You're beautiful - bulb layering experiment

Bulb layering, April 2012, Lesley Beeton

So, it's back to the garden, again, for my beautiful post this week. I guess I'm really enjoying the garden this year because it was sadly neglected last year when Mom was ill.

I don't quite know how I got myself organised, but somehow I did. I planted two lovely blue glazed terracotta pots with bulb layering. My husband mocked me. He said it would never work, but I knew better. I had watched Alan Titchmarsh and read Gardener's World. Both had explained how it could be done. A (not so) quick trip to the garden centre for bulbs and potting soil, and they were all planted up on a warm afternoon in late October. I left them on the summerhouse deck until January, when the first crocus started showing. Followed by the fragrant narcissus tete-a-tete, the rather grand tulip orange emperor and now the stunning tulip yellow flame. 

These hurriedly planted pots have kept the colour at our front door, throughout the winter. Welcoming visitors with their sunny faces, and drawing admiring glances from neighbours. Bulb layering - you're beautiful. I'm going to do it all again in the autumn.

So, I'm linking up with Jenny at Cheetahs In My Shoes and You're Beautiful. Pop over there to see what Jenny and the Cheetah Keeper have been up to this week. And have a look at the other blogs linked up too.

Early crocus, bulb layering, February 2012

Daffodils, bulb layering, March 2012 

Tulip, close up, bulb layering, April 2012

RIP Sue Carroll

I was saddened to hear of the death of Sue Carroll from pancreatic cancer on Christmas Day. My thoughts and condolences to Sue's family and friends. I feel as though I knew Sue, although only from her newspaper columns and TV appearances. I always found her commentary honest and personal.

Sue Carroll, photo credit

I watched Sue's interview with Alan Titchmarsh in March, and was moved by her courage. Sue's cancer story was very sad. First, she was diagnosed with the same cancer which killed her father. Surgery was not possible due to the location of the tumours near a major artery. The chemotherapy caused her to have a stroke. 

Sue wrote about all of this and spoke openly at that time. She planned to live with her tumours for as long as possible, and as far as I know she continued to write her column and enjoy her friends and family.

Sue didn't so much have a battle with cancer, rather an agreement that she would carry on with her life and the tumours would just be there. Sadly, at some point the tumours broke that agreement and started their relentless march to the end.

Sue Carroll, RIP. You will be missed.

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