Gardening

Six on Saturday 17th July

greengirlgardener5 Comments

I have organised myself early this week to join in with the Propagator’s Six on Saturday. It’s actually Thursday as I’m writing this and I’ve just been inspired by a stroll around the garden.

My poor tomato plants were in a little bit of a sorry state from lack of water, but I don’t think they’re beyond redemption. Time will tell. (Edit to add: they’re fine!) I’m finding, that even though I’m at home all day (still working from home) I forget to go out into the garden to do my watering. When I was in the office it used to be a regular routine that I’d go straight out there when I got home to check what was going on. Must try harder.

So, on to this week’s Six. First up is my first sweetpea of the year – a lovely white number tinged with purple. I’m not sure what’s gone wrong this year, but they’re very slow to get going. On my Timehop today there is a photo from two years ago of an arrangement I’d made with loads of sweetpeas. I planted them in a different place this year that gets more sun, which I thought they’d bask in. I’m still hopeful of being able to make a pretty posy this year too.

My second point has surprised me. It’s a dahlia that I found on a sale table a few weeks ago, but it’s not the flouncy, show off kind of dahlia that I normally gravitate towards. If I’m completely honest, I only got it because it was reduced, but look how amazingly pretty it is.

The photo definitely doesn’t do it justice. I’ve deadheaded it today so hopefully I’ll get another couple of flowers by the time I actually publish this. It’s in a pot on our patio table and I see it every morning as I stumble into my home office at eight twenty nine and fifty nine seconds! Lesson learnt: understated beauty can be just as pleasing as the obvious flouncy kind.

However, I couldn’t resist the buy me, buy me and jumping up and down of the flouncy one so this one came home with me too. This is so cheerful with its sunshine petals. It practically glows when the sun shines on it.

Next up is my wheelbarrow. I’ve put apricot begonias in it again, but also had to supplement it with marigolds because Thomson and Morgan let me down and several of the begonias I ordered from them didn’t survive the post. I think you’ll agree though, the ones that did survive are making up for the loss. I just love them. I never seem to be able to find this colour in garden centres.

My hydrangea is finally getting going too. I love the flowers when they’re at this in between stage. They’re like floral rhubarb.

Finally, my buddleia has sprung to life this week. I’ll be on butterfly watch from now on. This purple colour is one of my favourites and when it appears in nature it’s just stunning.

Chris Packham was on the One Show this week talking about butterflies. They’re in decline due to climate change and we’re being asked to count butterflies to try to get an idea of the extent of the decline.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. It was 24° in my car this morning before 9am when I dropped hubby at work so I’m feeling that it may be too hot for any gardening (or much else for that matter) to get done, other than some necessary watering.

Six on Saturday 19th June

greengirlgardener4 Comments

My offering is late this Saturday because I’ve spent all day in the garden, mainly focused on one particular project and finishing off with a little bit of general gardenkeeping (is that a word? Housekeeping is, so why not gardenkeeping?)

Anyway, this week I’m mainly talking about my new planter which I have bought in an attempt to fill the problem space alongside our lawn and underneath part of next door’s jungle which gets no sun (literally none) and is zapped of all goodness and moisture due to the aforementioned jungle. I figure a planter will be easier to maintain since I can control the soil and the watering much easier. That’s the idea anyway. Who knows if it’ll work. Here’s hoping because the planter was flipping expensive and backbreaking to put together (although I am suffering with my back at the moment, so it may not be so bad for a healthy backed person!) and I had to put A LOT of compost in it!!

Here is it with hubby valiantly brandishing the screwdriver as if he did the whole lot!!!! To be fair, he was at work when I put the majority of it together and I’m too impatient to wait for help unless absolutely necessary. Each of those half moons of timber was separate and had to be joined, and they didn’t have pre-drilled holes! I just needed help to put the panels together once I’d constructed them because it was pretty unwieldy because of the size.

