#mallow

Six On Saturday: Plants that do it by themselves

/ n20gardener / 12 Comments

There was much anticipation here on Friday. Thunderstorms and rain were forecast. Nothing significant materialised. I will have to water the potatoes today and check on the newly planted tomatoes and courgettes. A friend who is well ahead of me has her first courgette already. There may be no rain but some plants just get on with things. Here’s six from the garden this week.

One

Peony, I did bring peonies from the old garden but they didn’t seem to take. Then after eight years this one appeared. It’s in the wrong place surrounded by roses and veronicastrum but I’m not going to move it in case it takes to not flowering again.

Two

This is the garden path. Almost impassable with the sprawl of plants escaping from the borders. It’s full of bees humming through the flowers so at this time of year I take the long way round across the lawn.

Three

Self-seeders are the theme in the garden this week. These calendulas are plentiful at the veg end of the garden.

Four

This year they have been joined by self-seeded nigella love-in-a-mist. I’ve left it to edge a narrow strip where I have sown carrots.

Five

More self-seeding, mallows have come through from the compost heap which I tend to use for earthing up potatoes. I’ve let them stay at the end of one of the veg beds.

Six

My final self-seeder is alchemilla mollis. This is also happy overwintering as seed in the compost heap or self seeding in the borders.

Wishing you all well in your gardens. It’s dead-heading roses and weeding for me. Jim’s garden is open for viewing literally and digitally. Garden Ruminations is the place to be, even if I am envious of his rain.

Six On Saturday: Harvesting

/ n20gardener / 14 Comments

I’ve been enjoying produce from the garden over the last few weeks. Early battles with slugs were fought and my use of home-made compost as a mulch resulted in a generous supply of verbena bonariensis and alchemilla mollis seedlings. So many that I now classify these as weeds at this end of the garden. The hose was out even though we had a few showers of rain and there is a forecast for scorchio temperatures for Sunday and Monday. In other news, I decided to leave twitter and I have migrated to Bluesky. I will keep the weekly post here going. Here’s my six for this week.

One

Here’s my lovely haul of beans, cucumbers and courgettes. I should also have added in the red onions and some lovely Charlotte potatoes. The cucumbers are grown outside and are delivering regularly. The red onions were a little better than other years but there where still some that did not achieve a good size.

Two

Blackberry picking has commenced, a kilo picked last week and shared with friends. This week’s pickings will also be shared as family are staying.

Three

This low growing mallow happily seeds itself around the garden and is left to do it’s thing.

Four

The hibiscus ‘Red Heart’ came to the garden in August last year and is doing well. I’m hoping it will reach the top of the garden wall by next year when it will, I hope, look magnificent!

Five

Last year I moved the white phlox out from under the apple tree. It was not getting enough moisture there. I now have several dotted around the garden and they have flowered well with the benefit of a little more light and space.

Six

Lastly, a new plant for this year. Helichrysum italicum, or the curry plant. The silvery grey leaves are very curry scented. I’ve always liked the little yellow flower heads and when the opportunity arose to give one a new home I jumped at it. I’m not sure if I can get it through the winter but we shall see. It’s in a pot so I can shelter it.

I’ll definitely be watering again this weekend. I’ll be hoping that the sunshine helps to ripen my outdoor tomatoes and I’ll be having another go at the weeds. I hope to get over to Jim’s to read some more SOS posts. Happy gardening to all.

Six On Saturday: Lagging behind

/ n20gardener / 14 Comments

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: Pinky, greeny, white flowers

/ n20gardener / 14 Comments

Around time of year I’m usually on my way to Suffolk with a stop off at the Beth Chatto gardens. The gardens are open now but the trip to Suffolk is off. Which is a shame because a week on the Suffolk coast next week might be a blessed relief. Temperatures here are forecast to make 30 degrees. At least the garden has had a very good soak and the water butts are almost replenished. Here’s this week’s six.

One

I’m opening with this is mallow, or malva moschata.  I didn’t realise just how pretty it was until I took the close up.  Beautiful and it is a regular self seeder that fills a corner of the garden quite happily doing its thing with very little attention.

Two

The hydrangeas which were gasping for a drop of the good stuff are very happy now.  This one is hydrangea macrophylla ‘Blushing Bride’.  Being one of the Endless Summer ranges apparently it can flower on new and old wood. Something I did not know before today.  

Three

The lilies that are in a pot by one of the pergola legs opened up last weekend. Just in time to provide some scented evening distractions.

Four

From Cornwall to France the Yuccas have been flowering and here I offer a flowering cordyline.  Which by coincidence came all the way from Cornwall some twenty years ago.   It has lived in a pot for all those years, with a belated move to a larger pot about three years ago.  It has never flowered before and I don’t know if it will again but here it is for now. 

Five

This clear white geranium is sanguineum ‘Album’ used in the northern corner of the garden and is finally in flower.  

Six

And just around the corner is this inherited geranium.  White with beautiful pink veining. It was quite a large clump so I divided it up and dotted it around the garden on the shadier side and it has done well in all locations.  I wonder if it could be ‘Kashmiri White’.  

I’m going to be making the most of this cool weekend to get some gardening jobs done.  The last stragglers of the annuals to be planted out.  There are tomatoes to be looked over – those side shoots are sprouting fast and the second sowing of french beans to be put in the ground.  Enjoy your gardening jobs and look in at  The Prop’s Place for his six  (I have fallen for sidalcea ‘Rosaly’) and all the links to other good gardening blogs.