garden project

Six on Saturday 7th January 2023

greengirlgardener9 Comments

Well this is novel! I haven’t posted anything on my blog since the end of August! I’d forgotten how to compress my photos and how to connect my keyboard to my iPad. I kind of fell out of love with blogging and that combined with much less time due to general life duties and the end of summer and, hence, lack of prettiness in the garden meant I just haven’t posted for ages. I’m not sure if I’m, in the words of Take That, back for good, but I’m here for now, and we’ll see if I rediscover my blogging enthusiasm.

I think what has drawn me to write, is that I saw from the kitchen window that my newest hellebore has flowers and it prompted me to venture into the garden to check the damage done by the recent cold snap (not as extensive as I’d feared) and I was inspired by the signs of life, and, dare I say it, spring coming!

Hellebores will be my first point.

I should know what variety these are, but alas, I don’t! I think the white one is Christmas but the other two, nope, no idea! The pinky-white one is the newest and it’s the first time I’ve seen it flower – isn’t it pretty? The middle one hasn’t opened it’s pretty flowers yet, but once it does, it flowers for ages, well into summer.

Next up are these erysimum in a pot.

I got these in the sale at some point last summer. There were only five in the carton instead of six, hence the sale price, but the five that were left were perfectly fine so I snapped them up. They look quite happy in this pot. I’m looking forward to seeing what colour flowers they produce.

I couldn’t resist including a photo of my unidentified success. Those who’ve followed me for a while (if you’re still there after such an extended absence!) will know that this cost me pennies a couple of years ago and it had no label, and that it’s gone from strength to strength. I’d have been really upset if the cold had killed it, but it (unlike its owner) is obviously quite happy with arctic conditions. As it’s unidentified, maybe I should give it a name – Elsa seems apt (Frozen, anyone?)

My final three points are full of hope and new beginnings. First up my pink damask is pushing through new shoots. Before I know it, she’ll be a couple of feet tall and threatening to burst forth with her dusky blooms.

In front of Ms. Damask under the watchful eye of Monsieur Red Breast are, joy of joys, the beginnings of daffs! Daffs mean spring, and spring means warmth, light and holidays are just around the corner – what’s not to love?

Finally, lots of miniature sedum cabbages! Aren’t they cute?

I’m so glad nature’s done its thing completely unaided by yours truly. It’s just been too cold to go out there for so long, and now it’s too wet to do anything! There’s a mouldy pepper plant in the green house, a collapsed honeysuckle trellis, a couple of coprosmas that may or may not be dead (I hope not, but it doesn’t look hopeful) and the weeds and sopping wet debris are everywhere, but after pottering around out there today, I’m confident that if the rain ever stops, I’ll be able to get things back in order.

That’s all for now – enjoy the rest of the weekend folks!

Six on Saturday 11th June

greengirlgardener6 Comments

I’m away this weekend on a girls mini break so I’m being organised and drafting this post in advance so I can just press send on Saturday when I’ll be mostly hot tubbing, afternoon teaing and Prosecco/Pimmsing! I decided I had to do a post this week because there’s a riot of colour and gorgeousness occurring outside our back door and it really needs sharing.

I’m amazed by how much pink there is, and I’ve even added to the existing pink. I really don’t like pink (especially baby pink) anywhere but in plant form, but four of my six points this week are resplendent in pink.

First is one of my new purchases. Have you ever seen more beautiful leaves anywhere in your life? I haven’t. This gorgeous coleus came from a garden centre in Liphook last weekend when I went to visit my mum. It was just impossible for it not to come home with me. It’s in a pot on our bistro which I can see from my home office, and it’s next to ….

…. my second point, and second pink purchase from Liphook. I have to have a dahlia every summer, and just look at this beauty. Shocking pink and shockingly gorgeous!

Taking a break from the pink with a more sedate yellow is this rose. It’s rose Sweet Memories and it’s in one of granny’s pots. No doubt I’ll share it again once it’s fully open, but there is something special about the anticipation of a closed rose so I wanted to share it now.

