Diary of a weekend gardener

Thanks - and welcome to my new home

2007-03-31T18:47:00.000+01:00

Thanks to everyone for their good wishes, for sharing my garden with me over the past two years and for your many encouraging comments.

Here's a link to the new website - no plant database as yet, but we are getting there! Lodge Lane Nursery website.

Signing off...

2007-02-15T07:53:00.000Z

My PC is being packed this morning. The weather station is coming down at the weekend. It's time for the 'Weekend Gardener' diary to close and make way for a new perspective on the horticultural world at http://www.lodgelanenursery.blogspot.com

I'll come back to the house next week to tidy up the garden and take some final pictures. I'll write a proper 'thanks and adios' then.

Our house has vanished

2007-02-14T20:40:00.000Z

OK, so we did book a full pack service , but were still completely unprepared for the 6 man team of locusts which swept through the door this lunchtime and packed almost the entire house in an afternoon. Especially since we aren't actually moving until Friday. 'Sorry if it's all a bit sudden' said the rep, sympathetically, as if he meant it. 'We had a few men spare so we thought we'd send them all along'. Fantastic. We were expecting a quiet start today - a couple of guys starting in one room - us just ahead of them, clearing out the last of the stuff we don't want, with time for the occasional trip to the tip. No chance. I stopped one chap neatly packing the pile of rusting cutlery I'd picked out for the tip. Another had carefully wrapped my prized jacaranda seedling pot - and put it at the bottom of a box. I fished them out just in time - they'd never have survived a three day store in their depot. I just managed to keep them out of our room long enough to pack my underwear.

Tonight we have a mini-wake in progress. Youngest Trillia's friends are round. Apparently we've 'destroyed their childhood memories' by moving out of their favourite (i.e. only) Saturday night refuge. So I did what any parent does with a bunch of sulky kids (still works with 17-19 year olds). I gave them some paper, pencils and a tupperware box and they've made a time capsule for the house. Along with subs for some liquid emolient from the off-licence (with apologies to any disapproving parents out there). That cheered them up a bit. For some reason they decided to write letters to the house wearing my pink GOTY t-shirts. Bizarre. They might miss the house, but we will miss their weekend vitality and nonsense much more.

The posh chaise longue is almost the only item of furniture left in the house - because it belongs to next door.

A new life beckons.

2007-02-13T15:37:00.000Z

Today we exchanged contracts on Lodge Lane Nursery in Dutton, Cheshire, along with a cottage, a 1 acre garden open to the public and a small but pretty stretch of meadow and woodland alongside the Trent and Mersey canal. We will own it by Thursday night and Monday morning will herald the start of my new life as a nursery owner.

Six months ago, this would have been beyond contemplation. Less than a dream, not really even a ripple of an idea. But on Friday I will hang up my trowel as a 'weekend gardener' and try to make a career of it. The first day open to the public will be scary. It's probably close to how newly qualified teachers feel when they face their first classroom. Fun, but scary.

Name one good thing about sleet...

2007-02-10T09:59:00.000Z

I can't stand sleet. Every other 'weather' has something going for it - even if it's only the entertainment value of gale force winds and torrential downpours. But sleet is pure misery. The semi-frozen sludge sticks to bare skin, seeps into gloves, up sleeves and down collars, making any outdoor task out of the question. I should be pleased, taking the opportunity to clear cupboards, pack up the shed and gleefully part company with 20 years of accumulated crap, but instead I'm staring out the window at the grey, squelchy slush and shivering at the thought of it.

Mooching about uselessly is not an option, however. With the last of the legal hurdles all but cleared up, we should be buying the nursery on Thursday, and moving on Friday. So there's much to be done.

Just one photo for you from the brief cold snap. And two little Jacaranda seedlings, looking very fragile and uncertain. No wonder really - they are in the wrong half of the planet at the wrong time of year.

One of a pair of copper butterflies. They always look wonderful in frost.

Jacaranda seedlings - the product of my first foray into international seed collection. Although I think picking them up on Sydney harbour front doesn't really count.

The exam is history and the nursery beckons

2007-02-06T20:35:00.000Z

The exam was OK - I'm pretty sure I've passed it. Thankfully, I finally mastered the names of the biological controls for vine weevil yesterday and, lo and behold, it came up as a major question. Someone is smiling on me.

So now, time to focus on the nursery and our impending new life. In theory, we are completing on Friday and will then be the proud owners of a cottage, a 1.5 acre garden open to the public and a herbaceous perennial nursery. But as of this morning we lacked some important elements - such as a large tract of land which includes the nursery entrance and permission for the garden to be a garden. But there's nothing like a deadline to get things moving along and since our vendors have promised their vendors that Friday is the day, then it probably will be.

I should be revising, but...

2007-02-06T10:24:00.000Z

I'm all revised out. As the famous cartoon goes, ' Miss, my brain is full!' So, with an overnight low of -3.6C and a rapidly thawing frost outside, I put down the text books in favour of the camera.

Papaver atlanticum's hairy leaves holding the frost beautifully

A white quince with its frost-proof flowers open in total disregard of the sub-zero temperature

DB has phoned from 5 miles away to say it's thick fog and snowing. Best get the winter gear stowed in the car.

Johnnie Amos's Green Welly Show

2007-02-04T14:14:00.000Z

I had my first post-GOTY radio interview today on BBC Radio Northampton, with Johnnie Amos on his Green Welly Show. He was a competitor himself on the programme two years ago so it was great to chat with him and share experiences. It seemed to be over very quickly, but when I looked at the clock I'd been on air for about 15 minutes.

The programme is available on-line now, so if you'd like to listen to it, click here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/northampt_aod.shtml?northampt/green_welly_show

My interview is about an hour and a half into the programme so either listen to the whole programme (well worth it, it's very well put together and informative), or fast forward.

Johnnie - thanks very much for having me on the programme - it was great fun!

Sunshine at last

2007-02-03T15:20:00.000Z

Winter sun has been in short supply this year. Yesterday was an exception and I sneaked off for a few minutes with the camera, leaving Roy, my Mercedes saviour, to breathe life into the near dead car on his own. (Unbelievably, after two years in pieces and three days careful reassembly from my painstakingly labelled parts, she started almost first time)

Normal winter service has resumed today with a blanket of cold fog that should have lifted but didn't. At least it's made it easier to stay in and revise.

I am not a Galanthophile - I don't know one snowdrop from another - but I do know that these are very pretty

Hamamelis mollis in full flowering stride. I shall miss this tree when we leave.

This little Iris reticulata is a stunning purple.

Distractions galore

2007-01-31T21:27:00.000Z

It seems ages since my last post here, but I do have a good excuse. I've been at the new nursery 2 or 3 days a week transforming weed-riddled, pot-bound plants like these:

to clean, repotted ones like these:

I've worked my way through about 1,500 pots so far. It's proved to be a superb way of finding out what stock I've got, what condition it's in and also what I need to propagate. It now looks like we'll be completing within a couple of weeks so then I'll really be able to get stuck in.

Added to that I have my RHS exam in 5 days and we are probably moving the week after. Plus I've found a superb mobile mechanic to get the Merc back together (see other blog for the sorry tale) and I'm in Birmingham at a seminar for RHS Tatton exhibitors tomorrow. So I'm a bit busy. But the garden at home still looks quite good with hellebores, snowdrops, jasmine, irises, pulmonarias, witch hazel, sarcococca and winter cherry providing plenty of cheer, despite my neglect.

Wind, rain and more rain

2007-01-21T15:19:00.000Z

Our garden was mercifully unscathed by Thursday's storm, but less than a mile away several huge beech trees came down, one right next to a bungalow which now looks like a doll's house compared with the vast tree-corpse which lies next to it. At the nursery we've lost a couple of small oaks near the stream and one eucalyptus in the garden. I'm not bothered - the garden actually looks better for it. Astonishingly the polytunnels were almost completely unscathed.

Between 1st November 2005 and 31st January 2006 we had 136mm of rain here. For the same period this year but only up to today, i.e. 9 days shorter, we have had 347mm of rain. Even with our light sandy soil it's been close to impossible to get outside much. Perhaps even more significantly it has been warmer this year than last year for 63 days out of the last 80.

I mentioned the nursery. Yes, it's getting closer - hopefully the purchase will go through in Feb. I'm there three days a week now, just tidying, organising and getting my head round it. I going to have to take some plug buying decisions soon as the nursery re-opens in 8 weeks. Just to add to the pressure I have my first RHS Advanced exam on the 6th Feb and since we have now sold our house we need to clear out 10 years of accumulated stuff. It's going to be a very, very busy few weeks. No pictures today - maybe tomorrow..

Wild thing...

2007-01-13T18:37:00.000Z

Three of my four best winter scented plants are in full flower now. If the wind would only die down a down a bit, they would be softly filling the garden with their perfume. As it is, any scent they are giving off is being blown across to the east coast. Yesterday we notched up a two year record high gust of wind for this garden. Only 38mph, so not exactly hurricane force, but then the anomometer is only 10 feet off the ground and behind some trees so it significantly under-records.

The only casualty of the high wind was the 'For Sale' sign in front of the house which blew down. Not that it will make the slightest bit of difference. The estate agents are suddenly deserted after this week's interest rate rise. Enough whinging about economics. Below are the three scented delights, plus my cherished winter flowering cherry. Much to my amusement a picture of this tree was published in the Grauniad yesterday to illustrate how unseasonably mild the winter was. Well it is remarkably mild, but this tree flowers in January anyway.

