Six On Saturday: Changing seasons

September 1, 2018August 31, 2018 / n20gardener / 22 Comments

It was a busy gardening weekend last week. The extra day, a bank holiday in the UK, was spent helping out at the Finchley Horticultural Society allotment NGS open day. Fortunately after the wash out that was Sunday, Monday remained dry and the allotment looked verdant. Of course I was tempted by the plants the growers had for sale and I came away with this:

One

A persicaria – labelled as ‘pink’ so I can’t add any further information. It goes some way to my getting persicaria into the garden but I am on the hunt for some of the dark red ones. I planted it next to the salvia ‘Blush Pink’ bought earlier in the summer and I hope they will be happy soul mates.

Two

I singularly failed to record the other great gardening activity of the weekend which was the apple picking. It was a smaller crop this year, both in numbers of apples and size. Some were little bigger than a golf ball but as they all go for juicing they were all picked. In about a week I will know how many bottles this year’s harvest produced. The bent double apple tree of a few weeks ago is now nearly horizontal so I took a picture of that!

Three

Every week I think about including this Cleome ‘Senorita Carolina’ in the six but for some reason it stays on the sub’s bench. This week it makes it into the team. I really don’t know why it has taken me so long, it’s been flowering like this all summer. The real colour is slightly less vibrant than captured here. It’s a tender plant so if the winter is anything like last year I shall probably lose it.

Four

Just coming into flower is the Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’. Earlier in the year its poor leaves were scorched by the sun but as the season moves on it’s site is more in the shade where the splash of white shines through.

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Also adding some brightness are the self seeded calendulars that spring up around the garden. The insects seem to like them too. The ones on the veg patch are dropping seed and new plants are already growing.

Six

Given the size of the apples this year I was surprised and impressed by the persimmon fruits. They are much larger than last year and although I am not a great fan of the fruit I do enjoy their orange colour as they ripen in November.

That’s my six for the week. There are plenty more to view at The Propagator. If you stop off there I recommend you also read his Garden Blogger’s Hierarchy of Needs a brilliant summary of what gardeners do and why they sometimes post and sometimes don’t. I hope you all find time to garden this weekend – that’s the important bit.

Six On Saturday: In my dreams

August 25, 2018 / n20gardener / 26 Comments

Temperatures are falling and the evenings have a chill about them. My third summer in this garden is coming to an end. The previous owner (PO) loved to grow fruit, figs in particular and this week I woke from a dream where I had collected armfuls of sweet soft figs. I am sure this was inspired by a tweet from Fred, a French gardener who had been doing exactly that. In my garden I watch as the birds flutter in and out of the fig trees magically finding in their branches the ripe figs that I keep missing. All the ones I can see are green.

One

Here’s the largest fig tree. This was tentatively pruned back early this year but I can see it really needs to be brought down in size. Ruthlessness is a gardening skill I am beginning to develop. Cutting this tree back will give the summer borders more of a chance to keep going through into autumn. I will be able to bear any loss of fruit as I don’t see much of it anyway!

Two

Because the PO’s interest were in fruit and veg the flower borders had been left to their own devices and I have been reclaiming them from the weeds. One corner was in the grip of ground elder and I spent the first two summers digging it out. I think I am now at the stage where I can plant this corner up. My dreams have recently focused in on a white hibiscus and a Trachelospermum jasminoides to cover up a fence. That’s my dream for autumn or spring planting. For the moment this is how the corner looks now. Each summer I plant a group of annuals to keep the ground covered. This year it was Zinnias which are filling out now.

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A close up of that corner showing the convolvulus cneorum bought at the Beth Chatto garden now in situ among the erigeron karvinskianus. I’m happy with the front and I hope I will be happy with the back, now I need something mid border to bridge the gap. I have persicaria on the wish list so maybe there is an opening for it here.

Four

Three 9cm pots of Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Album’ were planted out earlier in the summer. I have to be patient but next year I am expecting these diminutive plants to transform into dreaming spires of late summer interest. They should reach 1.2m. Some way to go then!

