Month: September 2015
I always thought that the big blowsy Gadioli were too brash for me but as with everything my tastes are constantly changing so I am enjoying seeing them open up at this time of the year when a lot of things are going over.
i have been so busy tis last month, ther was very little time to either take pictures or upload them, and the when i do, poor Moya is still upside down.
In the spring I purchased a Hydrangea Paniculata ‘Vanilla Fraise’ but it was a very small specimen. during the summer (ok – what summer?) it nearly expired a couple of times but regular watering a a few doses of Miracle Gro brought it through. I’m used to Hydrangeas taking their time to flower in my garden – some took as long as 3 years to produce anything so I was totally amazed to see these buds just appearing on Vanilla Fraise – now whether they will actually open is still in the lap of the gods.
I drooled over them in the Bay Garden a few weeks back …. so comparing the photos i think you’ll agree that Gardeners are definitely Optimists !!!!
P.S Had terrible trouble loading the second photo – seems the title was too long!
I ‘m sure lots of you do the same. If something gets broken by wind or rain, or if I cut something by mistake when dead-heading, I stick them in water and hope for the best. First photo is Coreopsis that got beaten down by bad weather, and I cut off top parts and am delighted to see that the buds open in water. A few bits of Buddleia with it, rescued as they were about to go through the shredder. The other is a stem of Joe Pye Weed, (Eupatorium), that I cut thinking it was part of the Buddleia, and a bit of Verbena bonariensis that broke.
… how about the roadside flora?
Just back from a relaxing family break in the West, where we were blessed with fine weather to enjoy the beautiful countryside. Maybe it was the time of year we chose but the montbretia, fuchsia and other wildflowers seemed more in profusion than I remembered from previous visits and certainly brightened our journeys.
The views were lovely too!
Oh bother, have tried twice to rotate the first photo but it’s still upside down.
I got an exciting delivery of 11 plants from Mt. Venus that my lovely sister picked up for me. I got the sale prices too so was delighted. I won’t do the list here but will mention them as I get them planted.
This evening after work I got out and planted two of them and two roses that have been waiting around for a while.
The roses were Reine de Violettes and Rhapsody in Blue. I am hoping to train them as climbers and have put them at the top of the pergola.
The plants were Astilbe purpurlanze and Persicaria amplexicaulis Dikke Floske – both tall at 4 foot and both have gone into the shady border.
Can’t wait to see them grow.
In the Tropical area since it was first planted up. You don’t really notice the changes till you look back at photos like this.
Some Art Students were being creative in the Botanic Gardens yesterday.
Got this variegated Honeysuckle years ago from Biddy. It has only flowered once before. But it was the variegated foliage that drew me to it.
This year I finally planted it out. It has really taken off since then. But now I’m losing the variegated foliage. But it makes a nice change having a white-flowering Honeysuckle.
Thanks again, Biddy.
Super flowers on this one, hoping to get some cuttings tomorrow as I have a feeling it won’t get a chance to set seed.
Reversing in my driveway today after shopping I spotted something which had self-seeded in at the base of our wall dividing us from the neighbour. On closer inspection I discovered it to be a lovely red Nicotiana. Haven’t had Nicotiana here for about 5 years or more. So I was hoping to let it go to seed and grow next year. Sometimes it pays NOT to weed regularly.
My grandson visited for his weekly sleepover earlier. He usually picks flowers in my front garden and duly presents them to me, nice and fresh.
Guess what he pulled today? LOL
Five car trailer loads of old shrubbery removed . Iam beginning to get the picture . Day three will be adding hone compost and leaf mulch as this soil is tired . Keeping away from a garden center is my objective for at least another week …
I have been mulling over changing my Acid Quadrant completely since the completion of the last pond this summer. Have a few nice acid-loving plants ie Rhododendron, Myrtus, Loropetalum, Pieris, Lophomyrtus, etc. which will now go into a bed of their own at the right hand wall of the garden where I have a couple of roses.
Steve will be making a raised bed to accommodate my seven blueberry bushes. This will be located at the back end of the greenhouse, but extending beyond the width by about one or two feet each end, giving me roughly 8ft or more. Himself and David broke through lots of concrete today with a kango hammer. The big chunks of concrete will be used as hardcore at the bottom, when the bed has been constructed. The cement was originally laid to have a long hutch for my daughters bunny standing over it, and making the job of cleaning it out much easier. Rabbit long gone, and daughter has now moved out too. And so the garden evolves……
That leaves plans for the existing Acid Quadrant to be changed too. 🙂
I’m sure at this stage that David is coming to the end of his Apprenticeship with powertools. Such a quick learner. But still full of divilment! Gotta be watched like a hawk or he’d probably dig up my entire path down the garden. 🙂
I treated myself to a course morning in Helen Dillon’s this morning, and what a perfect Autumn day for doing such a thing.
