This week was a game of two halves. A cold beginning and now a heatwave. I hope this will persuade a few more tomatoes to ripen. The courgettes keep springing surprises on me in the form of marrows and the french beans carry on being well behaved. The flower garden has seen a few rearrangements with more to come. The first of the six for this week is a welcome discovery.
One
A tiny spire of lirirope muscari ‘Big Blue’. Not quite living up to it’s name yet. It has been three years in development. Billed as a perennial forming dense clumps it has just managed a clump of 10cms. I think I have shocked it into doing something as a few weeks back I threw out two other sister plants on the grounds that they had done nothing at all. Somehow I overlooked this one or perhaps it looked the stronger. I’ll be watching it closely now.
Two
Also gaining a stay of execution is this unknown red rose. It was here in the garden when we arrived and I have planted around it but always thinking that one day it would be moved or given up. Every year it persuades me that it deserves to stay and it has twisted me round its little finger again.
Three
These were in the garden last weekend and have definitely gone now. But they will be making a comeback as apple juice. The apple trees all had a professional prune this year and look better for it. The apples on the oldest tree were smaller but seemed to be just as plentiful. I have 51 bottles of juice to collect.
Four
The passion flower (passiflora caerulea) has an incredible structure, fascinating to look at but it’s becoming too rampant. I plan to completely remove it from the arch it grows over and see if it can be dug out completely. I keep finding seedlings of it around the garden so I think I may be on the losing side.
Five
This blue scabious seems to have only just got into it’s stride, it was moved to a new location at the end of last summer so perhaps it took a while to really settle down. Great things are expected next year though.
Six
Time for an experiment. I have sown some green manure seeds for the first time. The onions came out and the seeds went in. I have to remember to dig the growth over in 40 – 90 days. I hope it does what it says on the packet.
That’s my six for the week. To see more go to The Prop’s site. His six and many more will be revealed.
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.
The trees in the garden are beginning to put on a show. First up is the persimmon tree. There was a bumper crop last year but I’m not a fan. I inherited it with the garden and it does look fabulous in winter when the leaves have dropped and the orange fruits remain.
I also inherited a number of apple trees and here is some delightful apple blossom from one of them. Again, there was a bumper crop last year, we don’t store the apples and there are only so many we can eat so the majority of them are taken off for juicing. We are still drinking the 2017 vintage.
The leaves on the fig trees are just opening. Not such a good year for figs for me last year and the squirrels always get the best of them. I managed to bag a handful!
And after my winter pruning efforts it is always a great relief to see new leaves on the vine. It does produce grapes but so far they have split before we get the chance to taste them. The grape variety is Black Muscat, which I understand is also known as Black Hamburg. Again, I was fortunate enough to inherit this well established vine which shades the pergola.
There is a great foaming wave of Choysia in one sunny corner of the garden. It’s perfectly lined up with a view from the window. Many thanks again to the previous owner.
Finally, all my own work! The white triumphator tulips are still hanging on and are a great companion to the irises that have just begun to flower. There is also a glimpse of the almost open allium ‘purple sensation’ – something for next week!