I decided to fill some of the bottom with various paraphernalia to use up some space because I’d calculated that it would hold 1000 litres of compost. It was quite good actually to get rid of some of the rubbish lying around the garden and put it to good use (and save me some money!) As it turns out, either my calculations were wrong, or the dimensions given were wrong, but it actually took 1350 litres of compost, even with the detritus in the bottom, which involved two trips to Homebase. Luckily hubby wasn’t working this morning so I didn’t have to carry it all from the car to the garden because that really wouldn’t have done my back any good! It’s already complaining about the amount of lifting and digging that I did actually do.

Eventually, after that second trip to Homebase, I managed to get it filled and, what do you know, it stayed together and I think it looks pretty good, even before the plants were added.

In the lefthand side of the planter we have, back left, my very first sale table plant that I’ll be really upset at if it doesn’t tolerate being moved, my hebe Purple Pixie. It’s one of the few plants that actually has managed to compete successfully with the jungle. In front of that, the pinky thing, is a weed I think, but it’s a pretty weed so I kept it and in front of that is a hosta which is a shade-lover anyway so has managed to stay alive there for a couple of years. Next to the hosta is a sedum which self-seeded itself elsewhere in the garden. Also a shady lady so should be fine there. Behind that is my fuchsia Delta Sarah which also prefers some shade. It’s a couple of years old now and has come back to life this year. I pruned it quite significantly back to the regrowth so hopefully it won’t object to the upheaval. Behind Sarah is a new plant that I picked up a couple of weeks ago at Dobbies. It’s a nepeta and it should be ok with shade as long as I keep it topped up with water until it establishes. Nestled next to the nepeta is an Asiatic lily. I really don’t know how that will take to the movement, but I thought I’d try it – you never know. In front of that I added some white begonias because they’re pretty tolerant of anything that you do to them and they brighten up a darker spot.

Moving to the back right of the other end of the planter we have acer Butterfly. This is also new so I’ll make sure it gets everything it needs to thrive. In front of the acer is my coprosma. This is the third time the poor thing’s been moved because it wasn’t doing well in it’s first two spots. I talked nicely to it and promised never to move it again if it can do its best to settle in well here. Next door to the coprosma is a plant that my in-laws bought for me and I can’t remember what it is! Having just consulted google, I think it may be a Japanese laurel. Back and left from there is another new plant. I ordered this one from Thomson and Morgan in February and it only turned up a couple of weeks ago! It’s a sarcococca which I got because my aunt told me that they smell amazing and should be ok with shade. Immediately in front of that is fuchsia Snowcap. This is one of the six that I ordered from QVC which got turned upside down by Hermes and arrived in a bit of a sorry state! I’ve been tending to them carefully ever since and I think I’ve managed to save them all (although one is still a bit touch and go – it’s in one of Granny’s pots for good luck). Goodness knows where the other four are going to go, but I really should decide before they get pot bound! At the very front is another sale table find and I can’t (even with the help of google) remember what it is. It has a really odd flower that looks like some kind of alien, however it didn’t look very happy before I moved it so I’m not expecting it to survive, but, again, you never know! I’ve left a bit of space at the front because I’d like a couple of heucheras there but I don’t own said heucheras yet and I think I’d better wait till pay day to make any more purchases!!

I’m really pleased with the way it’s turned out and it looks so much better than the mostly empty space before did. I’ll have to keep on top of the maintenance because most of the jungle is made up of fir trees which like to drop their needles in abundance. This is good sometimes because I think it does help to keep moisture in, but it’s not good when it covers the poor plants just trying to survive underneath. I hope I haven’t planted things too close together – I’ll just have to see how they get on as they (hopefully) get bigger.

I’m going to finish up with another raised bed that I’ve been tending today and over the last couple of weeks.

