#persicaria

Six On Saturday: Eyes peeled

/ n20gardener / 21 Comments

Unfortunately I had my eyes tight shut during last night’s solar storm over the UK. Pictures from neighbours suggest it was quite impressive. Elsewhere I have had them peeled as more and more of the late Spring garden is emerging. Here’s six from the garden this week.

One

This is one of my favourite corners of the garden. It’s planted with thalictrum ‘Black Stocking’, three of them, with the rose Jaqueline du Pré and geranium ‘Wargrave Pink’. I had to cut back two branches of the dying viburnum that sits behind to the right. This has turned out to be a good thing as the view has opened up. There is still one branch of the viburnum standing and this one is full of new shoots. We shall see how it fares.

Two

The first wave of camassias are over, the second wave has just arrived. These light blue ones have the long name of camassias Leichtlinii subsp suksdorfii Caerulea group. I had a plan to plant a white form of camassias in another part of the garden but today’s Dig Delve newsletter from Dan Pearson has persuaded me otherwise. He says they self-seed mercilessly. I will have to have another think.

Three

Just along from the thalictrum is a clump of persicaria bistorta ‘Superba’. It has a reputation for spreading but so far has been reasonably well behaved.

Four

The aquilegias have got into their stride now we have had some sunshine. These are all self-seeders.

Five

Speaking of sunshine, put your sunglasses on for this one. The new leaves of the Hart’s tongue fern, or asplenium scolopendrium. I’ve finished cutting back the old fronds from three of them that seem happy in a dryish shady corner.

Six

In another dark corner, north facing, these melica altissima ‘Alba’ grasses are thriving and give a light softness to this border.

Elsewhere in the garden, I have offered up my dwarf French beans to the slugs – with coffee grounds and beer traps as protection. I don’t really have enough coffee grounds but I’ll be adding to the defences on a weekly basis. The tomato plants are getting stronger and I have sown courgette seeds. I don’t have too many flower seedlings as a couple of half trays look non-germinating but that means less toing and froing in and out of the greenhouse to harden things off. I hope things are going well with your garden, there’s more to be discovered on Jim’s page. Happy gardening.

Six on Saturday: Rethinking yet again

/ n20gardener / 15 Comments

Another year in this garden has been chalked up and another area of the garden has come under scrutiny. After some painful picking of the gooseberries a decision was reached. The netting and un-netting, the pruning, the gooseberry sawfly and the thorny harvesting which often results in more gooseberries than we need, has led to the decision to let the gooseberries go. That was decision one. Decision two was not to replace the greenhouse that was destroyed in a storm last winter. I was all set to invest in a shiny new one but my neighbour’s tree is still standing and the thought of a second storm hurling down branches on a new greenhouse was too painful to bear. I have one smaller greenhouse that serves well enough for seed growing and chilis. I am moving on and am now looking at re-organising the veg and fruit plot at the back of the garden. More to come, in the meantime here is six from the garden this week.

One

Last week I showed a echinacea ‘White Swan’ that had reverted to a purple form. Here is another patch of ‘White Swan’ also being invaded by a purple form. How interesting.

Two

This is my attempt to show the very delicate thalictrum delavayi which was grown from seed a few years ago. I have about three plants and they are just beginning to get to a good size in the garden. I hope you can spot it in amongst everything else.

Three

The apple crop is looking good this year. The June drop seems to have come in July, no doubt the blustery winds have helped with the thinning.

Four

The erigeron karvinskianus really suffered over the cold winter but it is tenacious here and those that held on have got going again and are reclaiming their territory.

Five

This photo of ‘James Galway’ climbing rose also sums up the weather this week. There’s not been much sunshine and the skies have been grey most of the week.

Six

I am so undecided about this one. It’s persicaria polymorpha. Billed as upright stems and suitable for semi-shade, I used it at the back of the garden in the hope of shielding the neighbour’s fence. It should reach two metres. This is the second year and it’s not made that height yet and so far it is being a little floppy. Less so this year though. I will give it another year, patience is not my strong point!

Over to Jim’s garden to see what he has on offer this weekend. Wishing you all a good gardening time whenever you can manage to get out there!

Six on Saturday: Whose garden is it?

/ n20gardener / 19 Comments

June is the month, that seven years ago, I took over this garden. The previous owner had loved his soft fruit and fruit trees but much of the rest of the garden had gone to weeds. That family was the second family to garden here. There is evidence in archived local newspapers that the first owner also loved his soft fruits and had won prizes for raspberries. There has been over 100 years of gardening here and I am gradually leaving my mark. I have come to appreciate that I share this garden with the past, with the numerous slugs and snails, with the foxes and cats and with the birds and insects. I share it with my neighbours too. Sometimes they have no choice as the clematis armandii knows no bounds. I also get to share theirs. Their roses peek over the fence. The hawthorn and ceanothus in Spring take my eye to their gardens and in June I enjoy a superb display of flowers from a neighbouring elder tree. Seven years of this garden has passed by so quickly and there is so much more to do. Here’s six for this week.

One

This is the creature that prompted this little outburst. A red admiral butterfly on a hosta. The hosta is in a pot at the end of garden. At this time of year it basks in the evening sun and this a favourite end of day spot for a visit. Clearly the butterfly also agrees but it is not so keen on sharing and each evening it dive bombs us in an effort to persuade us to leave this little corner. The butterfly always wins. This is the third year of this interesting behaviour.

