My garden in June

Gardens, or rather watering or lack of, is always a worry when I’m off on holiday, and I ended last month doing as much as I could to prepare my plants, especially those which hadn’t been planted out of their garden centre pots, for my time away. I don’t know if my plan of digging the pot half into the flower beds would work or not, but luckily for my plants it rained a fair bit while we were away, so when I got back everything looked quite healthy. Phew.

When I’m back from holiday I do like to have a walk around the garden and see how everything’s coped. I wasn’t disappointed, well apart from the weeds. Not only were there more weeds in my lawn (note it’s now my lawn since I’ve been tasked with cutting it!) but they had the audacity to flower!

The amaryllis with the hollowed out stem produced another flower, but still needed the wall for support. It’s amazing how battered and eaten it looks, but how it’s still programmed to flower. Hopefully I’ll have more luck with them next year, and less bugs.

The lavender throughout the garden, but especially in the outside border, really came into its own. Apart from the lavender bush that didn’t.

That’ll need dealing with, as no amount of positive thinking is going to bring that back!

The phormium, also in the outer border, was still flowering. These didn’t seem to open any further before dying back, so I think that’s what it does, apart from looking very dramatic and beautiful that is.

The tomatoes were all doing well, and there were signs of the teeny-tiniest fruits starting to form - I told you it had rained a fair bit, and while I was glad I’m sure most people weren’t.

The dahlias had also formed small flower buds, and I was looking forward to seeing what colours the four plants would bring - would they all be the same, or would I be lucky and get different colours. The colour reveal is coming later on in this post. The roses needed dead heading, and the bees continued to enjoy the lavender wherever they could find it.

The rhubarb which I planted last month was thriving, no doubt making the most of the rain and its shady spot. The plants in pots I’d dug in (some are visible above the rhubarb) also looked healthy, though the one on the right had greener leaves than when I’d left. They had previously been a dark purple, so I’m not sure if they need a sunnier spot to perform that trick - I’ll need to read the label again.

The dark flowered iris was just about hanging on, and as ever the lady’s mantle was looking glorious with its raindrops. I needn’t have worried, but I think it would have been a completely different story if the warm weather (let alone the heatwave) had continued while we were away. Typically the first few days we were home the weather wasn’t that great either, but I could see there was plenty to be done in the garden, but I was hopeful the rain would subside.

It did of course, and I managed to snap a couple of almost autumnal looking photos in the next few days, it was only the middle of June so I hoped autumn wasn’t closer than it should be.

Since we’ve been back from France I’ve been surprised by my pink jasmine, which we brought with us from London. It was originally a very small plant that I’d ordered from the Gardeners’ World Magazine way before I’d even thought about visiting a Gardeners’ World Show, let alone run competitions for them.

For the first time since we moved, it flowered. It’s been in a pot for a while, even for a while when we were in London, so I’ve really no idea why it was grumpy following our move, but it seems to have come to terms with Nottinghamshire life and has treated us to the prettiest pink jasmine flowers. I haven’t quite told it yet that at some point it might move out of its pot…

Both of our olive trees were also in flower this month, and they’re not shy about it either. Neither of them, perhaps MOH will be able to think about his olive oil production after all?!

After spending time nosing about gardens both in France and in the UK since we’d returned I got an urge to sow some seeds, which I haven’t had for quite a while. I don’t have a greenhouse space but I quickly realised that our old garden table could provide just the space I was after. And so far it’s worked pretty well, with an adjustment or two.

The first dahlia flowered and it was the most gorgeous cerise pink, what joy. That flower died back, only to be replaced with two more blooms from the same plant. The others look like they will flower soon, so now I’m putting my money on them all being this gorgeous colour, but I may be wrong.

I’d noticed that the hellebore was self-seeding into the gravel, and I wanted to keep as many of these as I could. MOH was banned from weeding this section of the gravel, and I could see him itching to tidy it up, so one afternoon I set myself up with a kneeler, a seed tray and had an enjoyable afternoon transplanting these small plants. Not all of them made it into a seed tray, as not all of them had what I deemed sufficient roots when I pulled them up, but I’m hoping those that I did will provide plenty of free plants. What’s not to like?

