My garden in June

The lupins which did so gloriously in May are finished, and have been found by the whole neighbourhood’s snail community - it’s obvious to see how much they enjoyed them! Thankfully though the plants were able to set seed before their demise, so hopefully next year I’ll be able to grow more lupins from those.

This month it’s been about roses, with much dead heading and some new roses too. At the start of the month it was this peachy-yellowy beauty that took centre stage; positioned just outside the gate, every time we came in or out there seemed to be another head of flowers, which was perfectly fine by me.

The never ending weeding of the gravel continued, but it did throw up a surprise with this tiny poppy flower. There’s been a few others since, but none have made quite the impact that this first one did.

When I said it was a month of roses, there were also new roses. This Gertrude Jekyll arrived for my birthday, a present from MOH - isn’t it gorgeous? As you know we had one of these in our previous garden and had to leave it there, that one he’d bought me as a wedding anniversary present and so it was a lovely surprise to receive this one unexpectedly.

The weather was good enough to start some proper gardening and as well as the rose to pot up - I’m not sure where I want it yet - there were some plants to plant out. The hellebore which we brought from my FIL’s garden was ripe for potting out, it wasn’t until I got it out of the pot that I realised just how much. It hadn’t done much this winter, and the amount of roots to soil might have contributed to that. It’s not just along from the pale green hellebore in our border which had done so well, let’s hope this one takes the hint.

Only two of my sunflowers survived on their own while we were away in May, but they have gone from strength to strength and to help them further I decided to pot those out too. Usually you wait until they’re about 30cm high, and these were still a bit off that, but thankfully they’ve done well and there’s still the two of them. And they are so much bigger, almost reaching the top of the boundary wall to date, and I’m sure they’ve more to grow yet.

I’ve also had my first peony flower. I potted two of our peonies to bring with us, and they have managed well - they haven’t quite thrived but each of them have produced a single bloom, which is way more than I expected. They are likely to have a little longer in their pot, as our new garden plans are starting to form but will take a while longer to implement.

Among the other plants I’ve finally planted out are these wallflowers - these are the Chelsea Jacket type and have multicoloured pastel flowers. The planter is one we brought with us, and which had edged our greenhouse in the old garden. I was pleased though to discover it’s made for this spot on the corner of the garage, nestling in among the oak upright and just along from the garden tap.

The rosemary bush which suffered last summer and then recovered again is still alive and well still alive is probably as good a description for it. It’s a fighter that’s for sure, and to reward its effort this is another plant that’s been potted out, this one’s in our external borders in a much more sheltered spot. So if it was the wind it objected too, it should do ok where it is now.

Ah yes, then another rose arrived.

I’d spotted this new rose in a magazine, it’s named after the National Trust’s Mottisfont in Hampshire which is famous for its roses. It’s a great place to visit too - we’ve only been a couple of times, but I love it there.

So then there were two new roses.

MOH could hardly say no don’t get this lovely magenta Mottisfont rose as I’ve ordered one for your birthday, could he? But what a happy result - though I did have to scramble around a bit to find two pots large enough for each of these. Thankfully the obliging ox eye daisies made way and were happy enough to take up life in a new pot, so happy in fact they’re still flowering.

Our pink jasmine, which also travelled from our previous garden also flowered. It’s not in its most favourable spot, and I know that, but I am appreciating it doing its best.

As well as roses, there’s been the lavender. And that has been glorious.

We have at least six large bushes which took many hours to prune at the end of last summer, but in the sun they are so worth it, and I know in a month of two I’ll be changing my mind again! Though it’s a great way marker to say to people ‘our house is the one with the lavender’ as it’s quite obvious which it is!

We have a lot of dark leafed and purple plants - some that were here, and others which we brought with us - one of the most striking is this hebe, which again really enjoys the sunshine (but then again don’t we all).

