Second border and perennial sweet peas

20th and 21st May 2018

 Before I started on the big border I planted the lettuce, radish and water cress.  I decided against successional sowing as it is isn't a 'serious' veggie growing session and the beans will have romped up and swamped the salads pretty soon - ever the optimist; not doing any romping yet.

the seed mat for the lettuce - does save on thinning out later

 I weighted the two mats down on a scrabbled up surface and then covered them lightly with potting compost and watered well.  The radish and water cress are planted round the edges of the border in a similar way.  The third mat is nestled in a pot for my grandson to take home when it starts to grow.

discs ready to be buried

 The second border got planted up like the first one did, using canes and sticks for markers

one aching body later

 On a trip into Dobbies for some agricultural 'gravel' because we had a 20% voucher, we bought two perrenial sweet peas.  They had them in pale pink and white - both of which I have owned at some time and then this one, described as red, so I thought I would go for a change.

The discount wasn't valid for the gravel but it did mean that the £20 worth of sweet peas were discounted by £4, so a bit of a win that day.

love a discount

It was a challenge grubbing down under the gravel and membrane to get the plants planted.  More worryingly they have their feet in a swamp.  The water, sitting on the clay pad, is actually visible as soon as you dig down six inches or so.  We over dug the hole and filled it with compost to give them a decent start but I have no idea how they will survive the wet - now and, even worse, over the winter.  This is going to be a garden of challenges.

After planting them and struggling to get the gravel back in place neatly I decided the gravel needed edging up away from them.  I got Ken to build me a frame to shove round them to keep the gravel back.  As always the old decking came into play - incidentally we have never had a deck!!

just needs a lick of paint

So our gravel area now looks like this

one step at a time

At the top end of the garden the seating is being used during this lovely hot spell

the place for a cuppa

Pleased with myself

18th May 2018

Got 26 plants in today so feeling good.  I am also watering pots and plants and generally fettling stuff as well as the straightforward making a garden.

In this picture you can see Ken digging out the holes I want and filling with compost and putting the stick with the name of the plant on back in the planting hole ready for me.

prepped and ready

Coffee stirrers replaced with the appropriate plant

green things

When we had finished we could actually see the promise of a planted border for the first time.  I know these are very puny right now but as they worked at about at something like 1/16th of the cost of buying reasonable size plants in pots, it is a no brainer for me.  I hope to be able to see small plants this year, even some flowers, and a very good border next season, by year three they will have filled it..... that's the theory.

Spacing out the main body of plants

17th May 2018

I came up with a cunning plan for planting the main body of the borders which I would certainly do again if, God forbid, I ever had another large area to plant out.

Taking my trusty plastic rod, culled from one of the olive trees I bought, I crudely marked out six inch spaces along it. Apologies for inches and not centimetres, I have an old-fashioned brain that still visualises in inches.  Using this I 'planted' canes two feet apart to space out where each group of plants needed to go.  The cane was marking the centre of the group. 

So, eleven canes later I knew how the groups of plants would be spaced along the border

I then wrote the name of the plants for each group.  They would mostly be planted in three of a kind but occasionally just two and sometimes even one.

I then put these where I wanted my trusty helper to dig me a hole and fill with compost ready for planting.

Not much done but for me it was quite enough for today.

Leftovers

Back in Bury I know where I could have passed on my left over plants to but here and not knowing anyone, not so easy.  We did drop a handful off at O's other grandma's on our way to Dunbar which gave us a chance to say hello.  To Ken's horror I pigeon-holed a young couple who I saw working on their garden on our new estate and asked if they wanted a load of baby plants and dropped off most of them there.  That still left me with a few things - I can't bin them so I invested in four large (plastic pots) and planted them in there for at least this summer.  I will see how they fare and then think about their future home.  Gladioli (sword lily), Liatris Spicata (button snakewort, Kansas gay feather),  Dahlia, Triteleia 'Queen Fabiola' (star flower, triplet lily, wild hyacincth)

nothing to see here ......

Terrific Morrisons turned up trumps again.... we stopped in for some milk and they had three different (!!!) varieties of passion flower one of which was the one I wanted (Caerulea).  There is a story behind my wanting these for this garden.  I had never tried growing passion flower because I thought it wasn't hardy enough to make it 'up North'.  A couple of years ago I rescued four plants from a 49p tray outside some supermarket, two of which were passionflowers; all of which looked dead as a dodo.  They absolutely romped away and by their second season I was having to hack them back to keep them in their allotted space.

Since moving here I wanted another pair but was very reluctant to pay the required ten pounds and more for each of them only to discover that the Newtongrange climate would decidedly knock them on the head.  Et voila there they were outside Morrisons, in considerably better condition than the miraculous dead sticks I bought before, and for the princely sum of £1.76 each.

