Yellow Peril

 I don't usually plant many yellow plants apart from tulips and fritallarias but this year I have a rouge sunflower plant smack bang in the middle of the veg patch, an unknown flower in my wild flower patch, the giant Scabiosa by the greenhouse as well as the fennel and a lovely yellow courgette flower this year I seem to have exceeded my quota.

Starting off with some good quality compost and a bit of hard work I am to transform the dingy corner by the conservatory into a cheery space.

It doesn't look too exciting but with a couple of week's growth and a little less chicken interaction this should look quite pretty - that's the plan anyhow.

Spare room. Here we have a little spare room above the wood store, a perfect place to stick the ariculums.

In the twilight hour

Those dratted hens have scratched my plants up more times that I can remember so I've had to put chicken wire over the top of these newly planted alpines and other plants. Only when the girls have gone off to bed is it safe to uncover it and by then it is almost dark.

Money well spent?

Because the little bed I spent so much money on when I made it last year looks so meagre I decided to give it an injection of colour. So I bought some alpines and some annuals to brighten it for now.
Ten minutes to plant them, Thirty seconds to water it in - and four minutes for the hens to get right in the middle of it all. Typical.

Next year's flowers.

We have strayed into next Spring already. The sacks of daffodils and bags of tulip bulbs have arrived at the garden centre already.



I have washed the pots ready for planting up but the cheap side of me is waiting for late deals in tulips. The bulbs can be planted from now till as late as Christmas by which time the garden centres should have reduced the price significantly. If your bulbs are going into the beds and borders (or those sweet little crocus bulbs, into the lawn) then it makes sense to plant them up before the stiff cold winds and freezing temperatures make planting into the ground a chore. Nothing wants to have to start it's journey from bulb to flower in a cold, unyielding soil. But if you are planting bulbs into compost then it will be perfectly acceptable to plant much later than normal. The good thing about pots, as I've said before, is that you can place them wherever you need the colour and that's not always apparent when planting bulbs. A couple of cheery pots framing the front door is always a welcome sight after a long winter and I love to plant two different colours (black and white or purple and orange sound as if they will jar but in fact work well together) or the same shade but different shapes (fringed and fluted or neatly shaped petals alongside the flamboyance of parrot tulips make for an interesting display). So, with a spare few bob, there's a world of possibilities at your fingertips.

I shall be waiting for the sales, I calculated that I have spent almost £400 this summer alone on the garden. I shan't consider myself a proper gardener until I am penny pinching and growing things from seed in my own compost and leaf mould. All things Nature readily gives us for free and it seems silly to pay so much once the garden is established (but so easy to do when seduced by a colourful beauty you feel you have to have - I wanted this plant in my garden but resisted - blimey, what's come over me?)



Like turf over grass seed, it is lovely to be able to occasionally overspend in order to get instant results but gardening is a patience game; to every thing there is a season. To truly enjoy the garden I would love to be able to work with it and it teaches me valuable lessons in life. Lessons like accepting failure when my lovingly clipped box topiary, just forming a beautiful border around the herbs, developed box blight. Ingenuity when something obviously ailing in one spot can be transferred to delight again in the right conditions. Lessons such as you get out what you put in, that nothing lasts forever and that each small kindness (a drop of water on a hot day) will probably be repaid by a cheerful flower head later on. But I'm running away with myself, whatever you get out of gardening, whether it's a lone pot on a windowsill or an expanse of lawn to play ball with the children on you will usually get much more pleasure out of it than the effort it took in the first place. That's my theory anyway.

View from the house.

Rigtheo, I've added a lot of new posts today and I hope you enjoy them. There are so many hen posts that I feel I need to redress the balance by adding some plant posts.

Not much happening in the border this year but hope springs eternal. Maybe next year?

Hard rock cafe.

The weather still continues to cling onto it's powerful control and things have been nigh on impossible to get in the garden. Yesterday I mowed the lawn as the rain set in only to see brilliant sunshine an hour later. On the whole it has been too wet to venture into the garden but last weekend we did manage to get a rockery built in a day. Check it out..,

 19 pots of bargain plants for mass appeal.

 The original view, before the work was started.

 The plants - six new alpines and some instant colour in the form of the yellow Gerberas.

The mishappen tree that I have tried to correct with pruning but really is not up to scratch so needs must...., out it comes!

 Having a sit down before the hard work.

 

Although the rockery was pretty in the springtime it really isn't anything to look at now so it needs a proper tidy up. With Luke's help we removed the rocks and plants, added compost and sand and then rebuilt the rockery. When I say 'we' I have to admit that Luke did most of the work as a neighbour nabbed me for a chat whilst Luke kept going. He's a wonder!

All the plants and rocks out, the ground is dug over, improved and levelled.

 

 Luke at the bottom of slope, doing all the hard work.

 Here are the rocks, graded and ready to go back in again.

The rocks start going back in.

Nice work, Luke.

 

 

Now time for the plants.

 

 Once the alpines in between the rocks were added we could work our way up the slope.

 Luke has done the hard work - just a shame we don't have more rocks.

 In go all the original plants.

Almost there.

 We positioned the plants to see how they looked before we committed ourselves.

Wild about the wild things.

This year I am trying out a wild garden at the back, behind the hen house. It's got a way to go but I'm pleased I've started it. I hope next year I will have learnt a little more about the wild side of things..

The foxglove looks like a big exclamation mark!

Knowing my onions.

