Month: June 2024

Six On Saturday: Midsummer madness

/ n20gardener / 12 Comments

It is that time when the borders spill on to the paths but even as the alchemilla mollis froths up over the edges I know that the garden is moving to a new phase. The roses have had their first sprint and now stop to draw breathe before the next round. New flowers are stepping up. Day lilies, hebes, shasta daisies and stocks are just beginning to open. The veg patch is being productive with French beans, strawberries and in a day or two the first courgettes. New potatoes are about to be dug up. Here’s six from this week’s garden

One

I can’t take a photo in the garden these days without geranium psilostemon crowding in. The star of this photo is the rose, one that is still pumping out the flowers, ‘Natasha Richardson’. It came to me as an allotment purchase from someone who no longer wanted it in their garden. It is superb! I’ve seen it described as a modern floribunda. I describe it as floriferous, beautifully scented and a winner.

Two

I almost missed this Turk’s head lily, ‘Lake Tulare’. It’s tucked away at the shady end of the garden behind an apple tree. It’s happy there so I won’t move it. It came from Beth Chatto’s garden – honestly purchased! I have to fight off lily beetles but it’s worth it.

Three

Ox eye daisies seed freely down in the veg patch and have to be kept under control. I always allow one or two clumps to flourish, for me and the pollinating insects.

Four

The veronicastrum have opened up this week and will give glorious height to the border. This is ‘Fascination’ which is prone to fasciation. Apparently not harmful but probably a genetic weakness.

Five

I am amazed by what I lose over winter and what survives. This is a white antirrhinum majus that came through a wet winter. I am also lucky enough to have another one that has self seeded itself. I grew these antirrhinums from seed a couple of years ago – the tiniest seeds I’ve ever sown.

Six

And finally how about this for a surprise? I have a hellebore in flower, with plenty of buds too. Another happy moment!

Wishing you all happy moments in your gardening spaces this weekend. Jim, our host, as always offers a varied SOS and hosts the links to other SOS gardening pages. I’ll be weeding out the willowherb which also steps up to flower at this time of year! And those roses need deadheading.

Six On Saturday: Things that go wrong

/ n20gardener / 17 Comments

I was sympathising with fellow SOSer Jude in Cornwall about disappearing plants. We mainly blame slugs and snails of course and definitely not our gardening skills. But gardening, in my case, is a bit hit and miss. I veer from having very sensible plans to organise heights, colours and textures, as I am encouraged to do by the gardening press, to responding haphazardly to the situation on the ground – or not responding! So things can go a little awry. Here’s six slightly wrong things.

One

This looks quite good. It is my one surviving delphinium and a peony. I didn’t plant the peony, it may be a remnant from the previous owners’ garden and it has only just flowered. Both are jammed right up against the rose bush behind which causes both plants to take desperate avoidance measures. In reality they are twisting and flopping and needed to be propped up with supports. But they survive.

Two

My collection of hostas. It’s clear what has gone wrong here. Despite layers of gravel and coffee grounds the slugs munch away. It’s interesting that the hosta ‘Francee’ behind which has thicker, darker leaves is fairing much better. I think the ‘Thomas Hogg’ in front are acting as sacrificial plants.

Three

This is an interesting one. Two things ‘going wrong’ here. First the classic example of digging out seedlings and wanting to keep them somewhere ‘just in case’. This is meant to be a symphony in white and green with some late purple. Instead ‘Johnson’s Blue’ and psilostemon steal the show. Behind is persicaria polymorpha, planted to hide the fence, which is doesn’t quite do and worse, it smells awful! But it is ideal for semi shade and is long flowering. Perhaps I will get used to the ‘perfume’.

Four

Phlomis russeliana, whorls of pale yellow flowers is what I was promised. I find these rather strident, especially as the aforementioned Jude did suggest, delicately, that I could have chosen the more subtle tuberosa pink version. Worse, when the rose arch collapsed I had to move ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ to a new location and the only possibility was the wall behind the phlomis. The dark red of ‘Tess’ and the yellow phlomis is far from ideal. There will have to be a rethink here.

Five

This is a case of re-appearing plants. It isn’t in flower yet, but this is a globe thistle, echinops ritro if I remember rightly, I planted them in my quest to find blue flowers that the slugs didn’t eat. Several years ago I dug them out because they were mildewy, covered in blackfly and, well, thistly. I still don’t want them but as you can see the slugs don’t eat them and they are determined.

Six

If I Ieft the garden to its own devices it would be a forest of verbena bonariensis. It’s hard to take a photo that really captures their character. I like them and this year they are incredibly tall. Not a problem really but this group are in front of a new hibiscus that is about half their size. A clear case of wrong heights and quite probably overcrowding. At least the hibiscus can be seen through the verbena. The path is becoming a little less visible though.

