Planting out an olive

Today I planted out one of our olive trees. It's been in a pot for several years and I find it very hard to keep it sufficiently watered. A couple of years ago it nearly died because of this and although it's getting better again, it hasn't fully recovered. It was outdoors in its pot this winter, just as usual, and seemed not to suffer for it. So since watering seems to be more of an issue with it than cold, I've decided to try it in the ground. I planted it in a bed that is a little raised but still fairly lush, so I hope this suits it. I have asked the surrounding apple trees to be nice to it! This year it will have tomatoes around it in the bed, to make it feel more at home.

Other than that I pottered about with pots. I've bought lots more petunias - I just love them. Next year I'll grow my own. Some of these are a stunning deep blue, like midnight blue velvet.

I've got my beady eye on the "in bloom" competition the town runs for houses (and other categories). I'm very aware that the garden is still nowhere near tidy enough, but I hope it will be! Well, tidy by my standards anyway... it's never going to look like a city park. Hence all the petunia madness, to be honest. And I also just love the way these and the helichrysums fill out - it's like putting something raw and horrid looking into the oven, and then taking out a beautiful golden, risen cake!

Anyway, here are a few more photos from today.







This little rose is Phyllis Bide (Bide, 1923) - she's actually a rambler, I have her not-very trained along part of the front fence. To be honest I wouldn't plant her again because I only like the flowers in the early stage of opening, but she has lovely foliage too:

Pictures

Wordless Thursday, if you like. Only of course I've rather spoiled that already!

Happy days: flowerbeds reviewed

(PS - I'm sorry this is so long. I will keep things shorter in future.)

Plant of the moment - a poppy. No idea which. A gift from our friend Deirdre about 5 years ago. My kind of plant - corker of a flower and lovely foliage too.

Before I go any further, I want to add a link to a wonderful post on one of my favourite blogs.

Now, where was I. I've been busy for a few days because my mother came to visit. It went off very well and she is now safely home again. She liked the garden, although she did comment on how many borders there are... but she liked the way the garden can't all be seen at once and is there to be walked round.

This made me think it was about time I posted some pictures of how each border looks at the moment. I decided to take some pictures after today's jobs which were mainly watering, because I thought the plants must be dry in the wind, and planting out my black poppies. These are the "big guns" of my little arsenal of annuals, and from saved seed too, so I hope they settle in happily.

Anyway, here are all the planted areas, snapped just as they were this afternoon without any prettification for the camera:

First off, the worst bit. This is the current state of the veg area. So if I turn up making nasty carpy remarks about your immaculate and fecund plots, you'll know why. I'm sorry. All it needs is more work really but I've lost about 6 rows of things to weed competition so I find it tough at times. I'll get there.



Then the front. This bit I'm pleased with:



The other side is less successful just now. The small rhododendron has a disease at the roots and needs to come out. The dicentra near it is also doing badly. I'm trying not to worry about this area. I might put a hydrangea in to give some belated symmetry with the other half of the front. There's far too little space but that's never stopped me yet!



Then the main part of the garden. Here's a bad picture of the herb bed - sorry, the light was bad for it but I want to include every area in this posting:



Next up. This has a couple of gaps but I don't want to fill them up now, I want to wait until I know what I want for some colour a bit later.



A quick close-up of the brunnera, one of my favourite plants:



The bog area, in need of weeding as ever:



Into the square garden, and left of the bench. I love sedums; I'm looking forward to seeing the pale one here once it's settled in. There are Milkmaid nasturtiums and black poppies in here too; we shall see...



and the right side. More black poppies and some foolishly-placed golden rod. I can't remember what colour the hardy geranium is so finding out will be fun.



I've shown this bed recently:



This is the area adjoining it. Some goodies to come in here!



I suspect that's more than enough, so I'll take a break there and post the rest tomorrow.

To Granny's, and back

This week-end we went to see my husband's Granny (and other family). She is 92 and has lived in the same house and garden for about 50 years. This is one of her lilac trees.

On the way back we let the dog out at a motorway service station, and the area round it was surprisingly nice:

More excitement

First off, can anyone tell me what butterfly this was, who joined me for my morning cup of tea?


