Month: July 2012

…..cheer myself up!

The rain is lashing against the window panes, the wind is howling and I have the heat on full blast! Do you think I may somehow, like Rip-van-Winkle, have fallen asleep in summer and woken up again in winter???? !!!

This morning was fine and I had a walk around the garden with the camera as the sun came up. It’s my favourite time in the garden – that and as the sun goes down – everything is so peaceful and the light is so beautiful. I’ve just been looking through some of the pictures that I took.

I think these pictures may be all that will be left of many of the plants by tomorrow morning!

A zany succulent Echeveria with pink wavy edged leaves and peculiar warty growths. The developing warts are pretty gruesome and you’ll be thankful they are out of shot 🙂

To be honest I dont remember how long ago! I bought a packet of dierama seeds from Plant World. It was a mixed packet. I sowed them all in the one pot or maybe 2 as I know I gave a plant to sis. Up till this year they have stayed in the pot and I had only 2 kinds of flower, a short stemed terracotta one which I really liked but didnt dare try to seperate out and a normal long stemmed one in a very pale pink.

HOWEVER,(this is the exciting bit!) because I had done my new patch this year I planted them in the ground just digging a hole and putting the whole thing in, they seem to be happy and have rewarded me with a NEW COLOUR! I’m so excited as I have never seen this one in any other garden! Perhaps I shall patent it and become wealthy selling it to the type of gardener who is always wanting the latest!

Let me down gently, just let me dream, dont tell me it is as common as muck and you have seen it growing everywhere:(

Here are the photos taken in the rain, tread softly because you tread on my dreams……. :D)

Here is a bowl of over 50 cuttings of Buxus sempervirens which I am hoping will provide enough plants for a hedge.

I have taken quite a few cuttings over the last year and have about 30 plants already – some in the soil but most in pots.

I got the idea from a Youtube video on a simple way to take cuttings. The link is

https://mikesbackyardnursery.com/

it shows Mike taking lots of cuttings, dipping them in rooting powder and putting into wet sharp sand in a washing up bowl with holes drilled in the bottom. Then he stuck in some pencils (I used bamboo) as uprights and puts the whole lot in an opaque white plastic rubbish before placing them in a shady place.

Seems like a great way to get lots of plants at once. Fingers crossed they will take.

but these lilies are a pure blast of sunshine 🙂

A neighbour recently commented on my overaul on the front garden, saying it looked really ‘sunny’. I have to admit, he was right. The colours I have used in the planting, together with the colour of the kayak, make it seem sunny even on the darkest of days – like today!!!

But coming back home this evening from Birthday lunch with Dad and family, I was also rewarded by the sedums in the kayak flowering, adding to that very ‘sunny’ feel. Very happy the garden is finally done. And it’s no longer an eyesore.

My Ricinus are tiny compared to last year. 

But ya gotta love the colour of these leaves ;-))

this is my cream or off-white one. If you like I can save seed for you.

So that was July. Good riddance.

I noticed this Canna in flower today. It’s one I grew from seed back in 2010.

Cannas are easy from seed as long as you use a clippers to penetrate their shell. They have the common name of Indian Shot as they are so hard they were used, when bullets ran out, in blunderbusses in the 18th century.

Some Cannas will flower the same year from seed but they certaily won’t reach their full potential in year one. They’re certainly worth trying.

Well to day is according to the Celtic tradition the last day of Summer. June and July were wet months but nevertheless my roses have stood up to all the rain we have had. A few, just a few, were not good but by and large (I don’t like using the term as it is grammatically incorrect, a preposition and an adjective joined by a conjunction) the roses have been and are still great. About June 1 and perhaps a bit earlier Dick was feeling that there was something wrong with the roses but in reality they were just late. As well as that, this is the first year for some time that I didn’t spray them for black spot. Now some like Iceberg, Just Joey, Evelyn Fison and a few more were not affected adversely by same although some were. Thet are bigger than normal. I don’t know why as I am not an authority on roses or any flowers to be candid but that is the position. I do give some attention to them even though there are about 100 of them. Deadheading is almost a daily exercise and a bit of Summer pruning as well. They were pruned early, in January, something I would never consider up to about three years ago, kept free of weeds, which I cannot say about everything in the garden and given a good feeding. They also get some garden compost from time to time. Well Tom Moore gave us “The Last Rose of Summer” According to the length of the days it is the last day of Summer and it does not appear as Summer to day. You only go out when you want to drive into town etc. but it is not the Last Rose of Summer, when you look at these God given roses.  

