Garden on steroids

Well that's what it looks like.............while we were away everything has gone completely mad. It was only a couple of weeks but in that time the antirrhinums have finished, the crocosmia are out and all the salads have bolted. We had just started eating the raspberries before we went away so we missed most of them, but we did not miss our fantastic crop of blackcurrants, gooseberries and rhubarb, now all being turned into cordials and delicious fruit fool. The pak choi is most impressive - two varieties in the packet, a pale one which has all bolted and a purpley one which hasn't and is much more chunky. The spinach is just delicious, nothing could be further from that bitter dark green glop you get frozen in the supermarket........so tender it doesn't need cooking at all..........
The potatoes have also gone mad and taken over the veg plot so we've lifted them.........not a huge crop but not bad............this year the cucurbits have done really badly thanks to a cold and wet may just as they were getting going, but the squash plant actually has little squashes developing, not sure how big they'll get or even what kind they are................
We missed the ranunculus too, they were just opening when we left and had finished when we got back, I'm sure they were very pretty but it would have been nice to see them.................gladioli just about to flower, shirley poppies everywhere as usual, nasturtiums putting on a good show including some very pretty peach ones. delphinium putting up a new flower spike, and scent-wise at the moment we have lavender, jasmine, roses, and great wafts of honeysuckle, just gorgeous................
have planted out the musk mallow and potted on the himalayan honeysuckle that we got free..............put in more spinach and salad, my cos lettuce from Hill House have settled and are growing away but more salad never goes amiss...........
Hopping about in the undergrowth are teeny wee frogs..............

Maytime

What with gardening at Hill House and gardening in Cornwall, our own garden has been a bit neglected and the greenhouse was bulging with seedlings ready to go out.............so now most of them are in the ground or potted up. We haven't quite got room for all the courgette seedlings, so some of them may have to go to new homes............and the tomatoes aren't quite ready to move on yet. My basil has done extremely well so it's all potted on, not quite ready to eat but smelling wonderful...............as is the lilac which is giving us great wafts of scent every time we go past............I've planted out the antirhinos, mimulus and sunflowers.............first oriental poppies out (pink ones win this year) and the tree peony is amazing, the flowers turn out to be yellow and really beautiful. ...............

In the pond there are now various sizes of frog plus tadpoles and it must be getting a bit crowded............the big frogs like to get out and sit in the undergrowth when it's damp, i was peering into the pond wondering where they all were when i suddenly saw three pairs of bulgy little eyes just in front of my feet.............there a few very small frogs that must be last year's tadpoles, no sign of legs on this year's ones yet.............

One veg pot with runner bean, flying saucer and tomato plants planted up.............the barrel is coming on great with glads, dahlias, California poppies and something else which I think might be love-in-a-mist coming up...........no sign of the outdoor begonias or LOTV coming up yet but I've never had any success with LOTV in this garden although the ones at Hill House seem to be doing OK so far. As for begonias.............I planted three indoors of the same variety on the same day in the same compost...............one is about 6 ins and growing rapidly, one about 1 in and the third has only just appeared. So they are a bit temperamental I think...............

Morning Glories are out.................nasturtiums coming up everywhere as usual so some moved to the front and some into containers............borage coming up everywhere also, a few seedlings have gone to Hill House, some to the compost heap and the rest will be going in the drinks for the rest of the summer............I've put some Livingstone daisies along the front of the hot border just cos I like them, and we've planted some little thymes and creepers in front of the frog viewing station so we can sit there with our breakfast having our heads stroked by the Japanese maple every morning..............

More Georgia Blue............

Just cos I love them so much, although it's really difficult to get the colour right, that intense cobalt blue, been experimenting a bit with the settings on the camera to try and get a better image............anyway they're finished now so we won't see them again till next year...............

Or, what we did on our holidays..................

The perfect Easter break..............a weekend of backbreaking slog in a hot Cornish garden........ably assisted by a mutant blackbird, an interested robin
and assorted slow-worms that had been living a peaceful undisturbed existence in the disused veggie beds. Fiona watched all this with horror convinced that we must be hating every minute of it and trying to make us go and look at the sea, but there was just too much to do, discovering the much loved garden that lay under all the brambles and nettles............. The brambles and nettles did not give up without a fight, by the time we left I looked as if I'd been locked in a room with 25 Kilkenny cats, but we had uncovered several more veg beds, released one of the apple trees, tidied some of the borders and uncovered lots of carefully planted treasures in the beds near the pond. Of course Carrie managed to fall in the pond and give the newts a fright............we also found an indignant toad snuggled in the undergrowth.............but we've completely uncovered the little stair down into the back of the veg garden that was totally overgrown. Lots more to do of course, but three days of the Mad Gardening Squad has certainly made a difference, and we jolly well deserved that roast pork dinner..............we also enjoyed the traditional English barbecue which consists of several shivering people with coats on eating sausages in the rain................

