One. So much in flower, picking six becomes difficult. OK, a bit of lumping together: Dahlias, I grow a few, but then again... Such flamboyance, such joie de vivre. Dahlias, especially en masse, have an unrivalled capacity for putting smiles on peoples faces, even mine. Some I leave in, some I lift, then put back…
The modern world.
On 14 June I was down at Glendurgan Garden and saw a plant which I didn’t recognise and which didn’t have a label. I photographed it and posted a tweet asking Glendurgan what it was. They came back with Aristea major as a name. I Googled that, found a seed supplier who had it and…
On not digging.
In a few days time I shall be 65. Digging is either good exercise or hard work, depending on your perspective. Mine is that it is hard work and getting harder, so it seems to me that if I can get results as good without digging as with, why would I dig. Like many people,…
Six on Saturday – 8-7-2017
I had the bright idea of doing six plants that were self-sowing volunteers in the garden but quickly realised that I have four or five times that number, some more welcome than others. I'll mention a couple. One. Papaver atlanticum pops up where it pleases, producing a flat rosette of grey leaves then putting up…
End of month view – June 2017
Two things struck me when I compared this picture with the same view a year ago. The first was that the flowers are a couple of weeks ahead of last year. The second was how little the view had changed. I found myself searching for the small differences between the two images. For some reason…
Six on Saturday- 1/7/17
We drove up to Marwood Hill Garden in North Devon today, then on to RHS Rosemoor. So many plants, so little space! Marwood have a National Collection of Astilbes and there are pots of most of them in their plant centre. To come away empty handed would be plain rude. One. Is the box of…
Allotment half term report.
Midsummer seems like an appropriate time to take stock. Most things have done well; I think I have the soil management side of things where I want it. My failures and problems are not soil related: cabbage root fly, not enough water and as of today, mice going for my peas. The one thing that…
Six on Saturday – 24/6/2017
One. Euphorbia lathyrus. This is an annual that seems to pop up in our garden somewhere most years. It has numerous common names, caper spurge being one of the best known but it is also known as mole plant because it supposedly deters moles. Well, I am going to try and collect seed from this…
Six on Saturday: 17/6/2017
One. We're not very good at keeping these going after the first season, so this second year performance is a bonus. Hippeastrum, no idea on variety. Two. Dianthus deltoides is something of a rediscovery for me, after about a 55 year gap. I remember growing it as a child and have come back to it…
Not quite successional cropping
My first plantings of cabbages, brussels sprouts and flower sprouts were wiped out by cabbage root fly, in spite of being treated with nematodes. The other brassicas that were sown a little later I potted on from their modules into 9cm pots and grew them a bit bigger before planting them out today. This time…
garden ruminations 