Five

IMG_2773 (2) In my dreams, particularly in my day dreams, I see a luxuriously verdant garden seamlessly moving from one season to the next. At this time of the year I find myself struggling. The summer border becomes increasingly shady as the big fig tree branches out. There is just enough sun to encourage the roses in a second flowering and this one is Gertrude Jekyll.

Six

A long term dream has been to fit in a water feature. My original expansive daydream of putting a rill down the middle of the lawn was strongly vetoed and probably rightly so. Instead I have in mind a much smaller feature to replace this laurel bush. It also shades the summer border and doesn’t add any great interest to the garden. Taking it out will leave a large hole – the first step towards the pond.

Dreaming and planning for the garden is much on my mind at the moment. I was feeling the pressure of exhortations to prepare and plant up for next year. It was all too much and I left the catalogues on the table and went out into the garden. Even after the recent rains it was still dry and difficult to work but I relocated a few seedlings, planted out some mid summer purchases, cut back the lavender and rosemary and felt much better for it!

Many thanks to The Prop for gathering together a diverse crowd of fellow gardeners who share weekly their gardening delights and sometimes the nasties! You are welcome to take a look.

Six On Saturday: Fresh eyes give renewed determination

August 18, 2018 / n20gardener / 28 Comments

There is nothing like visiting the garden of a friend or relative for giving fresh impetus to your own garden. After spending time last Sunday dispensing words of wisdom: ‘that achemillia mollis can be cut back now’, ‘don’t let that lemon balm seed everywhere’ and ‘that’s a weed and this is a tree seedling’, I came back to my garden and spotted a large clump of achemillia mollis seeding itself everywhere, nettles quietly gaining strength under the shade of the geraniums and grass creeping into the borders. It was time for a midsummer clear up. A frantic spurt of dead heading and weeding ensued and there was that alchemilla mollis to deal with.

One

The offending alchemilla mollis. I wasn’t in a ruthless enough mood to start with so I just cut back the flowering stems. The fresh new growth began to emerge from the shadows and I realised that if I had done this earlier and by ruthlessly cutting back the old growth by the handful those new shoots would have been taking centre stage earlier. I know this but I rarely do it early enough!

Two

Down at the allotment end of the garden I noticed that the autumn raspberries were ripening. The plants came as runners from my old allotment raspberries and this is their first fruiting year. I’m so glad they survived the low rainfall which I’m sure owes much to their shady position.

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My clematis have all gone to seed now but I spotted one last flower valiantly soldiering on, thereby earning the right to be included in this six.

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Also on the clear up list was the rambling rose I chose to train up the back fence. It is ‘Wedding Day’. A mad choice I confess but I planned to train it into my neighbour’s trees. ‘Wedding Day’ is rampant and I didn’t keep it under control the first year. This week I took it hand and tied it in as best I could, rose scratched arms is not a good look! Half way through the job I consulted my RHS book of pruning which tells me that ramblers come in three groups and the pruning is slightly different for each group. Now I just have to find out which group ‘Wedding Day’ falls into.

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Since I have mentioned my neighbour’s trees, it is only fair that I show one or two. This majestic willow catches the evening sun and is spectacular.

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I also benefit from another neighbour’s elder tree. The berries are ripe now and some may find their way into fruit pie. The colour combination of stem, leaf and fruit is just sumptuous.

Sharing gardening experiences is a great part of #SixOnSaturday and an important part of gardening. I hope my ‘advice’ was well received but I will also share by potting up some of the seedlings I discovered in my clear up. There are a good number of astrantia major, hollyhocks and verbena bonariensia for a start. And I thank my neighbours for sharing their trees and giving me a fabulous frame for my garden.

For the links to other sixes pay a visit to The Propagator the hard working host of this meme. Now time to get back to that clean up!

