Happy New Yew

I had a gap that I didn't like and couldn't help myself when I saw this little fella. The idea is that he creats a bit of winter structure where I have a lot of deciduous plants and some balance as I have a lot of dark evergreens the other side of the path. I'm thinking nice little dome shape next year.

Frosty morn

We've already had a few frosty mornings but today's is the first that I've been able to take any shots of (well I had to go out and check the broad beans were okay - they are). This is golden oregano.

Winter warmer

I haven't pruned these dogwoods at all but they are still pretty young so full of colour. I have a yellow one in this area too but, like everything else, they need to beef up a bit more to hide the fence. I hope I am not still writing this next year.

Bulbs in waiting

I've been behind with autumn gardening this year so missed out on planting bulbs in the beds. I bought a few packs that were left in a garden centre and popped them into a couple of pots. This one has (I think) Iris Gipsy Beauty and Tulip Golden Apeldoorn. The other pot has tulips Elegant Lady and Black Hero. I've given up on daffs as they always face into our neighbours garden or away from the house (we are north facing). Tulips are much more rounded individuals.

Trimmed budleia

I saw a budleia that had been trimmed like this when I was walking around the village and thought it was a good idea. I have three in a row that we inherited with the garden. I'm not a big fan but they cover a nasty wall (well, mostly) and the butterflies they attract really are amazing. I didn't have the heart to remove them so just keep this one, that was forever overtaking the patio, neatly trimmed in shape. It doesn't flower (the others do) but it does keep its leaves over the winter which is a bonus.

Autumn broadies

I think I sowed these broad beans in October (seed packet missing) and didn't really expect them to be showing so soon but I think it's okay. I'm not planning on covering them with fleece although my local garden centre said I could throw some newspaper over them if we have a hard frost. I'm not sure I'll remember this. So great to see new growth at this time of year.

Not all blown away

There are still a few pretty-looking stragglers on this field maple. I missed most of them when we were away earlier in the month. This time next year, I'm hoping I won't be able to see through the branches to the rotten fence behind. I'm going to do what Carol Klein did and knit together the branches by bending them down and through its neighbours. This is supposed to produce lateral shoots that head upward making the whole hedge thicker.

Pumpkin post

No, I didn't grow it, but I am dead proud of it.

Lonely star

I seem to have California poppies all over the garden now. I don't think I'll be sowing any next year as they seem to be self-seeding. This is rather a lonely-looking fella, tucked up in a sunless area amidst the Euphorbia (good colour against them).

Spring greens

I've come to the conclusion that the deck is the only place the slugs haven't found out about - unless I am blessed with slugs with vertigo. These are getting too big for the pot but I might try using the leaves in salads and seeing if they keep on coming. I'm going to do more on-deck growing next year.

Rosemary hedging

Oh how chuffed am I with my dwarf rosemary hedge. I grew all of these from heal cuttings and now they have just begun to join up looking like a proper tasty hedge.

Little sprout

I only put some onion sets in a couple of weeks ago and already they are sprouting. The birds successfully rearranged them for me about a day after I'd put them in neat rows (one red, one brown - I'm trying to make things look more interesting). I've covered the whole area in heavy duty netting - bit too heavy, tends to collapse after a bit of rain. Anyway, the onions are back in neat rows and looking good for it.

Full of holes

The Pak Choi I grew from seed (Joi Choi) are doing pretty well (see them a month ago) but there isn't one leaf without a few holes. My fault - been a bit lazy on the slug patrol. Might have to start a new offensive tonight...

Dew drips

I can't help but love seeing the dew on the Euphorbia leaves. That makes me as drippy as they are.

September star

This is Sedum 'Matrona', one of three I bought last year after seeing them on Gardeners' World. I was lacking colour at this time of year (though have made up for that with my aster, Helenium, Evening Primrose, Lavender (Alexandra), Penstemons and various shrubs). My gaps now are after the spring bulbs when the garden is really lacking colour. Good excuse for a shopping trip.

Autumn harvest

We are picking tomatoes every day now (and keeping an eye on the forecast for the first frosts, hopefully not anytime soon). I've lost a couple of plants to blight but it's not spread. My beetroot just didn't come up this year, despite a few separate sowings. All I had were about four or five beets, very poor compared to last year. I bought some smaller seedlings which I planted a few weeks ago but I'm not sure if it's all too late for them now (weatherwise). There's plenty of lettuce; been great this year. The ones I sowed directly into the veg beds failed (eaten) but I sowed into pots (Mr Fothergill's organic salad bowl red and green), harvested small leaves and when the plants got bigger moved them into a bed. Turned into whoppers and keep producing leaves - I just take what we need, it's great.

