Six on Saturday - 23 October 2021

We have had wind and rain, warm days and cool clear days, all in the space of a week.  The nights are getting shorter, and there is loads to do in the garden.  I ought to be there getting on with tasks, but it always interesting to see what other are up to, and also having this log allows me to look back at plants, my thoughts when first planting them, and the changes in the garden.

1. Right up by the back wall I had a lovely clump of Corydalis cheilanthifolia, which had done very nicely for a few years, and I had also moved a piece to another area.  In my autumn clear up I was sad to notice that both had decided to pop their clogs.  However as I cleared along the wall, I found a self seeded one.  When a nice plant finds the place it wants to grow, l hope it flourishes there and also flowers next year.

2. The strong winds and rains tested some plants, and the delightful late flowering Salvia Leucantha bore the blunt.  It is destined to be removed, but with some many flowers, I'll prop it up and enjoy a further week or two of its handsome foliage and flowers.  The little rooted cutting was sent by the lovely Gill.  I have taken cuttings, and young plants will be planted elsewhere next spring.

3. I picked up a few ready grown Wallflower 'Sugar Rush' Primrose earlier this week, I may well pot them up individually so that they can grow on a little, then be placed around the garden and also in the Salvia Leucantha gap, once the plants are removed.

4. Last year I lost the prostrate rosemaries and also the Foxtail one.  I have a small one coming on: will this do for good drainage, as it is suspended between two rocks?

5.  Pear 'Beth'  when first planted in December 2019had plenty of room: 

Here is it this week in October 2021..

On one side even though cut to the ground last winter Fuchsia Delta's Sarah is a well over a metre high and finally flowering nicely. and on the other the upright Rosemary is starting to flower.  You can see smaller good rosemary replacements waiting to find their rightful place.  The pear obviously needs to have both the Fuchsia and Rosemary removed.  Fuchsia cuttings will be taken this weekend! Both plants are pending removal.

6.Each autumn till now, I have dithered about picking Apple D'Arcy Spive. It  is a late season Russet type apple discovered in the garden of  The Hall in the village of Tollesdunt D'Arcy in the eighteenth century. as also learnt that  they ought to be picked after Bon Fire night.  Of course that may have been to ensure non were wasted in the bobbin games, as these would have been precious keepers. 

Its leaves have supported upteem creatures, and yet there are apples to pick.

Joining in with the gang and following our leader as usual on a Saturday.

In a Vase on Monday

The Mexican bush Sage: Salvia Leucantha probably Purple Velvet is the sole subject in a little cut glass vase.  This plant arrived late last year in a giffy bag, from one of my SOS friends.  With attention to its needs, and a little warmth, it made its way through the winter and was planted out in May.  After waiting patiently the shrub is now in full flower, and I challenge anyone to walk past without carressing its purple fluffy flowers.

With its white woolly stems it is a great plant, but it is tender.  A few soft wood cutting have been taken, and I hope to take a few more of the heavier stems in a week or two.  This is a late flowering Salvia and although it showed some colour over the last two or three weeks, it is now an absolute picture.

How do you capture the soft velvety texture? Now that colour in velvet would make a fabulous winter evening dress just the colour of my Amethysts.

I am sure there will be arrangements of garden grown plants to be enjoyed over on Cathy's blog: Rambling in the Garden.

 

In a Vase On Monday - 22/11/2023

 After a run of warm and cloudy weather, we have bright clear skies, and a northerly breeze, so although we still haven't had a hard frost, I thought it precautionary to cut some material from the garden yesterday afternoon, and they stood overnight in a bucket of water.  I had fully intended getting some gardening done after that, but it was too cold for me.

The vase was quickly assembled early this morning and photographed in the living room with natural side light.  With a westerly facing window the light gave soft shadows.

In the frame but out of focus is another of the smaller terracotta soldiers picked up all those years ago when we visited the archaeological excavations, where we met one of the old farmers who discovered this wonder of the world.

In the vase are  Pittospurum garnettii,  Fuchsia Delta's Sarah, Salvia Amistad and Verbena rigida

Inside we have continued to enjoy last week's Salvia Leucantha, with the odd shed of petals.