Six On Saturday: Oops I did it again

August 11, 2018August 12, 2018 / n20gardener / 10 Comments

With temperatures again in the 30s I went away for the week. Yes, I know. No real gardener ever leaves the garden in summer, not ever! I did the usual frantic watering, moving pots into the shade and putting everything on trays or saucers and off I went. My garden is well past its best so I was really quite relaxed. I went in search of inspiration from some of the great gardens of England and I found that they too had gone over plants, roses devoid of flowers and scorched lawns. But some ideas for late summer colour were found and I returned determined to take more care of my phloxes.

But here is what is happening in my garden this week.

One

Rosa Natasha Richardson is in her second flowering and is looking gorgeous. I’m very happy with the background of Agastache Black Adder but she needs something the other side of her. I’m still looking for her ideal companion.

Two

Sometime in May I optimistically sprinkled some zinnia seeds that came free with a well known gardening magazine and in the week I was away they opened up. They were sown at the foot of the now towering tithonia and in amongst the Pentsemon Plum Jerkum. They have given me an extra spot of late summer colour.

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You would not expect me to visit three gardens and come away empty handed now would you? I nearly did as Hidcote had sold out of Agapanthus Navy Blue – a later flowering variety that’s now on my wish list. Fortunately across the road at Kiftsgate I found a lovely pink Salvia microphylla Blush Pink. It should flower into November and be frost hardy. If it does I shall be very happy.

Four

I left my tray of Ammi visnaga out in a shady/sunny spot hoping they might put on a spurt of growth. I really don’t know if they are going to make it into flower but I am going to plant them out anyway and enjoy their feathery green foliage in amongst the white zinnias as planned.

Five

My vegetable patch has struggled this year, falling foul of lack of rain and my feeble attempts to water it. I harvested the onions before I left and put them in the potting shed to dry out – as if they needed that! Small but delightfully formed I think.

Six

The apples are also much smaller this year. I received an email from my apple juicing farm telling me that this is the earliest apples have ripened in 12 years. I still don’t think mine are ready for picking and I’m hoping that the welcome deluge of rain that arrived on Friday will give them an extra boost. I also need to decide what to do with this poor specimen. Do I shorten the leader and keep the laterals in tight or will the leader strengthen over time? So much learning to be done!

The bulb catalogues are arriving and even as I review how to improve the August and September garden my thoughts are turning to Spring. I am well and truly on the gardening roller coaster and on the whole enjoying it.

Be dazzled by the diversity of gardens that get shown each week by checking the links given on The Propagator’s blog You will see that there is an occasional ‘cheat’ and this week The Prop has smuggled three extras into his six. There must be a sub section somewhere that allows that then!

The apples are also so much smaller this year. I received an email from my apple juicing farm telling me that this was the earliest apples had ripened in 12 years. I still don’t think mine are ready to pick and I am hoping that the welcome deluge of rain that came on Friday will give them an extra boost. I need to think what I do with this poor specimen. Should I cut the leader much shorter and keep all the laterals in tighter or will the leader strengthen over time? There is so much learning to be done!

Six On Saturday: Scorchio again

August 4, 2018August 4, 2018 / n20gardener / 14 Comments

Once again it’s very hot here with temperatures around 30 degrees plus. The rain of last Sunday – really, the one day I have the family over and it rains – was welcome and filled two of the large water butts and one small one. Total 868 litres plus some odds and ends from the greenhouse butts and I’m nearly through it already. I am looking again at the garden to see what I can add in to extend the colour but planting will have to wait until September. Here’s what’s happening at the moment.

One

A melon update: My second year of growing melons and you would have thought it would be a bumper year. There have been plenty of flowers but only one has come good as a melon. Two or three other melons formed but then rotted off. I’ve been hard at work cutting back the side shoots and stopping the main stem. Now I have to decide when is the optimum time to pick this precious fruit.

