Weekend in London

View from the balcony - a grey day

Surviving geraniums before getting a haircut.

This is the first time we've been to London since we arrived back from College Station.  I'm pleased to be here.  I love the flat and the London views from the windows.  I don't love the dust so much!  It's inevtitable in the centre of London, but it's quite a task keeping up with the house work when you're only around for a weekend and have better things to do.

However, I have been 'gardening' if I can use the term for tending the window boxes along the balcony.  All but three of the 15 boxes are filled with geraniums which I raised from seed and are now into their third year.  Poor blighters.  They survive on so little water.  You'd think that there's enough rain in London to keep them watered but the cunning design of the Barbican balconies means that almost no rain falls on them.  They've been sadly neglected but, amazingly, are still flowering.  I've spent a good couple of hours watering, spreading dried chicken manure and cutting back.   It seems dreadful to cut off the flowers but the plants are getting so leggy that it's the only way to promote some new growth.   So, over to you geraniums, I've done what I can today!

Not much in the way of herbs!

The herb boxes have fared worst of all.  Just the rosemary is alive and perhaps one little sprig of thyme will make it.  I think I'm going to have to give up on fresh herbs.