I hope I’ve said this before because it needs to be said. Thank you to the Prop for starting up this meme and for keeping us all in order. There’s much to be gained from taking a look at all the posts that are contributed and there is a lovely supply of help and support on offer, so take a moment to stop by. Thanks to everyone last week who pointed me in the direction of gauras and pennisetums. I always thought that grasses were not for my garden but now I think I have the perfect place for them. Time to move on to this week’s six:
One
Cutting back plants after flowering really can work. The alchemilla mollis which were sheared to the ground have come through again and at this time of year they look beautiful with their dressing of early morning dew.
Two
This is Geranium ‘Brookside’. It roamed through the garden in early summer, knowing no boundaries and so cutting it back when it finished flowering caused me no stress. The plant needed to be tidied up. This week I noticed it was flowering again.
Three
Also starting up again are the seedlings of Nigella, love in a mist. I have a carpet of them which I should probably be thinning out and sharing around the garden. But I might just leave them all here to keep the weeds down and see how they come through next year.
Four
In the greenhouse I have managed to keep a tray of foxgloves and echinacea pallida seedlings alive and it looks like some potting on needs to be done. Temperatures are on the up next week so they I hope they will put on some good growth once moved into a pot.
Five
Encouraged by the good example of others I decided to try some winter vegetables. I rescued a tray of rainbow chard and perpetual spinach from certain death and planted them out a few weeks ago. The pesky slugs made straight for them but they have pulled through and growth looks good.
Six
Last November I planted out bare root roses in a new border and Darcy Bussell is still flowering. I am impatiently waiting for the roses to become fully established but even in the first year the flowers have been rewarding.
I hope your garden or allotment is rewarding you and that we all manage to find a moment this weekend to appreciate them.
From the Albert 1er gardens just off the Promenade des Anglais. A great selection of tropical plants, all of which were unknown to me except under the vague heading of palms or cactus like things. This one did have an information board close by so I can tell you it is Asparagaceae Dasylirion Longissium LEM. or Totem du Mexique. Frost resistant to -12 degrees apparently.
From a sun baked border at the Musee Matisse in Cimiez. A mixture of the familiar and the exotic.
I have long wondered if I should incorporate some grasses into the garden and I love this combination. Does anyone knows what the planting is? I don’t think it would fit the scale of my garden but it was so light and feathery that it did go on the ‘in my dreams’ list!
More beautiful grasses and ? I hope the photo is clear enough for you to put forward suggestions.
A riot of colour to end on. I wish I could get my garden to look like this in September! Maybe this is the result of good deep borders and planting for height. Something for me to consider.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
n20gardener 