herb garden and sunflowers......note the hanging herbs and admire the chard..........
Monday, July 04, 2005
101 uses for a dead bird
well it's not that i've not done anything since the last entry.......as usual some of the experiments didn't work, a lot of the herbs didn't survive, all the parsley died and the tarragon was eaten by the slugs, so was the chervil and the dill............so a couple of mints for Hopetoun's search-and-rescue are in instead........however i'm very proud of the chard, it looks great........and the sorrel is doing extremely well and has been in a few salads, ditto the rocket...........
........the only thing i brought home from the Scottish Garden Show was the idea of the aerial herb garden...............old milk containers cut out and hung from a cane lashed across the raised bed. at least if the slugs eat them they'll have had to work up a damn good appetite first..........i moved the comfrey out because it looked ill and it's now lurking behind the roses, and in the raised bed are some courgette seeds which are going great guns...............since the beans got decimated last year i've adopted the aerial idea for them too and they're in a hanging basket, with three kinds of stawberries from Hopetoun in another, already beginning to ripen................that was the day we just popped over for lunch and ended up being there all day and came back with the blueberry........
.........from Ryton i got the idea of mixing veg and flowers in containers..........and was also relieved to see that their experiments don't always work either, there were various beds with labels on that appeared to be completely bare...........
............herb lawn not going to work but the grass looks *much* better being left a little longer. the purple sage is still not very happy even though i moved it beside the new painted sage to give it the idea............the painted sage has taken well and is flowering happily but maybe the purple sage is just feeling even more inferior.......
........so, today............tidied the front, put newspaper mulch down with compost on top under the tree and derived a certain satisfaction in the light of the Wimbledon ladies' singles result from throwing a handful of compost on Venus Williams' face....... the pansies all finished quite suddenly, went from looking lovely to dead within a very short time, so i've replaced them with some bargain orange-scented thyme for the oblong planter, some gazanias for cheap cheer, and a new little bay tree as i think the one at the back is definitely dying. of old age probably..........i've no idea how long i've had it but i suspect it's many years........goodbye old friend........in its tub is the new bronze fennel............
........new purple hebe by the pond producing pretty purple flowers. honeysuckle now out so the chair area is just beautiful, with wafts of lovely perfume............my experiment with the night-scented stock didn't work either, they came up fine but then all died........too wet maybe. a mysterious red rose has appeared in that bottom corner............could it be the one i planted on Spicey's grave that i thought had died, having migrated under the paeonies and surged up beside the choisya?
............i was right about the potatoes in the compost-heap. Carrie moved the heap so we now have another plantable area at the bottom............and in the process found the potatoes. we ate them for lunch that day and they were lovely.............of course if i'd been trying to grow potatoes no doubt nothing would have happened, but this garden is just full of surprises.........i notice there appears to be a clematis growing at the front, God knows where that came from........
.........Carrie has also given me some lemon balm from Sussex, it's taking a while to establish, but should fill in some gaps very nicely..........also some variegated mint - ginger mint i think? - which is looking very nice in a tub with some gold-tipped marjoram beside it..........
..........the oriental poppies put on the usual fab but short display, and the love-in-a-mist "Persian Jewels" is looking very nice..........but the star of the show had to be the Himalayan poppy. it flowered and flowered, beautiful sky-blue flowers........finished now and i'm not sure whether to cut it right down, it liked the leaf-mould so i must remember to give it some more...........
.........there is a nasturtium growing out of the leaf bin, and also one growing in the crock box. determined little souls.......
........the bit by the pond is still under construction..........still looking a bit bare. the NZ flax and curry plant add to the colour contrasts but the pink geranium hasn't quite taken off as ground cover. and..............after a long and happy life, the diascia has finally died. considering it was supposed to be an annual and lived for three years, i think it did extremely well............i need some more wee spreaders for that area..........
