Happy Tuesday

Today has been very windy but sunny & mild. Once I got home, I found my heuchera had arrived from Plantagogo - the most beautiful looking plants. I then spent a happy couple of hours planting the majority of them out. Ben clearly thought I was being boring as he decided to have an upright snooze.

Heucherella ‘Onxy’

Heucherella ‘Tapestry’

Heuchera ‘Cafe Ole’

Plum pudding

I also put in couple along the north path together with a celocephalus

Most of the plants were destined for the back border where the catnips are getting established. I’m really pleased with how this is progressing.

Heuchera ‘Paris’ PBR

Heuchera ‘Paris’ is I think a new favourite & there were two in this set.

Heuchera citronella

Heuchera ‘Tinamisu’

Sunny Sunday

Its been a beautiful sunny day. Inevitably I only had this morning to play in the garden. I love how green & lush its looking & how quickly the spaces are filling up.

I am pleased how the formality of the thyme zone is broken by a stray aquilegia and by how the plants in the area round it are coming together . I think I will have to replace the lavender which is a bit woody though. I added a new little Helichrysum petiolare yesterday which has a delicate leaf and pleasing silver.

Saturday 7th May

I went up to a little nursery near Morpeth, Stanton Hall, this morning and had a happy time buying plants for specific uses and indulging in a bit of instant gardening with a box of stocks and nicotiana. I was lucky to have an afternoon then of sun allowing me to plant out most of today’s acquisitions.

I found a lovely Trifolium repens purpurea which I hope will be happy along the edge of the Magic Garden plot.

It was a beautiful afternoon in the sun which Ben seemed to enjoy to its full

I bought three new catnips. The littlest is Nepta x Faasseni “kitten around” which I’ve put in with a new Persicaria microcephaly “Red Dragon”. In the back corner I put in another Nepta alba and a Nepta mussini adding barriers in to try and discourage Ben from rolling on them until they’ve got established.

I also got round to planting out cut & come again salad - a mixture of oak leaved lettuce and losso rollo.

Friday

It was raining when I came back from work today but I still popped out for a few minutes. I love the way every time I walk round the garden there is something new to see and always something needing doing. Its garden waste bin day tomorrow so I’ve pulled the bin full of gooseberry clippings and dead wood round the front of the house. I’m pleased to see that the remains of the bush is still looking healthy and there is a tiny crop of gooseberries.

Ben has helped me train the sweetpeas upwards

My windowsills are full of seedlings & I am hoping that I can get some of them moved onto their homes. The view from the top back bedroom is showing the garden looking so green. Its interesting to look from above and realise how much space there still is.

Thursday 5th May

I had to go into work this morning so I didn’t get much done in the garden. I did pot up two of the cherry tomato plants and put them into the wee plastic growhouse and I sowed beetroot, nasturtiums and calendulas in the fabric troughs. There are non-salad seedlings amongst the lettuces I sowed in one of the troughs but at least the lettuces are coming on well.

Ben spent most of the day outside again and followed my progress round the garden before snoozing on the hedgehog house

I have taken out some of the kale that’s gone to seed but I am enjoying the visitors to their flowers too much to totally remove them. The centaurea montana is coming out now providing fodder for the bees.

Wednesday 4th May

It had rained on & off during the day & the garden was looking better for a drink. I was pleased to see that the posh ‘thrift’ in full flower in the rock garden. There is lots of bloom just coming out now and small changes each day to enjoy.

Another work day so not home until late. One of the benefits though of the time of year is that it was still light enough to sit in a damp garden with Ben. It was very soothing to just sit & watch the garden.

Hawthorn & Horse Chestnuts

I wasn’t feeling great this afternoon - it was a bit chilly for being out in the Magic Garden so I took myself off for a walk. By the main road there is a an old hedgerow that was an avenue of horse chestnuts with other species in between. Storm Alwen and other causes have thinned this out but where it remains the horse chestnuts are resplendent in fresh green foliage and to my joy the most amazing flowers. I don’’t think I had ever appreciated before what lovely blooms precede the eventual conkers.

There were two small brooms in flower & a tiny gorse bush too. Further on I found some early 0x-eye daisies in a sheltered spot.

