Tuesday 18 May 2010

In the garden



Phew. I think I have just worked out my desperate urge to garden! Emerging from the behind the raspberries and loganberries just now, I found myself covered with bits of detritis (mainly in my hair), dust making me sneeze from where I had been yanking out the most determined weeds, and a back which was complaining bitterly. Going behind the gooseberries was even worse, as I just had no room and my bottom was getting prickled mightily by the gooseberry bushes which shelter in front of a very old stone wall like chicks sheltering beneath a mother hen's wings.

I have cleared up a bit around the intake soft fruit area and will carry on after a cup of tea. The weeds (mainly grass and teasel) are something else and very appreciative of the muck heap mulch I laid down last year.

I also got my runner beans planted out (Scarlet Emperor, which do best here) and some Italian flat beans, which I love and also do well. I am growing on another couple of trays of runner beans, and have Borlotti beans coming out of my ears! I'm about to plant out some more Sweet Peas I started a few weeks back and some Pot Marigolds which need to go in the ground now.

I have had a couple of Casualties - none of the Delphiniums I planted last year have grown again, and the two prettiest Aquilegias - little mound-forming Alpine ones - have snuffed it too. William Guinness black and white Aquilegia) is also M.I.A. presumed dead. Then to make up for it, I have another Aquilegia which is totally new to me (long spurred sort) and I don't know WHERE that came from. Never mind, I have lots of self-sown ones to fill any gaps.

Right, this won't do. Too nice a day to be indoors (though it's back to painting again this afternoon . . .)Blue Lungwort in a shady bed by the wall.

A deep red Aquilegia.


Aren't these tulips gorgeous? I have grown these in tubs but now they have the freedom of the garden.

One of my Cranesbills with almost black flowers. These are another of my favourite plants and I plan to add some more variety to my collection this summer, and when we move.

Border with various stuff in - Solomon's Seal nearest.

7 comments:

  1. I too, would happily work myself crippled over that border. I've fretted in the past over some cherished plant which didn't survive, but there are always seedlings to amaze us--and there is always the thought of yet another season to add to the garden.
    I do wonder why the most beautiful and exotic of the peonies must bloom just in time to be flattened by a downpour.
    Don't you wish--when one is gardening or painting straight out--that the "tea" and such would be miraculously prepared and solicitously served when one is ready to collapse?

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  2. I wished that tonight - as usual. Lst night I was so tired that everyone got their own quick meal and I had a Ploughman's! (Bread/cheese/pickle/salad). Tonight was a lousy stir-fry - I am so tired I just threw a few things together and forgot any flavouring and it was horribly bland. . .

    The work I put in on the borders last year is paying off this year. It pays to keep on top of things, when possible. I added lots of extra plants last year - the £2 from a car boot sale sort mainly - I can't afford the silly prices at the Nurseries around here where they want £6.99 or even £7.99 for an herbaceous perennial.

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  3. Hello BB, any tips on how to stop Solomans seal getting munched by saw fly caterpillas? I try to pick them off when I can, but they strip my plants to a skeleton.

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  4. Hi Kath - um, never had trouble with Saw Fly caterpillars on my Sol. Seal, so not sure what to suggest. If they are climbing the stem, perhaps a grease band of sorts around it. If they are abseiling in, just keep picking them off!

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  5. Had another look at your flowers after reading today's post. The tulips look like a variety, "Angelique" which I grew in Vermont years ago. I went on-line last evening and ordered a few more perennials to fill in some of the gaping spaces in this very new border. Oh, for the days when I could admire something in a friend's garden and be given a clump to transplant!

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  6. Oh, how I love your gardens! The photos were wonderful and remind me so much of the gardens I had in Indiana years ago. I had what I called "an English garden"...maybe I should have called it "a Welsh garden". I'd spend hours out there each day and come in tired and sore. My husband tells me that was a "young Dianne" when I mention that I'd like to do that again! I'll enjoy yours in the meantime...

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  7. Your flowers and borders are looking wonderful. I love the first blue flowers. Are they some kind of mallow? I remember seeing a lot of them two years ago when we went back for a visit. Such a beautiful color.

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