I brought some hardy succulents back from Gardeners’ World Live this year - the first time we’ve brought plants at the show, and I couldn’t resist some of the redder leaved varieties as well as the bright, fresh greens. I’m hoping that these are as promiscuous as my aloe vera plants…

On a trip to the garden centre for lunch, I left with two small tomato plants. They’ve a while to go yet, but hopefully we’ll be eating our own home grown tomatoes this summer - it seems so strange that I haven’t grown anything for a good couple of years, mostly because we’ve been moving house.

The Mottisfont rose flowered, and it’s another beauty…

At the other end of the garden the little crab apple tree continues to do its thing - it’s plumped out so much these last few months with each of the branches looking laden with fruits again. This year I will make use of them, whether it’s jam or jelly, or even a wreath. Well, that’s the plan anyway!

Looking ahead to Gardeners' World Live

* I have been invited to the press preview of Gardeners’ World Live and provided with a pair of tickets to visit the show once it opens, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

Last year was my first time attending the press preview event and I loved it, so when I was invited again this year there was only one answer, and that was of course yes! This year though we’re obviously not travelling to Birmingham from London, but from Nottinghamshire - and while I contemplated driving, mainly so I could fill the car with garden goodies, we have decided to go on the train instead. It’s a bit more cross country this time rather than inter city, but it’ll be fine and will most likely be quite the adventure. We loved the place we stayed at last year in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter (paid for, not gifted) so are returning there too.

As ever the Gardeners’ World team have an amazing line up planned for this year’s show, and my plan is to see as much of it as I can - but I know I need a plan so we can cram as much as we can into what will be an action packed couple of days.

1 Adam Frost’s Show Garden - The Chef’s Table

Adam Frost’s garden is at the top of my list - he’s a bit of a favourite of mine on the show. The garden promises ‘a large walk-through garden full of vibrant home-grown produce, a rustic outdoor cooking and eating space’ and a daily programme of conversations and demos, hosted by Adam. I’m hoping that we’ll also get a chance to catch one of those celebrity guests as James Martin and Glynn Purnell are at the show on the same day.

2 Urban Gardening Showcase Gardens

While I can no longer claim that my garden is urban, I can still admire the design skills and implementation of this space which is all about ‘inspiring town and city gardeners’ - and sponsors Blue Diamond will showcase their top 25 plants essential for any urban garden. All of these plants will be available to buy at the show, so urban garden or not it’s probably just as well I’m not taking the car!

3 ‘The Good Life’ Show Gardens

The Show Gardens are always my highlight, and this year their theme is ‘The Good Life’ - I’m already wondering how many of them will take that literally and include their take on the 1970s sitcom, and how many Tom & Barbaras and Gerry & Margots we’ll spot! I’ll be very disappointed if that tally is none.

4 Beautiful Borders

The beautiful borders are always a busy part of the show, and with good reason. It’s amazing how much these garden designers can pack into a small space, and how much inspiration there is which can be adapted. I’ve shared many of the Beautiful Borders from previous shows, and you can expect to see much more of the same in the coming months too.

5 The wheelbarrows!

I love these - and often spend way too little time admiring the work put in by local school children, so I plan to change that this year. Previous year’s themes have included the ‘Meal in a Barrow’ in 2018 and last year’s competition focused on climate change and its impact on food production around the globe.

This year the theme once again has a ‘food and climate change’ theme, so it’ll be interesting to see what is on offer this year - and I’m sure it will be as hard as always to decide on which ones to vote for.

And finally,

My Gardeners’ World Live visit wouldn’t be complete without a scout around the BBC Good Food Show - it’s a cacophony of noise, smells and tastes, and I wouldn’t miss this part at all, in fact it usually ‘fuels’ our journey home.

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, I’m looking forward to seeing this year’s show.

My garden in May

If April was about the promise of new growth, then this month has been about nurturing that and seeing how far things have come. Unsurprisingly it’s our first May in this garden, and so I’ve been watching new things flower and have realised that we have three young mock oranges, rather than the single and very old one we had in our previous garden. I’m amazed at how many plants we had there, we have here - and without even trying, though of course they are much younger plants than those we had.

But anyway, let’s see what’s been going on in my garden in May.