Again with a larger standing terracotta army soldier figurine.  We bought from a farmer who made these in his garden.  We were directed to only buy from the official shops.  However I felt that this enterprising chap would be my source.  The guide was able to translate for us, but his advice was that these handmade soldiers would not last.  I have had them for 25 years and the tall soldier was even in the garden for several years. 

It is always a surprise to see what Cathy will have posted, so I am joining her, together with other gardeners and flower arrangers. Do go and have a peep, or even join in.  

 

In a Vase on Monday - 15 November 2021

 It is the middle of November, this morning was misty as I set off for my geology field trip.  Yesterday I spent a few hours in the garden moving plants, and also cutting back geraniums and pansies, to reveal all those labels marking the places where the spring bulbs will come up.  

The Viola tricolor were salvaged and are in the small vase.  

The Salvia Leucantha having been up to the neck just below their velour necks in a bucket of water overnight,  have held very well.  I've moved the whole plant to a sheltered position and also taken a couple of cuttings as insurance.

Placed on the conservatory table I have a few walnuts and a painted stone.  When we were on holiday in Lavenham we popped a little way north to Bury St Edmonds.  It happened to be market day and walking along my attention was drawn to some prettily decorated stones by Sharon, Her stall is called Pot Doodle.  I bought several with this one reminding us of our last dog  who used to sit amongst my pet bantam hens.

Humble Pie and Cold Turkey....I first heard about the book on Classic FM, the channel our alarm radio is set to.  As a lover of idioms, this was a little treat to myself, that I keep dipping into, finding the origins of sayings most interesting...something to make me smile just like the decorated stone above.

I missed the 8th anniversary of In a Vase on Monday last week so well done to Cathy who hosts this meme, and everyone one of the regular contributors.  This will be my 207th contribution, but that is just the number for which I remembered to add the In a Vase on Monday tag/label.  That means that Cathy has posted over twice that number.  Therefore I am in great admiration of Cathy who came up with a blockbuster of an idea. The term blockbuster is explained in the book but has come to a very different meaning these days.  Best not look up the origins, it is gruesome, but all our vases this week I am sure were thoughtfully constructed, it being remembrance Sunday yesterday.  For a good part of the afternoon I could hear the bells from Wells Cathedral which stopped silent at 11, continued then stopped at 3pm for the special service they were holding.  I join in with Cathy she will probably have announced the winner of last week's challenge.

Six on Saturday - 25 September 2021

 Over stuffed, that is what comes from being away for nearly a fortnight.  You might think that is what I am feeling, but although we had some fab meals out, I weigh the same as I did when I left.  Overstuffed is what I think my garden is.  I just can't seem to come away from places with new plants.  I must be delusional thinking that they will find a home.

1. Mr S drove me for over a hour to visit Beth Chatto's garden and it was definetly worth it.  Thisis a glimpse of some of my holiday sourvenirs. Crocosmia Emily McKenzie came from the another supplier, but I came home with Verbena bonariensis 'Little One', Phyla nodiflora, and Limonium bellidifolium all of then I saw growing in the gravel garden.

I was impressed by the gardens and also the nursery and the quality of the plants.  One plant I had seen coming into flower was the yellow crocus looking Sternbegia.  Someone on the yard found me a pot from the polytunnel, I went through the checkout, and as I usually do I check that everything went through.  I felt the price was a little low, and double checking it went through as £0. Of course I querried this, but as the plant was not on the system, I was unable to pay seperately.  Of course they were pleased that I had pointed it out.  I am pleased that I noticed it, but sad that I was unable to find a way for paying for it.  They are now on the site for puchasing, but maybe the garden is too stuffed!

2. It only takes a damp day to bring out the snails, and this little one managed to slither its way up onto Dahlia David Howard. Good job I went out just now to take some pictures for this SOS.

3.  And away they grow.  I picked some lettuce yesterday after having been 'starved' of my usual salads. That explains the few missing leaves in this picture.

4. I'm very impressed with Salvia Leucantha and will take cuttings shortly as I am happy with the rate of growth in one season, and would like the space to grow things in earlier on it in the season.

