Green Girl Gardener

I’ve been having a technical issue with my blog – I ran out of space and couldn’t upload any photos. WordPress suggested I resize my photos (don’t have the technical know-how to do that) or (unsurprisingly) pay to upgrade my platform to get more space! Anyhow, I considered calling it a day, but I’ve decided instead, to delete a load of photos which unfortunately means that they’ll delete from the posts that they were in, but at least it means I can continue to write. I don’t have a massive following, but this forum allows me to keep in touch with some family members and friends in a more ‘longhand’ way than is afforded by texts/whatsapp and, in a non big-headed way, I know that a few select people do get pleasure out of seeing what I have to say. I’ve also learnt lots of useful information from fellow bloggers who’ve helped me out with various gardening conundrums, so I’m staying put!

Anyway, on to my Six. I popped out into the garden in my dressing gown this morning to take some pics, so these are bang up to date!

Number one is from my front border and is my new Erysimum.

I bought this from Homebase when it first reopened because my original Erysimum is one of my favourites so I thought I’d add to my collection. As you can see, it’s doing well and quite a few flowers have sprung up. They’re all one colour, unlike the other one which has a couple of colours per stalk.

Moving on to the side border for numbers two, three and four. This border is my most tricky area because it’s completely in the shade due to next door’s trees, and also very very dry due to those trees.

This Asiatic Lily doesn’t seem to mind the conditions, although this flower that’s emerged seems to be the only one I’m going to get, whereas last year I had three. I love the colour, and luckily the Lily beetles seem to leave this one alone. Maybe they don’t like shade?

Number three is my Hebe Purple Pixie. It was my first sale table purchase and it also seems not to mind the adverse conditions. You can see the first sign of its purple flower is just starting to emerge.

Number four is a new addition to the side border having previously been further down the garden. It was becoming overshadowed by the St John’s Wort next to it – you can see it’s sent up new shoots at the front but hasn’t really grown at the back where it had no space – so I moved it. Probably not the right time of year to move it, but needs must. Hopefully it’ll cope ok. Despite being in the driest part of the garden, it’s certainly been well watered in over these past few days with all the rain we’ve had!

My final two points are from the greenhouse. First up is my Bell Pepper plant. I bought this as a young plant following my disastrous attempts at growing Chilli plants from seed last year. It’s now at least five times the size it was when I bought it, and is covered in flowers. This morning I noticed it has the beginnings of what look suspiciously like Bell Peppers! How very exciting!

Finally, my tomato plants. I didn’t sow these until halfway through April because I wasn’t planning to grow tomatoes this year (I’m not really keen on them) but then I ate some in a Gousto recipe and actually enjoyed them, so I changed my mind, and my ex-boss kindly sent me some seeds.

They took ages to germinate – at least two weeks, if not three. I repotted them last week (previously they were growing mostly in loo rolls!) because they weren’t growing very quickly and I thought maybe they didn’t have enough room, but with the exception of the one in the pot at the back and the one back right of the tray, they’re still not growing very well. Maybe I left it too late to sow them. Monty Don has tomatoes on his plants already, whereas I barely have leaves! I’ll persevere – you never know!

So there’s my Six for this week. Don’t forget to check the Propagator for more Sixes. Meanwhile, I’m off to prepare for visitors! In the garden, you understand, in a socially distanced manner. First time hubby will have seen his folks and brother since before lockdown.