My inspiration for this week’s six comes from a ‘conversation’ with a fellow sixer on how nice it is see the garden as a whole as well as the splendid photos of individual flowers. So here we go:
One
This is the western end of the north facing border. I’ve been de-weeding it for about two years! It gets slightly more sun particularly at the right hand end where osteospermum flowers very happily in the summer. Of course I haven’t managed to include that corner in this selection. But you can see the large healthy choisya on the right and the two tone unhealthy choisya on the left and the middle. Honestly, it is one plant. When that’s flowered it’s going and this is where the wish list plants will go. This week I added skimmia ‘Kew Green’ to that list. In the middle I have planted the climbing rose ‘Souvenir du Docteur Jamain’. I’m expecting great things as I need it to cover that fence fast.
Two
This is the narrow border against the wall and the border where I was trying to squeeze in more tulips last November. I did succeed in getting some ‘World Friendship’ in, these are the yellow ones but I have two pots full that didn’t make it into the ground. The climbing roses are ‘Blush Noisette’ and ‘Scepter’d Isle’ is just coming up to fill in the gap in the wall. I’ve decided I need a clematis here as well, but which one? The verbena bonariensis also grows up against the wall here.
Three
The short border that faces east. This is a very wet border so the perfect place for cowslips, Siberian irises and the hydrangea ‘Blushing Bride’ which does need its annual prune.
Four
I call this the hedge border. The hedge of box, bay, eleaganus and viburnum marks the change to the veg plot behind. It’s slightly north facing at one end but enjoys the afternoon sun at the other end. The soil is very heavy clay here and the wonderful salvia ‘Amistad’ have not survived the winter. They did make the perfect backdrop to the three r. ‘Darcy Bussell’ so I am tempted to plant them again and take cuttings for insurance.
Five
The turf has been laid. This is the top end of the south facing long border. Previously shaded out by the large BBQ and the large laurel, I now have a planting opportunity for some sun lovers. I may be in line for some crinum bulbs. It’s not a plant I know but I’m told it likes the sun so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Six
Tulips of course. These are the ones in pots. The orange ones, unknown, were dug up with the hydrangea plants and don’t seem to have minded too much about being disturbed. The purple were featured last week and I can confirm, once and for all, that they are ‘Ronaldo’ planted alongside ‘Flaming Spring Green’ and the yellow behind them are ‘World Friendship’. Which is a good note to end on!
More world friendship is on offer at The Prop’s blog. Enjoy your garden this weekend, don’t fret about the weeds and feed the roses!
I’ve planted the same group of plants either side of a small path.. The Agastache ‘Alabaster’ were in the garden already and they have now been joined by Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’, Gaura lindheimeri ‘Whirling Butterflies’ and Pennisetum villosum. Fingers crossed for next summer.
On the diagonal opposite to this area is what was fondly known as ground elder corner. After three summers of digging it out I think I have the upper hand and so I am beginning to put in some permanent plants. First to go in is Trachelospermum jasminoides, a firm six on saturday favourite. I’m hoping it will very quickly cover the great expanse of unattractive brown fence.
Also adding some late colour are these Lillies. Yet more naming debates: are they now Schizostylis, or Hesperantha? I know which one I prefer. These came from the old garden and are bulking up nicely.
And since repetition is allowed and because the late colour is so fabulous, I give you again the Salvia ‘Amistad’ and the Rose, Darcy Bussell. The Salvias mooched along all summer but they have really established themselves in the last month. Darcy Bussell just keeps on putting out new buds.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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