Weekly journal – 19th May 2024

Lots of photos this week – everything seems to be happening! That does admittedly include lots of things which need pulling out – I’m reluctant to call them weeds, they’re things that I don’t mind as long as I keep them under control, like herb Robert and wild geum, but they definitely need a bit of tidying. Next weekend is a bank holiday, plus I’m taking the Friday and Tuesday off, so there will be plenty of time for gardening as long as the weather holds.

The gardens have both entered their chaotically overgrown phases. I don’t mind this really, though every so often I think it must be nice to have a tidy garden. Then I remind myself that we’ve achieved the “has probably been abandoned” look on a much shorter timescale than Heligan did. Not on purpose, but here we are.

Front garden first as the only real work I’ve done this weekend has happened there.

We have blue and pink hardy geraniums as well as centaurea in full flower.

Yes, there’s some bindweed in there too, I know. It will be removed at some point.

Yesterday I removed the gone-over pansies and violas from the window troughs and replanted with the new pelargoniums.

That should be a really nice show once they all fill out. Of last year’s, I managed to save the grand total of two, so they have been repotted and are now either side of the front step. One of them has white flowers, but I’ll have to go back to last year’s blog to check what variety it was. No idea what the other one is yet, but hopefully it’ll flower at some point!

Against the front wall, the rose and rhododendron are both flowering away, despite the best efforts of neighbourhood children. A group of them were pulling petals off and trying the pick the flowers the other day. They did stop when I asked them to – I was fairly polite about it as it’s generally a friendly street and I don’t think it was malicious, just thoughtless, but my roses look a lot better on the plant than with the petals scattered all over the road.

Meanwhile at the back:

The clematis have both gone over but there’s plenty more happening to take their place. The geum I bought the other week is settling in, the iris is flowering, and though the aquilegia has gone over, the foxgloves next to it are magnificent – they’re nearly as tall as me.

If even half of the blossom on the thornless blackberry translates into fruit we’ll have a bumper year.

Under the apple tree, it’s got that crowded and jumbled look I love.

At the moment we’ve got heuchera and centaurea flowering, lots of alchemilla and leucanthemon putting leaves on, a salvia starting to flower, plus all the foxgloves in the background. Nearby the blue geranium is already covered in flowers.

Further down the garden the cistus is flowering well, and the little diascia that Mum gave us last year has not only survived but is thriving and flowering.

Perhaps most pleasing of all is the new bed at the end of the garden. We did enrich the soil with pretty much everything out of the compost bins and it’s clearly working as everything has put on new growt, or flowered, or both.

(Apologies for the funny angle – it’s quite hard to photograph!)

The new honeysuckle has more than doubled in size since it went in, and is now flowering – we do need to train it along the fence, but it looks like it’s going to be happy which is a huge relief.

In the fruit and veg section, the raspberries and strawberries have lots of fruit forming so I hope in the next few weeks we’ll have some to pick. The potatoes are growing well, as is the garlic, and my beetroot and lettuce seeds have germinated. I will probably sow more lettuce in a week or so. Last year I sowed a random packet of oregano and that’s still doing really well – every so often I cut some to freeze and the next time I turn round it’s huge again.

Things to do in the next few weeks will include lots of cutting back of shrubby things, especially at the front; tomato plants will be here soon, so I will have to clean and tidy the greenhouse for them (my seedlings, and the chili plants, are not looking good so I have no expectations there). And there will be cutting back in the back garden too, otherwise we’ll lose all the paths!

Weekly journal – 12th May 2024

This week has seen a few changes in both gardens – more flowers, more colour and for the most part a generally improving picture.

In the front, we got rid of the box and the santolina next to it last weekend and replaced them with a heuchera and five lavenders. This morning, in response to the number of cats using the newly exposed soil as a litter tray, I tidied up around the heuchera and lavenders, and added in the pansies and violas from to troughs on the back fence – just a temporary measure, as ground cover. A more permanent solution will of course be sought. The pansies in the troughs under the front window have just about gone over but the pelargoniums are not ready to go in there yet (more on them later) so they will just have to hold on a bit longer.

The front looks like this:

Yes, very sunny this morning – it’s been a hot, sunny week.

