Yet more plants going in

We got our fourth lot of plants from Dunbar Garden Centre today and I can't recommend them enough.  There have been a couple of minor issues with orders - one my fault entirely and one sort of theirs and both were sorted instantly and brilliantly, so their customer service is excellent.  The plants are as fresh as a daisy (😂) and prices are fair.

This is a collection for the two patio box planters that I thought I might leave as their winter planting is still looking OK.  A day later I realised that I wouldn't be happy with that in the summer and it would be too late then to get basket plants.

We have also picked up bird food from Dunbar so we topped up again today with some half coconuts as they get stripped in an day or two.

properly cleaned out

The plants that went in a week ago are doing well.

The dwarf runner beans don't look all that bonny but it is entirely my fault.  When we picked them up they really should have been given a week outside to harden off instead of which I wrenched them out of their cells and separated them from each other and stuffed them in a larger box just in time for a couple of very cool days and nights.  All in all it was a bit of a shock to the system.  That said I can see that they will toughen up and recover OK.

On one of the previous purchases I bought a box of purple sprouting broccoli for my new veg troughs and then found out they need a pretty big space to grow.  I gave them away but decided to grow two (one in each box) for curiosity value if nothing else.

All the border perennials transplanted well and are looking just fine - this is a couple of delphiniums

The lettuce has grown quite a lot in a week

....... and so has the rocket.

two rows of seeds are germinating OK.  This the land cress at the front of the box - they will need a huge amount of thinning out

The radishes are doing OK but are also a bit overcrowded



I made quite a few mistakes/miscalculations with this year's buying all I can claim is that it has been a bit of an issue (understatement) shopping around here there and everywhere and nowhere actually being touchy feely.  I did 'decide' in March that I would just give this year a miss but, once agardener always a gardener, the call to plant is irresistable.  

A previous order contained six lots of gypsophila - a regular favourite border fluffer upper.  When it arrived I realised that it was the small trailing variety for hanging baskets.  By then my baskets and pots were planted so now I have a pair of hanging baskets containing just gypsophila.   Mmmmmm, time will tell

One pretty big mistake was jumping on an offer of two jasmine for twenty pounds.  Long story follows.... when we moved in I planted two trachelospermum jasminoides for the trellis on the sheds, having intended to plant common jasmine bought I bought the wrong variety.  I realised when planting that the water table there was about six inches below the surface and they would pretty much have their feet in water and probably not thrive.  As predicted they just got sicker and sicker.  Out they came last summer and I planted another climber (forget what) in boxes and stood those on the spot.  They also hated it and were as dead as a dodo in March.  I went back to my first intention which was to plant a thug of a jasmine that can cope with most things -Jasminume officinale - common jasmine and then I did exactly as I had done before and bought the wrong one - how can you do this twice you might ask - easy - excited by a bargain online at ten o' clock at night both times!

So, like a twerp here they are again in a place which I know killed the last pair.  basically I don't have anywhere else to put them.  Will wear thinking cap for a week or two and see if I can come up with inspiration.  What I really need is ken to make me a raised bed there for them to go in.

Last, but not least, this is a bit of a sweetie -  a pre-planted basket for £8.99 from Dunbar which should look great in a couple of weeks.

The (Covid) Garden in May 2020

We are currently in week nine of lockdown thanks to Coronavirus-19 and it has had an effect on the garden this year for sure.  Having no access to garden centres and local shops etc I haven't been able to find bits and bobs to fill the odd gaps and am currently waiting on a few plants to help it out.  For example we have dug up eight verbena bonariensis (they were decidedly straggly after two years and the winter) and are STILL waiting for their replacements - heaven only knows when they will arrive or what they will be like.

I have managed, again with a struggle, to get some salad stuff and beans planted but not quite what I wanted or the standard I would like.

If you can stand to just look at thirty-three photos, this is where it is right now.

Front garden has finally got a tree.  One year without one,followed by one year with a dead one planted.  At last we seem to be OK.  It never had a flower on it as it is a winter flowering cherry but at least it has come into leaf now.  Prunus subhirtella.  The usual two olives and the pot by the door. 