I also filled another seed tray with some self seeded lady’s mantle and a few lavender plants which were also happily growing away in the gravel. The weather warmed up again and I realised that my makeshift seed table also came with a built in shade provider so when the weather was at its warmest - thanks heatwave number two of the year - the seeds and the transplanted plants spent their time underneath the table.

One of my succulents has been enjoying the hotter weather more than me and has treated us to a pale yellow flower, which is both delicate and peculiar at the same time. It’s also grown out of the mother plant by about six inches so struggles to keep itself up, so you have to duck down to see its flower.

Our peace lily houseplant, which was a moving in gift from one of our new neighbours, was looking rather sorry for itself so I decided to repot it. Then once it was out of the pot, I decided to cut it in half and make it into two plants. The roots were really dense, and it’s the first time I’ve needed to saw a rootball to split it. Both halves seem to be doing well, and let’s face it they have a lot more soil than they’ve probably ever had, so hopefully in a month or so they’ll be back to their best.

This smoke bush has made us smile many times this month. It’s just a large ball of fluff, which from certain angles looks like it really could be one of those poodles with the fancy clippings.

The buddleia has grown and grown and is almost back to the height it was when I trimmed (/hacked) it back a month or so ago. It’ll need another cut before the end of the summer, but not right now as it’s bringing all the butterflies into the garden. As is I’m sure my two beautiful dahlias!

It’s amazed me to see just how much the newly planted rhubarb has grown in a month - this is it mid June, and since then it’s got proper blush rhubarb stalks on it. Sadly we won’t be eating those this year, we’ll let them die back naturally so that the plant can retain its strength, but next year will be crumbletastic.

We’ve got the promise of a strawberry or two on the new plants which I picked up at the Newark Garden Show back in April, whether or not they’ll come to anything who knows, but the promise of future strawberries is good enough for me right now.

Every so often this month I’ve poked my head into the small crab apple tree to check on progress, and there are apples so that’s good. There’s also a lot of growth from it’s hard trim, so I think I may need to give it a trim every year, just not as much, rather than leaving it to alternate years.

Oh, and that lavender bush that needed dealing with? We dealt with it. Most of it was very dead, some of the stems at the base were rotting and others snapped as they were so dry, so it really wasn’t happy. It’s odd as part of the bush had managed to do its thing, and the centre part I left hopeful that it will survive.

There were two other sections which while it looked dead in the centre had flowers and fresh growth. They looked a bit daft left on, so we cut those off too and quite a lot of the flowers ended up in a vase in the kitchen, and some more will hopefully provide even more free plants.

I’m also hoping that the free plants from the gravel, whether that’s the hellebores or lady’s mantle, or even some of the lavender will grow on enough to help fill in some of the gap above - though they have a bit of growing to do yet.

And if I had a greenhouse I could do more pottering, seed sowing and bring more cuttings on - and so I’ve taken the plunge and ordered a small greenhouse. I’ve pondered over it for quite a while, and while its ordered it’s on a six month delay which quite honestly suits me just fine.

I’ll leave you with this top down image of one of the sea holly’s which I hope will flower soon. Hopefully there’ll be an update on what it does in next month’s update, but before then no doubt I’ve got some weeding to do.

My garden in May

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?!

My garden in April

I ended last month’s post saying there was still plenty to do, and that’s what I’m starting with on this post too. But then again, there’s always something to do in the garden isn’t there, often though it’s just getting the weather to behave to spend enough time out there amongst everything else that’s going on, but as the month has gone that’s been more manageable - especially with an influx of plants from this year’s visit to the Newark Garden Show, oops.

The wallflowers have been fantastic, brightening up their little corner by the garage - I love how the colours change as they mature, which often means there’s a multicoloured display at any one time.

Our lavender’s have mostly done well - we have many of these large bushes, but one less than last year it would seem. One has mostly not survived the winter and while I haven’t looked at it in any great detail yet, there’s not much green new growth on it. In better news the small-ish self seeded plant that we pulled out from between our garden and the pavement has survived and seems to like its new position in our outer border. It’s a good few years behind the larger bushes but with one bush failing it’s a good reminder to take cuttings - so that’s another job on my list!