You may recognise the purple pom poms in this bucket of clippings as members of the allium family - or more simply, the onion family. In fact it's the smallest of the edible onions and the flowers can be used in salads though personally I've never used them for anything but garnish.

 The reason for the bucket was because it was time to trim the box hedging back, I'd given it the Chelsea Chop (a good old cut back of plants directly after the Chelsea Flower Show) and it's now starting to merge into it's neighbouring plant.

The plan is to have a mini knot garden to edge the herbs. Like most of my plans it will almost certainly decide it's own fate and I'll have to put up with what I get but that's okay - I'm not precious about it...., well, not much!

I just can't help it!!

I can't imagine a nicer way to spend money than to buy some favourite plants and then have the afternoon in the sun, planting them up.For what I could spend in an evening I have had the most enormous fun today. Maybe it's sad to admit I love gardening more than a night on the pop but I'm loud and proud about it - it's good exercise, looks lovely for weeks if not years to come and ....., oh, who am I kidding, Yes, I spent too much again!
In my defence I bought most plants for half price or less, only deeming to pay full price for a blue poppy and two rust coloured verbascums. I'll add some photos once they've been uploaded. Just had time to mow the back lawn and down came the rain, perfect timing.

And so to bed.

Slowly the grass is being eradicated just as it was in the previous garden. That one was a lot smaller though so this one can lose a little lawn without it mattering too much. I've always liked the idea of several gardens within a garden; little surprises that delight the visitor. Without loads of space, time and money that won't be happening anytime soon but this way I can have a point of interest that still makes one's eye stop for a moment before searching further behind to the rest of the garden.

Do you remember a few weeks ago I sprinkled sand on the grass in the rough shape that I wanted for a small bed just in front of the veg patch? Well, it is almost pay day so now I've been able to put my plans into practise. First off, I had to cut the edges of the new bed cleanly with an edger before slicing up the grass and then getting the fork to aerate the ground and remove the copious amounts (again!) of stones.

it

Not wishing to waste the grass I popped it into the greenhouse for the chickens to nibble at. After all, we all need our greens!

Once it was the shape I wanted I moved to different parts of the garden to check how it looks. I also took a photograph from the bedroom window to ensure if looked well from all angles.

So, next was the planting scheme. I buy my plants, as I've said before, like I buy my wardrobe. I choose what I like without much thought of what will match. I also like a bargain but this time I wanted to choose plants that would work together. I wanted evergreens for year round interest and some perennials to reach up to the sky and give some vertical interest. I also wanted to soften the whole effect with a frond type plant and ground cover too. 

I had a bit of a dilemma when reaching the garden centre as there were some simply stunning plants in blue and lilac shades that begged to be taken home and I was torn between colour and the luminosity of white plants. I stuck to my guns though because I wanted that area to shine rather than be too showy.

Imagine my horror when I got to the till to find that I had spent £68! Oh my goodness!

For that I bought four crackled glass solar globes to dot around the garden and the rest was for my plants for this little bed. Blimey, it was only meant to be small project.

So let me tell you what I got for my money..,

3 Saxifraga, normally used in rockeries. Slender, compact stems with a creeping habit so they will cover the ground nicely. Two of them have white flowers in the Spring.

2 Gypsophila (Baby's Breath).. One of them is a dwarf variety, only two inches tall, with tiny trumpet white flowers. The other Gypsophila grows to 18 inches tall and will be like a mist of tiny white snow flakes. 

1 Plectranthus (sounds like a dinosaur, doesn't it?). This plant is often used in hanging baskets or pots and whilst it does have white flowers I bought it for the bright green leaves, edged in white.

Similarly I added a Hosta, Ginko Craig that has slender ovate leaves, lush green with bright white edges. These will give some leaf interest without having to be too showy..

Deeply planted were 8 Gladioli Nanus Alba. As you may know, Alba is Latin for white. It's recommended that they are planted every few weeks over two months (April till June) for continual flowering. Sadly I bought the last packet so that won't be happening..

Onto the show stoppers, a lean Digitalis, named Camelot White that will be three feet tall and quite majestic 

Then there is a beautiful Delphinium which always takes up more room in it's second year than I ever expect. This one is called Galahad. They also had Guinevere and Lancelot which made me smile. Arthurian legends brought to life with different Delphimiums. One was a rich purple, one a dazzling blue and the one I chose? White, of course!

It is the tallest plant in this bed with spikes of flowers above clumps of leaves. This is another typical 'cottage garden' plant, much like the foxglove and lupins. 

Last but not least one of my absolute favourites, Agapanthus 'Artic Star'. This robust plant is an evergreen and has arching leaves with stems that hold big balls of white flowers. 

As usual I have planted everything rather tightly because I want them to bustle and compete with one another to create a strong form from ground level up to four feet.. 

So, now the planting. Once it was all brought safely back (I always drive home like a new parent bringing a precious newborn home after once buying an expensive agapanthus only to knock it's head off as I loaded it into the car) I laid it out in various ways in the bed. Still in the pots this allows one to stand back and evaluate.

When I was happy with the planting scheme it was time to give them all a good soak, dig in some organic matter and firm them in. 

Right now it doesn't seem like much but I am hoping for some good growth over the next few months.

After a day of sun and a morning of fine but persistent rain it could not have had a better start.

Watch this space.

..................................................................................................................................................................
Well, three days later there is now a chair over the bed. Mega chicken has developed a taste for the Digitalis leaves and stripped the plant within a few minutes. In order to give it a chance to regenerate I've made it somewhat out of bounds but I don't hold out much hope for it whilst I'm so indulgent of those hens!