Close-up on the replanted bit:

Hopefully the pansies and violas will keep going for a while till we decide what we want there.

We have a grand total of one flower on the peony, but it’s a good one:

And the rose is flowering too – a little earlier than usual.

Yes, I know it’s got black spot.

Meanwhile at the back, it’s still pretty jungly – in fact on hot and humid days, the abundance of vegetation and the amount of birdsong could fool you into thinking you’re somewhere tropical.

From the bottom of the garden looking up to the house:

One thing we do need to do is get the hedge properly cut back as it’s swamping the greenhouse. However, there are almost certainly birds nesting in it so it’s going to have to wait until the autumn. The plan will be to get it cut back then have a short fence (much like the one at the bottom of the garden) to hold back the lower growth and hopefully make it all a bit more manageable.

Meanwhile, in flower news, the white azalea has hit its peak in the last few days.

We have snapdragons – two different shades:

The cistus had one flower yesterday, so I grabbed a photo on my phone, and it’s just as well I did as there are none today, just the fallen petals from yesterday. But lots of buds so there will be lots more soon.

The blue Himalyan geranium is flowering, in a few locations in the back and also in the front garden which is pleasing. The little pink hardy geranium is also in flower, though a bit tucked away.

We have one whole allium – I seem to remember saying that last year, then a couple of others came up as well, so fingers crossed!

In the “bubbling under” department, we have foxgloves – nearly flowering but not quite:

and an iris – this is one of several corms that came to us last year from a friend. All have leaves but I was expecting them to need another year to settle in – this one seems quite happy, though.

Looking forward to seeing that in full flower.

On Tuesday I had the day off and took Mum to a local garden centre for tomato growbags and bedding plants – we needed marigolds to go with the tomatoes, and I wanted nice things for the troughs on the fence. Mum wanted a few other bits and pieces too. For the troughs I bough mimulus and trailing lobelia – the mimulus are mixed but should all be shades of red, orange, yellow and cream which will look nice with lobelia in front. No photos just yet as I only planted the troughs this morning so they need a bit of settling in time.

Then we went to the lovely geranium nursery – Mum got a couple of nice big pelargoniums, some agapanthus, and a geum. I got my usual ten plug plants for the front, a geum and a salvia “Hot Lips”. We both got the same variety of geum, a pretty orange one called Totally Tangerine:

As ever I tried to get a variety of pelargoniums. One which is new to me this year is Lord Bute, which has very deep burgundy flowers so I’m looking forward to that. I got some Iceberg again as I do like a pure white, and also some Evka and some Flower Fairy White Splash. The fifth and final variety I got this year is Abelina, a lovely rich red. Hoping that the all make a lovely show at the front of the house.

In fruit and veg news, there is fruit setting on the strawberries and raspberries, and plenty of blossom on the thornless blackberry. The potatoes are growing well, as is the garlic, and my lettuces are starting to germinate. The coming week is going to be cooler and wetter, which the plants will probably appreciate.

Weekly journal – 6th May 2024

Just a day late! I did take my photos yesterday but it was also our birthdays (yes, J and I have the same birthday) and we were out for a lot of the day, so I didn’t have time to post. As today’s a bank holiday I have an extra day, though, so here we are.

No photos of the front today. The only change by yesterday was the destruction of a lot of new growth on the box; I realised on Saturday that it was suffering with box moth caterpillars again. This means firstly that the box moth trap didn’t work, and secondly that our original plan to remove the box entirely was going to have to be resurrected. It’s sad as we’ve had it for a long time, but it’s not going to do any good if it’s under attack every year. So this morning we cut it right down to a stump then dug the stump out. In the process we also sacrificed the santolina which had got very woody and overgrown. In their place are five little lavenders and a lovely deep orange heuchera, Marmalade.

Meanwhile at the back it’s all very green and jungly.

A bit closer in so you can see just how jungly!

Lots of things looking lovely now, like the white azalea

the weigela

and in what’s probably their final flush, the winter pansies and violas in the fence troughs (the ones at the front are still looking great too):

Tomorrow I’ve got the day off work so I’m taking Mum to buy bedding plants. Reluctant though I am to remove the pansies just at the moment, I do need to make sure we’ve got something ready for replacing them when the time comes.

