Early planting of tulips.

One of my least favourite jobs in the garden is planting bulbs; it's such a laborious job and I always forget where I've planted them and then end up sticking a spade through one. You can put little markers in but I'm not a lover of this method and even if I just put a little sprinkling of darker soil on top the chickens will soon have scraped it off in their search for grubs. However much I hate planting them, there is something so heart warming when, after a cold and dark winter, little shoots push through the hard soil to promise you a blaze of hope that warmer weather is on it's way. By February I am desperate for some life in the garden. Whilst the bones of the garden, the evergreens, are present all year round for colour, shape and form the arrival of those little buds, boldly trumpeting the arrival of Spring is such a welcome sight and I regret not spending more time and money on a bigger show of these flowering bulbs. When we moved here last February we had nothing of note in the garden and the tulips paid for themselves every time I saw them.
Planting them in pots means you can move them around for instant colour anywhere you want in the garden (just make sure you don't place the pot over something coming up under the ground).

Along with the previous year's tulips I have added
6 Fancy Frills (bright pink)
20 Ballerina (orange)
12 Libretto Parrot (a sort of peach sundae colour)
12 Black Parrot (as the name suggests - and my favourites)
16 Spring Green (white and green)
40 Angelina (double pale pink)

I also purchased
3 Allium Giganteum @ £3.99 per bulb! Ouch.
12 Iris Pauline (purple)
15 Snake's-head Fritillary (purple and white)
25 Allium Roseum (pink)
8 Nectaroscordum Siculum. Allium (pink, green and white)
15 Anemone 'The Bride' (white with green)
12 Puschleimia Libanatica Alba (white)
12 Chionodoxa Lucilae Alba (Glory of the Snow)
A few week's ago I bought 12 tall snowdrops and 25 single snowdrops which I planted around the base of the Acer.

Although this makes over 100 tulips for this year alone I won't regret this purchase and will be thinking I should have bought more (although I had to buy them in two separate purchases after I'd justified spending so much on them). 80 sounds quite a lot but for a great show you could use hundreds and not be crowded out.
I've put some in the ground but the majority of them are in pots.
I've mixed the bright pink Fancy Frills ( a fringed variety) with the double Angelique pinks for contrast in shape but keeping the colour similar. Underplanting these with Allium Roseum for more subtle tiny pink buds should produce a frothy mass of flower. The Black Parrot tulips have been mixed with the upright orange Ballerinas for a real contrast. I've also added Snake's-head Fritillary to flower underneath them.
Along with the Spring Green tulips I've added some other bulbs, Anemone 'The Bride' with their white petals and green centres. These pots will be easy on the eye and wil sit alongside the other colours quite happily without jarring.
I still have half the bulbs to plant up and already have eight pots completed and topped with pansies and violas. Now to find a place to put them!

Tidying up.

I'm not talking about housework; that's gone by the by. We are hosting a friend's birthday tea here tomorrow so it'll be all hands to the deck but we still have a day to live in the mess till then.
The tidying has all been in the garden with several renegade plants sprouting up under our very noses.
How did the sunflower get there?




Why did I let Luke plant the BLUE salvias in the black and white border? So yesterday it was time to sort these things out. I know people say you shouldn't move plants in flower, especially in full sun but I have seldom had a failure when I've done this and the secret is in the preparation. I dig the hole I am moving them to, puddle in the hole (pour water into it and let it drain away), water the plant itself and then dig it up quickly with a decent amount of it's own soil around the roots and plant it in the required place, firming it in and watering again.



The leggy sunflower I moved yesterday, along with the Japanese anemones and blue salvia are all thriving still.
When I had my first garden Mum and I, out for a walk, found a cast off conifer and dragged it all the way back to my house. It had lost all the soil around it's roots, dried off in the sun, and was going brown but we decided 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' and planted it up, with lashings of water for days. Until a previous boyfriend's over enthusiastic mother decided to prune my garden whilst I was at work one weekend that little conifer thrived. Unfortunatly I returned home from work to find six black bags full of prunings and a space where my rescued conifer had been.

Hello again.

Well, how long has it been? Weeks, I think. I've almost forgotten how to type.
The gardeners amongst you will know the reason for my absence. It was August and there was much to do in the garden.
It's a dilemma sometimes; do I spend time writing up what's been happening in the garden or do I actually garden.
I'm starting to wonder if my subconscious chose this house because of it's proximity to the garden centre. The guy who commented on me being there a lot yesterday told Luke they were going to get me a job up there. I said I would spend more than I earned and that's probably true! Especially seeing as they have one of my favourite things ever going on up there - a SALE! I've also earned myself thirty pounds worth of garden vouchers and you know the amount of money you have to spend to get anything back from shops. Gulp. It's no good regretting it because I'm a demon when it comes to 1) A garden centre and 2) A sale. A lethal combination, I'm afraid. Too late, it's done now so no use worrying about it; I shall just appreciate the new things to look at and admire.
I was in the process of creating a colourful border last time I wrote and since then I have extended that slightly. My aim is to dig a large sweep around the base of the tree, twice as big as the one we have there now. Digging around tree roots is hard work. However, with Luke's help, I dug out a pot full of pebbles and stones and dug in half a large pack of decent soil improver. To that I added about forty bulbs to naturalise around the tree's base and give us the promise of some Spring interest. Then I've extended the hot and cool colours by adding yellow and orange Celosia (feathery flower heads), frosty white and indigo Salvias and some crisp white Cyclamen which should last a good while. They just sing out with their purity and catch my eye to remind me why I've always chosen white for the garden.
There's been a casualty since I last wrote. A leap from the bushes and a quick rustle under the bird feeders produced Socks, next door's cat, with a large dead blue tit in her mouth. I gave chase and waited to see if I could rescue it but when she put it on the ground it was definitely dead. What a shame! Our feeders are high enough up but cat's are patient hunters and obviously this tit was no match for her skills.