Pottering with a clumpy boot!

 We have been very brave and uncovered the arid bed. Its always a difficult time to judge as to when we should or should not, but on the whole I find in May if we do get frosts they are a straight down then straight back up again. If its likely to be bad I will throw a fleece over it.

As you can see it is all more or less ok, I forget how big some of the plants where when I covered them up, so when I do uncover them I think wow!!!

As usual the plant to the right of the Aloe has died yet again as you can see from the following pic.

I have no idea whats going on here, but every plant I have put in here had died, be it small or large it just does not get through a winter? I did wonder if it was something under the gravel, but on 2nd thoughts I think not as there is 3 tons of gravel in here, so a long way down before any soil is hit and non of the plants had roots that big???

This is the first year ever I have had bad luck with over wintering my bananas. I usually dry store the larger ones as I find this easier, the smaller ones remain in their pots and I don't actually water them but they seem to do quite well this way.

As you can see the 3 that were potted are slowly coming into life again.

These 2 were dry stored and have been recently put into these posts of soil, I am not convinced they will come through.

This one, also dry stored has I'm fairly certain had it. I have chopped it back and back and the centre is brown which is not good.

My biggest one has already been binned as it was mush. Not happy with this at all, as I have never had this problem before.

Now darling Darcy has gone we decided to join in on #nomowmay2021 two reasons, one to see if there is actually any wildflowers in my lawn and two it saves me having to mow in my clumpy boot!

Here is said clumpy boot!

And the un-mowed lawn

which has grown a lot and actually has a lot of daisy's and dandelions in.

So just a taster of what I have been up too xx

Out in the garden, doing sitting down jobs!

 Having been stuck inside for so long I have watched rather a lot of TV. My daughter pointed me in the direction of a programme on Netflix called 'The Big Flower Fight'  oh my goodness, what fun this was.

Basically ten pairs of florists, sculptors and garden designers face off in a friendly floral fight to see who can build the biggest, boldest garden scultptures.

It got me thinking, obviously on a smaller scale, so today we 'had a go' at our versions. I had the spagnum moss and already had a couple of frames we could have a go at.....

So we had a frame

which we stuffed full of spagnum moss

we then cable tied it together

and started poking lots of  sempervivums into it.

and there you go. Should improve over the season.

We had a go at a little bee

not sure how successful this will 'bee', but we had fun and made lots of mess.

Still Alive, but very sad.

 It has been difficult since my last post in August last year, I have been struggling to walk with out limping for quite some time, which has made mine and hubbies life very different.

He has been responsible for all the dog walks whilst I hobble round. We managed to get an NHS appt booked but it wasn't until December 2020 and I was told I would need an operation but it would be quite a wait.

Hubby said enough is enough and so I had the operation done privately, it has been very difficult, as you know I am a doer, so sitting for the first 2 weeks after the op with my foot raised above hip height for minimum of 45mins out of every hour has not been easy.

Then trying not to over do it once I was allowed to get up has also been a struggle.

I am now 2 stone bigger and the saddest of sad news is my lovely side kick Darcy has had to go over the rainbow bridge, he became unwell we thought his heart murmur had notched up a bit but sadly he had severe kidney failure and there is no cure.

Darcy 28 Nov 2009 - 29 April 2021

My heart is broken, as I was so looking forward to getting back to walking him again.

Hopefully once fully recovered I will get back to blogging again.

Its a Jungle Out There!!!

 I have no idea what has gone on in the garden this year? Its like the plants are on steroids! I don't think that in all the years I have grown 'exotic' looking plants I have had a year like this.

You can hardly get down the path. Its fun.

We decided that because of the phenomenal growth we should measure a few of the plants to use as comparison in future years or to just see if this is a one off. So apologies for hubbies shirt in the following pics lol!!

Amaranthus, should be about 4ft as you can see it is bigger than hubby who is 5ft 10in.

The beautiful Cleome, such a stunning flower with evil thorns on its stem, another 4 footer as you can see hitting 6ft!

Amaranthus pointy finger  apparently should be just over 3 ft, but this is closer to 5ft.

Good old Colocasia Pink China

Similar view from last year and I think you get the idea in the difference.

I was trying to think what I have done differently, I added bags of manure, the plants get chicken pellets when planted then I throw some more on about halfway through the growing season. The big change is the watering system. I am pleased-ish with this new system, I do need to make some alterations as to the placing of the spray heads, but on the whole its doing its job.

In the last few days through the heavy rain storms and high winds I have had to stake and tie up lots of  the plants.

Canna Stuttgard exceptional tall habit up to 3 metres which it has easily hit this year. This clump is now huge and will have to be split this autumn as it is currently charging off around this bed and taking over.

The Canna (above)with the orange flower is actually Canna Cleopatra, according to the RHS 'Cleopatra is a vigorous, clump-forming perennial to 5 ft tall'. As you can see it is a lot taller than that.

It is one of my favourites as both the foliage and the flower are stripy. In all honesty it is not in the best place to show it off. I was waiting for it to clump up a bit before I moved it.

Canna Pretoria, on the right, another 4-6 ft one.

The path is slowly disappearing.

Down by the pond, the Ricinus Zanzibarensis on the right is huge. Such beautiful leaves.

Such beautiful plants, all grown from seed, I love the different colours.

Just look at this Ricinus communis 'New Zealand Black' the purple hues in this are stunning.