I didn't get a good shot of the apple trees today, but here are a few bluebells to be going on with:



Today I was over the moon to receive a cheque from my father to pay for some new plants. So I took out the list I'd made for whenever, and began mulling it over again. I decided to use the opportunity to buy all new plants - ie nothing that I'd ever had before. I had a very enjoyable rummage through a couple of books, and after a while ordered the following from Long Acre Plants:

3 x Asarum europaeum (this is mainly foliage, kidney shaped leaves, shiny, called wild ginger)
2 x Tricyrtis formosana 'Dark Beauty' (these are called toad lilies, they flower in autumn and look fascinating)
1 x Tricyrtis 'Amanagowa' (similar to above)
2 x Uvularia grandiflora var pallida (these flower in the spring, cream coloured slender dangling flowers)
1 x Uvularia grandiflora (same but in yellow, a month apart)
1 x Speirantha convallarioides (white spikey flowers in spring, evergreen)
1 x Geranium nodosum (a mauve hardy geranium)
1 x Athyrium niponicum var pictum (a fern)

So I'll see how that little lot stands up to my tender mercies! They're to go in a bed of fairly damp shade. I know people say you should get 3's or even more of things, but I'd rather get more different things and split them after they spread out a bit. I'm very excited about growing some new plants, it feels like getting to know new people. (some of us should get out more...)

This morning I planted some leeks, twice: once the wrong way and once the right way (make a hole with a stick, place the leek in and fill with water). My husband said please do ask if I'm not sure about anything - but I had no suspicion there was anything special about how to plant leeks!

Then I went to a local nursery and bought 7 alpines. I've put them in an old china sink for now but I know they will get too big for there; I'll plant them on eventually.

Then I mowed the lawn, took Pippa out for a short walk since it was her first in nearly a month (just out of her season), and then - spotted our first borage flower. I love borage: we put the flowers with mint leaves and chunks of lemon in a jug of water. I also put them in ice-cubes to cheer us up in drinks over the winter. I took this picture in the evening and the flash went off, which is why the colours are a bit odd, sorry.

Some ideas from Nottingham

Yesterday I was in Nottingham Arboretum, which is more like a public park in some ways. Here are some of the things that really struck me:

This shows the kind of planting I really like. I love the height, the volume, the contrast in texture and density, the substance of it all. Evergreens can be a bit stolid but with fireworky-grasses like this, it's much more fun to look at:



Here what I like is the beautifully harmonised colour tints - all soft pinks and smokey browns. Not necessarily my favourite colours in themselves but I think they've been put together very well:



And finally, these tulips - cups of light, but they would be so much less successful without the pansies and greenery:

Do you think seedlings actually breed?

There seem to be more and more seedlings every day, even if I don't sow any more!



At the moment this is my favourite plant - a viburnam judii, with the most gorgeous perfume:



I thought you might also like to see this snap of Velvet, just about to drink from the pond:



And finally this is a front garden in a village near us. I am determined now to sow deep red wallflowers and plant creamy white narcissi and some more primulas, for next spring:

Words of wisdom for you

I am able to impart two gems from recent experience:

1. Nymans garden in April is pretty much heaven on earth, especially if you like camellias and magnolias. Some pictures follow; out of interest - the house you see is not as old as you might think, this part was early 20th century. It was destroyed by fire in the late 40s.







2. Putting industrial quantities of couch grass into your compost bins over a 3 month period is stupid. I didn't know what it was. I do now.

Busy day

I was in the garden today from just before 9 to nearly 5, with about an hour's break in total - which was also spent in the garden.

I tidied a veg bed near the tool shed which had become rather a dump. Some things get moved around from one place to the next, and until the leaves come more, they're unsightly wherever I put them. Rolls of chicken wire are the main culprit, but they will be used soon in a new fence.

Next I tidied another area, by the main compost bins, for the same reason.

Then I weeded inside the big glass cold frame. Not my favourite job - I'm so clumsy, I have a horror that one day I'll fall into/onto it but it's too big to move easily.

More tidying after that, mostly in the veg garden. There's a lot to be done in there, I will be spending a full day there tomorrow.

I planted out the astilbe's I found still growing in pots, and also a heuchera, and weeded some of the bog area.

I planted up the remaining sweet peas.

Then I tackled the pruning of a big shrub rose. I am very keen on roses and compared to the rest of gardening, I know a fair bit about them. This means that our roses clearly displaying signs of neglect is embarrassing. Still, I don't do gardening for show, it's just a nice spin-off, and I am hopeful that the plant will have benefited as well as my garden-cred...

I then shredded all the prunings.

Next I tidied the greenhouse.

I put the heap of ivy we pulled out of the hedge last autumn in the bin.

Then I mowed the lawns.

Finally I began on weeding but I was pretty tired by then. It feels odd to be tired when it's still good daylight!

And then I took the pictures. These aren't especially flattering: the idea is to try to show exactly what you see as you walk round.















But at this time of the year, the best flowers are at the front: