Following last month’s influx of plants after a visit to the Newark Garden Show and pots (as ever) being at a premium I decided to ease my pain a little by buying three new pots. That helped a bit, until I popped over to the garden centre for some more compost and left with a few more plants, and then we went along to the Gardeners Market at West Bridgford, and yes, I left with more plants.
But I had a genius plan to deal with this, except it’s been scuppered by the warm (actually very hot - it’s been in the 30s here) weather. My genius plan was to create a flower bed, and use that for the plants that I know will end up in that part of the garden, thus planting out plants directly or freeing up pots for new plants.
But there was no way I was digging in those temperatures, in full sun. So that plan, while still genius is on hold for the moment. But the new pots do have my tomatoes in, and the new compost!
And the eager eyed amongst you will spot that there’s an old pot in the shot above (second from the top) - I’m running a completely non-scientific test here. I have two tomato varieties the same and I’ve planted one in my usual terracotta pot and the other in one of the new plastic pots, it’ll be interesting to see how both fare - hopefully both will do well!
But anyway, more of that in a future update - let’s see what else has been going on this month (spoiler - it’s a lot!).
I rediscovered the rhubarb crown that dad gave me over the winter (or maybe before), which I’d put in the garage for safekeeping. Lucky I found it when I did as it had started to grow in the dark of the garage, though as I discovered quite quickly it was growing upside down - argh! There was no time like the present, and after a few days of rainfall I decided that now was as good as time as any to dig a hole, but what way up should I plant it. That was the quandary, but I did the best I could with the shoots that were between an inch and two inches by now. I hoped it would right itself once it got settled in to its long term home.
I remembered that I’d bought a large pot the previous year at the Newark Garden Show, and realised it would be a perfect temporary home for the new rhododendron, so that and a lot of compost (plus some old soil and crocks) filled that pot. It looks great flowering against the black trellis, and I know MOH has enjoyed viewing it from his window but ultimately it will live at the other end of the garden, though now I’m wondering if I should have got two, ah well maybe next time!
With MOH out of action and recuperating on ‘light duties’ and absolutely no lawn cutting, that became my biggest task of the month. Well maybe not the biggest, but most definitely the newest. The only thing was that there is apparently a knack to starting our current lawnmower, and MOH was pretty sure (and probably right) that I wouldn’t have it. So there was only one thing for it - a new lawnmower.
We knew were going to buy a Stihl battery mower as I’ve long time been impressed with them, the company and the tools we have. There were a couple of stockists, one being the large tractor shop on the A17. And by large tractor shop I mean a big shop and huge John Deere tractors, so me walking in and saying I wanted a domestic lawnmower was quite amusing.
They had four to choose from and eventually they took me seriously and we had a sensible conversation about lawnmowers, we left with one which they also helped me load into the car - and they gave the lawnmower a quick dust before they did. I told you they warmed up in the end!
But first I needed to tackle the weeds in the grass I was reliably informed by MOH - well that took three attempts over consecutive days due to rain stopping play, and if I’m honest complete boredom. But I dutifully carried on, almost half filling the garden wheelie bin with my efforts - only for MOH to say that I’d been more thorough than he would have been. Thanks dear, useful information after I’d finished!
But the grass got cut and the new lawn mower did its job, and the wheelie bin was well over half full. MOH even said I’d passed my level 1 grass cutting award. Great! I suspected that meant I’d need to do it again before the month was out, and I wasn’t wrong.
It was around the middle of the month that I noticed our yucca plant in the outer border was forming flower buds, how exciting. And we went to visit another garden, this time the Walled Garden at Flintham Hall, and once again I left with more plants.
Then we found ourselves visiting the monthly Gardeners Market at West Bridgford, my main reason for going was to finally catch up with Arbor Farrow, who I’ve followed for a while and am absolutely in awe of her work. I left with these steel plant supports and a stronger resolve to buy some of her more ornamental orbs when the time is right.