Two

The grapevine over the pergola regularly produces grapes but at this time of the year they split and never ripen. The previous owner said it was a Black Hamburg, which, as many of you will know, is an indoor variety. Today the wasps are having great fun and it makes sitting under the welcome shade a little nerve wracking. I think in future I will cut off all the grapes and have beautiful shade and no wasps!

Three

The Hollyhocks have been to be featured again. They just keep on growing. There was a touch of rust on the lower leaves early on but the hot dry weather seems to have kept it at bay. Reader, I measured this one. It is eleven foot six inches! Does that sound like a challenge? Bring on the hollyhocks. This one is growing up into a dead fruit tree. It never got to fruiting stage so I can’t identify it, other than to say that I suspect is was a stone fruit, maybe apricot, which succumbed to leaf curl and oozing this year.

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Also doing rather well are the rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’. I have my eye on these for dividing this year. Spreading this wonderful colour around the garden will be a pleasure.

Five

I was late sowing the cosmos this year but they have started to come into flower. This one is Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Click Cranberries’. I’ve planted them in a block but I think this one will look good dotted around the border next year.

Six

Lastly a zinnnia. This is taken as a close up because my planting scheme went awry. I planned to mix the zinnias and some ammi visnaga together but the ammi germinated late and is only just looking good enough to plant out. Without the ammi to add some froth the zinnias look like soldiers on parade. Maybe it will look better in October.

From here it looks like crispy lawns and parched plants for a little longer. See what else is going on at The Prop’s blog – there you can find links to all the other great SOSs.

Six On Saturday: Time for a rethink

July 28, 2018July 29, 2018 / n20gardener / 17 Comments

Finally rain arrived. Great for the garden, less good for other plans. I’m having family over for lunch on Sunday, and rain is forecast all day. Outdoor entertaining will have to come inside and someone will be cooking in the rain! This week has been very hot. The plants in the garden are scorched, the veg plot is desiccated but I managed to find six things in the garden:.

One

The lawn. Quite an interesting view at the moment. The crispy dry stripe is where, long ago, there was a path. The middle section is a mixture of green weeds and brown grass and the far corner is the part of the lawn that is always waterlogged through the winter. There is local talk of underground streams but I think even these have dried up this summer. The grass hasn’t been mown in months but a close look showed the creeping buttercup is, of course, creeping very nicely and the little acorns planted by squirrels are growing into mighty oaks. The clover is mostly going to seed and providing food for the birds. Such biodiversity.

Two

The hydrangea in the front garden is usually uniformly pink but this year it is pink on the side that gets the sun and shades of pink, purple and blue on the less sunny side. Curiously it is doing well in the heat. The front garden is watered very sparingly – and this plant hasn’t been watered once. I hope last night’s rain will keep it in good health. It will probably die of shock.

Three

The first ripened chilli in the greenhouse. It’s a cayenne – looks pretty hot to me but apparently not a knock your socks off chilli. Picked now and soon to be added to a tomato salsa. The tomato crop is also ripening you can see a few ‘Golden Crown’ tomatoes in the background. Note for John K – I’m only up to four trusses.

Four

The combination of tithonia and blackberries looks so autumnal to me. There are lots of berries to pick and I haven’t watered these at all. Maybe they do have their roots down in an underground stream. The tithonias have now made it to six feet and with the help of the magic water I think they may well make eight feet.

Five

The shallots have been harvested. They were planted out in late November and again I didn’t water them so they are on the small side. I have been so mean due to a combination of lack of time and a short hose! Some of these are heading into a potato salad this weekend.

Six

And finishing on a sort of ta-daa! Work on the ‘ugly end of the garden’ project started. Temperatures were in the 30s and all was going well until the imminent thunderstorms meant the electrical equipment had to be packed away. Now I want the rain to stay away today so that the job can be finished. Then I need to start planning again. The beds get afternoon sun and I have asparagus on my wish list. I’ve grown beans against the fence for two summers but I think it is too shady for a really successful crop. More thinking to be done.