Sarcococca confusa or 'Christmas box'. A sweet, strong scent, capable of filling the area around a doorway. Slow growing and great in a pot.

Virburnum bodnantense 'Dawn'. A soft, sweet scent which perfectly matches the sugary looking flowers.

Hamammelis mollis. A hard-to-describe scent. Sweet, but sharp too. Heady and powerful.

Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis' flowering quite normally in January, despite the papers listing this as evidence of an unusually mild month.

Little moments of joy

2007-01-07T14:35:00.000Z

What a gardener needs on a chilly, damp and sunless day is a little moment of joy and today there were plenty. A song thrush sang all day from a nearby treetop, my witch hazel, Hamamellis mollis, is finally unfurling its reluctant buds and I potted up about 40 tiny, pearlescent cyclamen coum bulblets which have grown from the seed I collected in summer. They should flower in a couple of years. It's a slow process but that's amateur horticulture for you.

Cyclamen coum seedlings. They are ready to pot up - very carefully - when they have two leaves.
Hamamellis mollis just bursting into flower. The scent will fill the garden in a few days

It's hard to think about summer...

2007-01-06T16:14:00.000Z

...when it's midwinter, raining and gloomy outside. But I've applied for a back-to-back show garden space at Tatton for 2007 and need to get my planting plan in next week. Now if only I'd started thinking about this last summer I could have worked out my plant combinations while everthing was at its peak instead of trying to remember the precise shade of a leaf colour from 6 months ago. Still, it'll be my first time and if the judges don't rate the garden I won't mind too much. Much.

Tulip bulb shoots and lily beetles

2007-01-02T17:30:00.000Z

With GOTY over, life is back to normal - for the moment. The first gardening session of the new year always feels good, even if it's just an hour. It has been incredibly mild so far this winter - we have had no proper frosts at all yet. Weeds and the lawn have continued to grow slowly and today I uncovered an active lily beetle and tulip bulbs with shoots above ground level. I have no doubt that a good spell of cold weather will happen eventually, but it is late.

Helleborus orientalis almost in flower
Corylus maxima 'Purpurea' ready to open its catkins

GOTY blog

2006-12-31T01:39:00.000Z

I kept a blog diary before and during the filming of GOTY 2006. So if you're interested in the 'behind the scenes' story, here it is....

Read my GOTY 2006 Blog...

I've still got a few more pictures to upload but Blogger seems a bit slow tonight. Or maybe it's me....

BBC Gardener of the Year

2006-12-30T23:50:00.000Z

Well, if you saw the programme you'll know by now that I won...

I found out for the first time tonight how we'd all done in the individual elements, and understood for the first time just how close it had been. So here are my immediate thoughts on the competition and the programme.

Mike should be very pleased with how well he did on the pest quiz - he simply didn't believe it when a BBC crew member told him he had top scored on that element. And with such a difficult brief he still did brilliantly.

Kirby is such an all round gardener - I'm really not sure why he didn't do so well on the quizzes. I was filmed saying I thought they were struggling to implement their design. This was in response to a specific question about the others' gardens. But the reason Kirby and Rosie had to change theirs was because the plot dimensions differed from the plans they had been sent. Taken out of context, my comments seemed mean - but they were meant to be sympathetic!

Martin - I really thought he would come through as winner or second. I thought his design structure worked well and I guessed that he'd scored high on the tests - he's such a cool, calm person. And I'm so impressed with his garden at home. Beats mine hands down.

Lorraine - well what an inspired design. It's clear from the final scores that she got the top design score - how else would she leap from 5th to second? Winning the competition meant such a lot to her, yet she was composed enough to congratulate me warmly and to send me a bouquet of flowers afterwards.

Anyway - after four months of waiting, I can finally publish this photo...

Tonight's the night....

2006-12-30T16:27:00.000Z

The four month wait is nearly over - GOTY is to be broadcast tonight at 8.15. Although I know the result, I still feel very apprehensive about the programme content. We have had no sneak preview - I'll see the programme for the first time tonight, along with about 30 family and friends who will be here for the evening - a kind of early New Year party. Best wishes to all the other finalists - it's been a long wait.

Most of today was spent shopping and cooking, but there was a brief bright spell this morning, just long enough to take a few quick pictures.

Variegated evergreens finally earning their keep in the dead of winter

My cyclamen have finally merged into something like a carpet

I was amazed to find these Romanesco broccoli producing bright new shoots in their trademark fractal pattern.

Christmas cheer

2006-12-26T16:58:00.000Z

It's Boxing Day night and Christmas has been lovely. DB had pheasant while the girls and I had home-made wild mushroom escalopes with all the trimmings. I am now the proud owner of a pair of proper professional Felco No.7 secateurs and a beautiful book by Anna Pavord on the history of plant naming. With luck the secateurs will get their first outing tomorrow, weather permitting. From the girls I got a photo frame and a 2007 calendar printed using photos I've taken in the garden (they've been trawling my PC when I wasn't looking). The cover picture is the Echinacea 'Art's Pride' shot that I use as my signature photo at the top of this blog. I was pleasantly surprised at how good the photos look in print, if I say so myself!

We had a walk out today but it was far too overcast and dark to take photos. With luck there'll be some sunshine before Saturday to take some final shots in 2006.

A very happy Christmas and New Year to everyone.

My first cycad

2006-12-24T11:38:00.000Z

I have been very badly behaved and bought myself a present three days before Christmas. In my defence, I was shopping for family presents and saw this plant, buried and neglected in a corner. It is Cycas revoluta, a baby compared to the huge ones we saw near Cairns, but if I can find a good home for it for 20 years or so, it might just compare.
The new arrival...

but I doubt it will ever get as big as this beauty.

The longest night - and a tribute to Christopher Lloyd

2006-12-22T22:19:00.000Z

The official midwinter point was at 22 minutes past midnight last night. I have no doubt that this winter has yet to deliver its worst in terms of low temperatures, but the shortest day marks a pivotal moment in the gardener's annual cycle.

Christopher Lloyd was the subject of a one-off special programme tonight. Earlier this year I went to Great Dixter for the first time, some 8 months after his death. I was blown away and inspired in equal measure, as every other person I know has been after their first visit. I was impressed, yes, but also made to laugh aloud by the man's audacity, his thumbed nose to the conventional, his disregard for establishment and keen sense of innovation. I hope that when I'm 90 (liver permitting...) I am kicking over the traces of authority with equal vigour. But I know there is such a fine line between successful innovation and simply getting it wrong. Well, what the heck. Experiment and be damned - I'm sure he'd approve.

So, a small tribute to CL follows: a few pictures from his tropical garden (RIP The Rose Garden), taken in a rare downpour in August 2006.

It'll be foggy this Christmas....

2006-12-20T21:56:00.000Z

I've seen the first forecast for Christmas Day. Foggy, max 0C, min -1C. Not pleasant. Staying in with hubby and daughters in front of a roaring fire seems like a great plan.

In the 10 mins of half-hearted daylight that broke through the murk today I took a couple of pictures. Yes, that's Rosa 'The Times' still offering up late flowers. It will take a break until May then start again. Knautia macedonia also doesn't know when to stop. The Corsican hellebores are flowering right on cue, but I thought the Hamamellis would be breaking bud by now, and it isn't. Perhaps it needs a spell of cold weather to trigger it. Well, it will get that in the next 5 days.

The Times, still going on the shortest day.
Knautia macedonia. I'm going to leave it alone all winter, just to see what it takes to stop it flowering.
The Corsican hellebore, Helleborus argutifolius just starting its winter-long flowering spree.

After the rain, icy fog.

2006-12-19T23:51:00.000Z

Heavy rain has given way to freezing fog. I've finally managed to get some gardening done, but the light is hopeless for photography so there are no new pictures. I've given next door's wisteria its winter prune and spent a few hours digging thick threads of bindweed root out of the in-laws garden. It's a hopeless task really as the empty property they back onto is thick with it, but at least I felt I'd made some progress on the long backlog of jobs I've promised to do.

Our plans to buy the nursery are progressing fine, but it will probably be mid-Jan before I get in. GOTY is looming - there are video clips on the BBC gardening website now. It's great to see the other competitors' gardens for the first time - and I'm just going to have to get used to seeing myself on film.

I said I'd save some of the Oz pictures for the winter picture 'drought' so here's one to warm things up a bit. I loved the mangroves. It was just such a surreal experience to see mature trees growing straight out of the beach. These are under 3ft of water when the tide is in. (Martin - this one's for you - enjoy your trip to Oz!)

In need of sunshine

2006-12-15T16:12:00.000Z

We've had another 8mm of rain today, delivered in a depressing, all day drizzle, bringing December's total to date (the 15th) to 70mm. That's already over 50% more than for the whole of December 2005. And this November we had almost three times the rain in November 2005. Of course the gardens and rivers need it. But I need some time outside, catching up with the four gardens I'm supposed to be sorting out. I desperately need a few dry days before the New Year since it looks like I'll be taking over the new nursery in early Jan. Once I get in there, outdoor time will be a precious commodity.

And anyway, I'm just fed up with this continual damp gloom. I need a little sunshine, please?

Wild, mild and windy

2006-12-13T17:39:00.000Z

It's mid-December and there's no real sign of winter. The papers are putting it down to global warming, which makes a better headline than 'A series of deep lows in the Atlantic'. Well, I'm not getting into that debate here. What I do know is that the wind has been coming from the SW for weeks now, bringing an endless stream of mild, damp air off the summer-warmed Atlantic and that is the immediate cause of December's weather. Take a look at my weather station link to see for yourself. A statistician worked out that the Gulf Stream delivers more heat energy to the UK than all our power stations put together. May it ever flow.

