It's a new (gardening) year...

...a New Day, a New Dawn....

.....and time to get gardening again....

Sunshine - even the washing out!
Spring is here.

Winter was wet and windy.  Very wet and very windy but not exceptionally cold.  We had only a few days of frost and no snow.  We are a bit too close to the coast to get snow unless there is simply masses everywhere.  Now spring is here and so far it is a much better spring than last year.  Sunshine has been a feature and fairly calm winds.   The garden did suffer wind damage in the winter.  The willow-weave fence broke, or I should be specific and say a post broke so that had to be temporarily repaired by Alec... I am waiting for Chris to come and make the permanent repair!  The wind snapped the post which was concreted into the ground.

The sheds both lost roof felting.  The TV aerial blew down.  The big rosemary bush died, I think it drowned.   The lavender and sage are looking sad but I think they may recover given time and sunshine.  These are all annoying but normal.   And the weeds abound.  Oh my, the weeds certainly abound.

The first thing I did a few weeks ago was sow seeds.  First of all vegetable seeds and then flower seeds.  I very soon ran out of space in my little electric propagator so I treated myself to a bigger one with my loyalty savings at our local plant nursery from all of last year.

The new (bigger) propagator and the old one.

Seed germination after just a few days!

Among the seeds planted are Capsicum Pepper, Chilli Pepper, Gherkin Cucumber, Squash, Yellow Skinned Courgettes, Verbascum, Echinacea, Geum, Bergamot...and I can't remember what else...
They have germinated, some better than others.

The plants I left to over-winter in the greenhouse are looking healthy.

Taken a couple of weeks ago,
looking even better now.

S&R have sold their house and had a few plants in pots they very kindly passed on to me and G.  I gained another pink Camellia, a Logan Berry (like a raspberry but no thorns) and a blueberry bush.

Camellia

Other new plants in the garden as gifts for Mother's Day are a Passiflora, third time lucky?  Seren ate the previous one and another one before that I damaged, so hopefully this one will survive and thrive.  Also a creamy white Montana Clematis and G gave me another Syringa Red Pixie - a dwarf one.   Seren seems to have given up digging in the garden and pulling up plants.  Unless it is on the dunes .  She's keen on digging for moles ever since she saw a mole heave pop up in front of her eyes.   So, that's very OK with me.  I doubt she will ever catch a mole...

Spring is a good time in my garden for bulbs.  Do you remember the wheelbarrow I planted up last autumn? Scroll down to my last post, it is featured there.   This is how it was looking 2 weeks ago, and since then the orange tulips have all bloomed - it is a real burst of sunshine just outside the kitchen window.

A lot more tulips out now.

Tulips are a favourite of mine for their looks and for the easy no fuss plant they are.  They are like bright jewels at this time of year.

Pale creamy yellow and a green one

Lovely flamenco red one

Marbled purple

My favourite colour combination 

Tulips are value for money - they really are guaranteed to make you feel more cheerful and the bees like them too.

There were two other bulb I bought last autumn.  Fritillaria Imperialis which can grow to over a metre tall.  Mine haven't - maybe a bit too wet?  But nevertheless they are growing every day about 2 centimetres every night.  They seem to be a bit prone to slug and snail damage and have done better since I sprinkled them with slug pellets.

Fritillaria Imperialis

The bluebells are just beginning to bloom.  This one I think is a Spanish bluebell - they can be invasive.  I bought the bulb as a British Bluebell so I am hoping it is ...

I think it is a Spanish Bluebell -
pretty but an invasive alien ...

The British bluebells are a deeper blue and are daintier somehow...I have some just beginning to bloom now so next time I will put a photo in my post for comparison.

The Hyacinths have been loving a spot up by the little green-cupboard in the righthand corner.

Hyacinths

The ones by my kitchen door are 'over' but wafted their scent around every time  anyone went past them.

The trees are beginning to get leaves.  The lilac bush has loads of buds this year too.  It flowered for the first time last year.  Even the fig is putting out its leaves.

