Aftermath of Storm Malik

I am trying to feel positive about the bower seat. I have righted it and I think it is fundamentally ok albeit minus a few more bits of its roof. I have had it for more than a decade - the garden rocking chair pre-dates it by a few years but it has seen off at least two garden benches in the meantime.

The bower seat is positioned to get the morning sun in time for coffee and its a favourite place for Ben to soak up the rays, keep an eye on the Magic Garden and keep me company.

Maybe I’ll give it a good coat of paint as a reward for surviving!

Storm Malik

I had been planning a relatively quiet day, pottering in the Magic Garden & taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch count. Instead after a night of howling wind, bangs and bumps, I woke to more destruction this time from Storm Malik. My neighbours had definitely come off worse this time but nevertheless I’m picking up the pieces again in my re-distributed garden.

The feeders on the old pole are mostly intact but the ones that were on the rowan tree are not and I will need to buy replacements. I did get a moment or two to enjoy the birds though

Cotton Lavender

Cotton Lavender is Santolina chamaecyparissus. I grow it for its silver foliage which has a rather pungent aromatic smell to it. It does flower with yellow pom-poms but I must admit to have always been rather underwhelmed by these.

Mine has got very scruffy as I’ve failed to cut it back but my goldfinches seem to like it which has stopped from pulling it out so I will just be cutting it back to base & seeing if it will come again

The cotton lavender has featured quite a bit in my wildlife camera photos and video clips and these show how much the plant seems to shine with its blue-silver foliage. I think I can forgive it having boring flowers when its foliage sets off the flowers around it so well. I also have realised how big the plant has got when I see the size of the hedgehog against it.

Snowdrops

I love snowdrops as an early harbinger of spring in the Magic Garden, the flower that breaks winter’s spell releasing spring. I have three main sorts - ones that start the season, the ones I’ve naturalised from my parents’ garden in the NW Highlands and new ones that seem to come a bit later and are bigger than the others. With a little bit of doubt, I have identified that my early ones are Galanthus plicatus as the leaves are flat opposite eachother. I have sporadic ones all over the Magic Garden which I planted in November 2020 as bulbs.

The bigger snowdrop has wrap around leaves at its base so I think its Galanthus elwesii or one of its hybrids. I plan this year to get some more ‘in the green’ & plant them in the centre of the Magic Garden. This is supposed to be the best way of planting them & is how I planted the ones from Badachro.

Gorse

When I bought my native hedging plants to go along the new replacement hedging plants I saw a gorse bush advertised . I instantly felt homesick as the yellow flowers smelling of vanilla & coconut are a feature of my favourite evening walk up behind my parents’ house to a wee lochan and opted to buy this tiny bush.and plant it where it will have suitably poor conditions to ensure it thrives..

As its a favourite too of the bumblebees I’m hoping that before its very big it will start flowering. I suspect its unlikely that our local stonechat population will copy this from home and raise their young within its prickles.

A New Christmas Rose

I got round to planting out a little Hellebrous niger Christmas Rose today that had been sitting in a plastic pot ever since I bought it last year from the supermarket next door- it was rather pot-bound & its little while flower buds were distinctly scruffy. I then had a look for the white one I know is there already. I was pleased to find it is coming on well now. I have two large hybrid ones in the front garden I bought last year which I hope will be in bloom before long.

They earn their place in the Magic Garden as their blooms ward off evil spirits. Apparently they are used to create invisibility too - not tried that yet!

Christmas Roses are in fact members of the buttercup family rather than roses but gained this common name from an old legend that the flowers sprouted up from the tears of a girl who had nothing to give to the baby Christ. Mine never flower in time for even the old Christmas date in January

Sunny Afternoon

Today I only spent a few minutes in the Magic Garden as the lure of a walk in the sun proved too strong. I did though note the occasional daisy responding to that sunlight. I was also cheered by one of the scruffy wee violas I put in last autumn. Their wee faces do make me smile. I have winter pansies out the front which are distinctly blousy in comparison but equally scruffy! I confess I didn’t even bother to get the ‘proper’ camera out so these will have to do!