I took these pictures last week. The weather's been too rough to take decent photos since then.

Viburnum bodnantense 'Dawn'. This winter flowerer is sweetly scented and very pretty, but it doesn't always flower reliably for me.

A close-up of the waxy, pale pink flowers.

Cyclamen recycling.

2006-12-08T16:04:00.000Z

For the past two weeks it seems that every time I was ready to get outside it started pouring. The rain hasn't been continuous, more a series of sharp, cold showers every day - enough to make serious gardening impractical.

But the sun smiles on the good, I'm told, and today I replanted the neighbours' window tubs, taking out the near-dead pelargoniums and planting them with cyclamen kept from last year. I'm quite pleased with these, because I bought them last autumn and they flowered all winter. I took them out in spring, re-potted them, fed them and kept them in part shade and they've flowered again beautifully since late October. I do like a bit of recycling. So far I've failed to keep cuttings from the pelargoniums over winter, but if I get that right they can have endless, free, seasonal window boxes. Anyway, I got my reward. The sun came out as I was setting out the newly planted window boxes, so I reached for the camera, of course.

The newly planted window boxes. There are so many buds it won't be long before they are covered in flowers.

Winter jasmine is so common, but so special when everything else is drab.

And my trusty Prunus subhirtella 'Autumn- alis', ready to flower its pretty little socks off.

Outed...

2006-11-27T21:47:00.000Z

Yes, to those of you who've been asking by email, I am a finalist in the 2006 BBC Gardener of the Year competition. No I can't discuss the result. In the December BBC GW mag, I'm the one in the shocking-pink T-shirt, aggressively pointing at the fence, while my assistant (Hazel) hides behind the bird feeder. I think I'm looking forward to the programme, but it all seems a long time since it was filmed and I am a little uncertain about what I actually said and did. I do remember that it was very stressful!

Here in the real world the garden is slowly slipping towards winter. Though temperatures are still well above 10C most days, many of the plants measure day length and they know what's coming. With 7" of rain in November, sunshine has been at a premium, but the sun came out for a few valuable minutes yesterday.

Miscanthus sinensis 'Zebrinus'

Next door's climbing rose, still flowering close to December

Euphorbia 'Silver Swan' looking very pretty and 'winter-proof'

Packing up the garden.

2006-11-25T16:28:00.000Z

Since it's too dark to be outside, I took a look back at the blog for November 2005 to see what I was doing this time last year. I was planting bulbs, sowing seeds, digging out for the prairie garden and enthusiastically planning ahead for 2006. It was also freezing cold with fog and frost barely lifting for four days.

By contrast today was wet, mild and windy and I spent the afternoon digging out plants and potting them up. These are ones that will mean nothing to potential new house owners, but are unusual or scarce. Also, there are several plants that I feel very attached to, because I grew them from seed or cuttings, or were a present (I'm filling any gaps by a bit of judicious rearrangement - it still looks good) But I can't take the trees, and I feel particularly affectionate towards my winter cherry, Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis'. I've never seen another with such a good shape, or such a prolific flowerer. Only one of my hardwood cuttings succeeded last year, so I've taken a few more. It would be lovely to watch her babies grow to maturity - I won't feel so bad about leaving her behind.

The inner beauty of plants

2006-11-24T14:49:00.000Z

There's not much to photograph in the garden - the last two weeks have been wet, windy and gloomy. But as it happens our college session this week was spent peering through the microscopes at plant stems, leaves and roots. On a hunch, I got my camera out and pointed it down the microscope lens. To my amazement, some of them came out quite well and are wierdly beautiful. Here's the best of them:

Phloem (thick walled red cells), xylem (thin wall red cells) and cambium (green cells in between) in a helianthus stem

Vascular bundle (phloem and xylem cells) in a monocotyledon stem

Dicotyledon root section

Ready to move on

2006-11-21T17:49:00.000Z

On a cold, wet day in November it's hard to remember quite why I want an outdoor life. But wrapped up properly and encased in waterproofs even a squally day has its moments. I was at Dunham Massey today, gathering leaves in the now quiet garden, closed to the public for the winter. And for a while the sun came out, the raindrops on the few remaining beech leaves shimmered in the weak light and the sweet, musky perfume from the fallen walnut leaves hung around our little gang of three beddraggled volunteers. I was happy to be there, in the rain, raking.

It's just as well, since we might, just might, have bought a house with a thriving plant nursery attached. If it comes off, the weekend gardener will become a full time horticulturalist.

In praise of rowans

2006-11-18T09:21:00.000Z

Some trees have a fleeting week of glory, only to fade into anonymity for the rest of the year. The rowans deliver all year round for me, starting with tresses of white flowers in April/May. Delicate, shapely leaf cover takes over until August when the berries start to colour up. But their peak moment is in autumn, when the leaves turn and the whole tree becomes an eye-catching two-tone delight. In a good year, the berries will last all winter, providing colour and essential bird food till February.

I have two; Sorbus 'Joseph Rock' and Sorbus hupehensis. At college there is a beautiful Sorbus vilmorinii with lovely purple and white berries. When we move there will definitely be a place for a few more.

Sorbus hupehensis. These vary quite widely apparently - some have quite pink berries. The leaves last longer than any of the others, often well into December.

Sorbus vilmorinii - I missed the leaves but it's still lovely with just berries.

Sorbus 'Joseph Rock'

Starting the autumn clear up

2006-11-13T20:19:00.000Z

The wind and rain lifted today for just long enough to let me sweep up piles of leaves and pull up a few finished annuals. This is the first year for many that I've taken the leaves to the council recycling rather than filling the leafmould bin with them. I don't expect we'll be here next year so there's no point keeping them, but it does seem a shame to see them go, albeit to another good use.

Still on the Oz theme, this is my best Jacaranda picture, taken close to Sydney's Darling Harbour. I've checked and they really aren't hardy enough for anywhere in the UK, but what the heck, I might as well try germinating the seeds anyway, for the fun of it.

Feeling a bit tropical

2006-11-12T15:38:00.000Z

I've never been in the least bit interested in tender houseplants. Why bother with all that intensive mollycoddling and nurturing when so many beautiful plants grow outside here quite happily? But having seen in Oz what fabulous plants can be grown if the temperature stays above 5-10C I'll admit I'm tempted.

I'm probably going to have a go at growing a Jacaranda tree (I seem to have acquired a few seeds, somehow....) but I can't ever imagine having a protected space big enough to bring one to maturity. I was also impressed with a huge Brugmansia in Sydney Botanic Gardens.

But what has really tempted me is a cycad. I thought the ancient ones in the rainforest were pretty impressive, but I spotted a young beauty near Mission Beach that was unfolding a new set of leaves. I might just have to have that hot house after all.

From spring to autumn in 24 hours

2006-11-11T11:53:00.000Z

Yesterday we were in Sydney, Australia in warm spring sunshine, admiring the Jacaranda trees decked out in their pretty purple spring flowers. Today we're back home, watching gale force winds strip the last of the autumn leaves.

We've been away for three weeks in Cairns, Brisbane and Sydney and by all accounts it's been a lovely autumn here - mild, sunny and colourful. I've not missed it all though. The birch tree is all but bare, but Sorbus 'Joseph Rock' looks fabulous with golden berries against the scarlet leaves. And there is as much beauty in a witch hazel or a cyclamen as in a frangipani or a gardenia if you are minded to see it. I've taken a few quick photos here but I really need the sun to come out to capture it properly. Also, it needs a good tidy up but it's far too cool and windy.

Anyway, apart from having a brilliant time down under (great people, superb climate, wonderful food, beautiful landscapes, two world heritage wildlife sites etc....) I learnt a bit about horticulture in the tropics. So I'm planning to warm this blog up during the winter with some occasional photos and tales about Australia's tropical plantlife.

Berberis 'Harlequin' dripping with shiny scarlet berries.
I have finally found a spot where hardy cyclamen will naturalise.
Joseph Rock shines again.
One from Oz - a huge stagshorn fern. These epiphytes are common in the Queensland tropics and usually grow high up in the rainforest canopy. This one was massive - about 5' high. I took this photo from the veranda of a cafe we stopped at for lunch just outside Cairns. Large rainforest epiphytes were apparently nicknamed 'widow makers' because so many 19th century loggers wre killed when these giants fell off trees they were cutting down.

October show-offs

2006-10-14T18:25:00.000+01:00

It may be mid October but we're still getting daytime temperatures in the high teens and overnight lows close to 10C. The autumn performers are having a fine time, making the most of the late warmth and sunshine. I think today I'll say little and let the pictures do the talking.

The purple petals of Fuchsia 'Mrs Popple' match the purple salvia flowers almost exactly.
Bishop of Llandaf in its element.
Chaucer is still producing the occasional bloom
Leycesteria formosa gets a poor press for being a bit common, but I like it (takes one to know one)
I love the delicate veined flower of Geranium sanguin- eum var. striatum
I know this is a Spirea, but I don't know which one. It's a dull plant except for its superb autumn colour.
Apparently, the number of spirals in a sunflower seedhead is a Fibonacci sequence number...

An autumn of 'lasts'

2006-10-08T15:58:00.000+01:00

I've been clearing out the polytunnel, cutting down the finished tomato and squash vines and preparing it to overwinter some young plants. Since we expect to move before spring, this should be the last time I grow tomatoes in this trusty 10 year old polytunnel. We've just collected the last crop from the two apple trees and there are doubtless many other 'lasts' to come as I clear the garden for winter.

