Miscellany and detritus, from the writer of Is This Mutton?com

Search this blog

Tuesday, July 01, 2014

An unlikely star of the garden show

It's Ground Hog Day again. Yes, here's the garden in July.....an annual post!

My little garden will not win favour with those who think we should be painting with flowers and making garden creation an art form.  No, it's crammed full of plants that I love and it's not making any particular statements. I just do the best I can with a clay soil and a north facing plot  (which fortunately gets a few hours of sunshine a day).  The colour palette is primarily pink and white with a few red highlights.

This year's hits are the hollyhocks, seen on the left, by the fence, which started life being so badly mauled by snails I didn't think they would have a chance. They don't look like the usual hollyhocks but have fluffy pink balls of flower, like rosettes.

The unlikely star of the garden is erigeron karvinskianus, a tumbling daisy, part of the aster family, which is pink and white and also grows well in crevices.  I love the way it spills over my sleepers, softening the edges.

I am thrilled that a couple of tender trailing fuchsias from last year lived through the winter and are blooming again.

I have a few delights to follow in late summer:  gladioli, nerines and monarda, all for the first time.

And next week I have a day off work to visit the Hampton Court flower show. This will partly make up for the disappointment of missing Chelsea, when I had to spend the day in bed with food poisoning from oysters.


Erigeron

Salvia Hot Lips

SHARE:

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The garden in November

This has been the first year that our garden truly became "mine." We had a lot of work done and I planted from scratch. I have loved keeping the garden tidy and buying new plants and spring bulbs, but it's come at the expense of my crafting hobby. I'm not sure everyone appreciated the hand-made cards anyway!


I have been keen to put the garden to bed ----- pruning the perennials and putting down manure to improve the soil composition (very claggy clay) ---- but the garden has other ideas! The phlox, hostas and ferns are the only things showing signs of going dormant. The dianthus, nemesia, salvias and fuchsias are still going for it, as shown by the photos taken on Sunday.

Looking forward to next year now when the snowdrops that I planted in-the-green will be the first to emerge, along with the hellebores and then all the crocus, hyacinths, daffodils and tulips. Happy times!


SHARE:
Blog Design Created by pipdig