Six On Saturday: Time to trowel up

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It may be hard to find six things in the garden at this time of the year but as I walked round this morning it was clear that the weeds are having a lovely time. They shine out as splashes of green in amongst the soggy brown mess of collapsed perennials. I spotted a forest of euphorbia seedlings that need dealing with and I must start thinking about potatoes and veg seeds. Last weekend was a family weekend as will be most of this one. Those roses are still waiting their prune. I’ll have to start soon, when the rain stops. Here’s my six for the week.

One

Off the edge, a fellow SOSer, reminded me that there are cyclamens out there. Mine are in the front garden and this photo was taken last Sunday at about 4pm. The leaves are quite striking, the flowers less so – I think the snails have been munching.

Two

The snow drops have just produced their first buds. Little spots of white that I can just detect from the kitchen window.

Three

I wasn’t such a fan of the slightly metallic foliage of this heuchera but it did look rather good today,

Four

I have to add another of the hybridised hellebores, these self seed quite happily and I have been known to move them around, even though they apparently don’t like to be disturbed.

Five

New buds are forming on the Rhododendron ponticum, I thought it was on its last legs last year as it struggled through drought but it hangs on.

Six

This euphorbia characias subsp. Wulfenii could be the parent of the seedlings in a nearby border, but the new leaf growth on the seedlings looks slightly different. I’ll pot up some of the seedlings and see what develops.

That’s my six for the week, I hope you can find some things to enjoy in your gardening spaces. Jim at Garden Ruminations shares his treasures and the links to other posts so do drop by, Happy gardening.

Six On Saturday: Released

/ n20gardener / 18 Comments

The garden has been frozen for about a week but the lying frost has gone now and warm temperatures are heading this way – for a few days. Storm Goretti howled around for a while but thankfully did not do us any damage. The lowest temperature recorded in the greenhouse was -4.5 degrees centigrade. The garden tour this morning revealed plenty of new shoots, jobs to be done and plants going over. Here’s the six for this week.

One

The hellebores really do some heavy lifting at this time of year. I have some that readily self seed but these ‘Pretty Ellen Red’ just stay in their place and do their thing. I have not yet cut back any leaves, a job that is weighing on my conscience.

Two

The flowers on the viburnum have just begun to open. I lost one old shrub this year and this one had a very severe chop back. It was more of a tree than a shrub. Here’s hoping it will grow back well and into a good shape.

Three

The ornamental grasses have done well but are beginning to look scruffy. Cutting them back will be a job for the end of January, but here’s a miscanthus that still looks good.

Four

Losses to box blight and caterpillar damage has left me with one sole survivor, this sarcococca confusa which is generously showing its flowers and berries. I hope it can hold out against attack again.

Five

I have four ‘Wisely’ roses that I allowed to grow up tall and wide. They need a thorough prune each year to thin out the stems. This year I am thinking that it is time to reduce the height as well. I could be some time.

Six

The wooden compost heap bins were installed about six years ago and are rotting away. This has been on the ‘to do’ list for about six months. Perhaps going public with it will encourage me to order the replacement slats and posts and get started.

Things are stirring in the garden, which means that although it’s all a bit lean at the moment there are good things on the horizon. Our host Jim at Garden Ruminations continues to turn up new gems, including updates on Beaver the hedgehog so do stop by and have a look.

Six On Saturday: Full moon on the rise

/ n20gardener / 12 Comments

Today is the first full moon of the year, a supermoon. This one is known as the wolf moon. The clear skies that are keeping my garden frost bound will no doubt ensure a good view of it tonight. There is something magical about seeing a supermoon, bizarrely they make me think of the garden and all that is to come. There are plenty of jobs to be done here but this is not the weather for them. Here are six things I found on my frosty walk round.

One

As I result of not posting over the last few months I do have one or two unshown plants that are just hanging on. Here’s the very last of the hesperantha.

Two

The Corsican hellebores have been in flower for a few weeks and look as though they are standing up to the frost well.

Three

I was quite excited to think that at least I would have the hellebores at the end of the garden to show. But on turning the corner I was met with a very sad sight. Frost here has encouraged them all to hang their heads even lower.

Four

The plan in this section of the garden was to give the space over to two oak leafed hydrangeas and fill in around them with hellebores, tulips and camassias. It’s a work in progress and hydrangeas are quite slow growing. The leaf is quite lovely though.

Five

There are one or two primroses having a go at brightening up odd corners of the garden.

Six

Lastly the berries of iris foetidissima do shine out from under the hedges. All generously donated by the birds. These appear wherever there is a good resting perch.