It also feels odd not to be planning ahead - I'm not planting more bulbs or garlic, or sowing overwintering salad as I planned to. It will be a different sort of autumn, wondering what I can dig up and take without leaving an obvious gap and optimistically taking the wrong sort of cuttings at the wrong time of year. There are no shortage of plants where we are going, it's just that I get attached to the actual genetic stock of a particular plant and like to take it with me if I can.

In the meantime there's plenty still to enjoy today. Euphorbia 'Silver Swan', Anemone 'Honorine Jobert' and a white fuchsia do a great job of lighting up the border under the birch tree. Anthemis tinctoria 'E.C. Buxton' looks oddly out of season with its primrose yellow flowers but still looks as good in October as it did in June. Helianthus salicifolia is a patient plant, waiting until the very last moment to flower. I love its fireworks-like soft green foliage - not so sure I'm going to like the flowers though but we'll see.

White and variegated plants help light up the shady birch border
Anthemis E.C. Buxton, still going strong
Helianthus salicifolia has yet to flower though it's now October

Back to college

2006-10-04T22:20:00.000+01:00

I'm back at Reaseheath every Thursday for the RHS Advanced Certificate. Although we're going back over ground we covered for the L2 (General), there's quite a bit more detail and the big extra so far is the plant ident. We need to be able to identify about 375 specified plants and seeds. I thought I was OK-ish on plant identification, but then I realised that I know what I know and that that's nowhere near close to enough.

Anyway, someone had the bright idea of taking digital photos of the samples and publishing them as an aide-memoire. So if you are interested, or also taking the RHS Advanced, here's the link to the photo store. We'll be adding to it as the year goes by. The link is also under 'Links' in the right hand column.

Link to Reaseheath 2006 RHS plant ident photos

Autumn colour

2006-10-03T14:28:00.000+01:00

I planted this border 10 years ago and it still works a treat each spring and autumn, delivering a rich band of colour around this corner of the garden well into November.

It's a mixture of Spirea 'Limelight', Sedum spectabile, Fuchsia Mrs Popple, Potentilla 'Elizabeth and Rosa 'The Times'. I add a few annual fillers each year, but otherwise they are all easy, trouble-free and hardy. I shall definitely repeat this when we move.

Did I say we were moving? The house will go on the market later this week. Moving the plants will take longer than moving the interior of the house I think. The teetering pile of pots in the shed will finally have a purpose in life.

Cyclamen seedlings and other babies

2006-09-26T19:42:00.000+01:00

After losing the fish through my own stupidity, it was reasuring to see some success stories amongst the plants. The cyclamen seeds I sowed three weeks ago have germinated, their little heart shaped leaves unfolding gingerly in the treacherously mild September air.

My mother gave me some cerinthe seedlings three weeks ago which have survived being left in a plastic bag and almost completely drying out and now look quite healthy. I'm looking forward to replicating the picture in GW magazine a few months back of golden Escholzia californica married with blue cerinthe next summer.

And finally, some tree propagation successes. The left hand tree in the bottom picture is the one successful hardwood cutting from my winter flowering cherry, Prunus subhirtella 'Autumnalis', and four successful apple rootstock cuttings, MM106 I think - I need to check. I'll graft onto them next year and these will form the start of my own, home grown orchard.

My first cyclamen seedlings.

Cerinthe seedlings from Eastbourne doing nicely despite severe neglect.

Five successful tree hardwood cuttings.

Triple tragedy in the pond

2006-09-24T09:31:00.000+01:00

Two weeks ago I turned off the pond pump as the water had dropped 6" overnight. I didn't think it would be a problem as I know of several ponds with plenty of fish and no pump running at all. And there are loads of oxygenating plants. Plus the pump wasn't really acting as a filter, just circulating and oxygenating.

Anyway, I went to sort it out properly today and found three large dead fish floating on the water. Now I know they are only fish, but two of them came from my parents' pond 10 years ago - an enormous ghost Koi and a large Orfe, each one well over a foot long. As requested by H2 we will bury them in the veg plot later today. I've reset up the pump and put some tonic in the water, but there is no sign of life. One less thing to worry about when we move, I guess.

New arrivals and autumn returnees

2006-09-20T12:18:00.000+01:00

A new flush of colour has appeared in the past few days. Some are autumn specialists such as the cyclamen and hardy fuchsia. Others have come back for another show. I'm especially pleased with Primula vialli which I thought only flowered in spring, and Echinacea 'Art's Pride', once again lighting the prairie garden with a fabulous hot glow.

Fuchsia 'Mrs Popple' - a favourite of mine. Always puts on a good show and survives even tough winters below ground level.
The first of the early cyclamen. I need to figure out the difference between C. coum and C. hederifolium
All the sunflowers have flopped over - luckily this one fell onto the wall. My first proper photo with my new long lens, a birthday present from DB.
Echinacea 'Art's Pride' My plant of the year. Well worth all the hype it's getting this autumn.
Primula vialli, back for another virile display in hot pink and magenta.

Plums galore

2006-09-18T19:07:00.000+01:00

Three years ago I planted what I thought was a damson tree. This year it has been laden with fruit that are much closer to a plum than a damson, sweet enough to eat off the tree and twice the size of the average damson.

The first trugful weighed in at about 18lb and I took it into to work along with a roll of poly bags. The second trugful, probably about 10lb has been washed, halved and frozen or stewed. I'm also experimenting with drying some in a low oven. I guess this all sounds a bit W.I., but I'm genuinely more interested in the tree. It's just that I can't bear to waste its produce.

About 1/3 of the harvest from one young tree.

The effect of summer neglect.

2006-09-14T08:44:00.000+01:00

I've been busy with work and away a lot lately. The grass is three inches high (but green at last) and several taller plants have toppled for lack of support. But if you don't look too closely, the overall effect in the garden is one of lushness. I love this garden in September. Several plants have begun to pick up their autumn tints and with the sedums, fuchsias, and crocosmias in flower the borders are suffused with a warm glow of colour. But I'm not taking any border pictures until I've tidied up a bit - below are a couple of casualties in the veg plot.

The runner bean canes were upright before I went away...

...and so were these outdoor tomatoes. I've decided to leave them alone and just rescue the plants from underneath.

Sorbus 'Joseph Rock'

2006-09-07T09:50:00.000+01:00

This is one of my favourite trees. This year's crop of yellow berries is one of the best I've seen. The branches are so weighed down with fruit that the tree has a slightly weeping look about it. It will keep the song birds fed until about February next year. This is probably a response to the hot early summer - I must remember to give it a good mulch this autumn to rebuild its reserves.

Wind damage and a bumper damson crop

2006-09-04T22:03:00.000+01:00

We were away at the weekend and it must have been ferociously windy in our absence. The runner bean canes have almost collapsed over the veg plot, the outdoor tomatoes are leaning at a rakish 45 degrees and two of the sunflowers have toppled completely. I think it's partly the weight of the crop, but even so - there's a surprising amount of damage.

Talking of crops, how's this for a damson harvest? I didn't think this tree would produce, as the soil is light and I've been assured they need heavy fertile soil. Just goes to show that plants will often do fine in less than perfect conditions, though this year has been exceptional for fruit across the country apparently.

A small part of the bumper damson crop.

On Sunday we visited Great Dixter, the late Christopher Lloyd's garden in E. Sussex. I was blown away by the colours, the inventiveness, the combinations, the lack of respect for gardening conventions. What a place, and what a gardener he was. I'll post the photo album here when I've uploaded it, so do come back...

Yellow tomatoes and purple hazelnuts

2006-08-27T11:20:00.000+01:00

Before I forget, I want to make some notes for myself about this year's tomato crop. The variety is Orange Bourgoin, an old French variety. I've grown them cordon style up strings and for once have remembered to water and feed them enough.

Anyway - they've been a resounding success. Even in partial shade in the polytunnel the fruit are ripening. They're doing fine outdoors too. Some of the indoor trusses have up to 50 good sized tomatoes on them. The flavour is good raw and fabulous when grilled or roasted, and the flesh is much thicker than red varieties I've grown before. The only difficulty is getting used to yellow tomatoes.

One of the smaller trusses ripening

The flesh is unusually thick - they are wonderful grilled.

We picked the purple hazelnut harvest today. This is the first year we've had more than one or two - the squirrels usually get the lot, but this year we've not seen any squirrels at all. Presumably someone nearby decided they were an unwanted pest.

Serious rain at last

2006-08-20T11:13:00.000+01:00

Over the past four days we've had 35mm of rain - more than an inch and a half. 25mm of that fell in 90 minutes on Thursday. I'm just glad I cut the lawn and tidied up on Thursday.

I've cut the first two Uchiki Kuri squash and we've had our first proper bowlful of red and gold tomatoes. I think the ripening is being slowed by shade from the squash leaves in the polytunnel roof, but there's plenty of summer left for them to ripen.

The cleomes have been a roaring success, although they are a bit shocking pink for my liking. Still, they look good against the dark leaves of the purple phormium and Sedum 'Purple Emperor'

It's not easy photographing rain. This shot took about 20 attempts to get right.

Home grown Cleomes - Shockingly pink but very long lasting

More looking than doing

2006-08-17T10:54:00.000+01:00

Once July is over, my urgent need to cultivate fades somewhat and I'm happy to potter about as and when. Like the plants, I've slowed down. I have seeds unsown, weeds in the patio and a vast harvest of beans unpicked.