Autumn in the veg plot

My mum helped me plant out the Pak Choi (Joi Choi) and Spring Greens (Mastergreen) that I have grown from seed. They all look a bit limp at the moment but I'm hoping a few days acclimatisation will see them beef up and stand upright. I also sowed some more spinach - my first sowing got half eaten. Slug duty is back as a priority.

View from the door

The border beyond the deck is looking much fuller this year. I moved the variegated grass from a pot into the ground just by the pyracantha and it's doing exactly what I wanted - hiding the base and providing good contrast in colour and leaf. Of-course it's completely grown over the two small skimmias I put in - both on the list for moving this autumn.

I've been looking back at old photos to see how much growth we've had this year. The curvy long border hasn't done bad (this is the first time the grass has been cut and the edges done at the same time - doesn't always look this neat). Things aren't quite covering the wall as I'd hoped. I think I need to feed everything in this border so next year it has more of a growth spurt. Or maybe I'm just impatient.

Balloons over Bath

It's been a really sunny bank holiday weekend and the balloons have been out and about over the valley we look into. They come up over the house really close (we hear the burners). This was taken yesterday at about 7pm. The tree on the far right is the ash at the bottom of our garden.

Planted up

I finally got around to planting up the new bed in our shady zone (see the project's progress: stage 1 stage 2 stage 3 ). I'm pretty pleased with how it's looking but we've run out of wine bottles for the edging (work in progress). I planted the ten coreopsis grown from seed (not sure I'm going to see any flowers on them this year), three astilbe (£1 each in the (almost) dead plant zone in the garden centre) and three achillea (£1 each as well, I do like a bargain). The larger shrubs at the back were birthday presents: two shrub lilacs and a viburnum (see my May entry). The sparks of colour are gladioli and crocosmia - almost finished now.

We've had one ace barbie on our beach but so far the weather's not been right (and now the local farmers have been spraying so the garden is rather smelly - not very conducive for munching a veggie burger).

Another star

I've been waiting a long time for this Aster frikartii Monch to flower. It was a plant on my list so when I found it in a garden cetnre it had to be bought. I'd read it's the best aster but can't remember now who said that. It's planted with red Helenium which is quite a colourful combo but seems to work. I dug up the Helenium in the spring and divided one plant into about six (it was overdue for splitting) and tried to remove the bindweed that smothers it in summer. It didn't work (I discovered helenium and bindweed have v. similar looking roots), and the bindweed is back. Oh well.

Star in august

I tried taking a photo of this Japanese aneneme the other day but it was so windy I was just getting a lot of blurred images. Today is really still so I had another go. I've got the white variety too - both were hidden under the gloom of the overgrown budleia when we arrived but I make sure they have a bit more light these days and every year they beef up a little more. I like seeing them flower but it does always feel like the end of the season. They seem to be the freshest thing around at this time of year.

Tumbler full

My tumbler toms are getting red. First time I've tried them, dead easy it seems. I put them in our homemade planter on the patio. I'm going to wait, along with the basil, until they are really red and ripe. Here's hoping for a sunny weekend to rosy them up.

Job done

Chris has done another star turn and painted the rusty old gate at the front. Now it's nice and shiney and doesn't clatter so much when I bang it closed (hope he doesn't read this).

Autumn in august...no!

My Forsythia seems to think that autumn has arrived. I'm in denial - it just cannot be. Not yet. Please.

Brilliant sweetcorn

My sweetcorn have suddenly taken to the skies with the recent spot of sun we've had. They looked rather stunted before but had survived the rain and wind really well. I grew about eight from seed and since they went out, I really haven't done a thing to them: no staking, weeding or feeding (I'm really bad at feeding). Tough old things.

Ver-bee-na

I always think verbena is a really summery flower. I bought two a couple of years ago and thought I had lost both in frosts but they seem to have self-seeded (when I bought them someone in the garden centre said they had really spread) - I've found them in various parts of the garden - I guess because they are so tall the seeds go quite a distance. Good news for me in my 275ft garden.

Eaten again

These were healthy-looking mange tout (Norli). Healthy until they got eaten by those slimey things. Been a bad year for beans and peas on the veg plot (although the broad beans were brill - will do more for next year).

Not pretty

Hmmm...I kind of had a bad feeling about this choisya when I saw how feeble the root system was. It was salvaged from a friend's front garden and was worth a go at saving. It didn't stand much of a chance with so few roots and transplanted in our excessively hot April. I had it under an umbrella and watered it everyday but it still couldn't cope. Still, my mum's given me a big pittosporum to fill it's place - being planted this afternoon (if I can resist more toast).

