Not much to see

My garden does not have much to commend it at this time of year, but I compensate with plenty of birds. Goldcrests have been plentiful; tiny, tiny bodies buzzing about like feathered bees; they come more for the insects and the cover where they can hunt without danger, rather than exposed feeders where cats may lie in wait.
Immortal Sweet Peas
I’m running an experiment at the moment. The sweet peas I planted as usual in the spring from seeds raised under glass, produced about half-a-dozen blooms, certainly no more, something that hasn’t happened before. Oddly in view of the many hard frosts and, in general, the cold weather, they are still growing. I’m reluctant to hoik them out as they now provide a happy green and productive hunting ground for the wrens and bluetits that forage for sheltering and over wintering insects, and I am interested to discover just how long they last! The purists would have their destruction no doubt but they show no signs of disease; quite the opposite.
Required Reading
I am currently re-reading Christopher Lloyds Exotic Planting for Adventurous Gardeners, since I’m looking for inspiration from all available avenues and he was my ultimate ideas man and I hope one of these days to own all his books – unfortunately I don’t share his regard for Dahlias but there’s plenty more besides.
Dahlias
I got hold of a couple of freebie Dahlias in the spring and they are currently over wintering in a dark shed. I imagine they’ll survive since the things you don’t particularly favour always do. They are relatively easy to propagate and I can just imagine, a few years down the line, given my reluctance to chuck anything, a collection of unwanted Dahlias born of the two freebies of this summer. I think I’ll call them Dahlia Don’t Like and Dahlia Done With and what do y’know – here they are…..

Flash of Autumn

At the beginning of Autumn I was not confident that colour would be much of a feature in my garden this year, but I was wrong. The Gleditsia still shines through the gloomiest of evenings and the Acers well, they speak for themselves.

My Sweet Peas have produced masses of foliage this year but few flowers, just the odd one or two and that is still the case. The cold weather hasn’t knocked them down so neither will I, I’ll leave them in case of a warm spell – there may be a late flush!

The Katsura, purchased a couple of years ago from Westonbirt, has been in a large pot but I’m thinking of planting it in the border, the autumn colour it has displayed this year has been quite exceptional and I think it has earned it’s place (I just hope the clay doesn’t kill it). The soil will need good preparation as it’s an acid lover, but it’s not impossible, and I can always dig it up if it sickens.

We don’t see much of Mr Bird at the moment but his former partner (an early spring brood this year) er…Mrs Bird, arrives at the kitchen door regularly. She also relishes sultanas, but in addition favours mealworms as an entrée. Tiny dried monsters, they look and smell awful. She prefers them soaked briefly in hot water, served on their own with no veg – mmm………….

Bargains
This is the time for bargains if you have sharp eyes and shallow pockets. I picked up three good-sized Acers from my local garden centre last week - £5.00 each! I’ve no room for them but there was no way I was going to walk away without them. No leaves, but the bark was spotless and the root systems clean – I have every confidence they’ll be a good investment, even if I give them away as presents.

Monkshood is a fascinating flower both for it’s shape and colour. It has an icy quality and survives and still flowers long after other blooms are no more than a memory. The bumblebees still visit if there’s a burst of sunshine. It’s a nasty poison of course, but I don’t grow it for that.

Summers over

Fuchsias

Determined and voracious aphids have attacked almost all of my fuchsias this year, wiping out 70% of the flowers and I only noticed when it was too late. I’ve pruned out a lot of the worst damage, and, as is the habit of these dainty little warriors, they are regenerating and showing signs of budding. Too late? Perhaps, but in my sheltered garden flowers often survive longer than in more exposed areas, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed. I’m confident of a fabulous September! – no grounds for this you understand – call it women’s intuition combined with ‘sods’ law – the weather always improves when the kids go back to school.

Blackbirds

This is our Mr Blackbird, recognisable by his distinctive white markings and also by the fact that he is extremely partial to sultanas, only Waitrose sultanas mind you, he’ll have no truck with the cheap sticky ones!

Clematis

The clematis always do well here, no matter how wet it is. I’ve continued to deadhead them as I’m fairly convinced this aids longevity of flowering.

Butterflies

These valiant little creatures sally forth at the briefest ray of sunshine, like dazzling floppy handkerchiefs drunk on buddleia and anemone. We’ve had mainly peacocks and red admirals but had a visit from this little gatekeeper a few weeks ago – there were two of them, rushing together then spiralling away, they only stayed for an afternoon. No tortoiseshells yet this year, no fritillaries and only the occasional small blue (to fast for a photo).

Couldn’t you just eat roses when the rain has just touched them!

Space Invaders

Some plants should be sold with a health warning, and I don’t just mean the poisonous ones. Euphorbia or Spurge, with so many variations used to be a favourite of mine – no longer! I planted Euphorbia cyparissias half a dozen years ago and I’m still pulling it up (with gloves I hasten to add as it owns a milky substance along with all Euphorbias that you wouldn’t necessarily want to come into contact with your skin). It even invaded an area beneath my pond liner, and has proved the devil of a job to remove. Had it been Alchemilla mollis (Lady’s mantle) then it would have been altogether a different story as I have never been able to persuade it to survive in my garden even though it grows rampant in gardens that suit it.
Anemone Pamina has taken quite a few seasons to acclimatise to my garden but now it has, my one true mixed “border” is absolutely full of it and when it has finished flowering, which probably won’t be until the end of September, from experience, I will sadly have to dig a lot of it out and replant for more interest. I hate to dig anything out but my small garden simply cannot accommodate large swathes of anything, even a plant as pretty as Anemone.

Reluctant Heroes.
This Rosa Zephirine Drouhin (thornless rose) has taken years to flower anything more than half-heartedly, but I persevered with it, more out of bloody-mindedness than anything else. Clearly it didn’t like where it was but I didn’t have anywhere else to put it. For some reason, this year, bless it’s heart it’s flowering quite beautifully – presumably I have proved to be the more bloody-minded of the two of us.

Bumming around.
Don’t you just love buff-tailed bumble bees – fewer this year than in the past sadly. This one couldn’t quite keep away from the hardy geraniums (Cranesbill).

Let the birds eat your pests

Sparrows, few that there are, are doing me a big favour feeding with epicurean delight upon the greenfly in residence on the Félicite-Perpétue weeping standard in my front garden. These days they enjoy hanging from the long stems and flowers, having practiced the technique on the fat-balls in the back garden.
I dug up my Daphne Odora (18th Feb 2008) today. It’s succumbed to the wet, which frequently turns my thick clay soil into a killer and once two thirds of the fresh leaves had dropped I decided to call it a day; couldn’t bear to watch it struggle any longer. It was in a difficult spot, often wet and close to bigger shrubs – I’ll take time to look around for another – the scent in early spring is too good to miss.
I love roses but moss roses are special. This Old Rose Louis Gimard (Dark Moss) has lots of moss and a delicious scent and is happily trouble free, at least in my garden – though it doesn’t like the rain, but who does!
The Rambling Rector, at home on an old shed, flowers reliably every year and with its honey scent and simple flowers, the bees love it.
Unfortunately a number of roses in my garden have managed to lose their name-tags over the years, it shows a lack of care on my part – doesn’t stop them flowering though! My end of year report will probably say “could do better”.

We need the Bees, more than they need us!

Bees, Bees, Bees
I was pretty cheerful about “my” bees last year because they were so noticeably about early and often – I’m talking Bumblebees here. I knew of at least one nest in my woody area and the possibility of another in the middle of an unsightly clump of weed grass beneath a particularly large pot (which buzzed angrily when grasped). This year both Bumblebees and Hive bees are few and far between even though I have plenty of early and mid-spring flowering plants grown specifically for them and while I can’t claim to be organic, I don’t use pesticide; my garden is small enough for the “squash and stamp” method; makes your fingers a bit green at times but it washes off. What’s more, having encouraged birds into my garden for 10 years plus, by and large the birds do the job for me. I give them plenty of cover and most importantly water and they reward me by saving me money! I know there are plenty of people who never go into the garden without a Bug Gun and I can understand that it’s an easy and efficient way of killing the creatures you don’t want, but it is also indiscriminate and kills beneficial creatures too. If you kill the “goodies”, when the “baddies” come back, as they undoubtedly will, you’ll have no natural predators and you’ll end up buying more poison thus dropping your hard-earned cash into the pockets of the multinational chemical companies. Think of it as saving yourself some money if you prefer to. Let the birds and bees back in – you’ll be glad you did, and so will they.
Apple Blossom
My apple trees have bloomed and borne up against blustery wind and a battering from heavy rain. The Ballerina was a pillar of dainty pink, the Bramley burst a little later and the little Cox in the front garden did its very best. At the moment there looks to be a fair amount of possibility as far as crop goes, but as all apple growers know, a late frost followed by the June “drop” can reduce it or even wipe it out. The Egremont Russet and the little James Grieve, both on dwarfing stock and in pots, are also promising and the great thing about those is you don’t need a ladder to get to them!
Currently, I’m spending time tying-in Clematis that I had neglected to supply with enough support; the Clems don’t seem to mind, happy to latch on to anything, as long as it’s on the way up.
It’s difficult to keep up with the progress of my plants in general this is such a “fast” time for growth and the garden is getting fatter and fatter. A small garden fuelled by sun and rain can get out of hand if you don’t keep things under control – but it’s a great time to loose control and still enjoy it!