Who else is suffering and who is winning the rainfall lottery? Those down under speak of cold winters. Find out more by visiting The Propagator’s blog for this week’s links.

A small flickering of excitement in the N20 garden

July 24, 2018January 25, 2019 / n20gardener / 2 Comments

Back in April I posted an update on the new paths and the plans for beautifying an ugly corner of the garden. I was at the back of the queue to get the work done, rain (the wet stuff that used to fall from the sky) had caused a backlog and my project was really quite a small one.

Three months on and I have climbed to the top of list. August approaches and London town is packing up for the summer so my small job might get done this week.

Here’s the before shot – I’m looking forward to posting the finished article soon.

Six On Saturday: Some seed sowing success

July 21, 2018 / n20gardener / 28 Comments

There is no doubt about it. This has been a tough year. But there are always some cheering sights among the wilting, stressed and sometimes dead plants. The tithonias have reached five foot and the flowers are coming thick and fast. All grown from tiny seeds. Here are some others:

One

Scabiosa atropurpurea ‘Black Cat’. These have such lovely velvet petals. The deep wine colour is fab too.

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IMG_E2612 (2)

Antirrhinum majus ‘White Giant’. Not quite so giant as I imagined but these were really teeny tiny seeds to start with so I am glad they have got this far. I thought I would be planting them in the middle of the border to give some tall white spikes but when the time came it was obvious that they wouldn’t be able to fight their way through geranium ‘Brookside’ so they were planted along the edges of the path.

Three

Echinops Globe Thistle. An experiment in having something different in the border. Much loved by blackfly but in truth, so far, not much loved by me. I will see how they go, perhaps I’ll like them more when they turn bluer. I think I got my plants mixed up and really meant to sow eryngium!

Four

Sweet peas: Midnight Blue, by far and away the most successful of my sweet peas. The very lovely Gwendoline, Black Knight and Anniversary are in a shadier spot and are not happy! Only two of the Anniversary seeds germinated. I’ll try them again next year but I will have to find a better site for them.

Five

Not from any seed that I sowed but doing a great job of extending the border colour are these echinacea purpurea. They work well with the self seeded verbena behind and they might be good self seeders themselves. Apparently they don’t like drought but so far so good.

Six

Lastly a dahlia mystery. I bought six dahlia tubers at the same from the same place. All labelled Thomas Edison. They are beginning to open up and I realise I have two varieties. Now I think about there was one pot that seemed less vigorous than the others. The colour is much darker than comes across here. How interesting!

Still not a drop of rain here, to see how other gardens are fairing take a trip to The Propagator for all the links to many, many lovely #SixOnSaturday posts. Happy gardening.

Six on Saturday: There’s a new wave coming

July 14, 2018July 14, 2018 / n20gardener / 25 Comments

Every now and then a song gets stuck in my head and this week it is Kids in America by Kim Wilde. Kim’s a bit of gardener too btw, so it seems very appropriate. If you don’t know the song I recommend you look at Kim’s performance of it on the train!

So as Kim says ‘there’s a new wave coming, I warn you’ and this week I am feeling more positive about the garden. It actually rained last night for about 30 minutes and although there may be a few pests and diseases around the garden is shaping up for mid and late summer. And here are the highlights:

One

My first uplifting delight was spotting a flower on the Tithonias. They were grown from seed and the packet indicates a final height of eight feet. I’d say they are about four feet now and are full of promise. They should see me through into autumn.

Two

Somewhere along the way last year I picked up a recommendation for the Penstemon Sour Grapes and I would love to say thank you to whoever it was that put this plant onto my wish list. I do thank you but I can’t remember who it was! I planted it in amongst the Agastache Black Adder featured last week and, if I may say so, I think it works very well.

Three

I am also bowled over, as I am every year, by the evergreen agapanthus that I grow in containers. They did look a sorry sight at the end of winter. But those brown leaves were removed, a granular fertiliser added to the pots and now patience has been rewarded. They are truly a wow in the garden for the second half of summer.