The lupins we bought at the Newark Garden Show paired up with some bluebells from dad on the edge of the patio, replacing the tulips and before them the daffodils. I’m enjoying having a burst of colour here, though it’ll be interesting to see how and if I can keep this going throughout the summer, especially when the patio space is more in demand!

I’d intended to plant out the bluebells, which dad had planted into an old hanging basket for easy transportation, into our outer beds - but what with life and the weather I hadn’t gotten around to it, and so they flowered where they were planted. As a stroke of genius I realised the hanging basket could perch on the top of the pot, and in fact that worked so well I’m now wondering if this could be a more permanent arrangement. We’ll see.

Elsewhere in the garden there were more signs of life, with an early ceanothus flower just visible if you looked hard enough - though the hellebores were also still in flower - isn’t it great when the seasonal blooms mix and merge like this?

Whilst weeding the gravel - it is an never ending job - I found a larger than the weeds but still small lavender plant, and while we have five or six lavender bushes, I never sniff at free plants so was quick to pot this one up to see if it would survive - and it has so far. The gravel has been a great place for seedlings as along with the weeds I’ve also found many, many small buddleias, some lady’s mantle and towards the end of the month we’ve also had some flowering red poppies.

One of the lupins surprised me by producing a double headed flower, which looks more like bunny ears than a lupin. It’s since flowered and was thankfully the only one that split this way - with more normal looking flowers greeting us when we got back from our trip to Italy. I’d moved them into a more shaded part of the garden before we went and this helped them cope unaided I think.

Just before we went away MOH spotted some small furry fruits on the nectarine tree which I planned to grow against the old brick farm wall - I was grateful that my longer term plan looked as if it would come to fruition (sorry!), though not really sure if they would last for long. And while there were fewer when we returned, there were still definitely some on the plant, and they were larger, so who knows, at some point this summer MOH and I may share a small nectarine, or two if we’re lucky.

It’s always a thing for me to check on the garden when we’re back after a holiday, and it’s no different in this garden. It’s interesting to see what’s grown and appeared in that time and often it’s more pronounced as you’ve been away. I did have a small smile when I spotted this pale yellow antirhinnum in flower - it clearly planted itself in one of the pots we brought with us, as did the taller toad flax (which if it hangs around with be a purple cone of flowers)

I’d brought the two potted peonies further into the border and away from their winter shelter spots and was pleased to see that each had a bud, just the one but that’s more than I thought I might get after disrupting them ahead of our house move. Whilst walking through the now overgrown shrubs I realised I was brushing past an in flower mock orange - I recognise that smell anywhere. When I looked more closely we have two further small bushes, so that was a really great discovery.

The rowan tree has filled out, and the local bird population has been feasting on some of the berries already; the buddleias has also shot up from my rather brutal prune earlier this month - it’s easily back to where it was before, and ready to flower. My discovery here when clearing some of the lower branches is that this was intentionally planted, rather than self seeded as I thought. I know this because on its main stem it has a paper label, and not many self seeded plants have those!

It’s growth is so vigorous though it was crowding out a smaller hebe, now it’s cut back again in part I’m hoping that there’s enough light and space for the smaller plant to come through.

The lettuces survived snuggled down in one of the trugs, as did the gravel lavender and lady’s mantle. One of the lettuces looks almost ready to eat, and the others could probably benefit from a slightly larger pot - so that’s something to add to my to do list.

Another thing on that list, apart from regular checks on the nectarines, is to sort out these herbs. I’ve finally realised where I can put them - and it’s in one of these trugs, so it wasn’t a huge departure from their temporary home - but my plan is to relocate the planter so it’s easy to access from the kitchen - more on that next month, hopefully.

The crab apples have also come on and small apples have formed where once there was blossom - this year I’m determined to use them, and not to leave them on the tree so long. I’m not sure yet whether I’ll use them in the kitchen or on a wreath, but use them I will.

And like any garden there’s still much to do, and much to learn - but I’ll leave you with a fully flowering ceanothus bush, whose flowers always remind me of those blue bobbly liquorice allsorts, though in all honesty, I much prefer the flowers! (Though just to be clear, I’m happy to eat most other liquorice allsorts).