A New Start

It's been one heck of a summer - given 2 months to get out back in April, I actually didn't officially leave until August. Four months, four heat-waves, every moment my brother and I could spare digging up plants, potting them up, dismantling the tunnel and the greenhouse (sadly not the shed though, which I really miss), and hoping a new site would become available somehow. 

There were a few false dawns along the way, but just in the nick of time a site in Patching near Littlehampton turned up, along with an extremely generous landlord who uses it for his landscaping business, and had tried a couple of times before to get a nursery going. 

So mum helped out by paying for van hire to take as much as possible to the new site. Lots of people stepped up to help and I'm immensely grateful. I've had to leave some very rare specimens behind, as well as my poor old shed, but it's mostly there now and I've been spending the last month or so keeping everything alive and attempting to make sense of the chaos. 

Needless to say some things have suffered from being moved at the wrong time but it's remarkable how well most have coped - especially a large Chamaemespilus alpinus which barely flinched, and an Aesculus pavia rosea nana which dropped its leaves but has already produced new ones since. Both had major roots severed and are in huge pots. Very few things have completely died so far. One interesting problem is the number of plants that are dormant and unlabelled (Arum, Fritillaria, Cyclamen etc). It's going to be a real lucky dip sorting them out. 

The main job for the immediate future is clearing space for the tunnel and getting that erected in time for the less weather-resistant types to survive the winter, then there'll be a new shed to build, new plantings in the ground for things that don't like being in pots (Paeonia especially) and areas for stock outside. At the same time I want to keep on top of packing and sending orders, and propagating and potting on new stock, plus at the same time still doing people's gardens to earn a crust. It's going to be neither quick nor easy, but I'm optimistic. 

So anyway, I've just added some new things to the catalogue and I'm still taking orders. Thanks for your patience.