Throughout the month the yucca has been developing its flowers, it’s not quite out yet but with the warm weather surely it can’t be too long now?
Elsewhere in the garden there’s been lots of potting on; the dahlias from Flintham Hall are now in larger pots and two peonies, also from dad around the same time as the rhubarb crown, have been potted on with more soil and larger pots. I’ve used canes to try and contain them, but when they’re in the garden I’ll be getting some peony supports for them from Lincolnshire Plant Supports who we met at this year’s Newark Garden Show, and who are based in a couple of villages along from my brother.
The roses have really enjoyed the sunshine, especially when it coincided with the warm temperatures. I think they’re having their best year here yet, but you’ll see that later on.
The rhubarb crown seems happy too, despite the heat - this is it about a week or so after planting out. It now has seven stems growing from it, though we’ll be leaving those to feed the plant rather than us this year. But next year I'm hoping to have plenty of rhubarb crumble. I’ve planted it among the shrubs in the border opposite the garage, in a spot where a plant hadn’t survived, so it feels a good use of space. I’ve another rhubarb to plant - the one we brought with us - but that needs to wait for cooler weather.
I also overwintered two amaryllis in the garage - also from dad, he’s a great plant supplier! - and I wasn’t sure how they’d fare. But both plants have a flower bud on them, this is the largest of them. The other looked very dead so I’d moved it out of the light and that is now a dwarf amaryllis, oops.
In my quest to maximise pots, the succulents are now sharing more than they were before. With that and the dead aeonium I had two pots free for my new strawberry plants - and I think I rather like how the sharing succulent pot has turned out.
Ah yes, my new grass cutting skills were once again required. The garden bin was full of grass and weeds, and super heavy to move out to the kerb. I’m glad I thought about that in advance and moved it away from the fence before it got too heavy to manoeuvre.
The lavender bushes are starting to flower and are looking glorious, well all of them bar one which isn’t faring quite so well with a large dead section which I’ll need to sort out. But in more promising news the one that I’d pulled from the crevice between our border and the pavement is doing well, so that’s a free plant - but a good few years behind these.
Still not flowering. But look at that blue sky!
The roses are flowering though, the Gertrude Jekyll is full of blooms and the Mottisfont is catching up. The paler peach/white Claire Austin which was a little crispy last month is recovering well and looks much healthier, it doesn’t have buds yet but I think it will definitely flower this year, just a little later than normal.
One of the stranger additions to the garden was this lump of sheep fluff. We think it arrived in one of the overnight storms, rather than being left by its owner - though there are a field of sheep two doors up so it didn’t have far to blow.
I also planted out some geraniums that we brought with us, and which we’d brought from my FIL’s garden. I thought I’d lost these last summer but found them happily surviving (just) in another pot that had remained under a shrub. I decided to split those into two plants as I know how fast they can grow - they’ve rewarded me already with a flower on each new plant, so that’s good to see.
The ceanothus, or Californian Lilac started to flower towards the end of the month proving to the lavender it’s not the only blue flower right now. And joy of joy my philadelphus, or mock orange, is also flowering - it’s the first time I’ve seen these actually flower here, so I’m happy. MOH less so as these make him sneeze, rather spectacularly too at our wedding reception which we held in our London garden, so some quick on the spot pruning was needed by the bride!
Just before the end of the month I was pleased to see that the tallest amaryllis was almost flowering, then looking again I noticed I wasn’t the only one pleased to see it. Something has been nibbling, and hollowing out the stem, so now while it may flower it will be unlikely to stand on its own. The dwarf amaryllis is also suffering the same fate, though the flower of this one is also being eaten, so I’ll have to look to see what’s so hungry.
So quite a month, but a month in the garden I’ve loved. I’ve even more jobs than I thought I had at the start of the month, and I can’t wait to get going. It’s been a while for me to feel this way about gardening, perhaps it’s the weather, perhaps it’s finally time to get my hands muddy again, or maybe the pot shortage is really getting to me after all, who knows?!
