#forgetmenots

Six On Saturday: More delights

/ n20gardener / 23 Comments

It’s a holiday weekend here and I have managed to keep two extra days for gardening! In reality this means two days of weeding, mostly. I can sometimes understand the non-gardener’s take on things. I do also have some seedlings and divisions to pot on. It’s not all bad. Here’s six good things from the garden this week.

One

The first camassias are out. They opened up last weekend which seems rather early but they are coinciding nicely with the euphorbia.

Two

There are more tulips to enjoy, these are at the shadier end of the garden and are a mixture of ‘Shirley’, ‘Barcelona’ and ‘Queen of Night’.

Three

The iberis is in full flow, cascading down a wall and there are one or two ‘Thalia’ narcissus in the background.

Four

I have my first asparagus spear, several of the later ones have been nibbled by the darling ones.

Five

The forget-me-nots have flooded the veg plot this year. I’ll have to been pretty quick to pull those up before they go to seed but for the moment they are a cheerful sight.

Six

I have one lone tulip ‘Cairo’ of about twenty I planted a couple of years back. It’s a lovely colour and I am tempted to add some more. I just have to accept that they don’t always stick around.

So it’s weeding and watering the pots for me. We had one good shower but that’s all and only light showers are forecast. I had a rest from my daughter’s gardening – avoiding the dismantling of the tree house but I did see that a mystery tree there is now in leaf and flower and is clearly a laburnum. Not one of my favourites but as I keep saying, it’s not my garden!

I’ll will be stopping by Jim’s garden this weekend to see what’s going on there and with the other SOS gardens. Wishing everyone a happy time in their gardening spaces.

Six On Saturday: Cold April slows my progress

/ n20gardener / 21 Comments

I’m not quite sure how but the garden seems to have been unscathed by the overnight minus temperatures of this week. The magnolia looks fine, the plum blossom seems intact and newly emerging perennials are undaunted. Another cold night is forecast for Sunday but then it looks like positive numbers for the rest of the week. I am still holding back on the seed sowing, but of course there is always an exception. I sowed a tray of nicotiana ‘Whisper’ yesterday. I think these are the smallest seeds I have ever sown, no wonder the guidance is not to cover them with any soil. Here’s six other things that feature in the garden this week

One

The tulips are appearing. I think these are ‘Negrita’. They are part of a mixed planting of ‘Ronaldo’ and ‘Spring Green’ which should be through in the next week.

Two

Forget-me-nots and tulips always seem to work well. I do let them self seed where they like but then I follow behind extricating them from the places that I don’t want them to inhabit.

Three

I think the removal of the willow tree from next door is going to give me some light on the corner of this bed so there will be some re-jigging this weekend to make room for a lamprocapnos spectabilis ‘Alba’. The geranium will be thinned out again – Wargrave Pink I think, it spreads very easily.

Four

I have some grown from seed thalictrum delavayi still being nurtured in the greenhouse. Next week they will start spending the days outside in preparation for planting out.

Five

Already living outside and should have been planted out by now, but you know how it is…. are these seedlings of the perennial digitalis lutea. For some time now I have eyeing these suspiciously, wondering if I had been carefully growing weeds. But they have put on a spurt in the last week and I am convinced they are luteas. Don’t hesitate to correct me if you think otherwise! (They are definitely not helleborus niger – just recycling!).

Six

My plan to plant out the last of the potatoes has been thwarted. Whilst digging the second trench I came across some rubble. Unfortunately that was only a herald of things to come. The next discovery was a much more resistant obstacle. The muscle men were called in and after further excavation they decreed that mechanical equipment would be required to break up what looks like the very solid foundations of an Anderson shelter. Live with it or lose it? I am waiting for a quote. The top of the foundation is about a foot deep so I could section the corner off and live with it. We shall see,

Oh for some kinder weather so that I can confidently commit to the garden rather than tiptoeing around the edges worrying about frosts or freezing winds. I ventured out one day last week to tie in the summer fruiting raspberries but was soon back in the warm. The calendula seedlings are reappearing so, despite my hesitation, the ground must be warming up. Time to man up and get out there! I’m sure The Prop will be inspiring me, as will the other gardeners that take part in Six On Saturday.