Fig leaves.

The primroses have been a picture.  The lovely native ones from J&D's garden have really glowed this season and the drumstick primula is pretty too.

Native Primrose..my favourite primrose, by far.

Drumstick primula

Oh, and let's not forget the self-seeded Forget-Me-Nots that come up year after year.  They are just so cheerful.

Cheerful Forget-Me-Nots

So, indeed, a new day, a new dawn, a new season to get on with the digging, weeding, planting, mending.....

Today I weeded the strawberry patch under the apple tree.  It is a tricky place to crawl about, I feel as if I will never straighten my back again tonight.  I hope it will be worth it with a crop of strawberries to celebrate later on.

So, with black fingernails and and aching back I will bid you happy gardening until next we meet...

Euphorbia

Dig deep, sow generously and enjoy it all.

The last chance....

...one week to go before the clocks turn back....

....and summer is officially over....

Fire and ice - the glorious Dogwood

This coming week is always a pivotal week for me in the garden.  Next weekend the clocks change, we lose daylight early in the afternoon ...time for gardening long hours is almost over.

AND THERE IS STILL SO MUCH THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE!

To be planted this weekend.

I have been lulled into some sort of complacency by the beautiful weather and the wonderful rich colours in the garden.    Now the shock I needed to jolt me into action has happened, the realisation that when the days are shorter I won't have the time to wander round the garden lazily admiring autumn and lingering over the last of the summer wine...nooo!   Now I will really have to get on with putting in those bulbs, tidying up the annuals and old vegetables, splitting and sorting out the perennials.  Checking and securing the greenhouse...and filling it with the tender stuff that won't
survive without shelter - AND MUCH MORE.

A murderous thought.

The Naughty One

There are times when I could happily kill my dog.  No, not really, of course not, but she has managed to kill my passiflora.   This is the second one she's fatally maimed.   What is it she has against these beautiful climbers?    I am very cross with her and very sad.   Will I never be able to get something to climb over the arch?  Surely it can't be that hard?

And she digs too.

Most of the time she is pretty good in the garden but every now and then she lets loose with some pure naughtiness.

Yes, she will grow out of it...I know.

Meantime she will have to put up with me being really grumpy with her whenever she kills stuff or digs it up.....

Maybe I will get one more passiflora...third time lucky?   Or maybe I will give in and get a clematis.  But I'd rather have the passiflora.

Busy, busy, busy.

I ordered - and received - some seeds from the annual Chiltern seed sale ready to plant early next year.  Two sorts of tomatoes, Gardener's Delight and Green Zebra.  Both of these were good this year till the blight got them.   I am hoping next year I have a trick to beat the blight.    I also bought some winter salad seeds.   Maybe I will have more success with the salads this year too.  I am still eating the everlasting spinach which is good as a salad or as a cooked green.  I ate the last of the courgettes this week, so I bought more seeds for next year in the sale too.

Spring bulbs are underplanted and the winter pansies on top.

I have planted up my salvaged and up-cycled wheelbarrow for the front of the garden. The barrow was one the builders threw out when they were working at G & Ds some weeks ago.  I had to extract it from the skip.   It was buried beneath lots of heavy stuff, including a plank of wood, which I had to saw in half to get at the barrow.  Luckily there was an old saw discarded in the tip too...those builders must thing I am a crazy woman. I have also planted out an euphorbia which had self-seeded.   I had been nurturing it along - it is ready to go in the spot by the gate now.   I hope it survives.   If it does it will be lovely there - acid yellow in early spring.  I've trimmed the hebes and the winter flowering currants there so they thicken up into more of a hedge.

The other job I have done is strip off the pruned mallow and buddleja branches and salvaged the ones suitable to use as plant props next year.  This will save me lots of money as I use a lot of props for floppy perennials. I thinned the bamboo and stored the canes for use in the garden.  This is what I like about gardening, things can, and should, be recycled, used, made into compost and leaf mould.   It is really satisfying.  Little Jonah was a big help with the sticks and leaf mould jobs.  He likes to help and feel important...he IS important.

