips looking particularly magnificent. The extended winter/late spring has done wonders for the flowering bulbs this year. All of them have emerged strong and bold, and are lasting longer than usual.
Tulips have been a favourite flower of mine for many years. I love their simplicity. Whilst I have few words to share with you this week, I have some colourful images of these lovely, elegant blooms. I’ll be back in the kitchen again this weekend, getting ready for my next post in a few days time. Until then, have a good week.
The colours of spring. Image: Kathryn HawkinsTall, red tulips in planters. Image: Kathryn HawkinsSix of the best. Images: Kathryn HawkinsTulips overhead. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
Snakeshead Fritillary under a blue spring sky. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
It really was a glorious day today. After a few April showers this morning, it was a sunshiny blue-sky afternoon. It was very pleasant to take a stroll, breathe in the fresh air and enjoy the sunshine. Out of the sun, it is still chilly, and the night-time temperature is low, but the spring flowers are at their best right now, and I couldn’t resist another post showing how the garden is looking at this very colourful and fragrant time of year. The scent from some of the flowers is intoxicating, I only wish there was some way of posting the aromatics as well as the images!
Bold and brash, candy-striped tulips. Image: Kathryn HawkinsPale lemon Narcissus, each tiny stem has 4 very fragrant blooms. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
I’m in the throes of a very busy period with my work and subsequently, I have had little time to spend trying new recipes in the kitchen. I will have a recipe post ready for next week though, so in the meantime, I hope you enjoy the glorious multi-colours of my Scottish spring garden. See you next week.
Pale pink rhododendron. Image: Kathryn HawkinsGrape hyacinths (Muscari) by a privet hedge. Image: Kathryn HawkinsHighly fragrant, double-blooming pink and magenta hyacinths. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