Not too bad for the first week of the New Year. Goodness knows what there will be next week. My list of jobs to do includes pruning roses and blackcurrants. I can leave them until the temperatures rise a little. I can see new shoots coming through for the miniature daffodils. As always the garden continues. Jim at Garden Ruminations provides our rallying point for SOS so do drop by and take a look around the other gardens.

Six On Saturday: End of year

/ n20gardener / 18 Comments

I’ve not post for sometime now as my Mum had a period of poor health. She’s doing better now and is adjusting to her less mobile life. I’m hoping to be able to resume regular posting in the New Year. For this end of year post I’m picking up from my last post and sharing a few things from the last few months.

One

Our bumper crop of apples delivered over 70 bottles of juice this year. We got through several bottles for Christmas breakfasts this week. Delicious.

Two

Salvia Blackcurrant Sage (Salvia microphylla) did well this year. I was brave enough to cut it back hard after winter and it did keep it from becoming too leggy.

Three

Back in October I managed to plant some bulbs. I had ordered a collection of miniature daffodils to grow in pots. The selection included Snipe, White Petticoat, Toto and a few tulips: Hilde and Turkestanica.

Four

The new rowan tree has done well. It was watered weekly over the dry summer and although the height is around 1.5 metres the glorious display of leaves gives a good sign of things to come.


Five

This was the persimmon tree in November. It seemed to ripen a few weeks earlier this year. The black blob in the branches is a crow. We usually see flocks of parakeets feasting on the fruit but the crows took a fancy to them this year and seemed to scare off the parakeets.

Six

Ending on a seasonal note the ivy from the garden was used to decorate the stairs, intertwined with fake berries, red ribbons and fir cone lights.

I hope you all enjoyed celebrations or quiet times to reflect. I have spend so little time in the garden of late but I’m hoping to have more time in the New Year. It’s suitably cold now but I’m sure there’s a few jobs that need to be done. I hope to be reporting more regularly once again. Peace, love and garden joy to you all.

Many thanks to Jim at Garden Ruminations for keeping this all going. Stop by for his six and the links to other gardening posts.

Six On Saturday: Back to the gardening fold

/ n20gardener / 17 Comments

Having had a sprained ankle, a family function and other distractions going on for the last few weeks I feel I am finally gardening again. The season has shifted and there is plenty of garden-keeping to be done. I have ordered a few bulbs: I am pursuing my Spring idea to have pots of small but interesting narcissus to enjoy and I needed some Maureen tulips to infill a gap. Here’s my six from this morning’s walk.

One

The apples have been picked. We have six sack fulls to take off for juicing. Quite a haul, given the great number of windfalls we have had this year. I checked with our Juicers and they confirmed that apples with codling moth damage can be juiced. I’m sure we’ve always had some damage but this year it seemed to have affected more apples.

Two

I did find a new person to prune the apples and the plum but as yet he hasn’t been able to visit. The plum tree is far too large now and I am wondering how late in the season the necessary pruning can be done. We’ve been picking plums for several weeks but it might be time to call it quits.

Three

The rain has energised the garden, the grass is growing again and many plants are looking happier. Here the Corsican hellebores and a fatsia that have really developed a backbone again.

Four

The verbena bonariensis seeds prolifically, often leaning over the path or other plants. Here it seems to have found the perfect spot. It has remained upright and is looking especially good in the Autumn light.

Five

I’m sowing Autumn seeds. The echinacea ‘White Swan’ came good but I am on my second sowing of Orlaya and Gaura. Let’s hope they get going this time.

Six

I’ve also been shopping for my troublesome border. The hydrangeas went in earlier this year and are a dwarf variety called ‘Little White’ which should reach 60cms and I’m just about to fill in the gaps with hakonechloa macra.

Here’s hoping I’m back in the groove again! The walk round revealed plenty of slug damage to my new delphiniums and much that needs dead-heading. I’ve yet to pull up the tomato plants but that’s just about due. In a taste test on the cucumbers ‘Burpless’ were a clear winner over ‘Marketmore’. Plans for next year are being made. Wishing you all a happy Autumn in your gardening spaces. Jim’s Garden Ruminations is full of Autumn inspiration.

Six On Saturday: Gardening, not gardening

/ n20gardener / 14 Comments

I was absent without leave last Saturday as I had twisted my ankle in the week and I was definitely not in a gardening frame of mind. The ankle is improving, there has been some rain and the days are not so hot so all in all things are looking better. Here’s six things from the garden I hobbled round today.