Gardens eh? We love them even though they challenge us every day. I’ll be out there again this weekend, weeding, feeding, watering and enjoying it all. I hope you will too. Jim, our host, almost certainly will. Do have a read and join in.

Six On Saturday: Chaos!

/ n20gardener / 20 Comments

I’ve been away from the garden for a week for a short break on the East coast of England where it was cold, rainy, windy and occasionally sunny. Before I left I hedged my bets with the outdoor tomatoes, planting some outside, leaving some in the greenhouse and a few still in pots in a sheltered space. I was expecting those in the greenhouse to dry out, those planted out to be eaten by slugs and had my fingers crossed for those in the sheltered space. All have survived, so I may have a surplus of tomatoes, if there is any sun to ripen them. In the meantime the garden has romped away. Geranium psilostemon has never been so tall, nor have the verbena bonariensis. The weeds are flourishing and beginning to flower and the autumn fruiting raspberries need tying in. There is much to do, but not today as it is raining again. Here’s my six for this week.

One

It’s hardy geranium time. The first is an unknown magenta variety that came with a batch of white ones ordered for a north facing border. It was swiftly relocated.

Two

These are the white ones, geranium sanguineum ‘Album’. They were given a strong talking to earlier on in the season as in previous years they were a little underwhelming. ‘If you don’t flower you are going.’ They have flowered, quite delicately so but enough to allow them to stay. And so to has the insidious cinque foil weed. So difficult to remove unfortunately.

Three

This is a low growing geranium, perfect for edges of borders, trouble free, flowers well and just gets on with things. Geranium sanguineum var. striatum if you are interested.

Four

The astrantias have also come into flower, this one is ‘Roma’. I feel sure I have some ‘Claret’ elsewhere but I haven’t spotted them so far.

Five

Knautia macedonica joins the magenta team. I like this, but I have too much magenta in the garden this year. It is normally offset by the blues of delphiniums but you know who ate them all.

Six

The last for the week comes from Suffolk, where the edges of an old railway track were lined with towering foxgloves. They looked wonderful.

I’m hoping for a dry day tomorrow. I have courgettes to plant out, euphorbias to cut back and weeds to be pulled. I hope there will be time for your gardening tasks this weekend and also time to stop by Jim’s site to visit other SOS gardens.

Six On Saturday: Unexpected gardening opportunities

/ n20gardener / 14 Comments

It’s been an eventful week here. My neighbours to one side repaired a fence. This gave me an opportunity to go through the border and dig up the ever spreading bluebells – as best I could. I now have a tidy looking border waiting for some new additions. It’s a dry shady area which will challenge my planting ideas. My neighbours to the other side had a hawthorn tree from a neighbouring garden fall into theirs and then on Friday, a blustery day here, their horse chestnut tree lost a limb and fell into their garden across the fence line with ours. I can’t tell you how relieved I was that it missed our remaining greenhouse. It is quite possible that this side of the garden may now benefit from a little more sunshine. If only there was some to sunshine to enjoy.

One

The horse chestnut which elegantly draped itself along the fence. My poor neighbour now has two lots of trees to deal with but all is in hand and perhaps we will both benefit from a little less shade. Although we do both enjoy the screening of the gardens that the trees offer.

Two

The clematis have really begun to open up this week. You may remember I bought two obelisks to replace the rose arch, intending that the clematis would entwine itself around these supports and add height to this space. The slugs had other ideas and both clematis in that area were munched to the ground. Elsewhere, there was a little more success. This one is ‘Etoile Violette’.

Three

This one, such a beautiful colour, is ‘Madame Julia Correvon’, another vitticella type. It’s there to weave in among the ‘Blush Noisette’ roses which it is just beginning to do.

Four

The plant focus here is intended to be the sisyrinchium, The psilostemon has self-seeded into this border and I’m not sure I can cope with the colour combination! There may be some relocation on the cards.

Five

Balancing self-seeders with other planting is a challenge here. This is another one that always finds a place to settle into. Iris foetidissima. I like it and it does fill a shady corner – maybe I can move some to the old blue bell patch?

Six

A rose to finish on. It is ‘Lady of Shalott. This looks absolutely beautiful but in truth is probably having a battle with surrounding planting in an effort to become fully established. I will be nurturing it.

June, heh? It is quite cold here this morning but there is promise of some sunshine later. It would help us all enjoy things a little more. But the summer bedding is in the pots, the scented leaf pellies have been re-potted and I did risk planting out some seedlings. I am still keeping my tomato plants in the greenhouse but they will have to go out soon. Courgettes and cucumbers are also waiting for a little more warmth before they are moved outside. Wishing you all time to enjoy the garden this weekend and time to stop by Jim’s garden in Cornwall for the SOS links and Jim’s own garden ruminations.