I have Agapantha seeds I will plant in tiny pots this week, if they grow I can give some to Sarah.  There are loads of different Pelagoniums  too that I will bring in before the first frost.   I am sure there will be some for Sarah and Chris,  if they want them.   As S & R are planning a visit over Bonfire Weekend I want to have a couple of pots of bulbs planted up for Sarah and Chris by then so they can go back with them to Dorset.

I see that Woodcraft in Pyle has some lovely grasses for sale.   Not many places sell grasses so I am delighted and determined to eke out my housekeeping next week to afford some.   There are some beautiful Deschampsia, Festuca, Helictotrichon and Stipa which come into growth late-winter and flower mid summer then their foliage is best for autumn...MUST HAVE.   In this garden, where there is nearly always wind, grass is wonderful for movement.  It dances.

The grass on the dunes, at the moment, is at its best in the low evening light.   It is quite magical, some like golden fountains, some feathery, and others like kaki waves rippling across the dunes.  I'd like a bit of that effect in my garden...now I think I have an idea for the mound....

Silver birch in my garden

Silver birch in Kenfig

The silver birch in my garden and in the dunes this year are just a delight.  I think the wet summer, and now the lovely autumn, has been the treatment they needed to be absolutely the stars of the show.

 There are many things that have really excelled in rich colour in the last few weeks.  The dogwood, the chocolate cosmos, look at these nasturtiums...

Nasturtium

Chocolate Cosmos (perennial) and Pink Begonia

Purple Salvia

The purple salvia and the yellow heleniums have been flowering non-stop for months now.   I have every hope they will be even better next year.  I will cut them back later and give them chance to come back more bushy.

Hopefully those pictures give you some idea of how rich the tapestry of colour is this autumn.

Glorious.

But all this glory and the wonderful weather for walking has slowed down the actual work I should be doing to maintain the garden, to tuck it up for winter and to prepare for spring too.   Never mind, what is a garden if you have no time to enjoy it?  

One of the jobs waiting for me is to bring in the Pelagoniums.   Some I will house in the greenhouse under bubble wrap if it is very cold.  Then hope for the best.   Others I will bring inside.   With the little Streptocarpus - my new babies this year - and with the 'Swedish' Hibiscus which has spent the summer outside.

Streptocarpus Babies.

So now, enough of this chatter - the dogs want to walk - nay, NEED to walk - I shall take a bag and pick up some cow-poo today while we are out walking, all good stuff for the garden and free.

After that ...a lunchtime trip to the tip with this week's garden weeds and offcuts offerings I can't reuse for the recycle gods.  Some seed harvesting and maybe a little more pruning, though I like to leave quite a bit as shelter for the wildlife.  Little things, like ladybirds, will hibernate in dry twigs and foliage.

I'll leave you with a couple more autumnal pictures.

Jonah helping wrap autumn apples.

Asters in full bloom in the garden,
Lovely late food for bees

The Asters are blooming on the dunes in Kenfig too...I think they are escapees from some domestic garden - they can be invasive in gardens.  I keep mine under strict control - but they are lovely food for pollinators at this time of year.

Have a great week ahead!   Happy gardening!

Almost bedtime...

...for my garden...

Virginia Creeper in autumn colour.

 October is here already.  The weather has been summer-like for days now but the colors in the garden tell a tale of autumn.

At this time of year, as if to make up for the dwindling sunlight the colours are deeper, richer, more fiery than all year.

Nasturtium

Purple salvia and yellow heleniums

Virginia Creeper again

Deep blue campanula 

I should have been out there every day for the last 8-10 sunny days but, although I have been out, mostly it has been to walk rather than to garden.  Today was the first full day I spent in the garden for quite some time.

I pruned the black currants, the lavenders and sages all down the garden path so they will bear plentifully next year - and so I can walk down the path without being smacked by a wet plant later when the rain inevitably returns.

The garden is still full of bees and birdsong.

See the bee?

