Sunday Ramblings

My blip today sums up the state of the garden at Tiptree. Yes, it is a minefield of invasive brambles (Rubus armeniacus) which have sprung up despite my cutting them down whenever I’ve had a spare moment. I blame this on the massive quantity of rain we’ve had this year on top of my lack of time to do more than a perfunctory amount of tidying up out there. It’s been really frustrating seeing it get overgrown. Unfortunately the garden is next to an area of no-man’s-land so I will never completely get rid of the brambles, but I can usually cut them down before they get to any great size. Oh well, at least the birds will have plenty of blackberries to eat. But then of course they will poop the seeds all over the place…. aaaarggghh!! I will do as much as I can to hack everything back once the move is over, but luckily I always have a gardener to do a big all-day cutback in September so I’m not going to worry too much.

On 10th May this year I blipped the exquisitely pretty blossom on the Viburnum Opulus in the garden. It now bears striking berries, as seen in Extras. So much has happened in the ten weeks since I did that blip, it’s a wonder I’m still standing!