...........oh, the bird. caught by extremely bad cat, a young blackbird...............she was so pleased with herself that when i took it outside she brought it back in again, so i thought i'd better dispose of it definitively. where better than under the rhubarb? well rhubarb needs organic material apparently..............Phil the Delphus has gone to the Council, having never flowered and looked distinctly dead, so the rhubarb is in the painted tub with plenty of chicken manure and a dead blackbird.........
........the only thing i brought home from the Scottish Garden Show was the idea of the aerial herb garden...............old milk containers cut out and hung from a cane lashed across the raised bed. at least if the slugs eat them they'll have had to work up a damn good appetite first..........i moved the comfrey out because it looked ill and it's now lurking behind the roses, and in the raised bed are some courgette seeds which are going great guns...............since the beans got decimated last year i've adopted the aerial idea for them too and they're in a hanging basket, with three kinds of stawberries from Hopetoun in another, already beginning to ripen................that was the day we just popped over for lunch and ended up being there all day and came back with the blueberry........
.........from Ryton i got the idea of mixing veg and flowers in containers..........and was also relieved to see that their experiments don't always work either, there were various beds with labels on that appeared to be completely bare...........
............herb lawn not going to work but the grass looks *much* better being left a little longer. the purple sage is still not very happy even though i moved it beside the new painted sage to give it the idea............the painted sage has taken well and is flowering happily but maybe the purple sage is just feeling even more inferior.......
........so, today............tidied the front, put newspaper mulch down with compost on top under the tree and derived a certain satisfaction in the light of the Wimbledon ladies' singles result from throwing a handful of compost on Venus Williams' face....... the pansies all finished quite suddenly, went from looking lovely to dead within a very short time, so i've replaced them with some bargain orange-scented thyme for the oblong planter, some gazanias for cheap cheer, and a new little bay tree as i think the one at the back is definitely dying. of old age probably..........i've no idea how long i've had it but i suspect it's many years........goodbye old friend........in its tub is the new bronze fennel............
........new purple hebe by the pond producing pretty purple flowers. honeysuckle now out so the chair area is just beautiful, with wafts of lovely perfume............my experiment with the night-scented stock didn't work either, they came up fine but then all died........too wet maybe. a mysterious red rose has appeared in that bottom corner............could it be the one i planted on Spicey's grave that i thought had died, having migrated under the paeonies and surged up beside the choisya?
............i was right about the potatoes in the compost-heap. Carrie moved the heap so we now have another plantable area at the bottom............and in the process found the potatoes. we ate them for lunch that day and they were lovely.............of course if i'd been trying to grow potatoes no doubt nothing would have happened, but this garden is just full of surprises.........i notice there appears to be a clematis growing at the front, God knows where that came from........
.........Carrie has also given me some lemon balm from Sussex, it's taking a while to establish, but should fill in some gaps very nicely..........also some variegated mint - ginger mint i think? - which is looking very nice in a tub with some gold-tipped marjoram beside it..........
..........the oriental poppies put on the usual fab but short display, and the love-in-a-mist "Persian Jewels" is looking very nice..........but the star of the show had to be the Himalayan poppy. it flowered and flowered, beautiful sky-blue flowers........finished now and i'm not sure whether to cut it right down, it liked the leaf-mould so i must remember to give it some more...........
.........there is a nasturtium growing out of the leaf bin, and also one growing in the crock box. determined little souls.......
........the bit by the pond is still under construction..........still looking a bit bare. the NZ flax and curry plant add to the colour contrasts but the pink geranium hasn't quite taken off as ground cover. and..............after a long and happy life, the diascia has finally died. considering it was supposed to be an annual and lived for three years, i think it did extremely well............i need some more wee spreaders for that area..........
...........oh, the bird. caught by extremely bad cat, a young blackbird...............she was so pleased with herself that when i took it outside she brought it back in again, so i thought i'd better dispose of it definitively. where better than under the rhubarb? well rhubarb needs organic material apparently..............Phil the Delphus has gone to the Council, having never flowered and looked distinctly dead, so the rhubarb is in the painted tub with plenty of chicken manure and a dead blackbird.........