5. One of the plants I saw growing in the Chatto Gardens was a ground hugging plant called Phyla nodiflora. It is a creeping vervain know as Turkey tangle frogfruit, worth it for the name! I'll give it a try around the stepping stones.

6. A warm sunny September is definetly the right weather for ripening chillis.

Thats my Six.  This weekend will find me chopping back things, taking cuttings, and planting out new acquisitions. I'm going over to join in with The Prop and others. 

Six on Saturday - 14 August 21

 Again another week of rain: not constant but wet enough not to have to think about doing any watering, except of course it doesn't rain in pots where the  rain drips off the foliage beyond the perimeter of the soil in the pot.  For smaller pots I check the weight to guage the dampness, but having seen some of the evergreens flag, I knew I had been a little remiss in the watering.  The waterbutt is full, so the hose has remained wound up which seems so unusual for this time of the year.

1. I pricked out a couple of varieties of lettuces, in the hope there is some growing time before the winter sets in.  In any case I am quite happy to cut them young and eat the whole head.  I had to buy a lettuce today.  It was huge and beautifully grown, but still I would rather walk out pick a few leaves, and not have to find room in the fridge, nor have to throw away yet another plastic bag.

After growing the seeds in the small pots having sown just a few well spaced, each was carefully separated and put one to a module in some fresh compost.

Using the movable potting trough, the tray is placed on about 4cm of water, and is allowed to draw up the moisture from below, before it is taken out and allowed to drain.  Afterwards I put the tray higher up, out of the reach of the slugs, overnight and then on the ground in good light but not in harsh sunshine.  Should the forecast be for heavy rain, then I put on the clear cover to protect the tender leaves from the rain.  I like to grow small seedlings on in the modules for a week or two, until they are a little stronger and stand a chance of not all being eaten by slugs.  Also the ground where they are to go is currently being used and the lettuce will be planted out when that crop is over. 

I can just hear you all wonder why am I showing you all this beginner stages?

A friend's son had asked if he could come round to learn a few gardening skills, but he has just passed his driving test, so I guess it might be through the medium of emails and links to posts such as this one, that he might continue his interest in gardening! Most gardening tasks cannot be carried forward for too long, the stage that the seedlings are at dictate the optimum pricking out time.

2. As regular reader may have reaslised, I have a bit of a thing about alliums. Another new allium this time the yellow flowering Allium Flavum.  Its form is similar to the pink Allium carinatum  subs pulchellum .  Just as with the later, I shall keep some seed and grow on for more clumps in the front 'Mediterranean' planting scheme.

Allium Flavum

3. Another yellow close to the bird bath is a Potentilla fruticosa which was alredy herein the garden, when we moved in, but since moved to that spot.  I haven't any idea what the cultivar is but it takes to being chopped back, and just keeps on flowering.

4. Also close to that area is a shrub that arrived as a tiny cutting last winter from 'Over the Edge'. Carefully nurtured I like this Salvia Leucantha's leaves and pale semi arching stems.  It flowered once but all the flowers were soon hidden with strong side growths taking over, so on the next flush, I removed the side shoots, but the plant just did not like this and the flower spikes morphed into stems with remnants of the flowers along the stems.  What a shame as I wanted to get the flowers to be at the very end of the growth.  Is it just this season, or the soil conditions at that location, or the natural habit?  Maybe it has just not liked the weather.  I'll take some cuttings soon and try it on the south wall outer border next year.  That area is drier, sunnier, and not as fertile.

5. The various Origanums have on the whole suffered with the rain, and some have been cut back to removed the 'manky' flowering stems allowing what sun we get to reach newly emerging shoots.  

Origanum Bristol Cross is holding relatively well and is a magnet for bees when it stops raining.

6.  One plant that is doing far better now that it has been moved to a shady spot is the purple leaved Chinese Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum 'Fire Dance.  That won't need to be moved again!

Taking over a new garden, even a small garden, one can see growing conditions are not even,  with not all areas suiting all the plants.  Then one has to get to understand what conditions best suit the plants, and that is without even working out which plants look best growing together.   All in in the eye of the beholder and of course at the mercy of unpredictable and very varying weather!  Who would garden?  

