Wordless Wednesday 6/1/2010 – Berrilicious

Snow place like Malvern

It snowed this morning – 2inches in about an hour and a half.  We had been lucky over Christmas and avoided most of the snow but we are paying for it now.  I decided to leave work at 10:30 and bring work home – better to be at home safe and warm than in the office worrying.  It took me an hour and a half  to do what is  normally a 20 minute journey and I suspect I was ahead of the game.  I even had to abandon my car about half a mile from home as the railway bridge I have to go over just wasn’t an option.  Luckily there has been abit of a thaw so the car has been retrieved  and is in the driveway.  Everyone is  now home and we have plenty of food in which is good as heavy snow is forecast over night.  My eldest went for a waunder with my camera while I was doing some work and these are some  of  his efforts.  We have a golf course just round the corner from us and most of the photos were taken there.  I  do like the stillness that comes with snow – well when you arent trying to get home in it!  Hope everyone else  who has  bad  weather is now home safe and sound.

 

An hour of discoveries

Yesterday the weather was just about warm enough for me to brave the garden for an hour – with plenty of layers on.  It was nice to get some fresh air and engage with the garden again after what seems like forever due to the bad weather and Christmas.

I was thrilled to discover the buds above on one of my hellebores.  I bought it 2 years ago on my birthday but last year it didn’t flower  so to see this amount of flower buds was a real delight.  I will leave the  old leaves on for a while to provide  further  protection for the bad weather that they are still predicting but when the buds are bigger I will remove the leaves  so the flowers are more visable.

I also tidied up what I grandly call the spring border.  This is just outside my living room and is easily visable through the French doors.  The border is  full of spring bulbs so  when we are stuck inside in the cold we have something jolly to look at – I hate January and February so  need all the help I can get.  I cleared away all the leaves that  had  fallen from surrounding trees and cut back  the perennials.  It was exciting to see that the bulbs had begun to emerge.

To add to my excitement – very easy at this time of year – I also discovered some young Mathiasella Green Dreams.  I bought this plant 2 years ago  and planted by the greenhouse so it would have plenty of protection. I needn’t have worried as the plant turned in to a bit of a thug and quickly filled the space.  On advice from Bob Brown of Cotswold  Plants I moved the plant to a more open area of the garden where it had plenty of space.  This was harder than it sounds as the plant had developed quite extensive roots and needless to say some of them remained in the ground.  I had talked to Bob about propogating the plant and he felt that the seeds weren’t viable and he propogated by tissue culture, hardly an option for me.  However, I have now discovered that the roots that remained in the soil have sprouted new shoots so it seems to me that the plant should be suitable for propogation by root cuttings.  Guess what I will be doing next week!!!

The hour in the garden might have been cold but it was well worth it just to discover these gems.

End of Month & Year View – Dec 09

I have been doing a post showing my garden from the above view on the last day of  the month since March 2009.  It has been a useful exercise as it has made me look at the garden more critically and there is a lot to be critical about.  However I think in January I will start to use a different view point as the one above is dominated by the prostrate rosemary which cascades over the wall.

Instead I have a c0uple of areas that I want to change or develop and so for the next twelve months my end of month views will be of these so I can assess if I am making any progress.  The first area is the border above.  This is was  a new border last year and replaces a useless patio area which was here when we moved in.  I havent quite got an identity for it at the moment.  I like the Phormium and grasses where they are but it needs to make a strong statement.  I want the fence to vanish and would like some lush planting.  I quite fancy something with lots of different strong foilage, jungely looking.  The ground, like much of the garden, has a lot of clay in it and I wonder if this will affect hardy palms or bananas but it doesnt become waterlogged as it is at the top of the garden slope so hopefully they will be OK. So that is project 1.

The next area I have already started but I am beginning to have more of an idea what I want to do here.  Firstly, I need to address the fence which drives me mad as it completely dominates the garden.  I have some shrubs planted  along it but they are mainly decidious and will take ages anyway to grow up and disguise the fence so this year I want to invest in lots of climbers.  First though we will have to put some wires along the fence to support them so I will be getting my eldest on to the case in the very near future, then I will have to start looking at what climbers to get.  Definately some everygreen ones but I need to find those that I can train along the fence rather than disappearing over the top. The bank doesn’t look great at the moment but I have finally decided that I want this to be a sort of prarire planting.  There are already some grasses planted in here, along with a tall Salvia, and a Veronium.

My biggest project though is to come up with an identity for this border.  It is a real miss mass at the moment with plants spotted around so not great at all.  I want something that will provide some interest all year but will also allow me to  indulge  my love  of perennials.  So the thinking cap is well and truely  on for this one.

Hopefully in a years time when I look back I will be able to see some progress in these areas and no doubt I will have come up with other areas that need work.

Why not join in and get a monthly record of your garden at the end of each month?

Gardens of Inspiration

Sitting here on a bleak December day I have been contemplating lots of changes to the garden next year and have found myself  looking back at gardens I have visited this year for inspiration. 

I have realised that when I visit gardens my interest is really drawn to particular plants rather than the planting overall.  I suspect this is because I am more of a plant person than a garden designer.  However,  my borders are feeling rather bitty at the moment so I have been reviewing photos to look more closely at other people’s borders to see how they have combined plants and what appeals to me.  The photo above was taken at Stockton Bury, Herefordshire in August this year.  I was particularly taken with the planting around the pond and the way it hides the edges so well and blends into the adjacent borders.  I have been trying for some time to achieve  this sort of affect around my pond. I have always thought that it was good  design to combine leaf shapes but  the picture above shows lots of plants with strap like foilage and  not much variety.  Personally I think this would look  better with some broad leaved plants.  So whilst I am impressed with the lushness and excuberance of the colours for me this  isn’t quite right and I would include some Ligularia and Hostas.