Sunday, May 15, 2005
'tis the first rose of summer...........
...........and 'twas the first really warm day. the wind has changed at last and the freezing breeze turned to something more mellow................i forgot to take the seedlings in last night but they looked fine..........lemon balm not doing so well and the peppers a bit slow but everything else seems OK.............
............so, back to Ground Elder wars...............it obviously wasn't going to respond to being toasted or poisoned, nothing for it but to get down there and dig it up. hard work but strangely satisfying...............bought a new push-mower, much more satisfactory, the hover mower was scalping the lawn badly and even on the high setting was cutting it too short............this looks much better. i'm going to try and make it partly a herb lawn..............plant some herb seeds in the holes where i've dug weeds out or where it's gone a bit bald.........they won't mind being cut and it will smell nice when walked on.............
..............thought about getting some annuals for tubs etc but actually..............it looks OK without. there's so much flowering away that i think it would just look crowded and messy. even the front looks fine as it is. it's actually quite nice to have the patio open............the sunflowers can go in a big tub near the wall,...............swee'peas are in and we'll see if the experiment of putting them at the front is any more successful.............
.....and yes the yellow very very jaggy rose is out.............with more flowers than i think it's had before. usually the organic rose is the first out, but a bit of healthy competition won't do it any harm............
............so, back to Ground Elder wars...............it obviously wasn't going to respond to being toasted or poisoned, nothing for it but to get down there and dig it up. hard work but strangely satisfying...............bought a new push-mower, much more satisfactory, the hover mower was scalping the lawn badly and even on the high setting was cutting it too short............this looks much better. i'm going to try and make it partly a herb lawn..............plant some herb seeds in the holes where i've dug weeds out or where it's gone a bit bald.........they won't mind being cut and it will smell nice when walked on.............
..............thought about getting some annuals for tubs etc but actually..............it looks OK without. there's so much flowering away that i think it would just look crowded and messy. even the front looks fine as it is. it's actually quite nice to have the patio open............the sunflowers can go in a big tub near the wall,...............swee'peas are in and we'll see if the experiment of putting them at the front is any more successful.............
.....and yes the yellow very very jaggy rose is out.............with more flowers than i think it's had before. usually the organic rose is the first out, but a bit of healthy competition won't do it any harm............
Saturday, April 30, 2005
death to the invader
nearly seven months since the last entry!!.........well, it has been an extremely cold spring, so last weekend was the first time i was really able to get out and do much..........a whole weekend of tidying and toasting the weeds with my flame gun thing and ripping out the ground elder......because i didn't put out my garden bin the Council thought i didn't have one and gave me another, so i now have two!.........i actually like to put most things on the compost heap, but the Council can have the perennial weeds............on to the second compost bin now, leaving the first full bin hopefully to rot down.........
.............because i did so much work last year it hasn't actually taken that long to tidy and sort........the alpine tubs at the front look great and i'm really pleased with them. all the creepy things are starting to spread and fill in the cracks in the paving like i wanted them to, and even the bit under the tree has filled in with alpines and looks quite good. the mini-conifers in their tub looked extremely sad after years of neglect, no wonder..........so i re-potted them and they still looked sad....so it's off to the Council........some colourful cheap'n'cheerful pansies intheir place for now, looking rather pretty.........
...........i've decided my mistake with tubs in the past has been making them too mingy. lots of small ones just looks messy. i've put the pot clemati together in the hope that they'll compete with each other to flower...........and i'm going to try some sweet peas at the front. it's less hot and less snaily............
...........the major project at the back was replacing the pond liner. Carrie and i did it on a cold damp sunday...........a miserable messy job, but boy what a difference. the pond looks fantastic and i'm thrilled with it. all the plants seem to have sort of rearranged themselves and are growing like mad......no duckweed so far but the grasses and the irises look better than they've ever done. and the diascia? yes, made it through another winter in a huge healthy clump..........with the bright blue lithospermum weaving through it, very pretty........
