Six On Saturday: It’s a beautiful day (2)

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Apologies, I couldn’t resist re-using last week’s title. Blue skies and and a gentle breeze are lifting the soul. In between last week’s post and this, I snuck away for a few days to Cornwall. I tipped my hat to Jim, host of this meme, and to Hey Jude, fellow SOSer, en route. They live in a beautiful part of the country and during our stay the sun shone. Perfect. Back home the garden is… well, is what it is. An autumn garden settling down for the winter. So my SOS this week is part holiday, part garden.

One

As part of the short break a night was spent at one of those hotels that curate a lifestyle that one is meant to aspire to. Of course it was wonderful. This is the view from the front door of our ‘cottage’ room. I am envious because it has that gardening symmetry with the grasses that I aspired to in my garden. Here, you may remember, one side flourishes and the other sulks. Hey ho!

Two

Next on the envy list was the immaculately tended walled kitchen garden. Row upon row of plumptious crops: Leeks, Kale, Chard, Radishes, Parsnips with no sign of slugs. They must have teams of under-gardeners whose sole job is to pick them off. But I think I did spot some woody swedes!

Three

Lastly, and I’m pleasantly envious of this, the mushroomery. I’ve made that up. The room devoted to growing mushrooms. Very lovely.

Four

Ah well, back home again. The last of the chillies were picked. Three. But they look good.

Five

Most of our apples were picked in September, producing 53 bottles of apple juice. These braeburns grow in shade of the fig tree and are a little later to ripen. The fig dominates but the apples get to a reasonable size and will be checked over this weekend to see if they are ready for picking.

Six

My flowers have all but finished. But I was dazzled by the sight of new blooms on the hydrangeas. Gloriously white in the sunshine. Yes. It’s a beautiful day again.

SOS starts to get serious now. Join in again next week to see what on earth can be found to keep us going through autumn. All this mindfulness will be very good for us.

Six On Saturday: It’s a beautiful day

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Woe is me, I thought this morning. It’s Saturday and I need to find six things in the garden to share. Six! Impossible I thought. The garden is very much in Autumn mode: seed heads and leaves and spiders webs spun across the paths. But on taking a stroll round the garden I realised that there is still much to appreciate. Here are my six treasures for this week.

One

Blackcurrant sage. Treasured for its wonderful smell of blackcurrants and the vibrant pink flower. Truly appreciated because looked a gonna after the winter.

Two

Calendula. Appreciated for its simple cheerfulness and its determination to self seed everywhere. Not to mention all the other things calendula can do.

Three

Hakonechloa macra or Japanese forest grass. Appreciated for its zingy greenness at this time of year and potentially some autumnal colours later in the year. I’m growing three in pots and so far so good. They also seem keen on self seeding so even more to appreciate.

Four

Miscanthus sinensis ‘Silberfeder’. I gave up trying to capture its beautiful plumes of feathery flowers and settled for the shimmering silver spine of the leaves. It’s a winner.

Five

Salvia ‘Amistad’. Normally appreciated for it’s clouds of purple flowers that are just stunning at this time of year. This one is appreciated for overwintering, coming back from the dead and managing, so far, to produce two slender spires. Well done.

Six

Primrose. Appreciated for being in flower. It seems that primroses will flower any time they catch a glimpse of the sun. It’s battered but nothing is going to keep it down. All power to you and the rest of the garden.

I hope you are still enjoying your garden as the season moves on. Let’s enjoy the winding down phase, take time to appreciate the little things and also the opportunities of the next gardening year. Don’t forget to spend some time with Jim in Cornwall, host as always of Six On Saturday, and Jim does have clouds of salvia ‘Amistad’ in full glory. Happy gardening.