The Hawthorn

It’s been touch and go with the fairly extreme temperature changes, but the Hawthorn on one of my borders has finally committed itself and flowered. The bees must be pretty pleased, but they are so few and far between you’d be forgiven for thinking they haven’t even ventured out yet. The butterflies are more determined though, those brave souls who hibernate in my garage. When I arrived home yesterday there was a Peacock butterfly gently tapping on the garage window so I duly let it out. Do look out for them, check they’re not shut in on warm days – you’ll be glad you did.

The Yellow Garden
In Spring my garden is yellow, not so much in “tooth and claw” but certainly flower and foliage. There’s nothing more attractive than the yellow-green essence of new foliage alongside the promise of fragrant early daffodils and the subtle emergence of a secretive Mahonia that gradually illuminates a shady hollow.


A word about Cats
I am not a cat lover, needless to say not an owner either, but nevertheless I am compelled to cope with the stinking mess they leave behind in my garden. I no longer garden without gloves and spend £s every month on repellent, which inevitably needs re-applying after rain. If owners provide the animals with adequate toilet facilities they will not feel the need to defecate elsewhere, since cats tend to be creatures of habit and like their comforts, but it seems that we must all pay for irresponsible and selfish owners. On a lighter note, I have never understood the attraction of an animal who sits in the middle of the sitting room floor and licks it’s genitals then wipes it’s face all over it’s owner. Cat lovers will find my words offensive – I find cat-poo offensive…….oh, and our Mr. Blackbird doesn’t hold cats in too high a regard either.

Growing Apples

Sounds like this year we’re being exhorted to plant fruit trees (Gardener’s World Magazine March ’08) – easier said than done. It’s simple to imagine when you possess a sweeping vista empty and just crying out for a spot of mellow fruitfulness, but what about the rest of us, those who only possess plots of 50ft x 50ft (in old money) or even less, which is more often the case. Currently, newly built homes, even the bigger ones, laughingly referred to as “family houses”, are given no more than a scrap of land, much of which is taken up by the garage and the parking. Returning to the fruit trees…I have two espaliers, bought at approximately three years, one Charles Ross and one Bramley (I bought three but one died). It was only a few years later, when the Bramley didn’t blossom, that I discovered that it should not have been trained as an espalier, but should have remained a free standing tree – Bramleys are tip bearers not spur – so I was, literally, pruning away the fruit – you live and learn. Notwithstanding, I kept it, but allowed it its freedom, or as much as I could give it given the position by the boundary, and, better late than never, it does produce a few good sized apples on a regular basis.

Ballerina – I have one of these apples too, it makes a pretty pillar of apple blossom, requires no pruning and fruits well most years, but is occasionally subject to frost and, I think, a lack of bees at the vital time, but that’s just anecdotal, not scientific. The apples don’t keep, so they’re great for kids who always want everything right away.

Cox’s Orange Pippin – I have this on a dwarf stock in my front garden and it struggles but produces intermittently. In addition there are two tiny trees (dwarf stock) in large pots – a young Russet and a slightly older James Grieve, an all time favourite…an Orchard it ain’t, but I do my best.

Spiraea x Bumalda “Gold Flame”
In spring this little shrub always reminds me of autumn. It is worth its weight in gold, at least to me. All I do is trim it lightly when it becomes untidy and cut out the blank green when it tries to revert, which isn’t often. There are those who disapprove of the flowers, considering pink inappropriate amongst the foliage but I love the fluffy pink heads and the bees, who aren’t so fussy, well, make a beeline for it.

Frogspawn.
The frogspawn cometh – a bit late this year, first noticed on 9th March ’08 to be precise, but the frogs have been thinking about it for a while now, and talking about it too, especially at night! One of them stayed behind to guard it all apparently – bless!