This week I have been arranging the details to go on our gardening club webpage for our next speaker Mary Payne. Whilst chatting to her over the phone we compared notes on our small gardens.  We chatted about the advantage of having small gardens and being able to look over everything most days and spot things.  I liked her expression that good gardeners have "Green eyes", it got me thinking that it is observation which is paramount. 

Looking at our garden each week in readiness to posting SOS is certainly one of the joys of joining up with the Prop.  He has a rather lovely gladioli to share....

Six on Saturday - 5 June 2021

 The Prop this week is hunting for spaces for places, I 'commiserate', it is his own fault but with all those plug plants he will have the most amazingly colourful garden come the summer.  

Its too hot, the sun is too bright, the change too sudden, plants are running amok or else popping their clogs. I'll focus at the end on a few beauties just to calm me down.

1. Popping their clogs.

Under the shelter of a narrow overhang by the front door, I like to place plants in pots.  Sometimes it is to have some shelter from the rain and gain a little protection from the walls behind, but in the hotter weather only succulents or geraniums can put up with the temps.  Maybe a very large pot would heat up and cool down more slowly, but I am past the stage of heaving large pots around.

One of the 'collections' in the garden is of sedums: above is a picture of some of them before their demise.  Once I grew them in pans all separate and named, and then they got mixed up and were assembled when it was time to replant in a selection of little second hand bonsai trays which I picked up along the way from here and there in different second hand shops.

It may be that I tried to compensate for the high temps by overwatering, but long and the short of it is that I have lost about half of them.  They were probably 'boiled' then quickly given the coup de grace by a fungus in less than a few days.  It was the ones with 'hairy' leaves that succumbed. No dreaded grubs of the Vine Weevil to be found thankfully.

I shall be on the hunt for a few new sempervivums; it is time to get some new interesting varieties.  I have had most of these for nearly twenty years! Not the same ones or course, the trays are replanted around every two years with the offsets.  

The lesson to be is not to have anything there when it threatens to get that hot! Or at least find a piece of shading to cover them with. 

2. Plants running amok.  Something that most gardeners have to contend with at this time of the year!

View of the gravel area with dominant Echiums 

It could have been right plant right place, if there was room, or if the soil was so poor that they had not grown so large, much larger that where they were growing in a gravel drive at Mendip Hospital Cemetery, where my friend Jean is the Head Volunteer gardener. The rosettes last year gave an interesting architectural note, but oh dear it was taking over some choice miniature 'alpines', and was fast becoming out of scale.

 I gritted my teeth, and removed them this week.  I feared for the damage they may have done, but I think I cleared it just time.  I ought not to have sown them there or ought to have removed them far earlier.  The 'arrogant' me really felt they would have made quite a statement this summer.

3. Another plant running amok has been the chives.  I cannot believe there is now such a thick edging growing so tall, all from a couple of little tubs of chives from the supermarket.  When they have finished flowering and all the bees have had their fill, they will be removed!  Maybe a few small clumps will replace them, but I shall be sure to keep them on the small side in coming years.

4. Salvia Leucantha is putting down its roots nicely and the little flowers are starting to emerge.  On bigger stems I think the flowers will be larger.  From from Gill at Off the Edge Gardening, it arrived autumn last year as a very small rotted cutting in an envelope.  Now it is flourishing. If it turns out all purple it is probably 'Purple Velvet' and I am sure if Gill sees this she will know.

5. Mr S played the game of spot the violet, it kept him occupied as they are spread around the garden.  Thanks Jim for Viola Tricolor seed. It was a question of 'sow your own plug plants' rather than buy trays at a discount like Jon.

6. I added an extra bag of bulbs to my order of species tulips last year.  These are Scilla Litardierei and a nice effect at this time of the year when the main spring bulbs are over. At present they are in pots, but may well be released into the garden.

This morning I shall construct a diy trellis with a couple of bamboo sticks and lengths of twirling stems of my 'defunct' Solanum laxum 'Album'. The Solanum died  because I gave it too hard a prune at the wrong time.  Do I regret that?  The rose doesn't, and really neither do I, however, it was interesting to grow for two or three years. A choice small and dainty clematis may be much better.

I'm linking in with Jon now and going off to see what other fun other gardeners are up to.