The pot by the door is a bit sad looking as yet but it will flourish I am sure.  Lovely plants using click and collect from Dunbar Garden Centre.  Downside is I muddled up which plants were going where so it will be a bit of a muddle in terms of colours I think.

Our olive trees were loaded with olives this year.  I am wondering if I should remove them so any strength goes into the plant rather than the fruit.  Must check it out.  Seems a shame as they are rather decorative.

South east

South West

North West

North east.  Surrounded by houses for sure!  It would be lovely if everyone planted trees.  I want two more - maybe in the autumn as we need this flipping virus to be over to even get to the nursery.  I need decent size trees at 75😊 so need to go to R B for the best price and then pay to get them planted as we did with the amelanchiers. 

Fern looking pretty sad - needs to put on new growth and then be trimmed.  The pot is overstuffed.  It could do with dividing.

Patio seating area spends most of the day in shade.  Deliberating whether to order a set of furniture we like but have sat in to test drive it.  It is a metal frame.  Does anyone know if metal furniture gets silly hot in the sun and would be a bad buy?

Susan Williams-Ellis roses doing fantastically well again.  They have some greenfly though, so maybe need to spray them.  

Top third of  East facing border.  My poor old Buddha is lacking a pretty plant behind him and something by his feet.

The middle of the east facing border.  Actually saw a starling drink from the bird bath.... makes it all worthwhile 😂

The bottom of east facing border.  Each border is theoretically planed in three sections.  Each area has a focus - a rose or bird feeder (or both!) then symmetrical planting either side which s then repeated in the next third.  Not quite worked out that way of course.  We thought this year we would dig up and move around stuff and start again.  Maybe not.

Gravel/veg seating area.  Gets the sun most of the day.  The long planters on the front edge and the pots have runner bean plants in them from Dunbar - no variety name so who knows what I will get.  Right now i just have not very promising floppy seedlings.  Needless to say a day after planting those my hestia bean seeds arrived after a five week delay.  Grrrrrrr

Early sensation clematis in top of west facing border

middle of west facing border

The bottom third of the west facing border.  I finally got a clematis planted in the obelisk.... downside is, it is the wrong one.  I chose this, discovered it reaches fifteen feet so chose another with a six foot growth but forgot to alter the order.  😱

Very cheap winter hanging basket bought last year and still doing its thing

One of my all time favourites coming back into flower - Fleabane

One of many purple sprouting broccoli I bought before I found out they need a lot of room!

One of a pair of newly planted hanging baskets - plants from the Dunbar pick up

Lavender doing just fine by the seats

Strawberries looking strong

Love looking up through the amelanchier

Our posh new trugs.  They are called 'Veg trug' and should have their name emblazoned on the front but me, being me, didn't want that so it got turned to the back.  they take a ton of compost.

Each trug contains the same.  Right now they have lettuce and rocket plants and.......

 .............. carrots, spring onion, radish and American land cress seeds

close up of the 'early sensation' clematis.  I am tempted to fill the fences with them.  We have wire on all the fences but I am uncomfortable with my stuff poking its way through the fence.  The neighbours all say they are OK with it but it does seem intrusive.  I am used to having fence panels and hadn't thought about the implications of this sort of fence

lonely little bluebell struggling through

Another winter pot still flowering its socks off

Sea thrift edging the west facing border

Our new bird feeder in hopes we can actually attract some birds.  So far just the usual pigeon, magpie and starling thugs.

Take a last look at the herb bed.  I am waiting for three parahebes to arrive and when they do this rosemary, sage and thyme will be out and they will be in.

So if you have plodded through that lot drop me a line here or via email with any thoughts, suggestions etc.  I will do a high Summer set of photos for the record in a couple of months.  Hope we are back to something like a normal life by then.  Meanwhile, Stay home, stay safe, look after yourself.

The Borders

On close inspection I don't think we have lost much over the winter and some of the plants I tugged out a month or so ago, because they looked dead, seem to be appearing again in fresh new growth from the roots.  I did pull up the very cheerful Tickseed (coreopsis) - bright yellow daisy - and I rather hope that doesn't rejuvenate.  My original mixed colour plantings last year were lovely and gave a great show for year one, but I would like to work my way back to my more modest colour palette of pinks and whites and blues.

