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:

Some people can't keep away!

Too much happened today not to blog about it...

1. I found a dead frog in the pond and had to fish him out with a net. Loads of the frogspawn has - do you say germinated? though, and is wriggling around.

2. A robin got stuck in the fruit cage and had to be let out.

3. While digging in a completely different bit of the garden, and one recently created, I found a label for a rose which is nearly 30 years old and which I've never known the identity of. I was over the moon. It is called Deep Secret - or originally Mildred Scheel - bred by Tantau in Germany and introduced in 1977. She's about 4 feet tall, very healthy, a hybrid tea, with dark red flowers with golden stamens and a gorgeous perfume. Flowers from late June until the heaviest frosts. I have several pictures of it but none represent the colour properly, which is a bit deeper than blood - sorry to be gory!

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:

Rose pruning

Today I pruned nearly all of the roses. Aimee Vibert, Ophelia, Picture, Margaret Merrill and x Richardii are all done; the big original one remains to do. I'm leaving the dog rose, the field rose and the two climbers at the front for the time being.

PS in case you're wondering - no, this didn't take all that long, although I did get the shredder out and deal with all the prunings and so on. The roses havent' been done properly before... ever. But mainly I was ill, which is minor but that's why I spent a lot of time reading (Real England by Paul something)