It's been cooler and a bit damper, though we've only had odd spits and spots of rain and not not enough to soak, but plants are slowly recovering from the crippling heat of July. The prairie garden looks a bit bitty (too many different plants), but it's thickening out slowly. The heleniums are truly wonderful. And aren't figs the sexiest thing you can grow?

The first ripe fig - there are loads more to come
I really like this Helenium against the purple foliage of the berberis
The prairie garden is settling down. It wil look much better next year.

Treasure trove

2006-08-11T14:54:00.000+01:00

I have become a real magpie when it comes to cuttings and seeds. I don't really need any more plants (not for this garden anyway), but cannot resist the temptation to see what I can grow. Of course I always ask permission, but if you know what you are talking about and the plant is not PBR restricted, people don't tend to refuse.

This week's treasure trove is a handful of Trillium grandiflorum seed pods, collected from the parent plant with the owner's full agreement - they had no plans to use them. I couldn't be more pleased if they were rubies. Time to do some research into the best way to germinate and grow them. I do know that it will be some years before I have a carpet of white trilliums under my dreamt-of hazel coppice.

Trillium grandi- florum seed pods.

My one and only Trillium grandi- florum in flower earlier this year.

Late summer is here

2006-08-06T21:45:00.000+01:00

When the sedum and heleniums are in flower, when Anemone 'Honorine Jobert' makes her first appearance, when the tomatoes are ripening and the damsons are turning purple then we are definitely in late summer. Just the beginning of it perhaps, but the change is unmistakeable. The sun is slightly lower and the light is more golden somehow, clearer and warmer than in the bright lemon-and-lime light of May and June.

Time to take semi-ripe cuttings and collect seed, take the harvest from the veg plot and start to think about next year... I must not buy more seed, I must not buy more seed, I must not... Well maybe one or two.

Anemone 'Honorine Jobert'. Some find this plant invasive, but it's one of the few that is happy in my very dry shade.
Berberis thunbergii 'Harlequin'. I love the mottled leaves of this pretty and trouble-free plant. Plus red berries which last into winter.
Sedum 'Ruby Glow'. I'm growing this with Knautia macedonia which is a great combina- tion

From parasols and shorts to umbrellas and fleeces

2006-08-02T18:55:00.000+01:00

The joy of an English summer. We've had as much rain in the last three days as in whole of last month and it's cool enough to need a fleece and jeans. Last week a bikini would have been plenty. And all driven along by a strong blustery wind which is giving the top-heavy runner beans and sunflowers a stiff challenge.

But there's always an upside and of course the rain means a thorough watering for everything outdoors. The parched looking new prairie garden is showing signs of fresh growth and the lawn is regaining some green. But the best of it is that the meconopsis might be able to outgrow the powdery mildew and recover.

A couple of orange themed photos today - the squash is 'Uchiki Kuri' and is growing around the inside of the polytunnel roof, supported on wires. My only concern is that it might shade the tomatoes and stop them ripening. The Helenium is new, bought for the prairie garden but I've put it in the autumn border instead.

Squash 'Uchiki Kuri'
Helenium 'Sahin's Early Flowerer'.

Rain - and morning glory, but only if you're up early...

2006-07-31T22:44:00.000+01:00

Finally we had some rain today - just 3mm - but better than nothing.

I've grown Ipomoea, or morning glory, for the first time this year. Trouble is that's exactly what they do - flower first thing in the morning then fade and die before lunchtime. Though I have found that on a west facing wall in the shade they last much longer - they must be waiting for the sun to come round.

Ipomoea 'Blue Star'. This one is about 4" in diameter.

Ipomoea 'Crimson rambler'

Still no rain, and 50 sick meconopsis

2006-07-28T13:21:00.000+01:00

Much of the south and midlands has had heavy thunderstorms, but nothing here, just steady sunshine and fluffy white clouds, another perfect summer day. However it seems only fair that the rain should fall on those with a hosepipe ban and I would rather have the ordinary weather front rain that we've been promised for the weekend than a torrential downpour.

After the huge tidy up last weekend in the garden, I've been able to pay attention to detail outside as it's too hot and dry to be tackling new projects. But my young meconopsis plants have posed a new challenge with an attack of powdery mildew. It's entirely my fault as I had them too squashed together and was watering from above with abandon in the hottest weather. Spacing them out, keeping the soil moist and the leaves dry has not reduced the spread at all, so I consulted the meconopsis oracle at Dunham Massey and have dusted half the plants with Yellow Sulphur. If the plants don't mind the sulphur I'll dust the rest, but some plants don't like it so I'm being a bit cautious.

A young meconopsis plant with powdery mildew

The sweet taste of summer

2006-07-25T20:17:00.000+01:00

No matter how small my garden is, I will always grow food. It's not about price, or even quality. It's about the immediacy of walking up the garden, picking something and eating it straight away. I always pick when the crop is very young - quantity is not the aim. So far this year we've had salad leaves, coriander, basil, broad beans (picked when tiny), baby beetroots, carrots and new potatoes. We're now into french beans, runner beans and snap peas.

The strawberries and raspberries provided daily snacks for me straight off the plant for a few sweet weeks and what I couldn't get through are now jam. The gooseberries have been simmered in elderflower juice and are in the freezer. I left a few to turn golden for me to eat fresh. The damson tree has its first good crop and I spoted the first hint of purple on the fruit today.

I trie to make the veg plot look prettier this year, laid out in squares with blue canes and neat blocks. The runner beans have gone a bit wild but it's still essentially tidy. And the cordon tomatoes have been the tip of the year from college. They're not ripe yet, but they look the business.
The veg plot in full flow

Cordon tomatoes - a miniature version of Reaseheath's vast tomato production system.

Blazing Tatton

2006-07-20T16:22:00.000+01:00

As predicted the temperature soared on Wednesday - the weather station hit an all time high of 33.8C. You could have sold shade by the square foot at Tatton and there were some frayed tempers as people vied for the top spots in the covered cafes. What of the show itself? Some great back to backs - I especially liked the black and yellow sunken garden and 'Eat my garden' by Jacqui Brocklehurst which was featured on the BBC last night. The other great aspect of Tatton is the regional nurseries that display their wares - it's a great way to find suppliers you wouldn't otherwise come across.

I took over 100 photos so rather than clutter up the blog, I've put them on photobucket as two slideshows - one for gardens and one for plants and nurseries. Here's the link to the garden photos:

View Tatton show garden photos

Another record, but not for long...

2006-07-18T17:00:00.000+01:00

Last year's high of 30.6C was blown away today with a high of 33.4C. It's still 32C out now at 5pm. And tomorrow is forecast to be even hotter. I'm due at Tatton RHS Show - I think I might go first thing, then hide in shade until it cools down. Pity the poor souls stuck in the 13 mile jam on the M6. We've emptied the freezer and put it outside in the sun to defrost - it won't take long, even with inches of solid ice to get through.

So many plants are showing signs of heat stress. Thank heavens for the shade tunnel and the north-west's ample water supply. But regardless of the weather, I've got to get the garden looking good, just in case. I had a call from the BBC's Gardener of the Year programme and didn't do too badly on the questionnaire, so it's possible I'll have to host a visitation from the scrutiny team.

A couple more photos from this week:

This centaurea cyanus is the most stunning bright blue. It was in the same mixed packet as the flower pictured below
If someone can tell me what this pretty purple annual is I'd be pleased.

A few quickies...

2006-07-11T17:46:00.000+01:00

With much work on there's just been time for a few quick snaps today. I might get out later for a bit of deadheading etc. The purple phormium has flowered for the first time and what a striking sight it is. For our next garden I'm imagining a long, hot border punctuated with these great spikes.

The flowers look tropical in close up, but I find this plant totally hardy here in NW England

And here's a sneak preview of the partly finished prarie garden from its intended viewing point inside the conservatory, along with a close up of Echinacea 'Art's Pride'. This gorgeous flower is sweetly scented too. A real gem.

Dr. Trillium's recovery ward

2006-07-09T20:14:00.000+01:00

This lemon tree is my first proper plant 'patient', applying what I've learned this year on the RHS course to treat it. It was badly shaped, sick with scale and dying back five months ago and it's now healthy and vigorous. I will admit to being quite proud of it. It hasn't flowered yet, but it should do now that it has recovered.

As it is now in July
As it was in February.

The prairie garden is under way.

2006-07-08T11:27:00.000+01:00

This area has been in the process of mental planning as a prairie garden for about a year, ever since the squashes succumbed to cucumber mosaic virus last summer. It faces south with the conservatory on the north side and is 4.5m long by 3m deep at it's deepest point. I want to look through tall grasses and golden flowers backlit by the sun when I'm inside and to walk through it, touching the silky grass heads on the way.

Here's a picture of the plot before I started. On Thursday I took myself off to Lodge Lane nursery and did something I've not before - planned, chose and bought the whole border in one go. As I've not planted it up properly yet you'll have to figure out for yourself how it will look from the planting list below. Yes, I know I should have stuck to half the selection, but I'm experimenting rather than being a design purist.

The list - some of the quantities were dictated by the number of plants the nursery had:
Stipa gigantea x 2
Stipa tenuissima x 8
Stipa calamagrostis x 4
Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' x 4
Achillea credo x 4
Achillea terracotta x 3
Achillea feuerland x 6
Echinacea purpurea 'Robert Bloom' x 6
Echinacea 'Art's Pride' x 4 (currently in the polytunnel as they keep falling over in the wind)
Helianthus salicifolius x 6 (recommended by the nursery owner)
Helenium 'Ruby Tuesday' x 3
Helenium sahins x 1 - completely accidental, I meant to pick up 6!

plus a few Verbena bonariensis and Anthemis 'E.C. Buxton' that I already had.
So in total about 60 plants for 10m2 which is probably about right.