Today when the rain eased I took some photos. 

Usually the indigofera, which should flower most of the summer looks, well at this time of the year, but now it looks battered as it likes a dry sunny position. 

The passion flower looked very sickly early this year after the harsh winter, but now it is improved.  This image also has Acacia pravissima, which also has recovered well since the winter. 

The oak-leaved hydrangea differs from other hydrangeas and the leaves look well in the autumn.

To tell the truth (and I hope Elizabeth doesn’t throttle me), I was relieved that it’s raining today. I didn’t feel like gardening, my bits are aching from yesterday, yet I really should go out as visitors are expected. So rain is a good excuse for staying in.

I started to firm up on some plans for the back area of the garden. For those who have visited me, it’s the large, uncultivated area at the top of the cliff, beyond the veg beds. I suppose it is about a sixth of my garden.

Anyway, I fancy a circular lawn, surrounded on three sides by deep beds. I will have a 3ft grass path around the back of the beds for access etc.

And the ditch behind that, that separates me from the neighbours, will have Stipa gigantea on it. The tall grass will look great, on a height, behind the back bed! Such a pity so few of the Stipa gigantea I sowed last year, for this project, have germinated 🙁

While all this is manageable by myself, I would also love steps to lead , from the lower garden, to the upper (beside the Buddha & Bamboo). But this would require a digger, at a minimum.

Oh, and the veg beds need redoing – properly – with raised wood beds and gravel paths between. The central gravel path could lead to the circular lawn…

Tried to draw it on paper but it’s too wet to take measurements outside 🙁

Just a note to anybody else who was offended about my comments when i said

” that us Englishmen were scroungers” the remark was in jest, and not a “blanket” coverage of all English people, I made the remark in fun and i was hoping that it would be recieved as such, So i appologise to those who did not see my side of humour, so for my sins i offer a peace offering.

I had a nice relaxing day today and actually got a chance to go out to the garden and take a few photos. And I also managed to make a rhubarb and raspberry crumble 🙂

As for plants with excellent foliage, it is hard to better R yakushimanum, the parent species of all those yak hybrids. It didn’t flower for me this year but looking at the buds it has set already, I reckon it will next year and the flowers are a really lovely white as well. If you come across it, don’t hesitate as it is a wonderful plant.

This is a kiwi plant.

Actually, more correctly, it is a Chinese gooseberry, being hardier than the kiwi.

I bought it in May last year but it is just beginning to ‘get going’ for me.

If I don’t cut it back, I will get fruit. But it will be hard to not cut this vigorous climber back as they get enormous.

I love the furry leaves.

Normally I plant up Bidens as a great yellow trailing plant for hanging baskets for summer.  I chose something different this year and am glad I did. It makes a nice change with its ‘pea-like’ flowers and NO dead-heading required.

I know how Holly was feeling today in the heat of the afternoon sun. The only thing is, if I had managed to get down that far, I might not have been able to get up again. 🙂

I have put up photos of these already, but the range of flowers is endless.

These are two good ones I spotted this morning.

Myrtle gave me a small plant of this plant some months ago.

I planted it in the front corner shortly afterwards. It has trived and I am amazed out the size of the plant now. It seems to love it’s new position

Not flowering yet, but the colour of the new growth is fantastic.

Thanks again Myrtle.

Thought these little wellington sculptures were cute when I saw them in Redruth during our visit to Cornwall last week.  Shows good imagination  🙂

I went for a look at Woodie’s reduced plants, had just decided I didn’t need 10 Petunias for 1 euro when a huge shower started, and by the time it was over I had changed my mind. then yesterday I was about to start finding homes for them when another shower started, but after that i managed to squeeze them in with other things and also found a container with nothing much in it and got them all housed. It turned beautiful afterwards and I actually sat in the sun for about an hour.

Here it is.

I think this is looking well right now clambering over a rhodo

Haven’t had my hands in compost for weeks, even though I have been out of work for what seems like ages. But today I got a lovely little sisyrinchium striata from LadyGardener today, and it sparked off enthusiasm that I haven’t felt in ages. It was very dry so has been soaking in a pot of water all afternoon.

Unfortunately though, I yanked my back again today, so hopefully tomorrow I will get round to potting it up. Thanks a mill, Anne.