Cuttings

I've been busy already today (just enjoying some toast with jam and cheese - try it, lovely) . I took some cuttings early this morning (the best time). These are:

• everlasting wallflowers (our site is so windy, especially in winter, I've decided to grow new each year from cuttings, otherwise they look rather woody)
• Physocarpus opilifolius Diabolo - a big, beefy purple-leaved shrub with pretty pink flowers in summer. This is for my brother, he's got an empty garden at the mo and needs a bit of structure.
  
• Rosemary - Mrs Jessop's Upright
• a pretty shrub that I can't find the label for - has variegated leaves and lilac spokes of flowers at the end of summer
• penstemon 'Stapleford Gem'
  

Trouble is my cold frame is full with Pak Choi, spring greens and lettuce, all sown in trays last Thursday (and they are showing already). Not sure where the cuttings are going to live...might have to take over a windowsill...

Star for August

This clematis was a cheapo purchase from Woolies to climb up a homemade obelisk-type structure that we made. The obelisk soon fell over in the wind and needed emergency staking to remain upright. 'Emergency' staking has become rather permanent and it doesn't look very pretty (hence no photo). Obelisk now called wobelisk. Nice clem though not sure which one it is - the box of labels is out of reach and I have home-highlights on my hair. Nuff said.

Ready for planting

We cleared the weeds (dense brambles and bindweed) and now the beds around our beach area are all clear and ready to be planted. How exciting. I have tons of stuff put aside for this moment, including about eight Coreopsis Zamphir plants grown from seed. I'm planning to empty a few pots on the patio here - thought this would mean less work with watering - bit of a joke this year though.

Wet deck

Having successfully avoided giving the deck a second coat of preservative (I promised I would do this but failed...doghouse for me), Chris gave in and did a top job. We were amazed at the rain just sitting on top.

Shrub success

This is the view opposite the long border, on our neighbours' side. The Fatsia and Red Robin are doing really well - getting quite large now and filling up the space they have nicely. Although I'd like to see this side have a few more flowers, it's nice and low maintenance as it is (which is pretty appealing). This is one of the key areas where I'm looking for height, trouble is the highest shrubs are in the wrong place - in front of our neighbours' shed. Good example of poor planning. Pah.

Things that collapse

This is only the second summer for this border and it's already choc-full. You can't even see the Griselinia hiding at the back but in winter they are about the only thing on show - I'm hoping by the end of the summer they'll be the height of the wall behind (there are three of them there). The yellow flowers at the front are Coreopsis verticillata Zagreb - I bought two very wee pots (I mean those silly inch pots you get in the garden centre early spring) and they seem to be doing as well as last year when they flowered well into October/November although I was a rather manic dead-header. Can't say the rain has allowed for the same this year.

The taller yellow blooms are Anthemis tinctoria 'E.C. Buxton, again bought in an inch pot. I'm a bit annoyed with them as I made sure I staked them (lesson learnt from last year) but this year they have tricked me into growing a foot higher so they all collapsed, hence the rather savage big cane emergency stake that's there. I'll be better prepared for next year.

Spuds for dinner tonight

These are my first early potatoes. They've been really good (though I can't find the piece of paper that has the variety written on it - bummer). I've just dug up the last of the first row; I planted two rows of these then two rows of main crop, and a tub for the spares that I couldn't throw away - am looking forward to emptying it.

Bee is for borage

At least the rain hasn't deterred the bees. The veg plot is buzzing with them, largely because the borage has gone mad this year. I can't quite believe how 'green' I was to buy a packet of borage seeds - absolutely no need, they self seed with a vengence and have filled up the space where my beans have failed (a very sad, empty cane wigwam - they were eaten, tedril, leaf and stem while we were on holiday). Just as well for borage I suppose, better than an empty plot.

Star for July

This is one of my real summer favourites. I'm quite big on penstemons anyway but this is a lovely delicate colour. I grew this from a cutting (very easy to take - around now is the right time) so planted it in view from the back door. It's just tall enough to be seen above the deck. Next year it will flower earlier but it's been worth the wait.

Shady stage 3

We've not picked the best summer to construct a shady nook but between the raindrops we have again ventured out to do a bit more work on the 'beach'. The uprights are in and some cross beams have been added. The gravel is down so all that's needed now is to dig out the borders and maybe sort some edging. This will still take a lot of effort as the ground here is dense with bindweed so we'll have a go at removing the majority but you never win with the stuff. Am sure there'll be battles into the future...