My garden brings me great joy and peace, it has been a tough month for us/me. My Godfather a very special and important man in our family passed away the end of July. I am grateful he is at peace and out of pain, but he has left a huge hole in my heart.

This is exactly how I want to remember him, such a happy, cheerful man. He has been in my life, all of my life and will be greatly missed.

Thrilled with my Garden

I have not blogged for awhile as I have been having a couple of problems, I have tendinitis, which is so painful, I can't get a shoe on and I hobble around like an old woman!!!  Which is making life rather difficult.

The garden is blooming, some parts are fabulous and other parts need a bit more work.

This is the part of the garden I usually love the best, I am not so happy this year, its ok but needs some changes.

This is the same bed but from a different angle. What I have noticed is that plants this year that should only be 20 inches high have grown to over a metre. I have no idea why but it probably why this bed is not my favourite this year.

The banana 'Musa Basjoo' my hardy banana that came through the winter standing it usually collapses back to the root, I thought it would romp away, but it hasn't. It has been very slow even though its been fed and watered regularly. The Canna is far bigger than the banana.

This is the bed opposite, which has gone bonkers. The Cannas are doing so well and the Pink China clumps (big leaves at the front) have also gone mental they are close to 4ft tall which is huge for me, I am going to have to split them at the end of this year.

Same bed but from a different angle.

Now we come to my favourite part, I extended the jungle further down the garden and I really love how this is looking at the moment. On the way down I definitely have a few gaps but I have stuck canes in to mark where I need to move some of the taller Cannas when I split them.

The next pic, same bed but different angle.

These Cleomes are the same height as me? I know I did not buy this height as my garden is not really big enough, but they look so healthy.

These Cannas tower over me now, this one is aiming to take over this bed so some serious digging will be done in the autumn to split this and move round the garden.

On the other side another Canna going for the sky hasn't spread so far, yet.

Everyone is loving the changes I have made, so all the work I put in during 'lockdown' is paying off. It has been suggested I extend the 'jungle' look in the lower part of the garden especially since I redid the bed down by the pond.

This is how it looks down there, its a difficult part of the garden and I spend my life fighting back my neighbours Euphorbia and a huge grass that wants to grow in my garden not hers. So this autumn I will seriously consider digging most of this bed out, possibly using bamboo rhizome barrier along the fence line to stop invasions of unwanted  plants.

Then hopefully it will match this

Till next time x

Colour on Dull Days

I show a lot of my large leaved plants on my blog and I think my garden can appear to be very green, Over the years I have gradually introduced more colour.
I chuckle to myself when I think back to helping mum and dad in their garden. Dad being a seafarer really enjoyed working in the garden, he had a veg patch and grew lots of dahlias. In those days I hated dahlias they always seemed to be full of earwigs, so here we are at least 50 years further on and what am I growing.....

Lots of dahlias lol!

This group of dahlias is from Thompson and Morgan 'Harlequin Mix' they come as tiny plug plants which you bring on and then plant out.

I love the different colours and shapes,

not an earwig in sight..

some just simple and plain

others pretty and blowsy

 including pastel colours too

I have more in the rest of the garden that have not yet flowered, so I can show you those another time.

These have all been planted in the large trough down by the pond. I know it still seems pretty green, to be honest my camera doesn't do it justice, plus there are still loads of buds to bloom.

What it does do is disguise the fence and makes the seating area very 'cosy'.

I think the best is still to come.

At the very bottom of the garden I have a large trellis which I have sent a couple of clematis up. This helps hide the greenhouse.

These clematis have gone mad this year, absolutely smothering the trellis with masses of flowers.

I keep having to cut it back as it stretches to take over anything in its reach, whilst also trying to stop my neighbours Clematis Montana, planted on a small trellis from trespassing and taking over my trellis and my garden!

She 'my neighbour' also has a very vigorous Euphorbia which I am forever having to dig out of my beds as it tries to invade. Ironically it can hardly be seen her side, preferring mine!!! Not that I don't like Euphorbia just not in the beds it invades!!

Now Begonias!!! My mums favourite. I have never really liked them, its the flowers I don't like, but since I have planted them, they have flowered and flowered and flowered. So I now get why they are so popular, doesn't mean I like them.

The hanging basket is amazing, Begonia Apricot Shades  also from Thompson and Morgan. Stunning colours, simple to look after, I water daily, feed once a week and don't even really dead head. The window box is behind, as I ordered extra plants which failed to turn up due to unprecedented demand.

So would I order them again, unfortunately yes. You may laugh even though I don't like the flowers their colour right from day one has been amazing. 

There is an elderly lady in the village who has huge begonia displays year in, year out, they always look so good, no matter what the weather does.

Hubby went to buy a fish the other day and came back from the garden centre with this..

A hardy Hibiscus, the colour is stunning and it looks gorgeous on our patio. Now whether it is hardy or not in my garden we will see!

Now the tomatoes, in the Vivigrow,  well what can I say , they are growing... lots

The roots have gone mad and I have to top it up very regularly as the guzzle water. I think my only worry is how close the all are.

I have missed a few of the side shoots, so I have a couple which are huge and have tomatoes on, I never know at this stage whether to take them off or not, so currently the are still on!

See you next time x

#thompson&morgan  #harleqindahlias  #begoniaapricotshades #greenhousesensation #vivigrow