Six On Saturday: Late flowerers

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September has flown by, pushed through on the back of some strong winds. Storm Agnes fortunately passed this garden by and the month has been benign. I have cleared the garden of courgettes and cucumbers. The chilis ripened to a wonderful red colour and as the plans to revamp the veg garden are still in hand, there will be no new planting here for me this year. The hydrangea quercifolia are now in their new positions and will be joined by some white tulips and white hellebores. I spent a great deal of time weighing up replacements for winter losses and a few weeks ago I had settled on osmanthus delavayi but having spotted it in a garden recently I am now going back to an earlier choice – fatsia japonica. I think I will hold firm on that one, but watch this space. Here’s six from the garden this week.

One

Some weeks ago I showed a plant rescued from the pity bench at a local supermarket. It was echinacea ‘Delicious Nougat’. Here it is in flower.

Two

I also have some flowers on a newly purchased penstemon which if my notes are to be believed is called ‘White’! I can’t argue really.

Three

The tough and reliable osteospermum are also in flower again after a quiet spell.

Four

And I couldn’t resist revisiting salvia ‘Nachtvlinder’. This has been in flower for some time but has suddenly become a real focal point and is always thronged with bees.

Five

Some weeks ago Jim, our host, showed some hylotelephium spectabile which had benefited from a timely Chelsea Chop. Here are mine which did not get the benefit of the chop. They fall in this interesting way as they grow out from a dark corner of the north facing border. How they came to settle in this spot happened well before my time and they are deeply entrenched in some walling and seem to be impossible to dig out. I’ll leave them be.

Six

I’m really scrabbling around for my last one and I’ve opted for a re-flowering of geranium psilostemon. It’s valiantly trying to fill the space where the fatsia japonica might end up.

Thank you to all who comment on these weekly posts. I didn’t manage to respond last week but I will be in touch soon. I hope all is well in your gardens and to find out about other SOS gardens stop by at Jim’s to find the links. Happy gardening.

Six On Saturday: Autumn has arrived

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I was away in Suffolk last week, worrying about the mid-week winds and the pots on the terrace but all was well. I had managed to stake some Japanese anemones that were flopping before I left and they too largely remained upright. I returned to a very autumnal garden. Courgettes and cucumbers are ready to be consigned to the compost heap and there is some change of season tidying to be done. It’s a bit of a struggle to find six delights this week but here is what is happening.

One

There was plenty of rain for the garden while I was away and these alchemilla mollis thrived. They are being saved for a friend who says they do not grow for her, while here they self seed everywhere.

Two

The persimmon fruits have been falling off the tree for several weeks but finally the ‘drop’ seems to have finished and those that are left will be ripening over the coming months.

Three

I am not a very ruthless gardener but I’m going to call time on this cherry tree. It’s not very old but it has the lurgy and in three years the birds have always feasted on the fruits before we get even close. Decision made. It’s going.

Four

There are new flowers on the daphne ‘Eternal Fragance’. It’s not a ‘stop you in your tracks’ shrub but it fills a corner and is very low maintenance.

Five

The Hart’s tongue ferns looking very shabby after winter but they have pulled through and are establishing themselves in a shady corner.

Six

My mystery plant. It grows in the wall, is never looked after and this is the first time in seven years I have noticed it in flower. Answers on a postcard please!

There’s a good week of weather ahead, if only I had the time to spend in the garden. It’s all a bit crazy at the moment. I hope you find time to enjoy your gardens. Jim, our host, still manages to find colour but also concedes the arrival of autumn.

Six On Saturday: Scorchio!

/ n20gardener / 21 Comments

It’s too darn hot to garden and almost too darn hot to write. But I’m giving it a go. The apples had to be picked this week, other commitments meant this was the best time for us if not for the apples. The pips were brown and the job was done early one morning. The quote for the new paving and veg beds arrived and was a third more than I was expecting. I should not be surprised by that. It is very likely that I will have to scale down my ambitions but that will have to wait for cooler times. I managed to snap (photograph not break!) a few things in the garden as I watered the pots and threw a large courgette on the compost heap, I am sure many will recognise that summer ritual! Here’s my six for the week.

One

A boot full of apples, ready to be taken to be pressed and bottled. The three cox’s pippin trees did not perform so well this year but the other three trees will have probably made up for them. On these trees the apples were much bigger than in previous years, no doubt due to all that rain in July.

