Sussex in the snow

Snowed in

After an overnight stay in a B&B, I finally struggled home in the snow. It took me four hours to complete a train journey which normally takes 1hr 45mins.
My resourceful other half braved blizzard conditions in our new-to-us car to collect me from the station but we were forced to abandon it in a neighbouring office car park - our drive is too steep to negotiate right now.
This morning I awoke to 14ins (36cm) of snow. The veg patch is completely buried - the only indication of its existence is the rabbit fence around the edge.
The bird feeder on the shed is empty - I can't even reach it - so I've scraped away the snow and put out two trays of food near the back door. So far the birds have either not noticed it or have not been brave enough to venture that close.
I had been due to go to an important meeting today in Guildford and was prepared to struggle to get there, but with the car snowed in and the roads blocked, I have little chance of even reaching the station, six miles away.
My new plan for today is to venture outside with my new camera.

Lace bugs on pieris japonica

After admiring my mother's pieris japonica shrub, I was kindly donated one which appeared to be suffering from an unidentified pest.
I know several of the shrubs from a neighbouring garden had to be removed with a similar problem. The leaves turn black and blotchy underneath and eventually the whole plant is affected.
Trawling the internet, I found a number of sites saying this type of pieris is susceptible to andromeda lace bugs.
The bugs aren't visible to the naked eye so I took a close up picture of some dead bugs on my shrub and magnified it in Photoshop (left). It more or less confirmed my suspicions.
I found a really useful piece on the Conneticut University website about the bugs which explains aggravating causes and treatment.
I am, however, wondering whether to look a gift horse in the mouth on this occasion and turn down the free plant for my garden in case the bugs could spread to other things.

Controlling bamboo

Today is the first dry day in a while and my only day off work this week so I'm grabbing the opportunity to cut back the bamboo which is taking over the corner of my garden and next door's hedge.
When we arrived a few months ago, it provided a useful screen for the compost heap and gave us a good supply of canes to use around the garden but it is so vigorous, I have not spent enough time trying to contain it and now our neighbour's hedge is starting to suffer.
I read a guide to controlling bamboo which recommends cutting into the soil with a straight bladed shovel, therefore severing the sprawling shoots to stop it from spreading.
Using this method, it says, this year's shoots should die off but previous year's growth could survive so the roots should be dug out.
In my case, I doubt digging around the plant would be successful because the shoots are large and too close to the hedge. The best plan, I think, is to chop it down, dig it out and put something else in its place.
I thought the cutting down part would be a simple task, but I'm taking time out to write this because I am less than half way through and already aching.
I'm dreading digging up the roots. Perhaps that's a job for another day.
Some of the foliage is over 10ft high so I should have a fair number of canes to store in the shed ready for the spring.
Anyway... tea break over... back to the garden.

BBC Sussex: Gardening phone-in

You can listen to today's Dig It gardening phone-in programme on i-Player. Host Joe Talbot fields questions for Steve Bradley and tree expert Geoff Peach, who explains to one caller why her 12-year-old magnolia has never flowered.

Autumn colour

The autumn leaves are putting on a spectacular show this year. Too bad that some visitor gardens are due to close for the winter this weekend.
In the valley beyond our hedge I can see cherry, tupelo and acer, among others, turning seemingly unnatural shades of purple, red, orange and yellow. There are many other colourful trees, although I don't know all their proper names.
Even my favourite, the swamp cypress, which I had wrongly assumed to be evergreen, is now turning brown. Upon further investigation, I have learned that it is one of only a few deciduous conifers found growing in Britain. It's good to know but I'm not sure how that information is ever going to be useful to me unless it comes up in a quiz.
Meanwhile, just so I don't spend my whole time gazing up at the trees, the cyclamen are out too, providing a colourful carpet in the woodland gardens. This noticable change in the seasons has got me thinking about what I need to be doing in my own plot before winter sets in.

Fruit trees: Pleaching to the converted

Until a few weeks ago I had dispelled the idea of growing fruit in my garden.
Soft fruit would get picked off by birds and mice and there simply isn't enough room for an apple or pear tree... or is there?
On a recent visit to the Kent Life Museum near Maidstone I noticed their farmhouse garden had a low step-over hedge of dwarf apple trees, which set me thinking about my own garden.
I had already learned about pleaching and espalier from my in-house experts and wondered if dwarf trees could be trained between the posts that support a railway sleeper retaining wall.
I consulted my wiser and green-fingered other half and, to my delight, he agreed it would be a fine idea.
An early visit to a nursery taught me that there are grades of root stock which determine the size of the tree. The M27, I have learned, is not just the motorway running from Sussex to Hampshire, it is also the most dwarfing of apple rootstocks and grows to about 2 metres. It might also come as no surprise to learn that the M25, on the other hand, is very vigorous and produces a large tree.
As when driving, I think I'll avoid the M25 for now.