I’d already planted out the marigolds, sweetpeas and runner beans and they seem to be doing ok despite being trampled on by any number of neighbourhood cats, foxes, squirrels and magpies! The runner beans and sweetpeas are all starting to wind their way up the wigwams and all the marigolds have buds waiting to spring forth with orangy gorgeousness. Today I added four sunflowers (short ones) that have been growing in the greenhouse. They got attacked by slugs so were somewhat put back in their growth but I’m hopeful that they’ll survive. I also planted out my second batch of cosmos after the first lot also fell foul of the slimy critters. You can’t really see them, but they’re in the middle. I don’t normally stake cosmos, but they were all looking a little droopy so I decided to give them a little helping hand, especially as we’re expecting rain again tomorrow which might batter tiny plantlets (I’ve made that up, but they’re more than seedlings, but not quite plants yet).

All in all it’s been a most satisfying (if expensive) day of gardening and I’m feeling happily accomplished. I’m off to check out some of the other Sixes now that I’ll be able to find on the Propagator’s blog – why not join me? Enjoy the rest of the weekend – happy gardening!

Six on Saturday 5th June

greengirlgardener1 Comment

This week’s Six comes courtesy of RHS Wisley. I was finally able to go and stay with my mum last weekend now that lockdown restrictions allow overnight stays outside of your household, so last Friday I trundled down to Hampshire with much excitement. O

On the Saturday, I’d requested a trip to Wisley, having never been before, and there we also met my aunt, uncle and cousins and their families. A very special day being the first time I’d seen them all in a very long time, and, in fact, in the case of my oldest cousin’s baby and youngest cousin’s partner, the first time I’d met them at all! We were really lucky that the weather behaved and was glorious all day.

Before the troops arrived, mum and I wandered around the tree section of the gardens. It was nice to see some more unusual trees, and it’s from here that my first point comes.

I completely forgot to take a photo of the label so I can’t tell you exactly what this is, but it’s some sort of pine. If you would care to zoom in on the photo, you’ll see that it looks like it’s made of hundreds of palm trees.

The next thing to catch my eye as we strolled round the pond, was this rhododendron.

It’s hard to see without much for perspective in the photo, but it was huge! At least ten feet tall I would guesstimate. Such a cheerful pop of colour as you exited the predominantly green tree section.

As we continued, we came across the shady garden and we wandered around looking for ideas for the dry and shady part of my garden. There must’ve been some sunny areas because I snapped a pic of this beautiful peony.

We have peonies in our front garden which gets direct sunshine for a good proportion of the day, however ours are herbaceous peonies and this was a tree peony. Ours are late this year because of the cold April and May but they’re about the burst open any. minute. now! I think tree peonies can cope with less sun than herbaceous, but not the complete absence of sun that our shady patch receives.

The next two pictures are from the glasshouse. Phew, it was hot in there. Perfect for the exotic, tropical plants that reside under its glass roof, but not so good for us humans, especially not when you still have to wear a mask inside! Still, it was worth it to see the unusual plants from far flung lands.

The first is a succulent called Setosa Minor.

A relatively standard, non descript succulent looking at its leaves, but just look at the gorgeous flaming flowers. Stunning!

Next up is plumeria Pele Firestorm that was always going to catch my eye given my propensity for grasses and grass-like plants.

Just beautiful. I’d love one of these in my garden but it likes it hot hot hot which here, unfortunately, it isn’t! I can’t even have one indoors, because it would inevitably suffer from feline chewage!

Finally we strolled out of the glasshouse, via the ice cream van, and took in the rest of the gardens. My final point is this lovely fluffy specimen.

This is Pulsatilla Vulgaris. A most unfortunate name, although, apparently vulgaris means common and not, as it sounds, vulgar. It has purple flowers, but I think these seed heads (I assume that’s what they are) are just delightful.

So there you have it, a round up of my day at Wisley. I could’ve taken millions of photos, but I preferred to just soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the plants without looking at them through a screen. With that in mind, I shall finish here and step away from the screen for now. All that remains, is point you, as ever, in the direction of the Propagator, and wish you a very pleasant weekend.