I couldn’t persuade Ben to stay out once I was home - he clearly felt a couple of hours fresh air was quite enough! He will suddenly decide that out is better and I will know that spring has arrived!

Purpletop Vervain

Purpletop vervain, Verbena bonariensis, is a lovely perennial that doesn’t seem to live for many years but does come easily from seed so is something I try and put a few new ones in around the Magic Garden. It is a lovely graceful perennial with three waving heads of clusters of little purple flowers

I love it as it stands clear of the crowd but fits in perfectly. Its unusually good in staying upright in our gales. Its also this year one of the earliest plants to be stirring with fresh growth. It is also a favourite of butterflies and bees alike.

All in all a good all-rounder, Verbena is an appropriate name too for a plant in the Magic Garden as it means ‘sacred bough’, coming from a Celtic root.

Signs of life

It’s been a beautiful day, clear with sunshine, cold & dry. I spent most of the day outside but not that much in the Magic Garden. I did though have a look round to see what’s stirring and also thinking about tidying up. I love seed heads and dead flowers but I am thinking about cutting back now new growth is showing through.

The rudbeckia are probably the most dignified of the ddad flowers in the garden and their centres still suggest promise but the real promise is present at their base with new growth showing through. These are new in the Magic Garden last summer & I am really pleased with the response of pollinators to their splash of colour. I’ve put several through the Magic Garden and the surrounding borders. These are under the black elderflower.

Thinking Ahead

Late home today to a pile of mail - instantly cheered up by the wee collection of seed & plant catalogues that have arrived this week.Ben likes being involved with all stages of the garden development

I also end up with windowsills full of seed trays and now I also use the summerhouse & cold frame to raise young plants once they are past their more fragile state.

Time to inspect the seed collection and start thinking of what I might start sowing soon and what new seeds to buy. I will probably buy more plant plugs this year as I have found in the past I’m marginally better at keeping them alive than raising seedlings. I usually have greater ambitions in what I think I can grow than reality usually proves to be the case.

In the Magic Garden Today

I had a day off work today so tried to get on top of gardening tasks - the most basic was just clearing more of the debris after Storm Arwen’s visitation. I’ve had to remove a lot of the twisted remains of the jasmine. I am very sorry to have lost this as it made a wonderful place for the birds to hide.I still need to take two of the arches down as they are beyond repair. I have bought a new one so that the will be something for my perennial sweetpea to clamber over.

Ben kept a weather-eye on me while enjoying some wintery sunshine. He likes to be around me in the Magic Garden but is always wary of getting stuck out in the cold at this time of year

When I cleared away some of the debris of the sweetpeas I could smell the most gorgeous scent even though it was difficult to identify exactly where it came from. It is the scent that belongs to my apricot coloured agastache as seen her below the white perennial sweetpea. I plan to move the latter as it drapes itself over the rowan tree rather than its metal arch.

Lamb's Ears - Stachys Byzantina

Another the silver foliage plants I added was Stachys byzantina. I brought in some cuttings from my allotment where they had been originally planted by a predecessor and had rapidly become established. It is the furriness of their leaves that gets them their name of lamb’s ears or less poetically woolly hedge nettle. They multiply easily and can be a bit scruffy but their flowers are attractive to bees & other pollinators so I am inclined to let them spread..

I keep a corner of them on the south corner as well as in the oak tree’s pot.

Globe Artichoke (Cynara scolymus)

When I planned the Magic Garden, I chose plants with silver grey foliage and providers of pollen & nectar. One of my choices was ornamental globe artichokes. I had seen these in Kew & loved their statuesque presence. They are a bit too big really for where they are so I have thinned them out more than once but even in winter I love their appearance. From the dead heads it is only a short time to sprouting new foliage and then the classic buds which open out to a lawn of nectar for visiting bees

A cycle that repeats & is reliable in its beauty

Fruit (3)

I used to have a large blackcurrant bush up against the old shed that the summerhouse replaced. There’s one of the same generation by the fence that has never done that well. I planted another little one as a replacement in its own wee patch that Ben loves to sleep and shelter behind. I also have 2 more bushes in pots. I do quite well on my potted fruit, I have a wineberry that at the moment its doing better at attracting butterflies than producing fruit. I think my best fruit in pots, besides the apples, are the autumn raspberries although the blueberries are coming close these days. My main blueberry crop is from the patch by the backdoor where currently the hedgehog is snoring away the winter.