A visit to The Tynings, Stoulton in  July failed to provide me with any design inspiration but it did show me that lilies are much  better planted in the ground rather than in pots.  The owner had lots and  lots of lilies all in the borders but only one plant had suffered lily bettle damage whilst  my few lilies in pots at home had really been attacked.  My suspicion is that the lily bettles lay their young in the pots where they are protected more from pests and the cold than they would be in the border. I also think the plants look very messy when the flowers have finished but planting them in the border surrounding plants hide the dying foilage.

One of the real garden visiting highlights was Dumbleside in Nottinghamshire.  The garden was stunning and had everything you could wish for – a small meadow complete with orchids, beautiful borders but its real gem was the planting along the stream (see photo above).  I loved the combination of foilage which provided a delightful textural background to seasonal flowers – when we visited in June it was Primulas. I think what I took away from this visit was  a desire to plant more densely and to concentrate on foilage as much if not more than the flowers.

However, a visit to one  of my garden club members’ gardens, also in June, shows that texture can be achieved with the clever use of flowers (above) in this case through using dainty pastel shades and small delicate flowers.

So my review of photos taken over the last year has given me a lot of food for thought and ideas to mull over.  I also have a pile  of gardening magazines to browse through and I am already seriously considering a jungle/tropical border something I would never have considered a couple of years  ago.  I am planning lots more garden visits in 2010 and this time I think I will be looking more at the planting than focusing on particular plants  but I am sure that there will be plants that creep on to my never ending wish list.

Happiness is…..

……a Potting Bench.  My Christmas present from my sons this year was a potting bench – a result of heavy hints, Two Wests & Elliots brochure left open on relevant page etc.  I’m really excited as I have struggled for the last two years with the staging and getting a bad back as it is just abit too low for me.  The wizzy thing about the potting bench is that I can store the compost underneath which means that it won’t get damp and will stay fresher longer.  However, I have discovered that there is another wizzy thing and that is the hole at the top (which you can’t see) through which I can brush unused compost back into the hopper below – fab.

My parents’ present to me was this staging with gravel trays.  I already had some slatted staging as can be seen in the top picture but  I wanted this type so I can have heated mats for seed growing and also capillary matting for watering. 

You will have noticed that my greenhouse is tiny but I manage to cram a lot in and I use it all year round.  I have a small electric heater to keep it frost free.  Up until this  winter I have kept one side free for tomato plants but have now decided that veg growing is not for me (see this post) – I was always one for going against trends – and what I really get a buzz from is growing plants from seeds and cuttings so that is what I am going to use my greenhouse for.  I also want to grow more tropical plants and have some tender plants which live in the greenhouse all year. 

Its all very exciting and I am now off to order my capillary matting and heated mats all ready for seed sowing.

Seasons Greetings

I would like to extend a heartfelt Seasons Greetings to all my fellow garden bloggers around the world and their families.

This year, as some of you will know, has been difficult for me and my family with the sudden loss of my sister in October and I was overwhelmed by the support I received from my bloggy friends and  I thank you for this.

I hope that 2010 is a good year for everyone.

Helen x

Wordless Wednesday – 23/12/09 Morning light

Frozen winter wonderland

 

Unlike most of the UK we seemed to have escaped the snow except for a light costing on Saturday night (3 days ago).  We have had very low temperatures though so the snow hasn’t melted just frozen over and over again and is now a horrid ice.  I took these photos this morning when I was out topping up the  bird feeders and deicing the bird baths.  There is a special sort of stillness in the garden at the moment which I find quite magical.

The forecasters are predicting more of the same maybe this year we will have a white Christmas.

Why I garden – contest entry

Mary Ann over at Gardens of the Wild Wild West has asked others to tell her why they garden so here is my response.

Why do I garden?  What a good question.  I have been a fustrated gardener for many years – firstly due to lack of space, then due to too much space which was overgrown and impossible but now I had the perfect in  between size garden. It was more of a blank  canvas when I moved here which has given me the opportunity to explore and experimenting with trying to design a garden.  I have found it challenging and fustrating. I am certainly not a garde designer, I dont really understand how to make things flow, how to get focal points etc but what I have discovered I can do is grow plants especially from seed and this is where my real passion is.

I get a complete buzz from reading seed catalogues.  I dont think about where the plants I end up with will go in the garden I am just suckered in by the descriptions. I tend to go for plants that I haven’t heard of as that means I will expand my horticultural knowledge.  I sow the seeds with love and  care.  If  the plant needs well drained  soil I carefully add gravel to the soil, if it needs moisture I make sure it is kept moist.  I have a growing selection of propogators.  I have even decided that vegies are not for me and if I dont grow tomatos in the greenhouse I can have more perennials seedlings!

When that first sign of life emerges I get very excited and find myself welcoming the plant to the garden.  I nurture the seedlings, potting them on carefully, hardening off and then finally the day comes when I plant it out in the garden.  I have already carefully considered the plant’s requirements and tried to  find a suitable place for it to live.  I dig the hole and plant my home grown plant with love and care. 

Whenever I look at any of my home grown plants I feel a real thrill to see them doing well, much more than I  get from plants I have bought.

So to answer the question of why I garden it is because of the thrill I get from nurturing and growing plants.

For more entries into the Why Do I Garden visit Gardens of the Wild Wild West