Someone else's poem

I've just read a poem I loved, here

Did less than I should have

Today I went for another nice walk (more pictures on my other blog) and did some shopping. Then I cut down the stocks today, so make space for tomatoes and snapdragons - not common bedfellows but this isn't a common garden! Then I mowed the lawn. Tomorrow will be very busy...

Where am I going to put them all?

These are the seedlings I have yet to find a home for. Trying to match plant to place is like a horticultural jigsaw with lots of special rules. By the way, I am not looking for new homes for either of the animals!

Yesterday Pippa and I went for a lovely breezy walk in the Ashdown Forest; you can see pictures of it on one of my other blogs, here.

And since I don't spend my entire life in gardening clothes, this is me last night, helping B with a photographic lighting experiment. Glamorous, isn't it? From 10:30 to midnight in a multi-storey car park in Crawley.

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:

Look out Tesco

and no doubt Saatchi & Saatchi will be seeking out my talents too...

*** Update: I have now sold 4 lots of 3 for 2!

Peony puzzle

I wonder if someone can advise me what to do about these 2 peonies. Please ignore the weeds!

Exhibit A:



Exhibit B:



Both of these plants were in the garden when we moved in. They have not flowered in 6 years. I assume they are peonies: the foliage looks like that, and they put up shoots just like my "proper" peony (which I bought and which does flower). Every year, having a memory like a seive, I get terribly excited as I see their shoots come up, forget they don't flower, and am freshly disappointed by their non-performance.

Help!

Pictures

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