This weekend I have promised myself that I will spend every spare moment out in the last of the sun tidying up and doing as much as I can before next week when the weather turns much windier and wetter.

So, this afternoon, after taking my prunings to the tip as there were too many for my compost, I cleaned a very dilapidated wheelbarrow.

My plan is to paint it and plant it up with bright things for the spring.   It is to be placed in the front garden...which is sorely neglected.   It is shady, windy and unappealing for much of the year in the front.   I need to address this and bring some change to it.  The wheelbarrow planter is a beginning.

Last week I bought a mass of bulbs with my 'loyalty card' savings for our local garden centre.

Selection of bulbs for next spring

None of those in the photo are suitable for the front, they are sun lovers.   I will get some shade loving bulbs next week - I'm thinking of some special daffodils and muscari which I noted had been hybridised for shady conditions.  I don't know what else.   Probably some winter flowering pansies and violas just for the top till things get going.  The red,white and blue bulbs were given me by a young friend who had recently visited Amsterdam, she bought them there!  Thank you so much C.

Daffodils and muscari 

The combination of the yellow daffodils and purple muscari never fails to look lovely - I will need the miniature daffs as the wind is too vicious in that part of the garden for anything too tall.

Vine by kitchen door - leaves turning red.

So although the summer season has been less than exciting this year, the last two or three weeks have certainly made up for it.  The garden has been a sanctuary of peace, colour and yes, sunshine!   Also it has given me more than an apple a day...the little pippin cox is a delightfully tasty apple and has done really well this year.    I've been eating tomatoes, cucumber, courgettes, and potatoes too, all from the garden.   And I've even had a couple of teeny-tiny grapes, but they made up in taste what they lacked in size.  Next year they should be bigger.  The salad potatoes are ready now - they are delicious.

Pink fir apple salad potatoes.

Now though, it is time to tidy up for the coming winter and to plant for spring.  

For those of you who might be interested here is a list of jobs to think about doing now.  Do I keep to the advice?   Some of it, yes, I do.   I think I have convinced myself that pruning is absolutely a very good way of getting the best out of so many plants next season.  There is so much advice online how to do it for the different plants - you can't really go too far wrong.

Planting bulbs too.   Honestly they are so cheap and, once in the ground, you are pretty much guaranteed a spring of beautiful colour, so why not spend a couple of hours putting them in?   If you haven't got enough ground then put them in containers, they are just as happy and just as lovely.

So if you do no other jobs those are the two I would suggest you prioritise.   The pruning nd the bulb planting.

Fritillaria imperialis

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention...among the bulbs I bought I bought two Fritillaria imperialis.   That's a very  grand sounding name isn't it?  It should be too.   The bulbs are expensive, these cost me £3.50 each, but I believe they will be worth every bit of it.   I bought yellow ones, as pictured.
  They grow quite tall, about 1 metre, and I think I shall have to be very vigilant in protecting them from slugs - also from sitting in too much wet...a bit of grit in the bottom of their planting space should solve the drainage - slugs...they are another thing all together.

S told me today that young Chris is going to be in the garden this weekend...by his sister's request.   She says the spiders are back...Sarah...what do you mean they are back?   I bet they never left!  Anyway, I believe it is Chris's job to cut back things in the garden to get rid of the spiders.   This is pointless.  And damaging.   The spiders in our British gardens now are the fat little chappies - see picture.

See the fat happy spider in the middle?

These spiders are useful pest deterrents and completely harmless.   I must have had half a dozen of them tangling in my hair and clothes today when I was pruning.   They are social, jolly little creatures and really don't hurt you at all!

Well I think that is all the news for now.   Hopefully by the time the weekend is over the garden will be much more prepared for autumn... and ready for the big bulb planting as soon as the ground is softened by the rains next week.

Have a wonderful gardening weekend everyone.   Don't forget to take in the last of the sunshine and just enjoy being in your garden too..isn't that what it is really all about?

The Inevitable Blight...

..strikes again...