We have one aquilegia in flower so far but there may be more to come:

and there will soon be alliums in flower – well, one at least!

In the back this morning there was some tidying and weeding – a lot of the middle bed was filling up with pulmonaria and wild geum so I decided to pull up as much as possible to give other things room to breathe. I also finally got round to sowing beetroot and lettuce in crates, and retrieved the two geraniums that survived the winter and potted them on into bigger pots for the summer.

Tomorrow we also need to get growbags for tomatoes and I need some more compost – the potatoes need earthing up frequently at the moment.

Hope you’re enjoying good weather and happy gardening!

Weekly journal – 28th April 2024

Well, it’s been another cold and miserable week! Some warm sunshine occasionally but always with a cold breeze so it’s never properly spring-like. I would have liked to get some gardening done this weekend but the weather has been terrible.

Still, everything seems to be getting on more or less ok. There’s very little to report at the front

other than lots of things needing a good cut back! though I did notice yesterday that we had a new teeny weeny narcissus flowering:

Most of this week’s photos were taken yesterday – today it seems to have rained non-stop.

The back looks like this

And just by way of variety, one from by the shed looking towards the patio

The clematis are both still doing well

And the jasmine against the fence looks like it’s going to do well this year too

The weigela is in flower at last after a couple of weeks covered in buds.

Forget-me-nots are doing well all over the place.

I am still enjoying the colour combination of this heuchera with the centaurea:

And we still have some very pretty violas in flower – it’ll soon be time to swap out the winter pansies and violas but they have done really well after a slightly shaky start.

We have lots of flowers on the strawberries so I’m crossing my fingers for fruit.

And the little white azalea has started flowering. It seems a bit unhappy in its pot so a move may be in order one it’s finished flowering.

I hope you’re having better weather!

Weekly journal – 21st April 2024

A little later posting this week than usual – generally I try to get it done on a Sunday morning but it’s nearly 3.20pm and we’re having a cup of tea. It’s been a bit of a weekend, for reasons unrelated to gardening so I won’t bore you with them!

The back garden is looking very lush, everything is filling out and lots of things are bursting into flower (including weeds, but there we are). The potatoes are starting on their insane growth spurts when they need to be earthed up practically every day, which is promising. Most of the random seeds I sowed in pots are coming up – the calendula and poached egg plants are, anyway, but true to form the nigella is holding out on me. I never have much luck growing it from seed. If it doesn’t show itself soon I’ll sow something else on top just to spite it.

I’ll get the front garden out of the way first as there’s little to report – the red tulips are going over and the winter pansies won’t be far behind so we’ll need to get something for the troughs soon.

The box seems to have recovered from last year’s assault and so far the trap hasn’t caught any box moths so I’m keeping everything crossed.

Meanwhile at the back

The apple blossom is going over though there are still some buds to open – we had a couple of hailstorms last week so I’m hoping that we will still get some fruit despite that.

The big stars of the week are the two clematis montana which are in flower now.

Elsewhere some of those groups I like so much are starting to appear – here we’ve got choisya, heuchera and centaurea all in flower together.

And just across the path, the first aquilegia is almost open.

Despite the sunshine and all the spring flowers, it’s been a cold week this week – last weekend we sat outside but this weekend there was no chance. Even though the sun is warm there’s a cold breeze all the time. Hoping that things cheer up soon!

Weekly journal – 14th April 2024

This week saw a distinct improvement in the weather, with lots of sunshine and much less rain – though still quite breezy at times. This morning after breakfast I did a bit of pottering – weeding, deadheading, and even went as far as to trim one of the photinias as it was growing out over the pavement. J’s back is still causing him trouble so he hasn’t been able to do much, but I’m pleased to report that we have sat outside on the new patio chairs twice this weekend – so even if that’s it for the year, we will have sat out more than we did last year!

It’s been that sort of week where everything is suddenly up and doing – plants have filled out, almost overnight, and buds and flowers are appearing everywhere. This morning the back garden looked like this:

And the front garden looked like this:

As ever there is less to report at the front, though the camellia is still doing well and there’s a clump of bluebells flowering in front of it:

and the viburnum, which is so tucked away under the forsythia that I tend to forget it’s there, is also flowering.