Another new purchase, but this one from closer to home when we took a trip over to Notcutts. I had a voucher for fifty percent off any plant over £30 which I used to buy a magnolia (still in its pot – not sure where to put it!) and I couldn’t resist this coprosma. Very autumnal colours and completely up my alley! Need to find somewhere for this too.

Back to the pink, and it’s a fuchsia. This is the oldest fuchsia that I have, and it’s the most reliable! I’ve got some fancy pants plant food from QVC and I think I’ll try it out on this fuchsia and see if she benefits. Fuchsias always make me think of my grandad and bring a smile to my face.

Finally, and sticking with the pink, our peonies are flowering. Baby pink, I know, but they’re so flouncy with it that I don’t mind the colour. They remind me of those ruffled over pants that people used to put over babies nappies in the 70s. They’d been threatening to burst into bloom for more than a week and then they chose the day before the heavens opened in biblical fashion, to show their wares, and then promptly collapsed under the weight of the rain! I’ve propped them up as best I can and reminded myself that I should listen to Monty Don when he tells us to support plants before they need it, not after!

Right then. I need to go and pack some clothes for this weekend and, importantly, check that I’ve got the Prosecco and Pimms ready. Hopefully I’ll have time in between hot tubbing and scoffing scones to have a peruse of other Sixes over at the Propagator’s blog. Have a great weekend all.

Six on Saturday – 30th April

greengirlgardener7 Comments

I’m typing whilst sitting on my new egg swing chair (must feature it one week, perhaps when there’s a dearth of prettiness left to feature) and I’m being entertained by music from next door’s youngest’s fourth birthday party. There’s a bouncy castle for the little ones but the parents are enjoying an 80s playlist which suits me down to the ground. That’s my era!

This is the closest I’m going to get to gardening beyond a bit of watering this weekend. We’ve just got back from a lovely week in Lanzarote, during which I managed to go flying off an e-scooter landing (heavily) mainly on my palms and left knee so kneeling is out for a while and dirt in grazed palms I’m guessing wouldn’t be a good idea. We stayed in a lovely hotel which, informatively, named a lot of the plants in its grounds.

I presume most people would know even without the label that this is a geranium (or maybe not?) but there were lots of succulents and other plants and shrubs which I was interested to identify. I thought it was a nice touch.

I’d sowed some seeds in the greenhouse before we went and gave them a good soaking on our morning of departure hoping they’d make it through the week.

I checked yesterday and the cosmos in the little terracotta pots had sprouted but nothing else. I gave everything a good watering and left it up to the lap of the gods. This morning I checked and a few nigella have appeared and one petit pois. I really hope I get some more petit pois. I may sow a few more when my hands are healed.

It seems the garden didn’t mind us being away because it’s got on with the business of the season admirably on its own. A couple of the pots were looking a bit sorry for themselves, but a swift watering and they’ve survived. The rhododendron was looking like it was about to explode with colour before we left and I was worried that we’d miss it completely …

… but it waited for us. A couple of the flowers are out but most are still getting ready. Such a beautiful bloom, this one. I’m so glad I rescued it from the sale table when garden centres reopened in the first relaxation of covid measures.

This Welsh poppy self seeded itself this year in one of my pots and before we left it had lots of foliage but no buds. Yesterday I noticed a bud, and this morning it had opened!

Similarly, my clematis Montana had some leaves but no buds just over a week ago, but now she has lots of flowers. More than ever before, in fact. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that she didn’t flower at all for a couple of years, then I got one or two flowers a year, but now there are quite a few. Lovely delicate linen coloured petals.

I’ll finish with geum Totally Tangerine. I thought I may have lost it this year, because an awful lot of the leaves were dead when I did some weeding and maintenance recently, but it’s just about hung on in there and now it has a flower. It’s definitely somewhat depleted from previous years, but let’s hope it picks up and gains strength through the summer.

That’s your lot for this week. It’s got to that time of year where I have to prioritise what to feature, rather than scrub around trying to find anything of interest. I imagine others are the same, so I’ll pop over to the Propagator to see what others have prioritised. I hope everyone has a great bank holiday weekend.