Lemon a day

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lemonaday.   size 4.5 in x 7.5 in 11cm x 18cm watercolour on heavy weight rag paper

It has actually rained I forgot to check how much rain but it looked like a good bit over several hours. Dock seedlings now lift out of the wet soil with just a tug.

I was being a complete degenerate and was slumped over the kitchen table doing the Suduko before I had read the news…..then a tall Swede turned up on the doorstep with a large bamboo in a pot. He says it is very invasive but what it is is now unknown. We will put it behind the rhizome barrier and let it romp with the golden bamboo and the Geneva( unknown species) bamboo and the Clerodendron bungii which I bought from Fergus Garrett when he visited the Horticultural Society to give a talk about Great Dixter. It even stopped raining long enough to go round the garden with a cup of coffee with him. Lovely unexpected visit and present, husband was very keen to show off his rhizome barrier and associated bee colony.

Incidentally none of the bamboo seed bought from Germany germinated despite a heated propagator and plenty of humidity. This means that we will need to find some other things to fill the back of the rhizome barrier area. We do still have a voucher for Architectural Plants so perhaps a trip over there is the way to go. It’s one of my favourite nurseries as they grow the plants and know what will work…for instance when I asked for a Strawberry tree(Arbutus) they said” Where do you live?” When I told them they replied “It will die in your clay! Let’s find something that will survive.” We bought a large specimen of Osmanthus yunnanensis instead, which is making a neat lollypop shaped tree at the far end of the side garden. Eventually it will give a little evergreen screening from the houses on the main road. This tree was probably the single biggest investment in the garden apart from fences and hedges but it has a quiet classic charm all of its own and scented flowers in February. 

There are three little peaches in today’s painting, just a simple still life.

Alison

#62 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog