Month: August 2010

Picked up this Penstemon on my travels yesterday.  I like the colour and think I will take some cuttings to increase the display next season.

I have been looking at this for a few weeks and today I bit the bullet and bought it. I hope I can manage to over winter it. It has two new shoots at the base so seems to be doing alright at the moment– heres hoping!

5 different chilipepper plants on the go here this year.

‘Lemon Drop’ stands at 3ft tall and is growing somewhat like a Standard. Fruits are only forming now. Maybe too late.

Cayenne ‘Heatwave’  has very spindly growth and the chilis are growing steadily now.

‘Scotch Bonnet’ is a very squat plant (only 1 1/2 feet) but has plenty of growth on it. There are lots of chilis forming now.

‘Elefanten Russell’ is a very vigorous grower with lots of well-formed green chilis. Waiting in anticipation for these.

Very impressed with ‘Hungarian Hot Wax’. It is a moderate-sized plant with huge chilis growing. Yellow at the moment and ripening steadily.

I also have a couple of sweet peppers on the go (seeds taken from supermarket-bought peppers). Growth on these is poor, and a lot of foliage has been eaten by slugs/snails. Still, little peppers forming and lots of them.

Got the Decking coated this evening, looking good.

Always looks great when coated first. Well protected now for whatever the Winter throws at it

Ok, I know this is not the longest fence in the country, it just feels that way.

The lower part of the garden needed to be tidied up for some time and recently we had this fence put up.  There had been a mixture of ash, shrubs well past their best and out of control and no amount of cutting was going to improve the situation.

So the fence was put up and then the daunting task of painting it had to be undertaken. So I finally finished it –all 17 panels each 6ft wide and 5ft high and I think it looks pretty good.

Now all I have to do is the inside– which I have started but decided to paint it green so it blends in better with the plants.

The good thing is that it gives more room inside for planting and the bank on the lane can now also be planted.  Happy Days!!!

Martin as requested………………………

Yes it is pup in the rain looking at the river Thames in Oxford, and wondering how it became so big since its source as he had only a little piddle to get it going.

this shrub looked completely dead after the frost i dug up the complete plant with a lot of extra soil as it was in the front of the shrub bed an planted it in the middle it has come back to life. last year this plant was completely covered in small blue flowers only a few this year. also a Hebe that was completely dead i cut back to ground level i see new shoots starting same with a bay tree and new shoots from cordylines are about a foot high

Earlier this year we took out a huge Fushsia that was dead, or so we thought until it was almost all dug up and we found a tiny green leaf. I dont think it would ever have recovered but it was a beautiful shrub and I was sad to see it go. So I stuck back down a piece of root.

Lo and behold it is back again and in flower. Happy days!!!!

And what a day!!!! Easily know it was back to school day!!!

I planted 60 Acidanthera both in pots and all around the garden. Got plenty of leaves but then nothing. I had almost given up on them but in one of the pots I got flowerheads forming – not a sign of a flower on all 57 others.

Started opening today – So pretty!!

Sorry but it is not as good as my moon shot. Just went out into the moonlit garden and took this without a tripod.

This shot of Jupiter is better I think

Bought 3 Dahlia Vancouver in Lidl and planted them out on the corner of the east gable bed initally started in pots , it has flowered non stop since the end of July with some of the flower heads the size of a side plate, fabulous colour and so many flower heads. Will definitely buy more for next year and plant into pots so as they can be positioned into spaces that are looking a bit bare. Cut down the lupins in the terrace bed as the foilage had become really tatty and the flower spires were definitely past their best. There is now a gap that needs something to fill it although I discovered a flower stem on my oriental poppy Royal Bride with 2 buds on it – nice surprise will have to wait now to see do more blooms open.Spent the whole afternoon in the garden weeding and deadheading sitting on the stones in the south bed surrounded by flowers, listening to the ducks, puppies playing and Connie as my companion I wouldn’t want to be any other place.

Thanks for the positive comments on my planting but this Achellia Gold Plate has to move as it is just in the wrong place think it will be moved to the East bed and perhaps the cream Achellia in this bed will be moved into the south bed a little further back so as it doesn’t overshadow other plants although it is not as tall. Spider I definitely don’t have too much time on my hands but this plant just overpowers other plants in the bed.

This afternoon the budlehia, poppies and wallflowers in the north west bed were just covered in butterflies, there seemed to be very few about until the last week or so.

This is how my dahlia border looks yesterday. Well, it’s MOSTLY dahlias. In it too are roses ‘Tequila Sunrise’ which has made a comeback, and red Geums which keeps on coming back no matter how much I cut them.

Beside my arbour is a huge pot. This is what I have my sweet pea growing in and the scent in that area is just to die for. However, I also have my Solanum loxum ‘Alba’ in the same pot. I have been waiting and waiting for this to flower this year. It didn’t disappoint me yesterday. Flowers are just beginning to show themselves. It can only get better.

Some more of the Potatoes [Solanum tuberosum] have been harvested from the bottom area of the vegetable garden.They were lifted from row one,area five.I was happy with the outcome from a few of the tubs.Between Roosters and some more Queens,so far so good.Not to much setbacks there apart from just an odd chancy slug.No pest control has been used.That area was made up of home made compost,a little herb feed and checked on for watering and weeding.The remainder of that row will have to be lifted as soon as possible,because even more slugs wait in the wings getting ready for attack.Slight touches of blight effected the stems,but were removed before damage to the tubers.When the tubs along that area will be empty of vegegatble i will cover them up and let the underground friends go to work on the layer of compost added.

I called to my friends house at the weekend for a brief visit and threw my eye on some old cardboard heading for the bin.Along with that were 4 black supports from the same box.I got them,and they will be used from now on as slug traps.They will be filled up late in the evening.Another good thing about them is because they also have a slight lip on them this leaves it even handier again when they are buried.I was happy with the plastic haul.Can be cleaned easy,long lasting,and will catch plenty of the trouble makers for me.

Had a quick look around the garden to draw up a plan for return there later this evening and going by the exit gate i spotted this little rose.Still in the pot with only just the flowers in the picture present.Later in the year i will move them up to the rose bed where they belong.

A nice bright day we have with plenty of sunshine.Badly needed,to bring out the colour and splender of gardening.

I have this Sago Palm about 7 years now and about 4 years ago it got very badly burnt in a hot conservatory over a June bank holiday weekend, was very upset to lose it so cut off all the palms, watered it and low and behold it grew back.  I have had no new palms since and again it was a bit sad looking and I was getting fed up looking at it!  In May I took the plunge and cut off all the palms, watered it, fed it and put it on the landing.

Went away in July, came back still nothing, a few weeks later I noticed a glimmer of hope –

Look at photo album to see progression since!  I repotted it also.

 

 

 

 

Seen these beautiful Eucomis in the Zoo last Saturday…. had to take a snap…. they looked realy well planted en-mass and basking in the sun the was shining on the African Plains…………J

Have been busy clearing and cleaning and moving plants getting ready for winter, the greenhouse is nearly empty only some peppers left and then I will give it a good scrub and start thinking what to grow for next year. I have a lot of seeds but will pick out only a few this year and only a few seeds of each, grass cut and edges trimmed OMG if my garden was big I would not be able for all of it bless you all that have big gardens how do you do it I know a labour of love .

I am going to look for new ferns and grasses for next year as I love both, it is a bit windy so the hedges can wait until it dies down.

Back out to enjoy what I have and maybe read up on some grasses.

 

 Just wondered if anyone knows where I can get a decent greenhouse.  Ideally a firm that erects them too.  We don’t really have anywhere locally, so I’m on the hunt around the country.  Don’t want a huge one…perhaps 10 feet long max.

   

I did a little survey in the garden today, assessing what needs to be moved, discarded, replaced etc. The following notes are mostly for my own reference.

1) Thinking of discarding the bamboo in the picture. Its culms are quite thin and unassuming, despite my Chelsea defoliation treatment, and I am very wary of bamboos, having seen how they have taken over areas in Glanleam Gardens.

2) The Rosa rugosa hedge to one side of the stone circle bed is definitely going. Thinking of replacing it with a row of Paulownia tomentosa.

3) The Golden Rod, Solidago, is all going. It looks too much like a weed and its scent is not enough to save it. Thinking of replacing it with the Telekia speciosa I got in June Blake’s. That area is quite weed prone so I need something vigorous there.

4) Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ is coming out of the West Garden and going right down the front to the entrance. I’m thinking of a row of Zantedescia in that ‘white bed’ where it came from in the West Garden.

5) Aretemsia needs moving from the ‘white bed’. It is squashed. Seeing how scrappy it looks at this time of year, I am now doubting that I will put it to replace the geranium by the pond.

6) Stray Day Lily in the Buxus circle needs moving before the Crocosmia monoculture in there chokes it.

7) Heliopsis in the Long Border needs to be moved to the back. Same for the Lychnis coronaria. There is space at the back. Thinking of putting Maureen’s red peonies in the spaces that I vacate.

8) Need to rescue the sedum squashed under Sambucus ‘Thundercloud’ in the long border.

9) In spring I need to cut and remove runners from the nice bamboo on Babies Hill.