One

The tomatoes have been ripening at a steady pace. I have not watered them quite so much as in previous years and they seem not to have minded. Maybe there’s a lesson to be learned there.

Two

I remember writing a few weeks back that new flowers on the dwarf beans were few and far between. But look: second pickings did materialise and there are more to come.

Three

On the flower front, the roses also seem to have coped with less water. This one is the climber ‘James Galway’.

Four

I sowed seeds of delphiniums earlier in the year and have seven plants on the go, this one has even put up a flower spike.

Five

In the flower border a bought-in delphinium has also just come into flower. A good strong blue, can I remember the name – no.

Six

The annuals that I sowed for the old fig tree site have also coped with the dry conditions and this week’s rain has encouraged them even more.

The garden is littered with fallen apples. Most are infected with codling moth caterpillars. The wise trees seem to know which ones to shed first. I’ve a whole host of pruning and removal jobs to done which I have handed over to a tree surgeon. I shall sit back and enjoy the garden while fretting about the weeds. Situation normal perhaps! Here’s the link for Jim’s Garden Ruminations were the SOS merry band gather each week to share gardening news. Happy Gardening everyone.

Six On Saturday: Careless gardening 2.0

/ n20gardener / 18 Comments

Life has a habit of getting in the way of gardening sometimes and so it has been the case this year. The drought has made matter worse as more time is needed for watering duties. I thought I was on top of the apple trees, thinning them out and religiously picking up the brown rot apples. But it was not so. Here’s my six from the garden this week.

One

The apples are much smaller this year but the number is plentiful and even though I had been thinning them I was clearly being too kind. This bough broke and the quantity of apples was immense. On today’s tour of the garden another broken branch was spotted. I have to get tougher.

Two

I’m growing marmande tomatoes this year and they are just ripening. There is always one tomato that does this. Fasciation I think. Does anyone else find this?

Three

The miscanthus ‘Silberfeder’ gets a photo to itself this week. After three years it has formed a sizeable clump and is providing a good distraction from the fence behind.

Four

The grapes on the vine are actually ripening this year. There is some splitting but not as much as in previous years. They have had no additional watering. The vine is grown to shade a pergola so any edible fruits that we do get will be a bonus.

Five

The scented leaf pelargonium ‘Capitatum’ was left outside last winter as the greenhouse was being replaced. As you can see, it survived and is doing very well.

Six

These are the apples from the fallen bough. Quite a lot as you can see and plenty of very small ones that I should have picked off. Live and learn.

Garden Ruminations is the place to go for all the SOS links and for Jim’s wise words. After another week of hot temperatures here I am looking forward to next week which will at least be cooler even if, once again, no rain is forecast.

Six On Saturday: Thoughts from a dry garden

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Another month without any significant rain. I am on the last of the stored water from a brief downpour a few weeks back. The stored water goes to watering pots and the veg patch. I pinched out all the tomatoes at two trusses in an attempt to get those that had formed to plump up on stingy water rations. I usually get a second crop of dwarf beans but I see no flowers forming. The self-seeded rocket is managing without water but in the flower garden things are going over fast. I’m watering those plants new to the garden last year. I resisted buying new for this summer for which I give myself a pat on the back. Here’s six things that are coping with the dry conditions.

One

I give myself another pat on the back for staking and pinching out the one dahlia I have in the garden. It’s a cactus variety grown from seed a few years back. It’s not been watered which I think has limited the flowers but here’s one that has done well.

Two

The hollyhocks are just about managing in the drought, here’s a pink one that has spread itself about, even over the fence to my neighbour’s garden.

Three

These dazzling geranium psilostemon were cut back to the ground about three weeks ago and have re-flowered superbly.

Four

The ‘Hawkshead’ fuchsia is just opening out. It seems to be settling in well after looking half dead in February.

Five

The penstemons were also cut back after the first flowering and have also rewarded the attention with a second flush of flowers. I think this one is ‘Garnet’ which doesn’t appear on my plant list. An oversight I think.

Six

The white veronicastrum is just beginning to go over but has done well without additional watering.

There’s still no hose pipe ban here but I aim to manage without using mains water for as long as I can. I’m happy it’s going to be dry again this weekend as we have family here and we can sit outside and survey the parched garden. Frozen fruit is defrosting for another summer pudding, there are not quite enough raspberries from our garden so extra has been bought in. Here’s hoping your gardens are doing well and that there is time to enjoy them. Jim’s garden looks impressively colourful and he has posted a link to a video of it as visitors to his open days experience it. Worth taking a look I think.