Two of my favourites.

2006-07-06T22:50:00.000+01:00

One thing ends and another begins. Just as I'm rueing the fading of the spring border, two of my summer favourites spring into life. Purple hazelnut fruits with their surrounding frill are just beautiful with the light behind them. And I love the vibrant, complex flower of Monard 'Cambridge Scarlet'. I know I saw both of these last year, but I never quite remember just how stunning they are until I see them again.

Purple hazel - Corylus maxima 'Purpurea' (I have to disagree with Monty Don - these do fruit and come true from seed)
Monarda 'Cambridge Scarlet'

A desk with a view.

2006-07-05T20:20:00.000+01:00

With the temperature reaching 30C by lunchtime, I've taken to getting up at 7am and putting in a couple of hours in the garden first thing in the morning. Once it gets too hot I've retreated to the home desk to get some proper work done. Can't complain about the view from the new office window though...

Waiting for England...

2006-07-01T14:50:00.000+01:00

It's too hot out to do anything vigorous and England kick off against Portugal in an hour so I took a few more pictures to keep me busy.

DB likes this pretty yellow Anthemis 'EC Buxton'. It does look great against the lavender and purple phormium and berberis. Fortunately all them are very drought-proof. Just as well really.
Anthemis EC Buxton in full flower
One of the few day lily flowers (hemero- callis) that escaped the gall midge.
Knautia macedonia. A snapshot of the flower alone doesn't really do this plant full justice.

Oh so pretty...

2006-06-30T23:06:00.000+01:00

The late evening sun caught this flower through the trees. Cephalaria gigantea stands high above everything else in the border, but is so delicate and airy, with a light leaf base that causes no problems for anything around it. It's hardy, reliable and flowers till autumn. I love it.

Exam time - and a catch up.

2006-06-28T21:25:00.000+01:00

I took the final part of my RHS Level 2 exam today (formerly the General). Trickier than I expected but I think I've done OK. What with revision, wet weather and keeping a promise to sort out the neighbours garden I've not done much in mine.

But I had a good tidy up tonight and yesterday retrained my tomatoes into strung cordons instead of up canes. Partly because I wanted to try the technique, but mostly because this was necessary as the plants had reached the top of the canes and were at the polytunnel's eaves. I'll post a pic when they've settled in.

The other major job that's now complete is the fence between us and the neighbours - complete with 3' gap for me to get through to do their garden. Never enough hours...

In the meantime, a couple more pics. Primula vialli is a real star - much longer lasting than P. beesiana and a real head turner. 'Phallic' is the usual word people seem to think of when they see it. And the poppy was free - when the old boundary fence was removed some many-year-old poppy seeds germinated, dressing the bare soil in a brilliant scarlet, that is until the fence installers stomped on them. Still, if I don't weed too carefully next spring I'm sure there'll be more.

Primula vialli. A real star.

(Most of) The best things in life are free...

The bigger picture

2006-06-17T19:09:00.000+01:00

The reason I usually put close-up pictures of flowers on this blog instead of wider shots of the whole garden is that there is almost never a time when any major part of the garden is sufficiently tidy and photogenic.

I've decided to put that right, so I've made a concerted effort lately to complete whole areas, even sweeping up and edging, which I rarely bother with.

Perhaps this was also inspired by watching the Gardener's World Live programme today with all those perfect gardens. And I'm very chuffed to tell you that Reaseheath College's garden won the only gold medal for the outside show gardens and best in show in that category too. I'm going down on Monday to help with breakdown and will hopefully be helping to re-build it at Tatton.

The fence has only been in a year so the sweetpeas help cover the bare areas.
The polytunnel doesn't enhance the view, but I'm used to ignoring it.
The view through from the old french windows from the office.
The veg plot. I've tried to make it much more visually pleasing this year

\New heat record at 30.2C

2006-06-10T16:14:00.000+01:00

The thermometer has just cleared 30C - the highest since I set up the weather station in December 2004. Even I have retreated indoors, leaving my plants to survive as best they can. Fortunately most of those in pots are in the shade tunnel, but those still outside are suffering. The polytunnel has reached 38C and that's with both ends open and a stiff breeze blowing to keep the air moving.

The one saving grace is that we have plenty of water up here, so no problems with using the hose, it just takes a long time.

All this warm weather has brought the summer flowering plants on quickly. My sweet peas and roses have all started and Cephalaria gigantea is also out - one of my favourites. The new primula vialli are also flowering - I'm really pleased with these - they've done well so far in the new damp area near the pond.

Primula vialli, looking every bit as attractive as was promised.
A lovely David Austin that I've forgotten the name of.
The Times, which will flower until October. The flowers look a bit small, I think it needs feeding.
Cephalaria gigantea. Tall, airy and lovely.

Lending a hand for GW Live

2006-06-09T19:06:00.000+01:00

The college put out a call on Wednesday for extra help to prepare their show garden at the NEC so Den and I joined a small gang today for the trip down. Sweltering in near 30C we planted hazel trees and fruit bushes in the '5 a day' productive garden. The stand's highlight is a geodesic dome green house with a huge range of tropical plants inside. Their biggest problem is going to be watering in the heat, especially with the high winds we're having. Plants are going to dry out very quickly especially as they're all still in their pots, buried in the ground.

In need of photographic inspiration

2006-06-05T23:34:00.000+01:00

I've realised that it is images that inspire me to blog. If I don't have a good picture, I don't feel the impulse to write. And something happens in early June - the late spring show ends, but summer roses and mid summer perennials have yet to happen, and the garden gets a dull look about it. So I've not felt much inclined to pick up the camera in the last week or so.

But I made a real effort today to find nice things to take photos of and here they are. I'm particularly pleased with the centaura - I'm sure it was blue last year? Strange. And I've finally captured the peony looking the crimson it really is, rather than a sort of washed out pink.

An unknown Centaura glowing in the low evening light. I plan to grow more of these over- looked plants.
Peony lactiflora - common as muck and short lived, but still lovely
Astrantia 'Ruby Glow'. This border is turning into a mostly dark pink area with the peonies and the purple cotinus nearby

J&P's garden

2006-06-04T19:57:00.000+01:00

With a 50th birthday deadline looming the priority for this weekend was to make some serious progress on J&P's garden. This project started last March, but I've only been back three times since and progress was painfully slow. However, I made up for it this weekend.

The particular design challenges presented by this garden include an large blue trampoline, a 2ft drop from the patio to the lawn and an ugly fence. All of these are staying, although the fence is being repainted, so they are being worked in. The borders still need more planting, and a step is missing from the patio, but things are looking better. The bottom photo is as it was last March. The middle one is as it was yesterday morning and the top one as it is now. It's taking shape and is fit for a party, that's the main thing.

Blue and beautiful

2006-05-28T23:15:00.000+01:00

Despite the late spring and heavy rain the blue Meconopsis grandis are in flower on cue at Dunham. Since my parents were up this weekend we took a trip out there to have a good look. My own four 2 year old plants have no apparent flower buds on them yet this year, but I do have 60 young seedlings from last year so perhaps next year it will all happen.

The ones at Dunham look a little paler and more electric blue than mine were last year.
The planting combin- ation with the persicaria and white geramium works perfectly.

Drowned at Dunham

2006-05-21T16:46:00.000+01:00

A small band of plucky gardeners braved the downpour this morning for a walk round Dunham Massey. There were some beauties - the meconopsis grandis are just in flower, as is the Magnolia wilsonii. The air was sweet with Azalea luteum and the lush foliage under dripping beech trees gave the place a slightly otherworldly, lost feel. But in the end we all got too wet and peckish and headed to the restaurant to warm up and dry out.

Back home the rain has been almost relentless and I'm resigned to just taking a few cuttings today (my first batch overheated last week in the propagator in the conservatory - no chance of that today).

I'm trying to keep my small veg plot a bit prettier this year - hence the blue bean poles. And the bottom photo is Magnolia wilsonii at Dunham, taken last May when it wasn't raining...

A catch up...

2006-05-20T18:09:00.000+01:00

What with the rain and work I've done almost nothing for a week. Had a bit of a catch up today after it stopped raining - planted out the french beans and did some potting up and weeding. The tomatoes are ready for final planting out too - just need to decide where to put them.

Looking forward to meeting some of the BBC Gardeners MB contributors tomorrow at Dunham Massey. I had meant to pot up more plants for swapping, but it's not going to happen in time. A few new pictures:

Geranium himal- ayense 'Gravetye' This is such a great plant - trouble free, repeat flowering, pretty foliage.

Thankfully the orange tulips shed their petals before this peony flowered.

I'm not sure precisely which montana var rubens this is, but it looks pretty against the brick wall

Although unplanned, this azalea tones beautifully with the young leaves of Corylus maxima purpurea behind it.

So much for going part-time...

2006-05-16T22:21:00.000+01:00

Since Monday 8th when my replacement started I've had precisely 2 hours in the garden. The lawn is 4" high and covered in dandelions. The beans are rooting themselves into the polytunnel floor and the weeds are winning.

It's just been one of those spells with more going on at work than anyone could have expected. And we had a wonderful couple of nights away in the Lake District at the weekend too so I'm not complaining. It should only have been one night, but a slight altercation with a sharp stone left us with one flat tyre and one damaged one, which meant staying over till Monday. And a lightning strike on a customer's telephony system required all hands on deck today while we worked on a solution.