The Lost Gardens of Tregaminion

First clematis flower

On April 19th, which I think is late.....................we have had some very hot weather but quickly followed by colder winds and this evening a chilly haar...........things are happening in the greenhouse as tomato, squash, courgette and cucumber seedlings make their appearance..........basil, sunflowers, antirhino and mimulus also starting to sprout. In the veg beds: beetroot and potatoes are in along with salad mix, rainbow chard and bull's blood, a few runner beans in the ground and climbing French beans in a pot. Dill planted, herb pot revamped, pineapple mint planted. Begonias into pots, glads into the ground, Livingstone daises into the hot bed. At the front some small plants to the gravel at the side, it looks so much better since I cleared the winter jasmine..................most of the spring bulbs are over and the bluebells are starting to appear, but we have a glorious display of tulips almost to rival George's...............

The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la (again)

At this time of year things suddenly gather speed, and there's so much to do it's almost impossible to drag yourself away from the garden to go to work..............not that six hours of digging and weeding and planting and hoeing isn't work of course. It all looks really rather nice. the daffodils have been fantastic, some of the new ones have turned out to be double and are really beautiful, and the new tulips at the front are almost out. Chionodoxa finished but fritillaries out and bluebells on the way, violets and clematis in bloom........we had a very hot weekend which brought everything on really fast, although it's now reverted to the usual chilly winds. I mounted an assault on the winter jasmine at the front and chopped it right down, that bit has always looked a mess and just catches lots of litter and dead leaves, so I've tidied it up and planted some mint in the hope that it will a.) bind the gravel and stop it sliding about and b.) smell nice when we run it over by mistake. It put up quite a fight but I managed to wrestle it into the compost bin eventually and I hope the Council appreciates it. At the back the leeks from Hill House are in the veg bed, the other contingent are still up there so we can have a leek race and see which are ready first..............in the greenhouse are squash, cucumbers, tomatoes (2 varieties), sunflowers, antirhinos, mimulus (first to sprout), courgettes and basils - now moved indoors cos it's too cold. Pink fir apple potatoes are chitting in the downstairs toilet; I have also tidied the shady corner and planted three coreopsis, a variegated aubretia and some lobelias in the perennial bed. Tree peony has grown huge and is preparing to flower, so are the non-tree peonies. And most exciting of all........... WE HAVE TADPOLES!!

Daffodil "Ice Follies"...............

Amaryllis in the shade........I actually planted this last year and it sat sullenly in its pot and did absolutely nothing. This year it decided to grow..........very fast, once it got going, and this is the result...............worth the wait!

Frogsporn

Whether it's the full moon, or the spring, the pond has been full of the thrashing and splashing of a frog orgy...................they have laid LOADS of frogspawn and have been singing and shagging and fighting all week.....................
Our seeds have arrived, very exciting..................so today I have planted the new rose at the front; divided the hemerocallis "Crimson Pirate", moved the patio apple into the hot bed; planted the strawberries in its pot; top-dressed the containers; hoed the veg and perennial bed; weeded and fed the organic rose..................set some seeds from the lilac at the front to soak just to see if we can grow them.........dug up the chaenomeles from the front and potted it to see if it really is dead; examined the ginger mint and discovered it isn't............

The Time of Year 2

There is a conversation that takes place round about now, it goes like this:

Me: What the hell's that?

Carrie: Dunno

Me: Was it there last year?

Carrie: Don't think so

Me: Is it that wee blue thing?

Carrie: Could be

Me: I could have sworn I planted it over there..................

Things are really bursting into life, we have done the seed order..................and a bit of a spring clean. The front garden is putting on its best spring display..................the crocuses have been wonderful this year, the municipal displays are particularly spectacular with Princes St Gardens absolutely carpeted in beautiful purple and gold................

No sign of the small irises at the back which are usually among the first spring bulbs to flower, but the ones at the front were fantastic. Pink chionodoxa out first, beating the blue ones by a few days...........clemati front and back beginning to put on leaf, roses too...........the chervil has self-seeded in its container and been growing for weeks. ginger mint looking a bit sad but probably not dead after all...............