After the daffodils had a poor show this year - just three flowered - the tulips said ‘hold my beer’ - this was the only flower we had this year, and so some bulb attention is clearly needed too. I’d been growing both the daffodils and the tulips in pots, but I think the time has come to sow them into the ground and see if they do any better there for next spring.

The crab apple tree has been busy this month - the blossom has formed, flowered and gone! It’s delightful to watch the little tree come back to life, but it seems I have very few pictures of it this year - I’d given it quite a trim in March so I was doubly delighted to see it in leaf, let alone blossom.

The acer by our back door also sprung into life - and has since had a bit of a trim - but just look at the sunlight on those red leaves. Divine.

It’s not all been quite so rosy though, or in this instance rosey. One of my roses was looking decidedly dry, and I think it along with the small peach tree got caught out by that very warm spell at the start of April. We weren’t home for those few days either so it was a bit of a double whammy.

But with some careful pruning I think this one will be ok - it’s already started to form new leaves, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I know I say it every year, but I really do need to get these roses out of their pots and into the ground - maybe this year will be the year, who knows?

My succulents overwintered well in the garage (mostly) until they didn’t. I brought them outside and later in the month I lost the single one on the right. The two butting up against each other seem happy enough though, as does the tiny one on the left. My plan for my succulents is to load them up into the pots I have - partly as I think they look better en masse, but also to help with the the ongoing pot shortage situation.

The aeonium decided it wasn’t happy after all and so now I have a twig! My indoor one is also not happy, but a tad happier than this one - but I’m going to persevere with these as plants as I think they’re gorgeous - though I may need to buy one to replace this one, I’m not sure that one is coming back!

The gravel weeding can be a full time job, as well as the usual dandelions and weeds this month I’ve been pulling up baby trees. And I’m glad to do this while they’re still small as it’s a relatively easy job. The gravel is great for propogating plants on its own though, I’ve got a couple of buddleia and some lady’s mantle that I want to pot up (thankfully smaller pots aren’t an issue) and I think I’ve several hellebores forming too, though these are teeny tiny at the moment and MOH is under strict instruction not to touch them, or even walk on them - so we’ll see how we go!

The mahonia has been jewel-like and gorgeous in the sunshine. It seems we’ve lost the smaller of the plants we had, and I’m not surprised it seemed to be a lot wetter than the other two. But two of these is plenty enough, and the blackbirds are enjoying them as much as me, perhaps even more so.

It was really quite satisfying and mindful to sit alongside this lady’s mantle and remove all the dead leaves which had done such a good job of protecting the plant over winter. The leaves are fascinating and you can quite clearly see how they’re folded as they develop and before they unfurl themselves. This job was made all the better for its position in the sun, I have another large plant which doesn’t get so much sun, so I need to time that one right - and haven’t yet!

I also overwintered some amaryllis in the garage, leaving these in there a bit longer than the succulents. Imagine my joy then to discover that it looks as if I’ll be rewarded with a flower.

I mentioned at the start that we’d been along to the Newark Garden Show again this year, and this year I went with a plant list - taking my cue from visiting quilt shows! We even bought some of the plants on my list - irises, tomatoes, strawberries and foxgloves, but there was some off list shopping too, including a lemon coloured red hot poker and a glorious lilac rhododendron.

A RED HOT POKER (THAT’S NOT RED) AND MORE IRISES

TWO FOXGLOVES

A GLORIOUS LILAC RHODODENDRON

STRAWBERRIES AND FOUR TOMATO PLANTS

So now you now why I continue to have a pot shortage!

I also spotted that one of the hebes was having a crisis - a kind of Cruella de Vil kind of crisis, as it were with a central stripe dying back. It was as dead as could be, so it needed to come out, but it doesn’t look that much better after - hopefully I’ve been able to act quickly enough so that it can recover and grow more healthily - fingers crossed.

But it’s far from all bad. The new olive tree looks like its ready to flower soon - just look at the number of buds, so I’m taking it that its happy in the large patio pot.

And if this snapshot of the small crab apple tree is anything to go by, then I should also be in for plenty of crab apples later in the year. Which is good news as I’m hoping to be able to make even more chilli jelly this year!

Let’s hope there’s more ‘at least pleasant’ weather to come, as I’ve got a to do list as long as my arm!