However, I did get the runner beans planted out tonight - almost in the dark by the time I finished. I shall take some photos tomorrow with a bit of luck.

Anyway, on the drive back from Penrith in relentless rain I heard that Surrey is now under a drought order. Seemed a bit ironic at the time since it had been raining non-stop here for 24 hours. I don't plan ever to move back to the south east.

Hot, but not bothered

2006-05-10T21:28:00.000+01:00

Another warm day today reaching 25C outside and a worrying 38C in the polytunnel, even with the door wide open. Must remember to open the other end as well.

As luck would have it, I spent most of today in a windowless classroom but we did get out for half an hour on a weed-identification hunt.

Back home for an evening potter in warm sunshine. I sowed more peas - I think the ones I sowed in pots in the polytunnel got cooked last week. Planted out some more new potatoes in a spare spot and sowed some fennel. And No2 and I dabbled with blue paint, but more of that later.

Oh, and I handed over to the new Tech Manager at work yesterday. Still keeping in touch by phone and email, but handing over the baton was a huge relief. So, I'm hot, but chilled.

Trillium's first Trillium

2006-05-07T18:43:00.000+01:00

My Trillium grandiflorum chose a cool wet afternoon to open for the first time. I'm chuffed as I thought I'd lost it.

The rain that was forecast for yesterday finally arrived today. Still no matter. I had two important jobs to do today - both indoors.
1. Clear my desk for my replacement at work who starts tomorrow. A new life beckons.
2. Take a load of softwood cuttings. I filled the heated propagator and more besides. Just as work expands to fill the time available so plant growing expands to fill a gardener's available space.

It may not be the optimum propagation time or method for some of these plants, but if there's juvenile material, I'll have a go with it.

My weather station is better than the BBC

2006-05-07T14:18:00.000+01:00

The BBC's forecast was for heavy rain for Saturday. My weather station predicted cloud. It was right and they were wrong. However, thanks the Beeb's erroneous prediction, I got into the garden early, expecting to be rained off and had an almost wall to wall day outside.

DB cleaned up the barbecue and cooked our first outdoor meal of the year, with salad leaves and basil from the garden.

A few new pictures:
Clematis 'Early Sensation' Its first buds were burned off by frost, so it's not that early, but I love the colour and the foliage is pretty.

In anticipation of a fig-fest later in the year.

OK, so I do like orange and purple together. But I am desperately hoping that the orange tulips drop before the magenta peony behind it flowers.

Heat and hydrangeas

2006-05-04T14:13:00.000+01:00

And I thought Wednesday was warm. Today we reached 27.9C. Me and my fellow Dunham volunteers spent the morning pruning the hydrangeas (yes, still loads more to do) with a hot wind blowing and being rained on by cherry petals. Odd.

Almost summer

2006-05-03T21:28:00.000+01:00

Today the temperature reached 22C - by far the warmest day of the year so far (I forgot to open the polytunnel properly and that reached a scary 36C). My replacement at work popped in for a pre-joining briefing, and as predicted by me several weeks ago, the weather improved precisely on cue with his arrival. Uncanny. So although today's glorious weather largely passed me by, in a couple of weeks I'll be out there somewhere, with luck.

We got our results today at college - I got a pass with commendation for part one of the RHS Level 2. Just the other half to go now in June. We studied plant nutrition this afternoon. All I can say is it's amazing that anything I've planted has ever grown. At least I know what's wrong with the lemon tree - it's iron deficiency. (it's got interveinal chlorois, if you're curious)

Pot luck...

2006-04-30T19:42:00.000+01:00

The green leaves of Acer 'Osakazuki' emerging from their ruby leaf casings. Plants offer beauty in so many more ways than just flowers

A steady cold drizzly mist meant no outdoor gardening, though I did a bit of pricking out in the almost equally cold polytunnel.

However, it dried up enough for a walk along a footpath near us and we came across an area newly planted up by the local authority. All the pots and plant trays had been left nearby and had been strewn across the path and beds. After some um-ing and ah-ing,I collected up most of the smaller pots and took them home. My rationale for this is:
- if they'd wanted them they'd have taken them or locked them up in their adjacent lockup
- They probably throw them away rather than return them to the nursery so it's like recycling
- that I'm giving them as good a home as they'll get anywhere
- I tidied up the mess a bit for them
- our in-house ethicist (youngest Trillia) agreed that it was probably morally acceptable.
Here's the scene...
So you if you are from St. Helens Council and you want your pots back, I hereby confess and will return them on demand.

For Margi and Juliet

2006-04-29T18:37:00.000+01:00

Just to prove I can do orange! It wasn't intentional, but I will admit I like both the Fritillary and the tulips.
Another of the birthday tulips. I think it looks really good against the Spirea, but I didn't know that when I planted it...
The Crown imperials are almost next to the orange tulips but I can't get them in the same shot without including daughter's red car...
Lithospermum 'Heavenly Blue'

33 and counting

2006-04-25T18:30:00.000+01:00

This morning I counted 33 plants in flower. And I counted all the narcissi as one and all the tulips as one. Counting them helped cheer a damp morning. Here are some of them. I might write up the full list later.

A clump of Erythroniums under the phormium. This one appeared by itself so I don't know which it is.

Dicentra spectabilis doing its annual pretty, modest thing.

Blackthorn has a week of beauty and then just provides a green backdrop and valuable bird food for the rest of the year

The Crown Imperial in flower. Planted on the 17th October so almost exactly 6 months from planting to flower.

Symphytum 'Hidcote Pink'
(Comfrey). I'd not realised what a great ground cover plant it makes.

The whole list in flower as at 25/4/06

2006-04-25T17:59:00.000+01:00

It's not till I typed this list out that I realised how many I don't have the proper names for. With apologies in advance to those who dislike the use of synonyms...

Front garden:
Corsican hellebore
Knautia macedonia
Purple and purple/white striped tulips
Centranthus rubra (Valerian) (only just out)
an unknown purplish aubretia

Side area:
Forsythia
Flowering currant (Ribes something or other)
Blackthorn
Magnolia
a white quince
Daphne
Amelanchier lamarkii
Pulmonaria 'Victorian Brooch'
Primroses
various Narcissi

Back garden:
A white camellia
Symphytum 'Hidcote Pink' (Comfrey)
Viburnum tinus
a dark pink Azalea
Erythroniums
A pink Camellia
Anemone blanda (blue and white)
Pulmonaria 'Sissinghurst white'
Pulmonaria 'David Ward'
Fothergilla major
cream tulips
Viburnum burkwoodii
forget-me-nots
Dicentra spectabile
Lithospermum diffusum
Crown imperial fritillaries
Snakeshead fritillaries
A pink and a white heather

First sightings

2006-04-25T08:27:00.000+01:00

I spotted the first swallow of the year last night. Also we have a couple of goldfinches in the garden. I've seen them before but only as passers by. Seems like these could have taken up residence.

And I am the proud owner of four young Trilliums, two each of luteum and grandiflorum. One of each has a flower bud. These are definitely on the list of plants I'll take with me when we move.

Commiserations to H1 who had her first driving test yesterday. She didn't pass due to some 'stupid examiner who put his foot on the brake, when I was just about to'.

But fingers crossed for H2 for her interview at Hobbycraft on Saturday for a part-time job. When she gets some money in her pocket - well who knows what will happen..

The first almost properly warm day

2006-04-23T22:14:00.000+01:00

For the first time this year it was warm enough to sit outside in shorts and a t-shirt - just about. I potted up loads of seedlings before a very pleasant hour sitting in a pub garden with a pint, both daughters, DB and Big T.

A few new pics from today:
A close up of one of the cream tulips.
One of the Crown Imperial Fritil- laries that I thought I'd lost. Once they appear, they flower in no time.
A plump peony bud full of crimson promise
Every year this female blackbird squawks endlessly and divebombs our cats whenever they go out into the garden. The noise drives us mad but the divebombing is fun to watch!

A 'not gardening' day in the garden

2006-04-23T10:58:00.000+01:00

A chap I met last night asserted that gardening is 'boring and repetitive'. I asked him what he meant and he mentioned mowing, edging, weeding the patio. Well I agree to some extent - because those tasks aren't gardening, but simply outdoor housework. However, occasionally they need doing and with visitors coming round last night that's what I did. The drive, patio, lawn and borders are rather startlingly tidy now, but it did look nice when I stepped out of the back door this morning.

The cream tulips below are in the spring border under the birch tree. I thought they would be white, but I'm glad they're not. I'm going off white in the garden - it's too stark. This border is at its best in April and May before the tree fully opens.

The joy of long, mild evenings

2006-04-20T21:51:00.000+01:00

For the past two nights I've come home, done a couple of indoor jobs, then strolled up to the polytunnel for a potter. To the accompaniment of evening birdsong I've slipped a happy half hour between work and dinner, potting up seedlings, watering, weeding pots and generally moving things along. It feels like I've gained hours.

A note on meconopsis germination - basically, all the batches I sowed have germinated. It made no difference whether they were sown in September, December or Feb. All had some time in the fridge and were sown in light, free-draining soil, but other than that, they don't seem fussed. Incidentally, I forgot to open the polytunnel yesterday and it got to 35C. Fortunately I'd moved all the meconopsis out the day before...

More dreaming....

2006-04-18T22:22:00.000+01:00

I read today about someone who buys all their plants from individual growers at farmers markets. One day maybe that might be me, a hopeful (but probably chilly) stallholder with my little collection of meconopsis and hardy perennials plus a few hardy shrubs clutching a mug of tea and desperately hoping the awning won't blow away in the stiff March wind. Perhaps.

