The abandoned garden

7th November 2025. In spring Sammy was dividing up some plants of flowers currant and I took one piece to turn into a container grown, single stem cordon. It has settled down well and  now it is putting out small new shoots and buds some of which may turn into early spring flowers.

Pruning is best done after flowering and I shall look forward to that if I can get to the plant. Pruning and training plants fascinates me: correct cutting back produces an elegant structure and, counterintuitively, creates a more fruitful plant.

I have black, red and white currants in containers and two years ago I had visions of these making a neatly managed soft fruit feature. They might struggle on - I have found cultivated red currant and gooseberry bushes on sites of former gardens there that must be close to 100 years old.


In late October 2025, one of my granddaughters Isobel moved to the north of England and, as a result I was given her black cat (which I call Nemesis). As an unspayed female she has to be kept confined with me in my bed sitting room. This has meant I cannot go out through the French windows to tend the garden by the ramp that he's given me so much pleasure over the last several years.

Despite the limitations  I shall continue to study the area to record it's transition from a carefully manicured garden to a wilderness. I was tempted to say "unkept wilderness" but that would reveal a subjective judgement on a natural process.

On this mild November day there is a neat purple and white flower on the Petunia-like Calibrachoa 'Starlight Blue' and some golden nasturtium flowers waiting for the first frost.

Japanese breeders, notably at Suntory, developed the first Calibrachoa hybrids— marketed as “Million Bells”—which revolutionized container gardening.

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