SoS 11/01/19
Another Saturday, time flies!
We had to spend time in the city this week and so had three days messing about in the Matchbox garden. We trimmed the hedge that separates our townhouse from the row behind. It’s about 3 metres high and 25 metres long – made of awful shrubs that grow in weed proportions here. Things like the Cotoneaster Glaucophyllis and the New Zealand Mirror Bush which seed horrendously and choke our native species in the wild and our own gardens.
After the heavy work was done, it was possible to wander and note what was happening in the garden. My yet to be identified clematis’s around the garden are mostly slowing down.
Although one is turning the most magnificent bronze colour…
…and one is producing the loveliest most delicate green striped flowers.
OH has also cut out the rabid wisteria and I am gradually clearing the horrible weeds that came through the fence. This blank area behind the hellebores will have a clematis (not sure which yet) and a Madame Alfred Carriere rose planted to climb up the frame and do delicate things for me.
In my continued journey round the tiny garden, I also noticed the one rhododendron has had a hormonal shot or something, and is growing like mad and is also showing pink flowers at completely the wrong time of year. Not only that, it was supposed to be creamy white. It may have to be removed as my garden is a white garden…
Really exciting though, is the shade garden. This time last year, it was empty and sad and it’s now filled with life and variety. It is super happy and so am I when I look at it. The dicentra and the pulmonaria couldn’t be more contented amongst their friends.
The boxed beds that are a feature of this tiny garden are situated beneath massive paperbarks and consequently the white Hidcote lavender strains to get to light. The Body Corporate has agreed that these trees need trimming, and so we took advice from a tree surgeon and it will be a three-year project. The side over our garden first. The tops in the second year and the street side in the third year. The reasons for this are to reduce shock, but also to guarantee privacy in our little patch, which is one of the reasons we bought the property when we downsized.
And finally, one of my favourite books. I’ve had it since it was published and it is much read. OH and self once attended a lunch and guest talk by HRH’s head gardener at Highgrove at the time, and I was chuffed when I heard that HRH never minds broad-leafed weeds in the lawns because they’re tough, keep the lawn green and drink less water. Our lawns are filled with broadleafed weeds!!!
And that’s my blooming lot!
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What a lovely lush garden you have for an Australian Summer. The shade area is particularly effective.
The Matchbox garden is easy to keep lush, Tim because it is very small. But our coast garden, the one we spend nearly all our time in, is very dry and the grass is browning off. Yesterday evening, after three days spent in the city, it took nearly three hours trying to revive the front of the borders and the veggie garden. Along with the continued warmth and lack of rain, we are having strong drying winds. Today OH and myself are going to drape soak-it hoses along the front of the borders in order to dampen them more effectively. The trouble with good established plants is that they often block a water supply to others and we have an automatic system through our whole garden that would be a nightmare to try and re-position.
I like the look of your white Hidcote lavender. Hopefully it will benefit from your tree pruning programme.
My longtime gardening friend tells me that the lifespan of english lavenders is fairly short. Seven years or thereabouts. So this year to be safe, I will take cuttings and grow them on in pots. I am a very scary pruner – cutting things back hard so it’s good to have insurance. 😉
Your garden looks so lovely – I miss my clematis so thank you for sharing yours 🙂
Judy
I’m obsessed by clematis, Judy. My favourite climber.
Garden looking fabulous. I look forward to getting back out into ours
It’s so tiny, Libby, I can fit the weeds in two hands! 😉
Ooh Mme Alfred C. I quite fancy one of those for round my front door. Beautiful rose.
I’m not a rose fancier but Mme Alfred is much loved. My gardening friend has it growing all over the wall of her Georgian home. It’s delicious.
This is such a lovely garden and you will enjoy spending time here once all the hard work is done.
Thank you, Catherine. It’s a sweet little oasis in the city, that’s for sure. And small enough for age-ing bodies to handle, big enough to keep interest nurtured constantly.