Blighted

Well, we had a good run of blight free summer but it was inevitable that blight would hit my tomatoes.  Blight is a fungal disease and really difficult to avoid here in the UK.

What to do...I've picked what I can, stripped the plants bare of as many leaves as possible.

The crop has been lovely ... 

Tasty tomatoes (Gardeners' Delight)

Maybe next year.

Meanwhile I am hoping that the Zebra Tomatoes will just ripen slightly more so I can try them.

Those stripes need to get a bit more yellow.

Another bit of cutting back I did yesterday was the Mallow.  It was magnificent.  Magnificent but it was blocking the path and some of the branches were poking dangerously in line with children's' eyes.  What I hope to do is lift the 'skirt' a bit higher next summer and make the mallow a semi-standard in shape.   I am not sure it is suitable for this treatment, or that I have got it right.  The other hope by cutting back is that I will make the bush more resilient to autumn and winter high winds.

How it has been most of this summer

Pruned back version, it will need more staking.

Mmm, pretty radical, I agree.  Mallows do grow fast and thickly though, so I have hopes.  It did seem like sacrilege to chop all those beautiful bloom down.

There are high winds and rain today so maybe I did the right thing at the right time.

The rest of the garden is just ticking over.  It is a pleasant time of year.    I heard the Robin start to sing again this month.   Very much an indication of autumn.

As are these lovely lilies.   I am not sure what they are called, I think they are the Abyssinian gladiolus -  they are a bulb I was given in a mixed multi-pack a couple of years ago.

The Abyssinian gladiolus ..I think.

Rather elegant don't you think?

The unusual weather this last summer has certainly thrown up some eccentric behavior in some plants.   Some are flowering much later than usual.  Some much earlier.  What does it mean?   Nothing at this time.  It is worth just noting and seeing what happens next year, in 5 years, weather is a strange and fickle beast.  The Passiflora has lovely buds but I don't think it has been warm enough for them to open.   I've not seen any open which is disappointing.

Passiflora buds - none have opened.

But the little Elderflower, Black Beauty, which suffered a fatal accident in the summer - do you remember I mentioned it?  Well, I took cuttings and at least one is well away, maybe all is not lost after all.

Elderflower, Black beauty.

In the next few weeks I need to get out into the garden and start putting it to bed.  Also spring bulbs need to be bought and planted.   I want a great show for 2016 as I anticipate that DnA and children may really visit as they have suggested more than once...one can hope and, if they disappoint, then the flowers go a little way to make up for the disappointment.

The apples are nearly ripe.   Seren is fond of apples and often comes in with one to eat.   I hope this is one from my neighbours tree at the back of the garden, I hope it is windfall and not one she has actually stolen from my tree...because if it is, then I have no idea how she got in through the little fence ...she is inordinately fond of fresh apples....

An apple a day...

Seren's contribution to gardening, apart from tasting the produce, is to dig...I wish she would not!  She digs about one hole ever one to two weeks...I fill them in again...she digs a new hole...and so on.  I hope she grows out of it as her digging is rarely beneficial or in the right place.

One of Seren's holes

The monster marrow is still a monster without signs of any flowers or fruit.  I have let it be just because it is so enthusiastic and vigorous it makes me feel happy.   I chop it wildly and with abandon frequently but still it grows with a happy energy.

Monster Marrow

Monster marrow as seen from outside the greenhouse,
completely fills one side.

I think I will just add a couple of pictures in here to show you how the garden has looked this last week and one of an old and very special fiery begonia that always, always does beautiful things every year without fail.  Some people think begonias are common and vulgar...well, let them...they don't know a good thing when it looks them in the eye, obviously!

This week past

The fiery begonia

I cannot remember if I told you that the chilli has produced a few lovely fruits...now to make something hot and spicy with them.   Maybe a spicy apple chutney...that might be a great idea for tomorrow.

But for tonight...that is about all the garden news I have, so I am going to curl up in the armchair and watch Gardener's World with Monty Don while the wind and rain rattle the windows outside.

Chat to you again soon.  

Have a great gardening week