The Prunus Kojo No Mai is now in bloom – wonderful!

Starting Block

We can always buy our way to a new season if we really don’t want to wait, maybe with a rose, grown thousands of miles away. It’s beauty is not in doubt, but it’s cost is questionable and you can stick your nose into it until you’re blue in the face but you won’t detect any scent – always a bit of a disappointment that.
It’s a stop/start time at the moment. Beautiful sunny days, freezing nights, my pond has been completely frozen for the first time in years. Every gardener you speak to expresses the hope that the infestations left behind by mild winters will be killed off and if we have a prolonged spell of cold maybe they will, but I doubt it. Gone is the teeth-numbing bitter cold of 25 plus years ago and it won’t be coming back any time soon.

That being the case, anything that looks a bit sad after a chilly night will soon perk up in the watery gleam of an early morning and at least the lawn left mushy and sodden after weeks of torrential rain, (though thankfully no flooding since this area is on a hill) was comfortably frozen solid so quite firm enough to walk on enabling a visit to the further reaches of my particular “postage stamp” size plot.
The Clematis armandii is brave enough to venture forth, two blooms only though, the remainder is still too timid to brave the icy blast.
Daphne odora is still reluctant, though the pretty deep pink buds show well in the sunshine and it won’t be long before that heady scent can be enjoyed.
But the star of my particular little show is Viburnam burkwoodii my absolute winter favourite with it’s brave little stars and a scent that blows you away!

New Season

New season’s shoots.
Things are starting to move with an inevitability that invites over-optimism and leads the unwary to purchase plants for the garden that simply will not reliably survive before April, so don’t be tempted to be part of the “double bubble” so beloved of Garden Centres, when gardeners buy early, lose all, then buy again when the weather finally really does warm up. Be patient and save money – after all, the way the economy is going saving money, what there is of it around, is going to occupy all our minds this year, next year, and maybe longer into the future. Any sensible gardener knows plenty of ways to save money: save seed, take cuttings, share both with other gardeners and be pleased if they share with you – oh, and grow a few veg if you can fit them in.

Winter flowerers
The doughty winter flowering heathers are doing well and provide ongoing colour and interest. I always look forward to my Erica Arboria that glows with new foliage in the winter and early spring and then sends forth subtly scented, minute flowers. It’s a bit on the big side of you let it; this one has a hair cut after flowering, which keeps it honest.
Spotty Shade
Acuba, the spotted laurel, has never really been a favourite, but it has it’s place there’s no doubt, as this one has, lending a splash of much needed colour in a shady spot. The berries are just between green and red but will soon turn. The birds leave them alone and that may please some, but not me, I like my berries to be eaten by the birds, to be made the most of.

Everlasting Pots
The permanent pots are beginning to fulfil their annual promise. This pretty blue iris comes up reliably every year, even in it’s tiny pot, and the primulas the same, although they usually fall prey to the busy beaks of the local sparrows, bless their little hearts, though I’ve never quite discovered what the attraction is.

Progress
I’ve just cleared the remaining leaves of last year’s Kaffir Lily bulbs and found the Camassias that I’d briefly forgotten about, gaily growing beneath, they’re about 4 or 5 inches high and doing well.

Early Beginnings

Sparrow Perches
Climbers rarely look good at this time of year especially if they’re early spring flowerers and mine are no exception, however, sparrows seem attracted to the Clematis Alpina that clambers all over a variegated summer jasmine that adorns my garage wall. It may be Clematis Alpina “Pamela Jackman” but as it’s been in situ some years I can’t be sure, suffice it to say at this time of year it looks less like a Clematis more like a bad hair day. One thing I’m sure of is that it flowers reliably first in Spring, with a second flush in later summer. I only cut it to tidy, so it fades to hundreds of fluffy seed heads in autumn which hang on through winter and also seeds around freely, to the extent that I’m frequently pulling it out like a weed. Where the Sparrows come in is, at this time of year, they sit and shelter in it and sun themselves if the opportunity presents itself, but most significantly they peck away at the seed heads. I like to think they’re feeding, though I’d be surprised to find much nutrition in such tiny seeds. Perhaps they just enjoy tearing the heads to pieces in a relatively comfortable environment, like they do with primulas in the spring, especially the red ones.

The Hellebores look promising, or at least the foetidus, they’re almost out; the more picturesque are not quite so forward. They may not be as spectacular as some spring beginnings, but at least they are beginnings.