Two

A surprise aster. Could this be a come back kid or is it a new arrival? A few years back I dug out some tall thuggish asters from this spot. Those were bright pink so I guess this one has seeded itself from somewhere else. I’ll see how it goes.

Three

The grasses are beginning to flower. This is calamagrostis × acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’. It’s lovely. So lovely that I planted another one the other side of the steps for some of that designery symmetry. Of course the second has just sulked and refused to bulk up. What can you do?

Four

The lemon tree that suffered near death last winter has put on some lush new growth after being cut back. Being a softy, I did not throw it out as I said I would but there is no greenhouse now for overwintering so if a similar fate occurs this winter it will have to go.

Five

Although the new paving is under review, the gooseberries are definitely going to be replaced by two hydrangea quercifolia ‘ Snow Queen’. There was money off being offered so I couldn’t resist. They are now inhabiting a shady corner until the gooseberries are cleared.

Six

And speaking of hydrangeas, those in the garden are turning to their autumn colours but with one or two new flowers still coming through.

I am still looking for plants to fill winter losses. Does anyone grow osmanthus delavayi? I’m thinking of this for a partial shade spot. What do you think?

If you have time, please stop by and visit our host, Jim, in his garden. He generously provides the glue that keeps us all together and has some fabulous plants too. Stay well everyone.

Six On Saturday: Lagging behind

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I’m not sure what I have been doing of late but clearly it is not gardening! The borders have gone wild. Self-seeders abound and there is still much to be cut back. I am not alone. Off The Edge Gardening is having a similar experience which has prompted this week’s confessions. Tidying up after Summer has to be done but in the meantime here are six from the garden this week.

One

The pity bench at the local Supermarket called to me. The echinacea was substantially reduced in price and all it needed was dead heading. Home it came and here it is ready to flower again.

Two

The Japanese anemones are enjoying their time. This group of ‘Honorine Joubert’ are happy enough but I have two other plants that have been in the garden for many years now and they do not shine. This is the year to accept that they are in the wrong place and get them relocated somewhere else.

Three

If geranium ‘Ann Folkard’ flowered earlier in the year I did not notice it. Here it is now, gamely making the best of of dryish, shady location.

Four

This mallow is a pretty flower but I made the mistake of putting the seed heads on the compost. Now I have a sprinkling of it in all corners of the garden.

Five

An unknown fuchsia that looked a gonna after the winter. I cut it to the ground and it has regrown happily.

Six

Another compost bin self-seeder. Astrantia major. This one is in the raspberry patch. I’ll move it soon. I think I am also going to have move the raspberries when the new beds are laid out. The measurements do not quite allow them to stay in place while work carries on around them.

Our host Jim, invites you to share his garden and all the links to SOS posts from around the world. Somehow I will try to fit a few hours in the garden this weekend. I hope you can too. Enjoy.

Six On Saturday: Hanging on to Summer

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It’s a long weekend in the UK, the last weekend of August, the last weekend of Summer. What a thought! Here the roses are pushing out their second wave of flowers and look fantastic. I have neglected to share photos of the veg plot produce but it’s safe to say the courgettes are producing well. The cucumbers are still going and the Charlotte new potatoes were delicious. Last week I was muttering that the birds do not eat enough slugs. I looked into this and it seems that pigeons are vegetarians and that I need a crowd of blackbirds or starlings in the garden. Unfortunately I think the magpies keep them away. But magpies, I believe, are carnivorous. However, they seem to be attracted more to the grubs in the lawn. Oh well. Here’s six from the garden this week.

One

We have been picking blackberries for a few weeks now and I have to say the taste has not been great this year. Perhaps too much rain and not enough sun.

Two

I don’t think I’ve ever posted this one before. Potentilla ‘Abbotswood’. I have a note that it was planted in 2019. It is in an inhospitable place in the front garden and has been slow to fill out. This year it is just beginning to beef up.