They are to go against a pair of trellises which aren't in the garden yet, so I potted them on to a larger pot to keep them going.

two passion-flowers-to-be

Time to take advantage of the lovely sunshine..... we already have the beginnings of a nice place to sit with your cuppa in the day.  Right now it is a case of a small table and two fold-away chairs but it was a very pleasant half hour.

add roses, lavender and some more pots

Gardeners day out

14th May 2018

We had an almost garden free day today which was a bit naughty as we still have glorious weather and who knows how long that will last.  

I did manage to plant some sticks.  Ken is kindly digging the holes for me to help with the planting so I thought it would make it easier if i just marked where I wanted them to go.  I worked out the position of the next eighteen plants (nine in each border).  I used coffee stirrers (culled from my dollhousing hobby) and wrote a letter on each one demarcating what plant will go where.  This is the back of the border stuff - hollyhocks, delphiniums, gypsophila.  After doing it I realised what a good idea it is generally as it gave me thinking time as to what I want where and I was able to stand back and assess before committing trowel to ground.

growing sticks?

For our day off we decided to go to Dunbar Garden Centre after lunch for a looksee.  It was perfectly nice but.... here comes the moan..... it was pretty much like every other garden centre.  Someone a few years ago worked out a successsful formula for garden centres - some plants - mainly bought in - a nice moochy kind of shop which is almost totally not garden related - food and clothes and, what my mother would have called 'trinklements', and of course the ubiquitous cafe/restaurant.  Everyone quickly climbed on the gravy train.  As a business model, good for them but as a gardener I mourn the loss of of very individual nurseries selling their own plants which were raised on site and you knew would survive in your location.  If you were lucky at some of the larger ones you could get a cup of tea and a cake and the kids got an ice cream but that was about it.  What you did get was good strong plant stock at an incredibly cheap price, often quirky owners with a wealth of knowledge they were only too willing to share and a lovely couple of hours rummaging around the place seeing what they had ready to go that week.

OK moan over - Dunbar was fine and it netted me an absolute bargain.  All their bought in stuff was the usual prices that you see everywhere but they had planted up hanging baskets and they were one for £12.99 or two for twenty pounds - absolute bargain - couldn't make them up myself for less and they look like a decent choice of simple planting that I like.

my bargain buy

We have been here about six weeks now and my poor old (house) orchids have just got sadder and sadder.  The only windowsill they could go on and be seen and not block a view is the bay window in the sitting room, that would be fine except it is south facing and they are absolutely hating it.  In Bury they lived between an east facing pair of windowsills and a west facing pair of windowsills depending on whether they were in flower or not and they have absolutely flourished, giving me a couple of blooming periods a year, each of them lasting months at a time.  We only have a couple of very tiny en-suite windowsills here that are east and west facing so not really ideal for a large orchid.  Since we moved it is clear to see they are dying inch by inch.  I am utterly useless at binning live plants - for me it is almost on a par with putting a live animal in the bin - untenable.  So a bit like ancient Inuit custom I am leaving them outside to die 'naturally'.  My theory is they may make it through the summer and even perk up and I will give them anther go indoors over winter if that's the case or they will succumb to Newtongrange not being in Florida.

farewell old friend

My smallish Buddha came with me and he is quite sweet when sitting surrounded by flowers. His manky block of wood which he sat on at home did not make the move so I got Ken to make him a tall 'bench' out of old decking board.  There are no absolute rules on how a Buddha should be placed unless you subscribe to Feng Shui and then (outdoors) he must be facing East.  Mine is facing SW as that is where I want him!  It is however required that he must sit on something, preferably natural material and be elevated.  He must not sit on the ground - very disrespectful - so I have got something right

bought with my daughter many years ago

I went on a salad seed hunt.  I wanted cut-and-come again lettuce and land cress - nothing so exotic was to be found. 

 What I did find was a bit of an experiment.... seed mats.  I did try them once, years ago, and got no where so I am interested to see if this one works.  Same price as a packet of seeds - £2.99 - and will do three sowings.  This is where the cynic appears - at a pound a pop I can buy ready done from Tesco.  The gardener in me smacks the cynic and I do know how satisfying it is to 'grow your own'.  

not really what I wanted

As there was no land cress I settled on watercress  I am not convinced it can be actual water cress as that needs to grow, unsurprisingly, in clean fresh running water.  We will see, it does need to be kept moist.  I love land cress it is firey and fast growing and lasts most of the year.  Hey ho.

water not land cress

Finally ye olde fashioned radish.  I went for straightforward no messing French Breakfast, though how those little babies will be able to push their way through the clay clods I have no idea.  Basically, I think I will have to dig out a space for them.