Shady stage 2

We're at stage 2 of our shade creation project. The metposts (supports for the vertical posts) are in: we've just used the spiked ones (no concreting needed as the posts aren't going to support anything other than a bit of shade material). The heavy duty membrane (hopefully this will suppress the bindweed - we've been lazy and haven't dug it out) is also down. We removed the temporary edging that surrounded the hedge (this was just in place to keep the gravel tidy and prevent the weeds from invading) and have tucked the new membrane under the old so no gaps. The gravel gets delivered today so I'm hoping Chris gets a few barrow loads spread out, at least it's downhill to this area and uphill with the empty barrow, though with two tonnes to shift it's going to be hard work whatever the gradient. Hopefully this project won't mean a summer of cloud and rain ahead (our shade fabric isn't waterpoof).

Shady news

We've finally started work in the last third of the garden. This is really exciting. Two years ago we decided that we wanted a really private area (while we wait for the hedging in the rest of the garden to gain some height). We planted 1.2m tall whips of Field Maple (Acer Campestre) in a semi circle to break up the narrowness of the plot. Although it's deciduous, we decided we don't really venture this far down the garden in winter and the 40cm a year growth rate was pretty appealing. It's paid off and just two years down the line we have a top hedge (it needs a bit of pruning at the moment).

The inside area was think with heavy duty weeds (more bindweed and dandelions and lots of others I haven't got round to identifying - too depressing). Sunday was spent removing the 'turf' and this is how we left it. The plan is to erect six 2.4m vertical 3x3s to support some shade material (our garden is really hot in summer - new plants don't give you much shade). We've ordered the gravel, bought the posts and found the material so it's all steam ahead...

Blatant attack

This was Scabiosa, new this year. I bought two, very small ones; the other is okay - looks a bit sad but then most small perennials do look rather pathetic in their first year. I'm hoping I'll be able to protect this one from any further munching so at least it can make it through the summer to grow a bit more resilient for next year when it's a bit bigger.

Emergency beans

I seem to be having my usual bean disaster: my sown in situ ones haven't appeared again (this happened last year too) . There are signs of stems so I think they've fattened up the local snails. Good job I sowed emergency ones in pots about two weeks ago. Just hardening them off ready for planting this weekend. Snail patrol will have to be daily once they're in. Got to guard my precious ones. These are climbing French beans, by the way.

Strawberries in June

Well, we've definitely had more strawberries than last year (when we had about six - fairly shared out, of-course) although it's still not been the bumper crop I'd hoped for. The trouble with strawberries, when your patch isn't that developed (2nd year), is that they all ripen at different times. We've been lucky and haven't lost many to mystery nibblers. Guess we'll have to wait until next year for a proper strawberry glut.

Lettuce back-up

I don't seem to be having much success with seeds this year. I sowed a lot of flower seeds (cornflowers, californian poppies, calendula, nigella, poached egg) back in April to fill the gaps in the borders but most are no show. This is pretty disappointing as I was really conscientious about watering all through that hot spell. My beetroot just don't seem to want to come up at all despite two sowings already and my beans (French and runner) are nowhere to be seen. On top of this, my carelessness with my indoor-sown lost lettuce was even more annoying. Still, my pot-sown seeds seem to have been the most successful. Reckon we'll be munching these soon.

Lost lettuce

I left my lettuce in the porch (all glass, no shade). Nuff said?

Long border update

This is the area I call my long border. The top pictures were taken Easter 2005, the bottom are as it looks now. Most of the curves were only dug this year (I took advantage of the mild winter and got a lot done). The structure is mostly there, although shrubs are very low at the moment (a big problem everywhere in the garden). There are a few gaps as I'm not sure how the perennials will fill out this year (they are mostly new this year too - I still buy ones of things but am ruthless at dividing everything in early spring). The idea is to hide the wall (with Griselinia) and the fence (with clematis, and a hibiscus (slow grower though). Can't wait to see how it'll look at the end of the season, a few inches higher I'm hoping.

Beanfest

Well that's what I'm hoping for this year. My broad beans are doing really well even though I sowed them a bit late. So far no problems with blackfly and there's been no need to stake them. Low maintenance - top stuff. I've just sowed another row for a bit later but don't really know how many I'll get from just one row - it's all a bit new this year. Both the first early (?) and main crop (Desiree) spuds are looking healthy; I've been earthing up with soil and straw (when I ran out of soil). The netting is my cat deterrant - works a treat but is a bit of a pain moving back and forth.

Think I've had a bit of a disaster with the climbing beans (French - Neckar Queen) and runner (unknown...from my mum) as I tried soaking them before sowing. Neither have appeared so reckon they have rotted. This was my mum's 'top tip' but after I read that should 'soak' them on damp kitchen towel (not in a plastic tray, fully submersed). This meant emergency purchase of more seeds. I went with Bob Flowerdew's recommended varieties: Blue Lake (climbing French) and Scarlett Emperor (runner). I've resorted to sowing in modules in the porch. They'll be a bit later but have read somewhere that they'll catch up.