At the back it’s all been happening of course. Both clematis montana are covered in bud, some of which are starting to open.

We have centaurea flowering already

(The clump at the front has buds, but no flowers yet).

And two choisyas are flowering too – this is a little one in a pot, and the big one in the ground by the bird feeder is also flowering.

It’s also pleasing to see that everything in the new bed is settling in. Things that have been in pots for a couple of years or so have been having a growth spurt – noticeable on these two pieris, and a heuchera.

And one of the new hellebores is flowering.

Elsewhere I’ve got potatoes starting to push through the compost in their pots, and calendula seedlings popping up too. All very encouraging.

Weekly journal – 7th April 2024

It’s been a busy week this week though not much of it in the garden! I did do a bit of stuff on Monday – thinned out the sunflowers and put some stakes up for the sweet peas – but that was about it. We were both at work on Tuesday and Friday but had two days off – me so I could go to London, and J so he could look after Lola while I was gadding about! The trip involved seeing the wonderful Michael Sheen at the National Theatre so definitely worth it, though the stress involved (cancelled trains, broken-down cars) was in some danger of taking the shine off everything. In the end it was all worth it, though.

So the garden’s been pretty much left to its own devices, and this weekend the weather has been discouraging. Not raining but very windy (Storm Kathleen, apparently, though we avoided the worst of it) and I hate being out in windy weather. There is work to be done, I want to get beetroot and lettuce started and there’s always weeding and deadheading, but I’m not doing it when the weather’s like this. Maybe next weekend will be better.

The back garden this morning looked like this:

The apple and sambucus are both flowering now, and we have buds on the two clematis montana already so they will be flowering very soon.

Also flowering now is the pretty pink tulip Rosalie:

The front looks like this:

Red tulips are opening, and though the skimmia is going over the camellia is still doing well (it’s hidden behind the box from this angle of course). Some of its blooms have gone over but there are many more coming.

And I know I post pictures of these troughs almost every week but how can I not when they look so lovely?!

I hope you’re well and the weather is treating you kindly!

Weekly journal – 31st March 2024

The clocks went forward last night (here in the UK anyway – I’m aware that it happened in the USA a couple of weeks ago) and it’s Easter Sunday, so Happy Easter to those who celebrate. We have had a busy week garden-wise, especially yesterday when we got quite a bit done while the sun was shining.

Last week I said I wanted to get the potatoes in on Good Friday but as it poured with rain most of the day that didn’t happen. So I did them yesterday instead. We have had a bit of a move round of the veg containers as the new chairs and table arrived on Monday and are now installed in what used to be veg corner. So some of the other pots of things have been moved around to make room by the fence, on the sunny side of the garden.

The patio carpet came on Tuesday so in combination with the new furniture, the former veg corner now looks like this.

A big improvement. We also planted up the new bed at the bottom of the garden, and moved the rickety bench from the patio to in front of the shed. This morning the back garden looked like this:

(The carpet has footprints on it because of the dew.) And the front garden looked like this:

The sambucus is covered in buds

The spiraea has a few more flowers.

Daffodils, winter pansies, forsythia and pulmonaria are still looking good and the apple blossom is already opening. I took this yesterday when it was sunny (today it is grey and gloomy, but at least it’s not raining!)

We planted up the new bed yesterday – the new mahonia and ferns arrived just in time, and we added in a couple of pieris, a heuchera and some lychnis, daffs and crocuses out of pots.

The old bench in its new location:

And it wouldn’t be Easter without at least one daffodil – here’s one of the teeny ones in the troughs at the front:

Weekly journal – 24th March 2024

Another busy week here, including a trip to a favourite garden centre and some online ordering and garden reorganising.

On Tuesday I took Mum to our favourite garden centre, at Whilton Locks. She wanted a rambling rose, and was delighted to find an American Pillar, a variety she’s particularly fond of – we had one growing over an arch at the house where I grew up. I was looking for things to fill the new bed created by the fence we had built last week. I’ve got mahonias and ferns on order but was also looking for hellebores, and found three – a pure white, a pink and a pink speckled, all colours that we don’t already have. I also bought three little native cowslips. I’m very keen on growing native flowers where possible and have never had cowslips, so it will be interesting to see how they do.

