No Pain, No Gain

The end of winter is signalled by the annual pruning of the Cornus "Midwinter Fire". This is grown for its bright orange and red stems which glow in the winter sunshine. To get coloured stems next year, it has to be cut down to a short stump each spring.

This drastic treatment also keeps the shrub small enough for the space, and allows me to get behind it to prune the yew and the ivy.

I am adding more red, orange and yellow plants to the border on the left of the kitchen door. This used to have a lot of herbs in it, but over time some of the herbs have died off, and there are gaps which need filling. I bought some achillea "Terracotta" and two oriental poppies "Beauty of Livermere" I've tried both of these before, in different parts of the garden, but they have always been defeated by slugs. There are fewer slugs this year so they may have a chance to establish themselves.

I've had this small hemerocallis in a pot for two years but last year it didn't flower well. I hope that by dividing it up and putting the pieces in the border, they will bulk-up and produce more flowers. Here is the original pot:

The second picture shows a section of the plant where I have cut through the roots and the last picture shows the three pieces in the ground.

This week, I had the first cherry blossom of the season - from a small shrub in a pot. This is the Fuji Cherry, "Kojo-no-mai"

The tulips in the pots have put on a growth spurt, and will be producing flowers soon. This view of the garden shows how green it is beginning to look, after a winter of looking very bare.

Lavender and Frogspawn

Having failed to find Lavender last week, I tried another garden centre yesterday and had better success. I found some nice healthy looking small "Munstead" Lavenders. These should be slightly shorter than the ones I am replacing (which were "Hidcote").

I bought ten in total - five each side of the path - which gives spacing of about two feet apart. This is further apart than my previous hedge. I think I planted the last one too closely so I hope this is an improvement. I planted them with a good helping of home-made compost, to encourage them to root. You can just see the plants in these two pictures. You can see the alliums coming through as well.

One of the hardy geraniums in the border had spread to be too close to the lavenders. I dug out the side of plant which was not wanted and divided it into several pieces, each piece with a root and some leaves. I planted these in the raised bed at the end of the garden which has the camellia in it. This is a difficult bed to plant because it is dry and shady, so it is worth trying some "free" plants in it.

The recent mild weather has brought on the plants, and there are lots of small seeds germinating in the flower beds. I quite like self-seeded plants because they add informality to the planting. There are plenty of aquilegia, welsh poppies and garlic chives coming through, and I think there may be some fennel seeds (which will probably be eaten by the slugs soon) as well as lots of unidentified seedlings. I will wait until these are identifiable before doing anything to remove them. You never know what might appear.

The effect of the mild weather can be seen in these two pictures of my "Jetfire" daffodils. The first was taken last week, and shows the flowers just beginning to show colour.

This one was taken yesterday, with all the daffodils now fully open and looking at their best.

Mild weather has also inspired the frogs in my pond to mate and there is now plenty of frogspawn about. I am hopeful that these will now develop into lots of frogs to clear up my slugs for me.

Ever the Optimist

Another round of optimistic seed-sowing today. I've tried sunflowers many times - from seed, from small plants and from larger pants in pots. I usually go for a smaller, pretty variety, but each time the plants have been entirely devoured by slugs which is very annoying. I decided to have another go this year - with a variety called "Titan" which is supposed to be very tall and strong.  I also sowed some more sweet peas - a large-flowered variety which was free with Gardeners' World magazine, and some nasturtiums - Empress of India - which I found in my spare seed box. I don't know how old the nasturtium seeds were but they were firm and plump, so I thought I'd give them a go. I hope the small amount of mould on the outside of the seeds isn't a problem.

 

These seeds were all placed into the mini-greenhouse outside. I sowed two other seeds in my heated propagator - some Eryngium leavenworthii - a type of sea holly, and Nicotiana Lime Green. The propagator is kept on my kitchen windowsill. 

 

(The round thing in the picture is the plug of the propagator - to remind me that the nicotiana is at the plug end of the propagator)

I will let you know how all these seeds work out - but don't hold your breath - I don't have a good record with seeds.

Also today, I planted out some plants grown in pots. I planted three pyracantha "Orange Glow" along the ugly wall at the end of the garden. Hopefully, these will grow into a dense evergreen thorny hedge, with white flowers and orange berries to feed the birds in winter. The soil here is quite poor, so for the first time ever, I used some of my home-made compost to improve the soil in the planting area. 

This afternoon, I went out to buy some lavenders to replace the lavender hedge. I didn't find them, but I did find some lovely plants which I bought on impulse.

I've bought fennel and pulmonaria before only to have them murdered by slugs. These are quite big plants grown in "hairy" pots, which you can plant direct into the ground without disturbing the roots, which grow through the pots into the soil. This makes them stronger than other plants (and you don't have to dispose of a plastic pot, so it's more environmentally friendly). Hopefully they will succeed where other pants have failed. The fennel is in the left hand bed, next to the rose arch. The pulmonaria are in the front garden. I used my home-made compost again to improve the soil.

The two plants at the back are more hellebore oriental hybrids. They are both quite different to the others I have. I will probably grow them in pots on the patio.

The plants in the front garden, which is planted for spring, are looking really good now. The Daphne Bholua "Jacqueline Postill" is fully out, and the scent carries for several yards down the street. I am often asked what it is by passers by. It is next to the hedgehog holly, ilex  aquifolium ferox argentea which is very prickly and variegated gold and green.

 

I have one flower on the camellia in the front garden - there are many more buds. I hope the frost is over so that they can open safely. This is Camellia "Jury's Yellow" Which is more cream than yellow but very pretty.

Sowing seeds and cutting the grass

According to Gardener's World, now is the time to sow sweet peas. I don't have much success with seeds as a rule - I'm not good at looking after them and the slugs enjoy them a little too much - but I have managed sweet peas in the past, so thought I'd try them again.

The first task was to clear out and re-cover my miniature greenhouse. This is next to the shed at the end of the garden. The old cover had split across the top. I use the greenhouse to protect things from wind, rain and squirrels. The front panel can be opened with two zips to allow access.

The sweet peas I sowed are an old-fashioned variety called "Cupani" which are small and highly scented. I have been saving some loo roll centres which can be used as pots to provide a deep root run, which sweet peas like. I put six together in a big pot for support and filled the whole thing with compost.

I only had enough John Innes seed compost for one pot so I filled the other with Westland multi-purpose peat-free compost. I put one seed in each tube about an inch deep. It will be interesting to see if there is any difference between the types of compost. I sowed the left over seeds in four small pots and put them all in the mini greenhouse.

 

I don't have a lawn, so am spared the drudge of maintaining one. I do have a number of ornamental grasses, both in the ground and in pots, and they die off in the winter, leaving dead stems, which are quite ornamental in the winter sunshine, or covered in frost. At this time of year, they begin to re-grow from the base, so it is best to cut the dead stems off and tidy them up. This is a selection of my grasses in pots. They look a bit sad now, but will look better once they start to re-grow.