...........thrill of the day last weekend was discovering that the trillium was not dead.........it's very inconspicuous but it's still there! the little bronze buttercup was good value too, clumps of it appearing everywhere......although the one by the pond has been flattened completely, i suspect by a certain kitten lying on it...........
...........Bram's grave is marked by another dicentra..........the original one is doing its usual triffid thing of growing from nothing to this enormous clump so i hope the new one feels inspired.........i put Janice's paeony next to the others, the one i put in last year has buds despite what all the books say about them taking years to flower, and the old one looks extremely healthy.....i noticed when i was down at that end of the garden that there's a tiny apple tree growing out of the wall! - next to the chair, with one blossom on it!.........that bit is looking very nice, the honeysuckle has really taken off and is weaving round the chair, the strawberry plant has taken and i've seen a couple of ladybirds inhabiting it, and there's a clump of forget-me-not under the tree...............other clumps under the lilac and by Oscar's grave............that's where i planted it i think, but i have to accept that this garden has its own ideas about what it wants to grow and where it wants to grow them.............i think there's a potato growing inthe compost heap as well............
............the bare hot bit by the organic rose may be a problem, i put the Louisiana irises in there as i've no idea what conditions they like or what they're going to look like..........flung in some escholzia as well because they did well there before..........Catmint Corner looks pretty good too.............four kinds of catmint growing madly, and the Cistus which looks healthy........i don't know what happened to the other day lily, maybe it got swamped by the original one. moved a hebe from a pot at the front which was also looking very miserable from neglect, hope it likes its new neighbours.........
...............that other bed still has big bare bits so i think the thing to do is put in shrubs.......put in a wee pieris, normally i don't like them but this one is quite pretty. two geraniums to fill in the gaps, and another purple hebe.............the azalea has never flowered, but i've moved it several times so i think i just need to leave it and see what happens..........i've planted some seeds of Himalayan poppy, the one i've got is all on its tod and looks a bit lonely......i believe they're very difficult to grow and slow to flower, but a packet of seeds is cheaper than more plants.......
..........loads of herbs started off...........marjoram, coriander, lemon balm, parsley, russian and french tarragon, lemon and purple basil...........the black peppermint is now confined to a pot having tried to take over the herb garden, and the bits that fell off have become another plant for Carrie.............the Vietnamese coriander has also had babies...........if all these seeds come up i'll be inundated with herb plants.............in the herb garden i've hoicked out all the borage and put it in a pot, the salad burnet is doing well as usual and oh, dear, more lovage..........split and re-planted the oregano, and put in another variegated one, and another kind of sage..........fennel is now coming up in the raised bed, and i have a good clump of chives..........
..........as for veggies....well, let's try the chard. the rocket is thriving on being completely ignored.........made it through the winter and still growing away, unchewed by the slugs..........peppers and tub tomatoes are about the limit of my ambition......
............the bit by the lilac is still a problem.....the lavenders didn't make it and i think it's too shaded for most things, so i'll try making it woodlandy...........put the lilies-of-the-valley in but i think my usual curse has ensured that they're not going to make it...........violets too, they look like the sort of thing the slugs would fancy so they're surrounded by pine twigs, organic slug repellent and home-made cloches......at least the little blighters will have to work up an appetite......
.........night-scented stock in tubs.........haven't tried that before. nasturtiums for the dark corner.......and a couple poked into the hole in the arm of the chair, just to see!...
.............because i did so much work last year it hasn't actually taken that long to tidy and sort........the alpine tubs at the front look great and i'm really pleased with them. all the creepy things are starting to spread and fill in the cracks in the paving like i wanted them to, and even the bit under the tree has filled in with alpines and looks quite good. the mini-conifers in their tub looked extremely sad after years of neglect, no wonder..........so i re-potted them and they still looked sad....so it's off to the Council........some colourful cheap'n'cheerful pansies intheir place for now, looking rather pretty.........