I started with a moan - I like to think of my moans as observations not moans - I might as well finish with one.

£2.99 for a packet of seeds!!!!!  I remember the days when they were sixpence from Woolworths.

Maybe a good idea?

12th May 2018

I was a tad concerned about the plant plugs in plastic boxes - they were very wet and pretty much enclosed with roots exposed to light - doesn't seem the best way to hold on to plants until you can plant them.  Normally if you have a few plants you can't get to and they are bare root you would just heel them in somewhere until you could, or even pot them up so I thought I would apply the same principal but on a mini scale.  I sorted out all the ones I wanted and put them in trays of potting compost.  watered well and put them in sun/semi shade.  Weather permitting I will plant a few a day with Ken's help.  

108 baby perennials-in-waiting

they look relieved to have escaped their boxes

I had also decided there were some plants in the border mix I bought that I really just don't like such as red hot poker, lychnis, heuchera, sedum (apologies to those who love them) so I sorted those out to pass on via Freecycle.  That cut the number down by a couple of dozen, leaving me with a still daunting 108..

Besides doing that little lot, with the help of Ken (digging each little hole) I also managed to get in 18 very sad looking verbena bonariensis.

Verbena b. poor little soul 

The verbena were a separate order and had I just ordered those I would have been very disappointed they were pretty pathetic and indeed I only got 14 out of 18 as four were already decidedly dead.  As for the others time will tell.

You can see the dreadful 'soil' we are dealing with.  What we are now doing is digging a double size hole for anything we plant and filling with compost and planting into that and throwing away the clay we take out.

The roses go in

11th May 2018

We need to get the back line of the border in place before I can start on the zillion little perrenials so we had to do an 'emergency' shop yesterday - we dashed to Pentland with the objective of buying almost any four pink climbing roses that don't exceed six feet (by much).

This meant paying a proper price (£23 something each) for a proper plant.  We bought four lovely David Austin climbers both of which I know and also know they are good doers.  The left side of the garden (east facing) has a pair of 'A Shropshire Lad'.  It has proven tough in the past so hope it can cope with east facing.  A bit less challenging on the right side (west facing) fence I have a pair of  'Wollerton Old Hall' bought partly in memory of our old home as we lived quite nearby and have been there several times.

I just looked up the roses to add the links here and discovered different information on the David Austin website than that which is on the labels -   I have an 8 ft height for Shropshire lad on the label and ten feet on the site - that's OK (ish) but I have 6 - 8 feet on the Wollerton label and have twelve feet on the site....mmmmm   Time will tell.

So today a lot less time in the garden was all I could manage and we got in the four roses.  This means our fences are clad and we can crack on with the borders, weather and back permitting, tomorrow.

Wollerton Old Hall

I also managed to get in the dwarf runner beans in the other patio bed.  This will probably house lavender and roses next year but I am saving some spending pennies and some work by just using it as a little veggie bed this year.  Not serious growing just some beans and lettuce and radishes and anything else quick and easy I might spot.  Partly I am also doing it to amuse my grandson who might love watching his lunch grow.

that wigwam is not that wonky!

I thought you might want to see the front of the house.  This garden won't lend itself to any planting like my previous one but maybe that's a good thing as it will be less to look after.  That said our new gardener has already weeded the borders where the hedge is.

We are overdue a cherry tree from the developers.  the week they planted ones in other gardens I asked where ours was and apparently they had run out and now we won't get one until October because it is too late in the year - presume they are bare rooted.  Very disappointed - doesn't feel right not to have a tree.

I know what the shrub is that we have for hedging but for the life of me can't remember - anyone help?

Past it

10th May

It has been at least a couple of years since I have done any sort of proper gardening.  We had someone to cut our lawns and another someone to do the weeding and that kept us ticking over back in Bury.  Here we are with a brand new garden to get in place and I am decidedly past it!

Ken and I did three hours in the garden and you can barely see anything for the effort.  I have to commend my other half for being a huge help at fetching and carrying and doing anything with weight in it.  He abhors gardening and has no interest in the  finished result as long as it looks tidy.  He stuck it out and did a load of stuff for me.

Besides some general tidying up this is what we managed to do.....

old faithful and newbies

Round pot on left has some of the begonias and hardy fuchsias, the square pot has three perpetual strawberries.  The magnolia at the back is the only plant I brought from home, so I am desperate for that to survive.

