Six things about my garden this week
Roots
I previously wrote about my 102 year old mum in November when she sat in hospital with a new hip and decided to get herself up and out as she had bulbs still to plant and wanted to see them come up in the Spring. here
Here she is just last week.
And here are the pots she planted last autumn, showing daffodils now and with tulips to come.
Pots she planted up last autumn three weeks after a hip replacement
There’s a moral there somewhere.
And here is my front garden.
Looks like we think the same way about colours.
I’ve spent over 40 years running to get so far away and be different, it looks like I’ve been running in a great big circle and have ended up very near where I started. A moral there somewhere too.
Grasses
This is a grass I didn’t cut down over winter.
This is another of the same type which I chopped down in November to see what the difference would be.
Newly emerging stems of grass
I was afraid I had killed it but suddenly I see new green shoots coming through the dried stalks of last year’s stems. I carefully pulled out the brown stems to leave the new ones room to thrive. It should look great by summer.
Anemone
I love these anemone blanda
They are looking beautiful both in the borders and here in this pot.
Anemone blanda blue and white opening in the sunshine
They are easy and cheap to buy by the 100s, the corms being like raisins and easy to push into the earth. I prefer the blue but they can be white or pink too. £10 will buy you 200 of them at J Parkers
Brick paving
This is my paving
Should be pinky yellow rather than black
and here is the paving at Chelsea Physic Garden.
Fabulous clean brick paving at Chelsea Physic Garden
The difference is water and scrubbing. There is no magic ingredient. They have keen young people to scrub and sweep and I’m exhausted just looking at it. Must try harder this year.
Front door
This front door area
A trachelospermum clogging up the windows and which never flowers
has now become this.
New trellis for it to climb up and start afresh
Funny how you walk past something every day and then a friend in passing says “Oh dear, that looks a bit dead doesn’t it” and you realise it needs to go. We cut the trachelospermum right down and cleared out 20 years of dead stuff. We put up a new trellis and the jasmine will now thrive with the the sun and light and might flower for once. We shall see.
Saving effort
Two fantastic discoveries to save me lifting heavy bags of horticultural grit.
They are vermiculite for adding to compost and clay pebbles for a top layer in pots. Why didn’t I think of this before??? Vermiculite will help drainage in compost and is as light as a feather.
Vermiculite in a 100 litre bag from Amazon
Clay pebbles are lovely things.
Clay pebbles looking like Maltesers
They look good as a top dressing, absorb water and a 100 litre bag is not too heavy to move. What can go wrong? I’ll let you know if and when.
Thankyou again to the Propagator who hosts this theme of Six on Saturday . Over on his blog you can read what other gardeners have written.
I hope everyone is enjoying the coming of Spring.
