It is the start of another month and although this year I had not planned sufficiently for good summer displays, I've managed to find Six things from the garden to note down. For much more summer colour and plant related things, a bunch of us gather under Jim's wing and cogitate over our gardens. You can either just hang over the garden fence as it were, or you can join in with musings of your own, guidelines are on Jim's post.
1. Last year in September I brought back a few plants purchased from Derry Watkins of Special plants. One was a small plant then, but just look at it now. I took a couple of cutting in November, and these together with the original are in the one pot. This is Pelargonium 'Salmon Angel'.
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| Pelargonium 'Salmon Angel' |
Behind it is the pelargonium which was given as a plug plant by my gardening club last year which we were to grow on and bring to be judged at the summer party. I can't remember the name, but it does go quite well with 'Salmon Angel'.
I always feel a little discombobulated when there is disarray, whether it is when the house is being decorated or something like this is taking place. The pots have been dotted around the garden. Mr S is very competent and also has sourced a membrane that has a twenty year guarantee, rather than just replacing the felt roof. It will be an upgraded shed, with stainless steel hinges etc, but at the end I shall get busy with the brush and give it a coat of paint inside and out.
2. These next couple of weeks will be taken over with our shed refurbishment. It is amazing how the years have flown, it is eight years since it first went up, plants have had to be moved from along the edge and the shed shelf. On the end of the shelf was this white Pelargonium, again another plug plant from our club for growing on. I have been careful with this, as I hope to go to the Summer Party this year.
3. I looked at the mess of the border now that the poppies are well and truly over.
Over the last two early mornings, I have been out there cutting them to the ground, keeping some stems to use in dried arrangements, and the rest were cut with short stems and put in a large bowl, ready for harvesting the poppy seed which I use in my bread. The bed is looking much better now, and no doubt I shall show it again in the forthcoming weeks.
4. I just couldn't resist another Coleus when I went up to the market on Wednesday. Whilst the shed is being refurbished, they have been moved to sit by the willow. The growth on Flamethrower Serrano in the foreground has been prestigious, and it has already been moved up a couple of pot sizes. I planted 'Coral Candy' bought this week in a larger pot straight away. When we were at Dunster Castle recently they were edging the tropical themed beds with Coleus 'Skeletal' with what looked like hundreds of plants, what a show that will be. I had Coleus 'Skeletal' envy! I am on the hunt for that one, is not a trio after all is a better show than just two?
However the most exciting thing is that when I went down to check the names for this post, a little frog jumped out. What excitement, with such a rush of endorphins, it is making up for my worry over the lack of rain. We haven't had a frog in the garden for years. In this hot dry weather it must have been attracted to the damp around the pots. The large pot at the back is on feet, so there is always a cool and damp place guaranteed there.
5. Summer time is not all about sitting back and enjoying the colourful displays! I had been meaning to do this job for a few weeks: repotting up young cyclamen that I have been growing from seed from the Cyclamen Society. Now the job has been done, they sit under the blue bench in a relatively cool and shaded situation. Maybe one or two will flower this year.
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| Cyclamen repotted. |
It is also time for me to spread a mulch over the ground where the Cyclamen hederifolium in the garden, they are waiting on some rain to send up their flowers, so I had better get on with that job next week. I have been meaning to mulch that area for a couple of years, but there is a small window to do it in, as that is where early spring bulbs are situated too.
6. I have been buying the odd packs of small plants from the stall within the Bishop's Palace - simply to support them I tell myself. Although it says things like Antirrhinum it doesn't give the cultivar, but am I embracing the real 'Cottage Garden' ethos, when planting just bits that become available? It was when planting these early yesterday morning that I experienced the hard clay phase of our garden. With water and compost I managed to make a planting hole suitable to take what is only a little more than a seedling, quite different to the large Antirrhinum which I saw recently at Waitrose, fully in bloom, looking like they were ready to plant out in some Hampton Court Palace Show garden. I did however prepare a good large spot for them to grow into. It also made me realise that the roses could really do with a good watering. They are very slow to reflower after their first flush, but I do have one flowering stem.
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| Rose Home Florist Timeless 'Charisma' |
This morning any rain is amounting to a very light mizzle, just enough to make a glass surface such as our conservatory roof damp.