Three

Now these roses often get a look in. ‘Natasha Richardson’. They smell wonderful and are so generous with their flowering. Just perfect.

Four

The eurybia divaricata is in flower. It copes well with shade, so much so that I planted some self-seeders out in the shady dry corner of the front garden and they have survived the situation.

Five

I have roses to deadhead: Madame Isaac Pereire is a lovely colour with a wonderful scent but is in need of some tidying up today.

Six

Hurrah, another scented leaf pellie is in flower. Perhaps Summer can be extended for a few more weeks.

Just time for a quick update on the path project in the veg beds. A good discussion was had, the paths will be a mixture of Indian sandstone and clay pavers. In the newly paved area, there will be six beds of approx 1.2m x 2.8m. Which should be plenty for me. Now I have to be patient for my turn to come up for the work to start.

Don’t forget to stop by Jim’s garden for more Six On Saturday chat. Happy gardening everyone.

Six On Saturday: More and more slugs

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The genial host of this meme is Jim who shares his garden ruminations and hosts the links every Saturday. Probably unwittingly, Jim also provides much inspiration and last week he spurred me on to do battle with the slugs. I finally had time to get in amongst the geraniums and discover their hideouts. Dozens upon dozens were dispatched. I doubt that the birds eat them at all. I felt my plants were a little safer but of course it is short lived. Regular slug patrols are required and I will do my best. In the meantime, and after more heavy rain, here’s six from the garden this week.

One

The scented leaf pelargoniums that suffered so much over Winter did pull through but have been slow to flower. This is the first week that there have been enough to enjoy. There are still others that look reluctant to join in.

Two

Well, well. What is this I spy? Salvia ‘Amistad’, growing behind the roses, has managed to claw it’s way back. Of course, there’s slug damage! Several were lost but there is hope that this one survivor will make some flowers and put on a good display for late summer.

Three

I asked around on Twitter about these webs. The conclusion is they are probably caterpillar webs but they could not be identified. They have settled in to what I think is a Cotoneaster Villosus, which leads to me wonder if it is the cotoneaster caterpillar, which are the larval stages of the Hawthorn moth. I’ll be trying to take a closer look to see if I can spot the caterpillars.

Four

Another survivor. I thought I had lost a rather lovely Hawkshead Fuschsia and I forged ahead and planted a gaura nearby. The fuchsia has fought back and is putting out good growth and some lovely white flowers. One or the other will probably have to be moved as I think they will be fighting for the space.

Five

The chilis in the greenhouse keep growing but are not ripening yet. Chili growers, can I pick these now and use them or will they ripen in the kitchen?

Six

Oh, I couldn’t resist it. Here’s another slug picture. This time the cucumbers are under attack. Two despatched.

I have now secured a meeting with the contractor for the new paths and Monday is the big day. I am itching to purchase the new plants for this plot and others to fill winter loss gaps but I must hold tight for another month or so. Storm Betty arrived with us late last night, that means flattened hollyhocks to be righted, fallen apples to be picked up and more slugs to be dealt with. Wishing you all a good gardening day as the sun reappears here.

Six On Saturday: Lack of focus

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It’s usually the photos that are out of focus. I hope this week’s pass muster: slightly breezy conditions, sun disappearing into clouds and human error all had to be battled with. But the real lack of focus was the attention given to the garden this week. I was lulled into a false sense of security by all the rain we have had lately. I forgot to check the pots and the result was frazzled mint, drying out bacopa and geraniums. Rescue arrived just in time and all seems to have recovered. The newly planted hibiscus also needed an extra can full of water, it’s roots have not yet made it down into the ground. Here’s six from the garden this week.

One

I promise I am saying this for the last time. I will not be spending money on dahlias again. The three new ones bought this year have been stripped to the stems. This one is a real survivor. It was grown from seed last year, left in the ground overwinter and it miraculously survived. It has flowered superbly. It is at one of end of a raised bed, perhaps the several feet of oak sleepers have been deterrent enough, or the tasty lettuce leaves have been more tempting. This will be the only dahlia I grow for as long as it lasts.