Just as with the couse I did recently at Terra Nova, no ‘bolt lighting’ things learnt, but lots of simple tips, and discussion on what is looking well in the garden just now. No end of advice, and you could ask as many questions as you liked. By listening to other questions and the answers to them you picked up non stop information.
Needless to say, we all came away with cuttings and they are already potted up.
I’ll post an album shortly.
This is an ideal Malus to grow in a pot. The tree itself doesn’t get huge, and the apples are no smaller than your average Golden Delicious apple. Another week or so and they’ll be ready for picking.
I was finishing off the main herbaceous border when I realised that the Hostas were taking from the overall “tidy” effect so I rememberes Rachels fantastic video on how to have slug-free Hostas so I thought I’d give it a go!
It took a bit longer than I thought – about an hour and a half in total – but I’m really pleased with the result!
I have some garlic granules that are designed to be absorbed into the plants to make them less attractive to slugs – they are dug into the soil and the plants absorb them through their roots. As well as digging them in around the plants I’m going to try dissolving some in a watering can and giving the plants a good soak! They won’t smell great but if it keeps the slugs away it will be worthwhile!
Next spring I’ll do the coffee grains as this worked well for me in the past.
Spotted the sun shining through the leaves of B. Red Undies yesterday, looked good 😉
I started to take some plants out of one of the ‘Bend’ borders yesterday morning, and before I knew it, everything was out. Even in this small border I have discovered I made some serious bad mistakes with some of the plant choices. My over planting days are behind me, and more time will be put into keeping certain plants in check on a more regular basis.
The next step will be to add compost and some more bags of leaf mould and dig over again and replant on Friday all going well.
There is a serious rethink and clearing out going on here at the moment, but a great feeling of correcting mistakes that were made. As we know, the twicking in a garden never ends but correcting the mistakes is easy once it dawns on you where you went wrong.
Another lesson learnt was the number of plants that were struggling purely from been smoothered and swamped by bigger thugs. I also found remains of some plants that had died for the same reasons.
So it’s a case of a slimmer, trimmer but healthier garden for 2016.
No gardening done today as I’ve had to spend time on my little old banger to get it ready for its NCT at the weekend.
But I had a ramble around the garden. My Clematis ‘The President’ is on its second flush, as are quite a few plants here. But I spotted a PINK flower on ‘The President’ and thought it strange. I do have C. ‘Piilu’ planted right beside ‘The President’ so initially I thought it was a flower of this one. But no. ‘The President’ has the usual blue flowers and two pink.
Last night we had the most glorious glorious sunset – took photos at 7.40pm. Attaching just a couple.
Beautiful morning here again – the right sort of weather to work in the garden. I have started planting up new border – two groups of mixed foxgloves (sown from seed) went in yesterday. Terrishoes & Alan kindly brought me plants when they visited us a couple of Fridays ago – I’m going to plant some of them today. Enjoy the day!!
My new potting shed is finally complete. It is insulated throughout and has lots of natural light in it. It will be used over the Winter to house any tender plants and it will also have my lawnmower and tools etc in there.
I will probably use the greenhouse for actually potting up bits and pieces, but its great to have this extra space for my ‘other’ bits and pieces. I am hoping to have some more shelving put up around the side of the shed to accommodate any more pots that happen to appear!!!
Jimmy has done a great job and Im just thrilled with it now. Just need to get out there and give it a ‘go’ and make sure everything fits. Some things have been put it just to see how they fit, but hopefully by the weekend I will be able to go out myself and do it my way!
I have put up a small album just to let you see it in its stages
but great to see these finally deciding to open.
Is really cutting in now, I totally love this time of the year. One part is the heavy dew that the garden is caoted with in the mornings. It gives great photographic oppertunities.
The dew on this Crocosmia Severn Sunrise is stunning. Dew gives a different effect tan raindrops.
This weather is to last into the weekend, so enjoy.
Here are this Wednesday’s videos.
The first is a look at New Wave Perennial Planting, the border I built in my garden and the pros and cons from my experience. I hope it will be useful to anyone thinking of making such a border…
New Wave Perennial Planting – my experience – YouTube
The second video is about orchids…
Isn’t it amazing how our gardening tastes change over time. I had some Pennstemon here some years back but didn’t really like them, so I passed them on.
Since then my thinking has changed and I’ve come to see them as good valued plants for a long flowering interest. I saw a big clump of this one in Helen Dillon’s garden the other day and when I spotted it in the plants sales area, home it came.
Great deep colour.