...........i've decided my mistake with tubs in the past has been making them too mingy. lots of small ones just looks messy. i've put the pot clemati together in the hope that they'll compete with each other to flower...........and i'm going to try some sweet peas at the front. it's less hot and less snaily............
...........the major project at the back was replacing the pond liner. Carrie and i did it on a cold damp sunday...........a miserable messy job, but boy what a difference. the pond looks fantastic and i'm thrilled with it. all the plants seem to have sort of rearranged themselves and are growing like mad......no duckweed so far but the grasses and the irises look better than they've ever done. and the diascia? yes, made it through another winter in a huge healthy clump..........with the bright blue lithospermum weaving through it, very pretty........
...........thrill of the day last weekend was discovering that the trillium was not dead.........it's very inconspicuous but it's still there! the little bronze buttercup was good value too, clumps of it appearing everywhere......although the one by the pond has been flattened completely, i suspect by a certain kitten lying on it...........
...........Bram's grave is marked by another dicentra..........the original one is doing its usual triffid thing of growing from nothing to this enormous clump so i hope the new one feels inspired.........i put Janice's paeony next to the others, the one i put in last year has buds despite what all the books say about them taking years to flower, and the old one looks extremely healthy.....i noticed when i was down at that end of the garden that there's a tiny apple tree growing out of the wall! - next to the chair, with one blossom on it!.........that bit is looking very nice, the honeysuckle has really taken off and is weaving round the chair, the strawberry plant has taken and i've seen a couple of ladybirds inhabiting it, and there's a clump of forget-me-not under the tree...............other clumps under the lilac and by Oscar's grave............that's where i planted it i think, but i have to accept that this garden has its own ideas about what it wants to grow and where it wants to grow them.............i think there's a potato growing inthe compost heap as well............
............the bare hot bit by the organic rose may be a problem, i put the Louisiana irises in there as i've no idea what conditions they like or what they're going to look like..........flung in some escholzia as well because they did well there before..........Catmint Corner looks pretty good too.............four kinds of catmint growing madly, and the Cistus which looks healthy........i don't know what happened to the other day lily, maybe it got swamped by the original one. moved a hebe from a pot at the front which was also looking very miserable from neglect, hope it likes its new neighbours.........
...............that other bed still has big bare bits so i think the thing to do is put in shrubs.......put in a wee pieris, normally i don't like them but this one is quite pretty. two geraniums to fill in the gaps, and another purple hebe.............the azalea has never flowered, but i've moved it several times so i think i just need to leave it and see what happens..........i've planted some seeds of Himalayan poppy, the one i've got is all on its tod and looks a bit lonely......i believe they're very difficult to grow and slow to flower, but a packet of seeds is cheaper than more plants.......
..........loads of herbs started off...........marjoram, coriander, lemon balm, parsley, russian and french tarragon, lemon and purple basil...........the black peppermint is now confined to a pot having tried to take over the herb garden, and the bits that fell off have become another plant for Carrie.............the Vietnamese coriander has also had babies...........if all these seeds come up i'll be inundated with herb plants.............in the herb garden i've hoicked out all the borage and put it in a pot, the salad burnet is doing well as usual and oh, dear, more lovage..........split and re-planted the oregano, and put in another variegated one, and another kind of sage..........fennel is now coming up in the raised bed, and i have a good clump of chives..........
..........as for veggies....well, let's try the chard. the rocket is thriving on being completely ignored.........made it through the winter and still growing away, unchewed by the slugs..........peppers and tub tomatoes are about the limit of my ambition......
............the bit by the lilac is still a problem.....the lavenders didn't make it and i think it's too shaded for most things, so i'll try making it woodlandy...........put the lilies-of-the-valley in but i think my usual curse has ensured that they're not going to make it...........violets too, they look like the sort of thing the slugs would fancy so they're surrounded by pine twigs, organic slug repellent and home-made cloches......at least the little blighters will have to work up an appetite......
.........night-scented stock in tubs.........haven't tried that before. nasturtiums for the dark corner.......and a couple poked into the hole in the arm of the chair, just to see!...
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