Six on Saturday 19/09
Having been away from our big garden on the coast for over 10 days, it has rocketed into spring in my absence. Sadly, the freesias are almost done and I’ve missed the best of the few tulips I had potted up. It’s not a groomed garden and things seem to appear from Heaven’s knows where, but that’s okay. The main thing is that it gives us such huge pleasure and an even bigger escape.
Poor OH has two major things happening – one is the massive mow every week for a couple of months (no ride-on as we have large drainage ditches through the property). After such a wet winter, it’s very thick grass. I can’t really call it lawn as it’s filled with weeds of all sorts, but we let that ride because the weeds stay green through our hottest months, giving the lawn a semblance of grandeur.
The other major thing for OH, and to a lesser extent me (although I will be carting and spreading soil), is that we’re contemplating turning the two veggie beds into three or four. This makes my first SOS pic. It’s a massive job and must be undertaken with speed as it’s almost time to start planting the veg. Post Script: since I wrote the post, we have decided to leave the infrastructure as is, but build two bridges to dissect the beds, which enables us to break the beds into four and it also allows access without compressing soil. It was my idea so I hope it works…
The second pic for today is the extraordinary sweetpea. It’s supposedly multi-coloured – self-sown from last year. I let them all grow instead of collecting seed and propagating. Perversely barely a blue flower was produced last year, and this year nothing BUT blues. Also my specialist whites have disappeared completely which I’m very sad about. Can anyone tell me why the blues have dominated? Even so, the fragrance is heaven and I picked a quick handful with some of the last freesias and the bedroom smells like a French perfumier’s.
Auriculas are 3 and 4. One of the Jorviks sadly finished its flowers whilst I was away, although happily, as you can see, another of the plants has a flower stem. (good – it’s ghostly grey/green shade and reminds me of all things Viking). But…
…surprise, little Ferntree Border is looking elegantly ivory and proof that dividing auriculas doesn’t have to go by the book. These were all divided in autumn, after I was told by a friend that they should be divided after flowering in early summer. The early division was a Lockdown thing and it’s worked brilliantly (on the advice of the breeder of the plants). The plants are really robust.
Number 5. I appear to have no Fritillaria Meleagris this year – they’ve disappeared somewhere, hoping they’ll reappear at some point. Instead, Uva-vulpis which appears to have propagated itself. Is that possible?
I have fritillary leaves popping up everywhere nearby, so assume its U-V. Or, they might be Meleagris. Who knows?
And finally the hoop petticoats which are endemic to this garden and flower every year and were planted by the dear lady and her husband who created the structure of the garden. We’re only the second owners in over 50 years and we’ve tried to retain her design whilst adding our own choices. The hoop-petticoats are so sweet and delicate and seem to naturalise well. They always remind me of Mrs. Roberts, who gave me her collection of Cornishware. I’m a Cornishware-aholic.
And that’s it from me. Pootle onto The Propagator to see what’s on offer globally and have a great weekend.
Seeing your spring flowers is so refreshing, as we are tipped over to Autumn. The hooped petticoat daffs are so delicate.
I love seeing your autumn colours, Noelle. Our Australian bush doesn’t allow for autumn.
A lovely spring post! Your blue sweetpea is a wonder, I can just imagine the beautiful fragrance.
Thanks, Gill. A strange wonder though!
Your garden is looking very pretty, its turning very autumnal here lots of dropping leaves and much cooler nights, some sunny days, but you feel the temoerature dropping rapidly in the evening, and of course its darker at nights. Strange weather we are having. Hope your raised bed plans work but know what you mean about redoing them its a big job, We did ours in jan/feb I think it was. Can’t remember all the days months seem to just go together.
Libby, this year is just a strange blur, days of no name speeding by until we return to where we started from!
Oh, I’m so jealous! N. bulbicodium has frustrated my attempts to grow it so many times that I have given up. N. cyclamineus tried my patience for some years but I now have two very good patches of it (and N. asturiensis, another favourite) doing very well here. Isn’t is a case of faraway hills?
The auriculas are beautiful!
Hi Paddy, I think the secret for me has been ‘leave them alone and they’ll come home, wagging their tails behind them’!
I love sweet peas. I don’t know why you only have blue ones though – some lack of something in the soil? Gorgeous anyway,
Oooh, possibly. That’s a good thought, Barbara! The fragrance is just as good though. But there’s something lovely about a mixed bunch…
I have a gravel courtyard and two years ago hung baskets of pansies on the summerhouse. They have thrown their seeds all over the gravel. We had pansies everywhere this summer. Your sweetpeas look wonderful. When I grew them in a former garden they didn’t do half so well and always looked messy.
They’re very healthy, Shirley, that’s for sure. I think it’s the rich vegetable garden soil. And as for seeding, my hellebores have thrown seed everywhere and I spent yesterday afternoon removing MATS of the things!!!!
My sweetpeas were terrible this year, as were most of my annuals. If I had to have one color, it would be that purple though! I often wonder why plants revert, like my bearded iris. Almost all are purple now.
Oh golly, Lisa, I hope my two bearded iris don’t revert. I have a delicious snowy white and a rich black…
I’ve not thought of letting the annual sweet peas self seed. My perennial ones do spread but they have no perfume whatsoever. I hope some Fritillary come through, they are rather beautiful.
It was completely accidental on my part, Granny. I sowed last year’s along the veggie garden fence and despite pulling all the deceased vines off the fence in when they were dry and crackly, in days I noticed new and very strong seedlings poking up. So I just left them there with the photographed result. But the specialist whites which were supposed to be perennial have gone to the great garden in the sky, it seems. Fritillaria Uva-Vulpus is going gangbusters as it naturalises, but little Meleagris is in hiding…
I have hoop petticoat narcissi in my garden, and this spring I had one lonely flower. So disappointing! I have no idea why.
I’m a bit envious of your Auriculas as I can’t grow them here – wrong climate.
Good luck with your veggie garden plans. It sounds like a good idea to separate the gardens if only to make it easier to reach everything.
Exactly, Jane and I’m getting shorter as the years roll by! 😉
i have a job on my long range to-do list, remove the sides from the veg beds and combine them into one large one. the sides give hiding places for slugs and snails, and when i’m done i’ll have more planting space. btw, according to the no-dig fella i follow, compression from standing on the soil has no ill effects, may even be beneficial. i’ll put some narrow paths of bark down to allow access. if i get around to it at all!
My husband’s eyes lit up when I read your comment to him. The thought of all this work is making us feel exhausted and we haven’t even started yet. That said, the edges of the existing veg beds do need replacing as they’re rotten and we need to build up the beds with more vegetable soil (beautiful stuff from a commercial supplier that is friable and filled with goodness).
Have to say that eating straight from the garden is a taste sensation and will be worth the effort. We’re just finishing Lockdown veg!
Wasn’t that a great idea? You have saved yourselves lists of heavy work by miraculously dividing two into four!
Oh the thought of sweet pea & freesia scent indoors. How lovely, Prue. Hope you had a good week. I’m very late catching up with my SOS reading.