Of woeful neglect and lots of rain

This summer has been so busy for us that we have sadly neglected our garden and hence this blog too. In that time, our garden has just grown wild and not in a particularly good way. For the last four weekends all we have done is try to make amends and catch up with nature.

We started with fierce dead heading, filling the compost bin with spent mops of buddleia, alliums, hypdrangea, roses, geraniums and lavender. Was such a shame to bin armloads of such fragrant stalks but was reminded that I am too pressed for time to even think of pot pourri or anything similar.

Meanwhile, on the much-blogged-about back bed, a ferocious form of climbing weed had taken control of the walls, the shed and even the climbers we planted a few months ago. It was an arduous task pulling them out and all I could do was the lop them just below soil surface in most cases, knowing full well that they would make a nasty comeback. After we removed the army of weeds we had to install the trellis along the wall for the honeysuckle and passion flower climbers to grow on to. 

In another bed, clematis had run amok and had also been attacked by clematis wilt. Again, they were let down by our lack of care, with the climbing support provided, rather inneffective. So I just pared them down to ground level and decided to be better prepared next year.

At the end of each weekend, we would have very little to show for results but for some turned earth and clear space, but we had to plough on, quite literally.

I think I may have rescued a few crocusmia bulbs that had come unearthed and an anthurium that was struggling to survive. The anthurium had been planted four years ago, along with three others of its kind. They were crowded out by other plants in that bed, such as the fatssia and the viburnum, and eventually only one survived. Similar tale with the crocusmia, in the shade of the ceanothus. Pleased to have given both a better chance of survival by replanting them in pots. I also found some dahlia tubers in a packet in the shed, that had started to sprout. Potted them too. Several months late. Better in the soil than in the shed.

Another tedious task has been to pinch out aquilegia saplings from practically everywhere. As much as I am grateful for self-propogating plants, I do have to say, No Thanks, to this one.

Feel somewhat redeemed after four weekends of desperate claw-back maintennance work in the garden. There are some more tasks to be done. More next weekend.

On a more uplifting note, we have the most beautiful sedum bloom, pictured here in the midst of another downpour, and the cyclamen had started to make its appearance in a very fashionable pink - just what we need as the autumn takes hold.

Sun in the sky you know how I feel

It is still winter, but in a good way!

Still hunkered down, mostly. But did step out to the garden for a bit, to top up the bird food and for some tidying up around the beds.

Trusty hand Bruce came over to help with planting the roses I mentioned in the last post. Planted three bare root roses in ice cold soil, topped with a layer of frost. Lopped off the dried holly hocks stems and dried stems on the sedum.

New sprouts of sedum have grown from the base of the old stems, cute as buttons at this stage.

The warmer days have persuaded the tulips and daffodils bulbs to come up early too, but they will slow down when the weather gets colder come February.

We absolutely have to have the garden looking its best this year, through every season. Have been tipped off that Hunter's Farm is the place to go for some bargains. I saw this flower planted in large troughs in one of the public squares last October and noticed that it has remained in bloom throughout the winter. Definitely the kind of hardy colour we want in our garden. Turns out this is Polyanthus Primula, or the good ol' Primrose, and it is right on top of my shopping list, along with winter jasmine and  honey suckle.

Hunkered down for the winter

We did intend to get out and dig for England over the autumn. I got help for the some of the hard digging and created a new bed at the back of the garden. We could have lots of climbing roses there, I thought. We set off in earnest to the fancy garden centre and before long we had a trolley loaded with bulbs of all sorts, as well as the sedum  have been looking for. At the till, we realised that that we had nearly 200 bulbs of narcissi and tulips, but no  coherent planting scheme. That plus a time-starved week ahead and we decided to we put all the  bulbs back on the shelves with a plan to return the next weekend when we knew which bulbs we needed. Next weekend never came and eventually we missed yet another November with no new bulbs. A right disgrace. Anyway, I can at least share that Spring-Summer 2012 is going to see lots of tulips of the Parrot variety, not in our garden though, but most certainly in a lot of gardens up and down the country. 

The last new addition to our garden were six beautiful sedum with pink blossoms. We just about managed to plant them between days of blustery weather and very wet soil. Sedum are winter hardy and provide a carpet of ground cover, just what we need to fill up the gaps in our front bed. We did pick three bare root roses from David Austin, but they too remained potted over the winter - cannot be a good thing, but hopefully not a crime. 

On a more cheerful note, the warmer than usual November meant that the oriental poppies continued to grow and both plants appear to have established well.

We also bought some cyclamen at the garden centre at a deeply discounted price and the label said it would not last the week. A little TLC, a large pot, indoor placement and a whole month later, the cyclamen are thriving and bringing fabulous colour against the bleak hues of winter. 

Earlier on we had a sunflower bloom from a seed past its expiry date, well, a year or so past its expiry date. Should try my luck with the other seeds next year.

Last night we brought our geraniums indoors at 1.00 am, just before the next major frost. They continued their display well into December, probably confused by the warmer winter as the poppies were.





















Signing off for the year now, with a lot of promises and
plans for the next year.  Hope the birds will be fine over the winter.