Two

The apple trees had their Summer prune this week. When we first arrived here I asked the man from the apple juicing farm to come and reshape our trees. He did such a brilliant job of it that he now comes back every year. He tells me that the season is about three weeks behind. ‘The browner the pips the better the juice’ is the mantra. This tree is laden but one of the cox’s pippins has only one apple!

Three

Here’s the hibiscus before it’s water revival. Just in time I think. I bought a good sized plant to fill the space, there’s still plenty of room for it to spread out but it’s a start.

Four

The roses are making a comeback. This one is ‘Natasha Richardson’. Annoying in focus and there’s no hiding the need for some deadheading!

Five

I had a wonderful collection of echinacea pallida grown from seed that I launched off into the garden earlier this summer. Nah, mistake. The slugs got them. Not entirely to the ground so I hope there’s some hope. Here’s one that has been around for a couple of years now, looking suitably pallid.

Six

Well the slugs may well have kept their focus on the garden while I was distracted elsewhere. Although I wasn’t in the garden, I was thinking of it. The veg plot/paths project is slowly making progress. As you can see the paths are narrow. A contractor has been identified and he is coming next week for a site visit. Ruthless decisions continue to be made. The summer fruiting raspberries have been culled, the loganberries will join them next and then those gooseberries. I will have wide spacious paths along which I will elegantly waft, stooping now and then to pick glorious garden produce!

Here’s wishing everyone else well in their gardening. I have so much to do to finish the summer tidy up, more focus required. Jim, our host, never seems to lack focus. Stop by and be inspired.

Six On Saturday: Gone missing

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Definitely the sun has gone missing and one or two other things. I read a post on Twitter(?) about the amount of plants that gardeners lose over the years. I lost so many last Winter. I can’t see any sign of a monarda I added to the garden last year, all this year’s annuals failed to thrive and don’t get me started on the plants I lose to slugs and snails. It is part of a gardener’s life. I don’t worry it about it too much now. I walked the garden this morning, braving the rain, and laughed out loud when I saw that every single lettuce planted out two weeks ago had disappeared. On my journey round I collected twelve fat slugs which were served as breakfast to the toads in the compost heap. I hope they get to them before the slugs escape. Here’s six things that were found.

One

Let’s start with some brightness. Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’. I think the slugs did have a nibble at the new shoots earlier in the year but ‘Goldsturm’ fought back and shines in the gloom. This does spread very happily and I have given many a pot to friends.

Two

More cheer in the shape of shasta daisies. These were grown from seed many years back. Some have been flattened down by the rain but this group, in the shadow of an apple tree, have remained upright – so far.

Three

Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Album’ also manage to shine out through the low light. I’ve had these for about five years and it’s only now that they seem to have settled into a good strong clump. The RHS does indicate that it takes five years to reach ultimate height and I can’t argue, well perhaps a little. I don’t think they’ve made it to 1.2m yet!

Four

New to the garden last year to replace a blighted box shrub, this hydrangea ‘Limelight’ isn’t doing too badly. It’s in the shadow of a very large and very old rhododendron so it has had to compete. This year’s rain will have helped it get its roots down.

Five

These kniphofia nearly went missing, one of the early spikes was felled half way up the stem by the munching menaces. I moved one clump last year and it doesn’t seem to have enjoyed it as so far there have been no flowers.

Six

I am considering abandoning all hope here. This is/was hosta ‘Thomas Hogg’. From time to time I have wondered if it was the birds or the slugs who were shredding the leaves. This morning the culprits were caught with their mouths full. Off to the compost heap they went. Maybe it is time for the hosta to be relocated to a pot.

Losses, yes. Gains, yes: from the many self seeders, from plants shared by friends and from new purchases that settle in and last for years. On balance I will keep gardening. It’s a wash out this weekend but I’ll be back out there as soon as possible. Jim, host of the links for this SOS posting meme, continues to show great variety from his garden. Join him and the others for a cornucopia of gardening news.