Six On Saturday: Changing times

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We are into August and I feel the Summer shifting towards the next season. I was quick off the mark with cutting back the geranium psilostemon and they have rewarded me with a new flurry of flowers. My goal for the coming week is to deal with the alchemilla mollis and the hebes. The first tomatoes have ripened which always makes me think of Autumn. I should be looking at bulb catalogues and sorting out an order of special daffodils for the pots but I haven’t quite settled to that yet. Here’s six things from my garden this week.

One

I am still waiting to see if my pots of thalictrum seedlings are purple or white. Here’s the white one that’s flowering in the garden. Thalictrum delavayi ‘Album’. It should grow to over a metre but it stays stubbornly at about 30 cms. Right plant, wrong place?

Two

And this is thalictrum delavayi in its purple form. This one has self-seeded generously and once settled it does grow tall. Here it is mixed with veronicastrum virginicum ‘Album’, miscanthus ‘Silberfeder’ and magenta phlox.

Three

I moved the pennisetum villosum to a sunnier spot last year and it does seem happier. It has been on the verge of disappearing from several years now. Let’s hope it can cling on through another winter.

Four

The Japanese anemone ‘September Charm’ are always the first in flower. This year they have been hit hard by the drought. Crispy stems and leaves, drooping flower buds looked terminal but there was a shower of rain and they perked up.

Five

The solidago golden rod was in the garden when I arrived. I thought I had driven it out but it reappeared last year and here it is again. It’s a tall version and does an excellent job of hiding the fence so it stays.

Six

Montbretia or crocosmia. I have always called them crocosmia but I think these are probably montbretia, which seems to be the name for the more invasive form. Inherited again and I did spend a great deal of time trying to dig them out as they never flowered. This year I have flowers. Who knows why?

I visited my daughter’s garden to see how things were. Taking down the old shed and fences proved easy but putting up the new fence was not a success. The ground was too hard to excavate deep enough post holes and various quantities of brick were found along the fence line suggesting that in amongst the undergrowth there might be a retaining wall. Work stopped and they are calling in the specialists. Fortunately they were able to secure the fence line. The garden is now piled high with the undergrowth that was cleared, a miscellany of items left in the old shed and splinters of wood. Bindweed is rampant and the lawn is brown. It’s not the green sanctuary that was envisaged and spirits were low. The green bin was refilled for another collection and a rose was planted. There is a glimmer of hope rising again.

I’m still longing for promised thunderstorms and downpours that mysteriously bypass the garden. I have plans for new planting which I am strongly resisting until September. Deadheading is the order of the day. That’s tomorrow’s work. Happy gardening to you all and if you have time stop by and see what Garden Ruminations has on offer.

Six On Saturday: Mainly from seed

/ n20gardener / 13 Comments

It’s been a busy week here and so today was the first good walk round the garden since last Saturday. Funnily enough the same weeds are still there and in spite of a downpour that filled the water butts the garden is still showing signs of drought. Most of the stored water goes to watering the veg patch which is in great need of it. Here’s my six for this week.

One

Last week I was enjoying hydrangea paniculata from other SOS gardens and wondering why my weren’t in flower. Here they are. They were probably in flower last week, I just hadn’t looked in that corner. This variety is ‘Limelight’, it grows in quite a shady place.

Two

I have been editing out the self-seeders of alchemilla mollis, good old VB, and g. psilostemon but I’ll always keep any antirrhinum. Could this one be ‘Chantilly Lace’? These have popped up in three different places since they were sown about three years ago.

Three

Hollyhocks also self seed happily, this one has placed itself in the middle of the rose ‘Scepter’d Isle’. Nature knows best.

Four

Also started from a packet of seeds some time ago. These rudbeckia come back into the garden via the compost bin. They had a quiet spell last year but once the seedlings appeared on the veg patch they were re-located into the flower garden.

Five

Cosmos of course, from this year’s sowing. Last year’s attempts went to the snails and slugs. The dry weather has some advantages.

Six

Cucumbers are having a good time too. I usually grow ‘Burpless’. This year I added in some ‘Marketmore’ They are doing very well and I may switch my allegiance.

It’s dry again this weekend. Good news for my daughter’s garden as they are tackling the ivy clad collapsing fencing today. New fence panels, posts and concrete have been delivered and work is underway. I might venture over next week to see the results. Wishing you all productive gardening this weekend and don’t forget to stop by Garden Ruminations for all the news from Jim and other SOSers.