Garden notes
Oct. 30th, 2022 11:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
puddlesharkThe clocks went back. (Back, I think, yes?)
Made the most of an extra rain-free hour by tackling a few jobs in the garden. Emptied four pots of gone-over summer bedding. Three pots still to go, plus several pots in which the summer bedding is still flowering, & which can be left for another few weeks.
But I've made a start. And now I can go online and drool over bulb catalogues. Which daffodils, which tulips will I order this year? (Definitely more of the little flame-coloured praestans Shogun - they were stunning. The enormous PINK Saint Petersburg were pretty spectacular as well).
***
Under the shade of the oak trees, did battle with the root system of a very large Epimedium which the drought killed. Possibly it would have regenerated, if I left it till the spring. But it had become a thug, choking out the hardy geraniums and the Tellima grandiflora, so good riddance to it.
***
This year's summer planting notes:
Successes
- the Nemesia has flowered madly all summer and is still flowering. And the bees love it. Go, Nemesia!
- ditto the Salvia 'Victoria blue' bought from the local nursery
- the 'mixed' Icelandic poppies were splendid while they lasted (even if they all turned out to be white. Do not buy from Sarah Raven next time).
Failures
This year's summer planting scheme, Erigeron & Salvia patens. I suppose I was aiming for a classical/Wedgwood effect... But the bees aren't at all interested in Salvia patens, unlike most Salvias, so this one was a failure. And the Erigeron would work better along paving than in a pot.
Semi-failures
- six bare-root white spider Chrysanthemums bought from Sarah Raven, which I planted in pots, watered religiously all summer, but forgot to feed. They are just thinking about coming into flower now. And the buds on one of them are most definitely red, not white. Will they flower before the frosts get them? Will I get a single Still Life arrangement out of them?
*sighs* I will never learn not to be tempted by the gorgeous arrangements of cut flowers in the Sarah Raven catalogue. Next time, that catalogue must go straight in the recycling unopened...
Made the most of an extra rain-free hour by tackling a few jobs in the garden. Emptied four pots of gone-over summer bedding. Three pots still to go, plus several pots in which the summer bedding is still flowering, & which can be left for another few weeks.
But I've made a start. And now I can go online and drool over bulb catalogues. Which daffodils, which tulips will I order this year? (Definitely more of the little flame-coloured praestans Shogun - they were stunning. The enormous PINK Saint Petersburg were pretty spectacular as well).
***
Under the shade of the oak trees, did battle with the root system of a very large Epimedium which the drought killed. Possibly it would have regenerated, if I left it till the spring. But it had become a thug, choking out the hardy geraniums and the Tellima grandiflora, so good riddance to it.
***
This year's summer planting notes:
Successes
- the Nemesia has flowered madly all summer and is still flowering. And the bees love it. Go, Nemesia!
- ditto the Salvia 'Victoria blue' bought from the local nursery
- the 'mixed' Icelandic poppies were splendid while they lasted (even if they all turned out to be white. Do not buy from Sarah Raven next time).
Failures
This year's summer planting scheme, Erigeron & Salvia patens. I suppose I was aiming for a classical/Wedgwood effect... But the bees aren't at all interested in Salvia patens, unlike most Salvias, so this one was a failure. And the Erigeron would work better along paving than in a pot.
Semi-failures
- six bare-root white spider Chrysanthemums bought from Sarah Raven, which I planted in pots, watered religiously all summer, but forgot to feed. They are just thinking about coming into flower now. And the buds on one of them are most definitely red, not white. Will they flower before the frosts get them? Will I get a single Still Life arrangement out of them?
*sighs* I will never learn not to be tempted by the gorgeous arrangements of cut flowers in the Sarah Raven catalogue. Next time, that catalogue must go straight in the recycling unopened...