Value for money - Erysimum, the perennial wallflower

I have one perennial plant that has had flowers during every month of the year, even if only a scattered few at the moment. My perennial wallflower is a Erysimum ‘Bowles’s Mauve’ which has performed consistently and is one of the best plants for bees and other pollinators in the Magic Garden. Given it came from a local supermarket, I think that it has proved value for money!

Fruit (2)

I have a love of gooseberries from childhood and memories of my Grandma ‘head & tailing’ them on a hot July day. My gooseberry bush came from a supermarket in 2004 and has turned into a superb fruiter. I regularly get in excess of 10 kg gooseberries off it despite attacks of gypsy moth caterpillars & sawfly over the years. It also makes a good background foil for the Magic Garden and place for the birds to hide.

Carnivorous Plants

I have always loved carnivorous plants but have not really succeeded that well with them in my own Magic Garden. Many years ago I gave my father two sarracenia purpurea plants and they have gone from strength to strength both the originals by the pond and now elsewhere in the garden in Badachro.

At the moment I have two lots of sarracenias in the Magic Garden - one in just a pot and the remainder in a trough next to the summerhouse & the pond.

I’m not particularly good at houseplants but I do currently have a Venus flytrap that is enjoying a sunny windowsill

Fruit (1)

I currently have 6 apple ‘trees’ & 4 sapling crab apples. I have 2 in the ground - the one I re-positioned and another that is just along from the bower seat.

The apples in the pots & vigoroot bags do better than either of the pair in the ground. The one that consistently is doing the best is the Bramley Seedling.

At the back of the garden I have a good patch of rhubarb. I don’t know what variety but the crowns came from an allotment neighbour and have always done well despite being a dry shaded patch of garden.

Utilising the space

My main problems with the Magic Garden are that I always have bigger ambitions than the space can contain and I always think I can do more in any time period than there really any possibility of doing. I used to have an allotment until I had to admit that I didn’t have the time & problems with my spine were creating difficulties with tending it. I love fresh vegetables though so I still attempt to grow them in pots, & troughs. I have some success particularly with said crops, kale, garlic and potatoes. on the patio. I also am very successful with runner and climbing beans - to be honest I’m better at growing than eating these.

Even in winter I keep the troughs full & pick salad throughout the season.

The patio space is almost entirely used by my pot, container and unplanted acquisitions although my faithful old rocking chair is much used Bsides the troughs with my vegetables & herbs, I also have troughs of geraniums, fuchsias & lobelia; rather a lot of fruit bushes - a topic for the future.

I have a wee forest of bushes & ‘trees’ that are in pots - mostly not as an ideal solution but as the only way to have things like my monkey-puzzle, seen in the background here. Even if its not very tidy & I lack places to put patio furniture, I rather like my collection of plants as well as taking pride in how much I can get into my garden.

In the Garden Today

Today we had a bit of sunlight and it felt mild at 7 degrees, mainly because there was very little wind & was dryI and a little time so I went out to do an inspection of what I have in pots - somethings are permanent pot or container residents intentionally, others I’m a little ashamed to say have just failed to arrive in their final position. The longest pot resident is the olive tree that is planted in the large terracotta pot my sister bought me as a housewarming present nearly two decades ago. The olive tree went in immediately & was about a foot tall. Two years ago I thought it was dead as it spent a whole summer without leaves but then I removed the top entirely with the plan of taking it out of the pot, failed to finish the task & a few weeks later it sprouted a fresh and is now healthy & even producing flowers and olives.

At the other end of the scale, the newest resident in the collection of the unplanted is my witch hazel (Hamamelis). This was an impulse buy because it seemed appropriate for the Magic Garden because of the medicinal properties associated with it, although not this version of the plant.

Another (intentional) pot resident is the Christmas Box, Sarcococca confusa. Mine is a neat wee plant just coming into flower now & the scent is lovely. I have left it near the backdoor giving me the best chance to enjoy the scent.