Plenty of ransoms should we choose to try and eat them this year, let's be brave.........the nippy salad mix has hung on grimly through the winter, it's a bit tough but certainly still alive, and the pigeons have not managed to completely ravage the purple sprouting broccoli so there might even be some left for us to eat...............

Bird-table been going like a fair. Beautiful pair of bullfinches, a pair of bramblings, flocks of greenfinches and siskins, much blackbird aggro, a goldfinch, and a blackcap who thinks that the seed table is his property and gets nasty with any other bird attempting to lay a claw on it.........

Last lavender

This was the final flower of the year for the huge lavender in the planter bench..........
But now things are very much coming back to life. And I wonder whether the neighbours ever look out and puzzle as to why I am stalking down the garden in an apron with a torch..........it's to puck herbs of course but it may not be immediately obvious. Tiny shoots of mint are appearing by the pond, and strangely the applemint has never been away, despite being supposed to be tender. the aconites are out at the front so spring is definitely on the way.......

Flat garden

What a weird sight it was after weeks and weeks of snow............completely flattened. However the snow has gone (for now......) and the plants have begun to lift their heads, bulbs are starting to come up..........and as usual things that appear completey dead turn out on close inspection to have little buds or shoots of green...........
Today's task was to de-ivy the front wall. It put up quite a struggle but we managed to strip it off, though not quite to stuff it all in the bin.........have put some root killer down which hopefully will see it off cos we don't want it all growing back again. It was nice to get the first day's work in the garden done...........lots more tidying to do, but it's a start.........

Salad in October

I guess the only thing to do is throw all the gardening books out of the window and just accept whatever the garden chooses to do. Have just picked three cucumbers and several tomatoes, and admired the lovely bunch of coriander that, having stubbornly sat there doing nothing all summer, is now flourishing in its pot. Dahlias, nasturtiums and roses are all going strong...........the Georgia Blue veronica at the front put up one little flower soon after planting just to show that it could, and the pink rose has also just begun to flower. both pot clemati at the front are in flower, and the purple one at the back has had its usual second flush. blueberries nice to eat and apples almost ready............Carrie has moved the strawberries and launched an attack on the gooseberry sawfly, which at least waited until we'd harvested the fruit before stripping the bush of every single leaf.........
the courgettes are finally finished, but when we went to pull them up it turned out that the froglets are hiding under the leaves, so maybe not just yet.......

Front garden blitz

The front garden has been looking like the wrath of God for some time, and of course the worse it got the more awful became the thought of doing something about it. However in the end we couldn't stand it any more.............so while Carrie was redecorating the study it was my job to revamp the front. A lot of the plants that had started off as sweet little alpines had grown huge and scraggy........so the easiest way to to dig pretty well everything out and start again. The rose put up a fierce fight, as we have found that roses tend to do, the root had actually grown under the patio slabs............so we had to cut it in the end.......
I wanted some kind of barrier to stop the earth from the bed all sliding on to the patio, so in the end I dismantled the little rockeries and used the stones. Trimmed some of the thyme and took up the rest, and moved the rockery plants into the beds. I am ashamed to say I've lost patience with the weeds so I got some super-lethal weedkiller and sprayed them. So much for being organic, and of course Katisha then became obsessed with running over the poisonous slabs and rubbing her face against the toxic weeds............however she seems fine. So do the weeds. They look extremely well with not a sign of a shrivel. Weedkiller - pah.
The pot honeysuckle has looked unhappy for some time so it's now in the bed with the rose's old spiral frame. the Eryngium is beside it as a show plant, and i plan to move the little orange rose which has been in a pot at the back for years but has looked very miserable this year and not flowered. the red standard rose from SQ is in a pot by the front door, and i've cut back the pink rose which has been lashing the postie and everyone else in the face every morning............so far it looks much better, off to Hopetoun tomorrow to spend our gift vounchers on some new little alpines...........

...............e tutti veg..............

Extremely proud of the cucumbers............we only managed to grow one the last time so we've got two this year and more coming...........a variety called "Muncher" which we are looking forward to munching, especially since it's supposed to be burpless...............

Tutti fior

It just looks gorgeous at the moment and every day something new comes out.............first California poppy today, godetias, Shirley poppies, antirhino nearly there, lemon balm, roses still going strong..........crocosmias "Lucifer" absolutely blazing away...............lilies and phlox........

Day lilies

Think the double one might have come from Mum's and be called "Flore Pleno"............the gorgeous red one is called "Crimson Pirate" and I got it at the farmers' market (I was supposed to be buying a chicken but you know how it is..........)