Two

A combination of persicaria bistorta ‘Superba’ and alchemilla mollis. This has probably been in the garden for about five years. The persicaria has spread a little but not too aggressively.

Three

The suns rays shining through the lovely geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’. This is a garden share from an aunt and has been divided and lifted many times. It has been with me for, and it seems incredible to say this, about twenty years, joining us in each house move.

Four

The roses are exuberant at the moment. This is ‘Darcy Bussell’, great colour and scent.

Five

And this is ‘Jaqueline du ‘Pré’. Looking at its very best in this photo.

Six

Lastly, the very rampant geranium ‘Brookside’ with the rose ‘Gertrude Jekyll’. One of the previous residents of this house was a Gertrude so I hope this meets her approval.

The Six On Saturday meme is all about sharing gardens. Our host is Jim of Garden Ruminations and each week he shares the links to the posts of other SOS gardeners. All are welcome to stop by to have a look and to take part. It’s going to be very hot this weekend, I will briefly mention the lack of rain and the diminishing water storage. But let us enjoy what we can – it is Summer.

Six On Saturday: Glass half full thinking

/ n20gardener / 8 Comments

I’ve had a spell of not gardening: either it was too hot or I was busy elsewhere. The UK Bank Holiday weekend offered up cooler weather and some precious time. The garden was looking scruffy and I thought I’d give an honest six this week showing it’s disarray. But this morning’s walk round revealed a few positives and I have been persuaded to look on the bright side. Here they are, mixed in with a some reflections on the less successful aspects of the garden.

One

The roses continue to push out new growth and are the mainstay of colour in the garden at the moment. This is ‘Madame Isaac Péreire’. Nearby there should be a pop of helenium ‘Short and Sassy’. Not a sign of it, eaten by the slugs in it’s first year in the garden. That’s heleniums crossed off the grow list.

Two

Sorry to be repetitive but not being a fan of dahlias I don’t really grow them. However I do recognise their valuable contribution to late season colour and so I try one or two here and there. This year’s trial was the orange flowering ‘David Howard’. I was going to kill two birds with one stone here, beautiful chocolate leaves giving me a break from green and ochre orange flowers for contrast. The aforementioned slugs got in first and nibbled down the top growth. The dahlias fought back and the foliage is lush, but as yet not a sign of flowers. I wait patiently, maybe they will come.

Three

The back border was newly planted this year with a selection of grasses and three persicaria polymorpha. The white frothy flowers are exactly what I had in mind, but the stems do not seem to be able to support the flower heads and I regularly find snapped stems languishing in amongst the froth. This is most strange as the description suggests it is a ‘bulky feature plant making strong stems’. Next year perhaps?

Four

Before the back border was planted up I used it as a heeling in space for various self seeders from the main garden. In one of those serendipitous moments this astrantia ‘Roma’ combined well with periscaria, survived the drought and has won a permanent place in the back border where I hope it will self seed some more.

Five

I’m definitely focusing on the positives in this photo. The hydrangeas are a sad scorched affair this year but with the help of a few showers of rain they have shown their resilience. There’s new growth to be seen and one or two heads of new flowers have appeared.

Six

Apologies for sharing more tomato photographs. The San Marzano in the greenhouse have been amazing this year. I was extravagant and bought new seed, then planted the seedlings in a new bed on the other side of the greenhouse and focused my watering attention on them. We’ve been eating them for a few weeks and have also frozen a batch of cooked up passata.

Oh the joy of selective photographs, my scruffy gone-to-seed garden offers up some gems and I can put together a positive viewpoint. My mind is racing with plans to replant certain areas and I have been sowing seed of echinacea pallida and e. ‘White Swan’ in preparation. I have not ordered any spring bulbs and have no plans to. Those late offers may tempt me of course but for now I am reviewing what I have and looking at how to rework plants to better advantage. It all begins again, another year, another chance.

For more gardening thoughts take a look at The Propagator’s site, he’s not in this week as there is another mammoth run to be completed but as always the links to other SOS posts will appear over the weekend. Happy reflections on your gardening year. I will soon be collecting the juice from this year’s apple crop. That’s one for next week already in the bank.

Six On Saturday: Changing seasons

/ n20gardener / 22 Comments

It was a busy gardening weekend last week.  The extra day, a bank holiday in the UK, was spent helping out at the Finchley Horticultural Society allotment NGS open day.  Fortunately after the wash out that was Sunday, Monday remained dry and the allotment looked verdant.  Of course I was tempted by the plants the growers had for sale and I came away with this:

One

IMG_2810A 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.

Two

IMG_2808I 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!

Three

IMG_2819Every 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.

Four

IMG_2812Just 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.

Five

IMG_2816
Also adding some brightness are the self seeded calendulars that spring up around the garden.  The insects seem to like them too.  The ones on the veg patch are dropping seed and new plants are already growing.

Six

IMG_2817Given 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.

That’s my six for the week.  There are plenty more to view at The Propagator.  If you stop off there I recommend you also read his Garden Blogger’s Hierarchy of Needs a brilliant summary of what gardeners do and why they sometimes post and sometimes don’t. I hope you all find time to garden this weekend – that’s the important bit.