Strawberries again in square pot, begonias in tall chimney and hardy fuchsias in small chimney

These aren't the same variety that did really well for me for years but they are ever-bearers so may be OK.  Worth a try at £3.99 for three from Aldi.

sweet peas

My daughter bought some sweet pea plants and had several left over so I thought I would give them a go on two of my pergolas for this summer which will save me buying two clematis.

'early sensation' clematis

Another Aldi buy at £5.99  Just saw identical plant and in same condition for £12.99 in Pentland Plants so feeling smug.

unknown! clematis

Yet another Aldi purchase.  To be fair it probably was named but guess who didn't look beyond the fact is it 2.5m tall and then chucked the label away.

my herb bed near the house

Only the herbs I actually use (and then not all that often)  Sage, thyme, parsley, chives, rosemary and mint in its own pot as it is a thug and will take over your garden.  Not sure how well they will do as it is decidedly chilly here and windy and the garden is pretty much in the shade.  Hey ho.  This year is all about finding out.

olive tree

I bought a pair intending them to go in the gravel garden at the bottom but I have so many odds and bobs in there I decided one at the front door and one at the back.  Again may be a challenge on this side of the house (north facing).

the garden

You can hardly see any difference for three hours work times two people!  I can feel the difference - absolutely aching from head to foot - never knew I had so many muscles and joints.

Garden in a box

I ordered two borders from J. Parkers which seemed like the shortest cut possible on my budget to getting two twenty-five feet by four feet borders planted this spring.  

duly arrived in big box

The plants on top, not in a bag, were some Verbena bonariensis which I also ordered and the bag tucked in down the side was free begonias and some free hardy fuschia that came with the order so you can regard the £3.95 postage well covered.

border in a bag

released from their sack

stacked in trays outside until I can get to them

This was the absolute moment I realised I might have made a mistake doing it this way!  Planting that many plants and having to do it as quickly as possible really is going to be way too much for me.  There are 144 plants in this collection and additionally I have other plants I have bought so there are something like 200 plants to get in the ground.

desperate to get out

nice size one year old plugs

I am a tad concerned about light exposed roots - does this matter?  How long will they wait for me? etc etc.  Tried to get advice from Parkers but got a prepared speech about keeping perennials outside until you can plant them - nothing about these particular type plugs.

My secret ingredient

Pretty much in all my gardens and certainly for as many years as I remember I have always clagged up green plastic coated chicken wire on the fences to support any climber I put in.  It is a cheap option, easy to do and lasts for many years; certainly for as long as I have ever lasted in a house and it seems able to support anything.

We buy 25m rolls of 0.9m plastic coated wire and (carefully) unroll it along the fence about 5 cms below the top (assuming a 1.8m fence) and then, using a staple gun, staple the wire in place at random intervals.  Then repeat below that row, taking the wire nearly to the floor.

On the 30th April my handy other half and I set out to do this on both sides of the garden ready for the future roses and clematis to scramble up.  I lasted for one side - about half an hour but he kindly did the other side on his own.

I regard it as a success if you actually can't see the wire and I was a bit concerned about the pale coloured brick wall and the honey colour of these fences but as it turns out it really doesn't shout at you and when it is clothed with plants and the borders are planted in front, it will be just fine.

one side finished

work in progress on the other side

Here comes the fence

When we chose this house, the garden wasn't much of a consideration.  It had been high on our tick list fifteen months before when we started looking - must be south or west facing must be fairly level must be able to be changed by me because it was unlikely I'd like what someone else had done!!  As the search went on (more off than on as it happens) the garden seemed to slither out of view.

We ended up with a North facing garden, on clay and a slight slope.  However, since putting our stamp on it we are so happy we didn't choose one of our neighbours houses.  Their gardens are on such slopes it will take some clever thinking and/or a lot of money to make them really usable.

A factor with new build too is that generally you only get post and rail fencing to demarcate the boundaries and you are left with the huge expense of getting fences in.  Again, as luck would have it, we had a wall and fence on our right and again across the bottom of the garden so we had a good start.  

The fences here are vertical open board fencing which is great for allowing wind to pass through without damage to the fence and offers less frost damage to your plants than a solid fence.  The downside is a lack of privacy.  They are generally double-sided and it would seem the etiquette requires the person who has the wrong side of the fence facing them to complete that work.  So, we needed to clad the back side of the right hand wall/fence to make it double sided; we can leave the bottom fence as is, as the good side is facing us, and build a new fence along the left boundary - with the good side facing us again.

26th April and the fencing was done.  At the front of the house we had the small enclosure fence linking house to fence on the right hand side and a nice tall gate made and put in on the left giving us and future gardener and window cleaner access to the back of the house.  Feels good to have marked out our domain.