The variegated euonymus that I bought a few weeks ago will also be going in the new bed now that the box has resurrected itself (and I have bought a box moth trap to try and head off a repeat of last year). And the mystery of the teeny daffodils popping up last week has been solved – I remembered that our friend N had given us some bulbs for Christmas and I immediately dotted them about the place then forgot about them.

It’s sunny today but with a chilly wind. The back garden looks like this.

Complete with rather sorry-for-herself dog. She is unwell today, but will no doubt be back to her old self soon.

To the right of the back door, changes are afoot.

The rough patch under the window used to be outlined with concrete edging and filled with cobbles. We had always left it like that – it was a handy place to put pots in winter – but we have decided to remove the edging and a lot of the cobbles to level it off. This is part of the minor patio makeover. We had been planning to have the patio relaid, and probably still will at some point, but need to save up the several thousand pounds that seems to be the going rate. So in the meantime, around about £100 on an outdoor carpet seems a reasonable spend. We’ve also ordered two rattan armchairs and a little matching table – somewhere a little more comfortable to sit out than the big table & chairs. We realised that we didn’t sit outside once last year which is such a pity, so the aim is to do better this year.

The front looks like this – though you can barely see it in the photo, the photinia by the house is flowering:

And the bed at the bottom of the garden looks like this.

With various things waiting to be planted.

Otherwise we have a few new things flowering – pieris

Spiraea

Tulip “Raspberry Ripple”

And a very showy miniature daffodil.

Plus new foliage on the cornus.

When we were at Whilton Locks I also bought this year’s seed potatoes (Wilja again) and some seeds for beetroot and mixed salad leaves. I’ve got a bag of wool compost for vegetables on order which will (I hope) be here in the next few days so I can get the potatoes started on Good Friday. The outdoor carpet and new furniture should be here by next weekend too, so I should be able to show you the revamped patio next week.

Weekly journal, 17th March 2024

It’s been quite a week, even if we leave out the bit where J injured his back on Monday morning and has been off work ever since (physio suspects a slipped disc). Anyway, last weekend we talked ourselves into getting quotes to have the hedge at the end of the garden trimmed back and a fence built under it, to keep Lola from getting under the hedge to shout at the dog on the other side. She couldn’t get through the hedge but could get caught under it and potentially hurt herself, and we also wanted to cut down the intervisibility between the two gardens, at least at dog height. I posted on one of those websites where you describe what you want and interested companies contact you, and on Monday morning got a couple of calls. Both companies came out to look at the garden, one gave me a quote and said they could do it the next day, the other took ages to come back to me and said they couldn’t get the materials so it ended up being a no brainer and we got it done on the Tuesday.

It’s just about visible from the house.

We’re going to stain the fence darker, and we now have a nice area that can be planted up. The hedge will grow back – it has been cut back hard before, but it’s privet so it always recovers.

Meanwhile there are still lots of daffodils including this double-flowered one I spotted on Monday.

The hyacinths are being colourful.

as are the pansies and violas in the troughs on the fence.

And yesterday I got a photo in the sunshine of the first tulip to open.

We have buds on the apple tree starting to show some colour.

And buds and leaves starting to appear on the sambucus.

The front garden is starting to look a little better and more colourful.

There is even some new growth on the box, which I had been writing off as just about finished.

Yesterday as it was sunny I took a few other photos at the front (it’s wet and grey today, of course). The skimmia is being enjoyed by bees, but I only managed one slightly out of focus picture.

The pansies and violas are being joined by some teeny daffodils – I had forgotten these were in there and am pretty sure they haven’t flowered in at least three years, but here they are.

The big star at the front, though, is the camellia. After years of it doing nothing, after moving it to the front garden, another couple of years of nothing then a few years with a handful of flowers, it finally seems to have got the idea.

Several flowers already open and more buds developing. A few close-ups:

It’s a bit early, as are quite a few things at the moment, so here’s hoping we don’t get a late cold snap. However we have had snow in late March before now, so anything’s possible.