The second half of the summer is also the time when the veg patch starts producing. Of course my lack of watering and the absence of rain has had an impact. My courgettes are tiny – hard to believe I know. The new potatoes, first batch lifted this week, were also on the small side. But they were truly delicious as was the first outdoor cucumber. In the greenhouse the melons and tomatoes are rather like this Six – long and rambling!

Four

Last year the melon I grew suffered from red spider mite, thank you to Fred, a French gardener for diagnosing this for me, and only one flower made it into a fruit. This year I have been overwhelmed. I tried to follow the RHS advice: ‘When fruit are gooseberry size, select the best four on each stem and remove all other flowers, fruit and leaves. Stop the side shoots two or three leaves beyond these fruits, pinch out the main growing tips and remove new growths as they appear.’ But a week away from the greenhouse and I cannot tell a side shoot from a main growing tip and who knows which is new growth! I am just cutting back to points where fruit has formed. The variety is Pepito F1. So far no mites!

Five

The whole greenhouse experience is new to me. Last year I grew a few cherry tomatoes under the glass and they were quite well behaved. This year the three varieties I chose, Alicante, Golden Crown and Marmande, have gone crazy. Side shoots doubling in size by the day, leaf growth in abundance and finally a few tomatoes! It doesn’t look like the marmande is producing well but we shall see. These are alicante, they are not ready for picking yet but not long now.

Six

IMG_E2589

I thoroughly recommend Thomas Stone’s blogs in general and especially anything he posts on roses such as this one on moss roses. I must extend my rose collection but for the moment mine are all repeat flowering english roses. They do keep coming. I gave them all a rose feed a few weeks ago, watered it in and the flowers are coming through once more. This is Natasha Richardson. I’ve shown it before and I include it again because it I was pleased that it too is a part of the new wave.

I always recommend this meme and the host The Propagator as a great way to see what is going on in gardens around the world. The people who post under #SixOnSaturday are all great sharers of their the knowledge and experience and I want to thank everyone for helping me grow my own knowledge. Last week I posted a picture of my under the weather apple tree. I looks like it has fireblight and I thank Tony Tomeo for sharing his knowledge. Loving you all!!

Six on Saturday: Short and sweet

July 7, 2018 / n20gardener / 17 Comments

Life is very busy at the moment and it has been hard to find the time to spend in the garden, watering is being neglected and the veg patch is suffering. The courgettes are tiny and the borlotti beans are barely climbing up the bean pole. The latest pest is mice who are taking tiny bites out of the leek stems. So here’s a very short six:

One

Phlox. Evidence of my poor watering regime! I am just about keeping the flowers going.

Two

The flower stem of Acanthus mollis. I took a small division from a large plant when we moved house two years ago. It was tiny but it has taken hold and this year produced the first flower stem. Fred has some of these!

Three

Passion flower – Fred has some of these too. His are p. edulis but I wonder if this is Passiflora caerulea The link is to the RHS page. Since this survived the cold winter I think it could be a caerulea. It came with the new garden and grows rampantly over an arch.

Four

The apples are growing but I have these brown leaves. Same happened last year so I don’t think it is a watering problem – but then again I didn’t water the trees last year either. Any ideas. Dahlia lovers among you will have noticed the photo bomb from D.Thomas Edison. My first foray into a non white dahlia!

Five

IMG_2566 (2) Agastache Black Adder – it my very hot dry sunny border. The perfect place for it but as a new plant it does require regular watering. It’s one I am trying to keep and maybe this is where I introduce some grasses.

Six

And of course I have to keep watering the containers. I am managing to keep these going by collecting the cold water than comes through before the hot in the kitchen tap. What a palaver! But I am enjoying these scented leaf pelargoniums.

That’s my six, for more links please visit The Propagator. I have been so busy I haven’t read last weeks comments but I am hoping next week slows down and I can catch up soon. And of course I should say – haway the lads – or something similar. Those who know will know!

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