Our gardeners came to do their first cut of the lawns and weeding and, as usual, managed to leave more weeds than they removed!  On their second visit I got my other half (I am a coward) to point out the areas they had missed.  I preempted their desire to pull out plants that aren't weeds by marking any new growth with sticks. They are not not very pretty in the borders but they help prevent plants disappearing.  Note, I said help.

I hate 'not-gardeners' being any where near my stuff.  My poor other half has to work alongside me, now I am not fit to do the stuff I once did, with me constantly chirping, 'don't put your foot there', 'look out for your elbows', 'that's a weed' etc etc etc.  The deal is that I go around marking where I want the planting holes, describe how big, then supervise his size tens and large hands as he works.  I then do the actual removal from pots and planting to prevent his enthusiastic plant crushing.  Sadly it would be embarrassing to do this alongside the people we 'employ' as actual gardeners.  After their second visit I prowled the borders and discovered that where they had weeded, they had also managed to snap off the newly burgeoning delphiniums right at the root.  Much wailing was heard in the land.

Hey ho,  never mind I had plants to plant.  The next two photos show some decent size perennials from Dobbies - three for eight pounds.  It doesn't look like eighteen plants here in these two trays but there are.  So, with these and the moving of a dozen plants forward in the new deeper border and putting in some sweet peas round the obelisks I had enough work for a few days.  I honestly would have cracked that lot off before lunch in my glory days.

As for the lovely trays of sweet peas.... I had a bit of a brain blank when shopping.  I knew I needed a dozen plants and there were six pots to a tray so off I trot with two trays -you can see the thinking and the maths involved there.  It would have been useful if I had registered the obvious; each pot contained at least ten plants.  After fifty years of gardening I kind of knew this.  So, where I thought I had my twelve plants, I actually had something like a hundred and twenty.  I gave away a box to a neighbour which halved the problem.  I then over-planted the remainder round the pergolas and put some in a couple of other places too (may prove to be a mistake) but I still have some left.  I am considering trying them as hanging plants rather than climbing.  I have no idea if that would work and suspect not as I have never seen it done. (Note added later - don't try this apparently it really doesn't work unless you buy the miniature ones bred for the job)

These are the other plants which have been dotted around the new, improved, wider borders.  They are all old favourites which I have had many, many times.

I thought I would add in a couple of pictures for the labels seen in the above photo.  Those six plants were bought from Crocus with a gift voucher my daughter wasn't able to use.  I really don't shop at Crocus any more as their prices are way beyond my budget these days.  I remember when they first started and their prices were fine and the quality excellent.  

The first is a picture of Bowles mauve (a perpetual wallflower) - a real 'doer' - in flower from May to first frost.  Simply glows in the border and has a nice perfume too.  It will make a plant this size in its first year in the right place.  It is perpetual but it tends to go a bit scruffy by its third year.

This one is knautia.  I had already bought some mixed pastel colour ones from Dobbies for one of the borders but I love it so much I thought it might be nice to have a single colour one in the other border.  It just flirts around mixing itself in amongst other plants without being too bossy.

This is the east-facing border after planting.  

looking up the garden towards the house

east facing top third

east-facing bottom third

east-facing centre

This is the west-facing border, still waiting for a handful of plants to go in

looking down the border towards the gravelled area

west facing top third

west-facing bottom third

west-facing centre

I came to realise when taking pictures that I have actually planted both borders in thirds.  This was quite unintentional but actually works well.  The top and bottom thirds are pretty much identical and the centre third differs slightly.  I was very focussed on having a different left and right hand border but each with echoes of the other so they looked harmonious but not the same and by default I have actually done that and something else as well.

The clematis in the centre of both borders is 'Early Sensation' and is one of my all-time favourites.  It is evergreen so it gives you something in winter and a lovely backdrop in the summer after it has finished flowering.  If its happy it really lives up to its name.  In a couple of years, with luck, it will be fabulous.

Meanwhile this is what it is doing for me right now.

I am pretty pleased with the planting so far and can't wait to see them fully flushed out in the summer.  Watch this space.

I am happy to say I can still see room for more little gems.