Anyway, don't tell hubby, but I ordered 3 Eremurus robustus today. I saw them last year at Tatton Show and was blown away - except that they'd all sold out. They're out of breeders rights so maybe I'll be able to add their offspring to my imaginary stall some day.

I took a picture of this white Camellia, which is pretty, but disappointing because the outer leaves start to brown before it's fully open, so the whole plant has a slightly down at heel look to it. That'll teach me to buy a plant that is simply labelled 'Camellia - White'.

And this picture looks like a cluster of dead leaves - why take a photo of that you may reasonably ask? Because it's a Trillium luteum which I thought had died and clearly has not. I also planted a couple of Trillium Grandiflorum, but there's no sign of them at all yet.

Time for a tidy up

2006-04-17T22:35:00.000+01:00

I'm a messy gardener. Or as I prefer to see it, a gardener who doesn't have enough time to be tidy. But eventually even I get sick of tripping over broken pots, tools and half empty bags of compost. So today's short spell outdoors was 90% organising with just a smidgeon of actual plant work thrown in for good measure.

The polytunnel was the main beneficiary, with another tier of the new staging finished and all the seed trays laid out. The only mystery is how they fitted in before the staging went up. The shade tunnel got a spring clean too. The hardy geraniums that I divided last autumn are coming on a treat and the meconopsis seedlings are growing on nicely. Two unsung gems are the acer cutting I took last spring which is well rooted and sprouting healthily and the pot of acer palmatum seedlings which have finally germinated. The plan is for these to become the rootstocks for my first acer grafting attempts next year.

And for Mum and Dad - the tulips below are some of the ones you gave me for my birthday last year. They're now flowering beautifully in the front garden.
Some of the birthday tulips
Obsolete IKEA shelving makes great staging, while a 1950's school desk becomes the potting station
The shade tunnel looks empty now that it's tidy
The mecon- opsis and acer seedlings happy in the shade tunnel.

Gardening, cycling and planning

2006-04-16T19:04:00.000+01:00

After three days of gardening we set off with the bikes in the car in unpromising cool drizzle. It just about cleared up by the time we stopped and we managed a pleasant hour or so of country cycling in rural west Cheshire.

We got back to warm sunshine and hot cross buns which set me up for a construction session, building staging for the polytunnel out of old IKEA shelving ends and strips of wood. Messrs Heath and Robinson would be proud of it.

Spring flowering plants soak up every scrap of warmth to press on. This is the same magnolia bud I photographed yesterday.

The great Easter break

2006-04-15T09:14:00.000+01:00

Four days off, and potentially a little gardening therapy every day. Yesterday I spent a few hours in DB's parents garden. Today I should get to J&Ps to finish digging out their borders - with luck and good weather.

Here's one new pic to keep you going till I take some more today.

Long distance visitors

2006-04-12T18:50:00.000+01:00

Been checking my visitor stats recently - it's great to see people dropping in from all over the world. From comments I'm guessing at a few nostalgic expats (and some glad to see the back of England!) as well as some enjoying a close up view of a bit of foreign land. The furthest one so far is Brisbane, Australia. If you're a long distance visitor do leave a comment. Thanks and happy blogging.

The prairie garden is under way

2006-04-09T19:12:00.000+01:00

Oh to have the energy of an 18 year old. I did today, albeit only on loan from the eldest Trillia. Between us we dug out 20 barrows of surplus soil and took the top 2 inches off the grey stone gravel path. All we need now is 3 cubic metres of fresh gravel and several more hours hard labour. So far I've got several grasses for it including stipa gigantea, a white eremurus (I really want the pale pink one), verbena bonariensis and echinacea. Helleniums need to go in as well, I think, for late summer colour.

A pair of wood pigeons are nesting in the bare branches of the silver birch, quite visible from the ground and almost certainly within climbing reach of the cats.

The threatened snow hasn't materialised as yet, but the M62 is closed due to blizzards about 20 miles away. And -3C is forecast for tonight. But spring is marching on regardless. This is part of the hardwood cuttings bed, with several dogwoods, apple rootstocks, the winter flowering cherry and several other shrubs all looking as if they intend to root. I shan't dig them up until autumn though.

2006-04-08T18:19:00.000+01:00

Despite being driven indoors four times by squally hail showers, I got a few worthwhile jobs done. I've dug out the border by the pond, lined it with compost bags and backfilled with heavier soil and manure. This is mainly for the new primulas which I've not grown before for lack of a moist area. Three each of Primula beesiana and vialli have gone in. I also split the hosta and the astilbe, making 6 or 7 new plants from each and replanting them in a drift. I think it'll look much better.

I've discovered what happened to the Arum lily which barely produced a leaf last year. I think it nearly died in the heatwave the year before and decided to produce babies. I found hundreds of tiny off-shoots from the mother plant and have potted up the best of them. The original plant came from the huge one that was at my grandparents had at their house in Angmering, so I'm keen to keep it.

Many of last year's offspring are coming to life - I have an acer palmatum atropurpureum from a cutting and a Sorbus 'Joseph Rock' from seed, amongst others. Also two of the Acer palmatum seeds have germinated. These are to grow on for grafting onto later.

Today's picture is Geranium 'Ann Folkard'. I think this young spring growth is a beautiful colour, making it doubly valuable as the flowers are also wonderful.

Some pictures to cheer a chilly soul

2006-04-07T12:04:00.000+01:00

Still less than 10C out in a brisk cold wind. These pictures give the impression of a bright spring day, but it's not. Does anyone recognise the Camellia, by the way? It was in the garden when we moved in and I don't know what it is.

My unknown Camellia. The only surviving shrub from the previous owners
Pulmonaria 'David Ward'. A bit fragile but a pretty colour
Pulmonaria 'Victorian Brooch'. I don't often buy PBR restricted plants, but I'm pleased with this one - long lasting, sturdy, good colour and leaf pattern.

Fresher

2006-04-06T17:52:00.000+01:00

The weather's fresher and so am I - a fresher as a volunteer at Dunham Massey. It was good to get out and do some hands-on gardening instead of walking round and looking. We pruned hydrangeas, mulched an astilbe bed and raked up after the lawn scarifier. We got so much more done as a team than would be possible on your own. Cold rain set in which put paid to progress on the lawn, so I went back to my 'real' job.

But I got a nice surprise when I got home - my spring delivery from Penlan Perennials has arrived - some 'insurance' Meconopsis grandis, two stipa gigantea for the gravel garden (when I finally build it) and some primulas for the bog garden (ditto). If this weekend is dry, I might finally make some progress...

Welcome rain - but on the wrong day

2006-04-02T14:29:00.000+01:00

My carefully worked out plans to spend today (Sunday) creating the gravel garden and getting rid of the last of the fence have been scuppered by a rapid sequence of cold, squally showers. I've sown a few salad seeds in the polytunnel and tidied up in there a bit, but have otherwise mooched about indoors in a 'why did it have to rain today' sulk. To cap it, the forecast for the rest of the week is dry.

On a more positive note, the lemon tree is sprouting merrily and most of the seeds I sowed two weeks ago have germinated.

Spring at last

2006-03-30T22:32:00.000+01:00

A few mild days have brought everything to life. Prunus 'Pissardii' has finally sprung prettily into flower. All the Tete-a-tete are open and the surface of the herbaceous perennial border is breaking open as dormant buds burst through.

The one meconopsis that I disbudded last year has survived (but I've ordered another three, just in case ;-). The seedlings in the polytunnel look great, but some in the coldframe have been grazed off - presumably by snails. The annual mollusc cull will have to start

Our Dicksonia Antarctica has survived the cold surprisingly well. We wrapped it in a bit of fleece and stuffed straw in the crown. The tips of the fronds browned a bit, but considering we got to nearly -7C it's done really well.

Prunus 'Pissardii'. Six weeks later than 2005 but worth the wait.
A common Peony breaking through

Spawn sorbet

2006-03-22T16:53:00.000Z

Another low of -3C last night froze the top of the frogspawn heap. But when it finally warmed up a bit we had the loveliest spring day so far - just warm enough to persuade the crocuses to release their faint scent on the still air. Another cold night tonight, then - finally - a mild spell on the way.

Sowed a block of Broad bean 'Stereo'. First outdoor seeds of the year :-)

An early morning of poppies and frogs

2006-03-21T22:29:00.000Z

I was awake at 5.30am and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up, threw on a fleece and went out in the chill morning air. About a dozen frogs were piled up on a messy heap of frogspawn in the pond so clearly the heron missed a good few. They quickly slipped into the water at the first sound I made - they've learnt to be wary.

Such was my morning energy rush that I spent a very pleasant hour before breakfast pricking out the remaining meconopsis seedlings, this time settling them in up to the leaf bases. Fingers crossed for 30 healthy babies later this year.

Real progress at last

2006-03-19T18:56:00.000Z

Two dry days meant two good sessions outdoors. Still very cool, but the sun came out long enough to encourage a few flowers to open. Below is Tete-a-tete making its first foray into the open.

I dug over all the veg plots and raked in compost or manure. On my light soil it's best done in spring as it doesn't leach away. The vague plan is to make the veg plots look good this year, mixing up plants to create colour patterns and plant tightly to exclude weeds, potager style. Have to see how it works out in practice.

I've realised I'd not potted the meconopsis seedlings deeply enough. They form a rosette rather than a stalk, so I've added more compost to bring the leaves to soil level. Still got two more potfuls of seedlings if these fail.