Ben’s quite content to sit in his trough

The hawthorns are also in bloom - ‘May’ blossom. Hawthorn in Scottish Gaelic is known as ‘sigtheach’ & is said to mark the entrance of the otherworld. Its bad luck to cut hawthorn at any time other than when its in bloom.

May Bank Holiday

There had been a little rain over night & everything is looking lush & green. I think all the apple trees are now in blossom. I still watered the sweetpeas around the garden & tried to convince them to grow upwards.

This week’s supermarket buy was some lovely yellow bidens. I have planted them mainly in a trough. The other things I planted out today was the first batch of sunflowers. I‘ve put these in a trough which should ensure they get more or less full sunshine in the event we get some.

Today is a Bank Holiday so I was off work and spent some of it working in the Magic Garden with assistance from Ben-cat. His favourite places are on the hedgehog house & the bottom rung of the fabric troughs

Another task I started was putting copper tape around the troughs and the cold frame. I have a lot of snails & slugs in the garden and find this is as good as anything else I have used while being non-toxic to the wildlife around. The hedgehogs last year were eating the slugs but I haven’t seen much evidence of a significant effect on their population.

Working Sunday

I have been at work today & came home to a cool grey evening so Ben & I enjoyed few minutes together on the arbour seat. I satisfied my creative juices with a little macro photography before retreating into the warmth.. Ben posed for me then checked out the catmint before coming back in too.

Saturday 30th April

I have to own to being very tired & seem to have spent a lot of time in the Magic Garden this afternoon with not that much to show for it. I have put together a plastic house for the tomatoes that I will be slightly surprised if it survives more than a day or two. My three tomato plants are too wee to put outside yet and we are apparently in for a cold May so it may be sometime before I do put them out.

I was delighted to see a peacock butterfly emerging from the ivy that I had rescued & re-pinned to the fence between the neighbours and me. These flamboyant butterflies may be officially common but I rarely see them in the Magic Garden.

I sowed carrots into a trough today and have covered them with a plastic lid.

I shredded a pile of cardboard & stirred it into the mix in the hotline together with some more vegetative matter. I drained some fluid off it and added it to the watering can so I could feed the apples. I was pleased to see a bee go from apple tree to apple tree - hopefully this will help the apple crop along.

The Magic Garden is looking lush and green now with bits of colour scattered through. Ben has various places where he sits but always where he can see out.

Friday 29th April

I had a good day at work but was glad to be home promptly to find a garden full of sunshine and birdsong. Ben had been out for the afternoon and we sat for a while before he got bored and went to check out the indoors and some of his catnip.

The sun has brought on more blossom and more flowers are out across the garden. In the troughs the osteospermums were fully open . In the ground behind them in my ‘winter interest’ area the dogwoods are in flower - their main purpose in the garden is the colour of their stems but these wee flowers are delicately pretty and the bees seem to quite like them

Thursday 28th April

I spent a couple of hours in the Magic Garden this afternoon catching up with little jobs. I had already planted out ‘blue’ (violet) and today I planted out white ‘bacopa’. These are really correctly known as Cheanortoma cordatum. Although they have similar flowers the true bacopa has different leaves and are an aquatic species.

I did sit for a few minutes admiring the fence from the arbour seat. I then filled in the various places with the composted bark mulch. Its a lovely stuff to run your hands through!. The last job was to tidy away every bit of dead wood and leaves from under the gooseberry.

I also planted out into one of the troughs at the back of the garden some Marguerite daisies, Argyranthemum frutescens. I love these perennial daisies & think they will look nice with last year’s osteospermums.

Working Wednesday

Back to work today and so very tired tonight. I did a quick look round the Magic Garden once I got home. At the back of the garden behind the apple tree and the black elder I have a magnolia that is in full bloom now. I think of family when I see it in bloom - my Dad loved these trees and I bought this one with a garden token from my aunt. At its foot I found a couple of late snake fritillary flowers, a bit battered but still beautiful.

In the front of the Magic square, the wee aquilegia is just coming out with its beautiful graceful blooms. Ben was somewhat miffed at me for having been our all day despite having been fed by his sitter earlier.

Tired Tuesday

It was raining this morning so I didn't expect to get much time in the garden so it was a complete bonus for it to be dry and for the odd spell of sunshine this afternoon. My supermarket treat this week was a rather pretty red argyrathemum, not bad for £3. I will try and taking cuttings to overwinter as its a fairly tender perennial. I’m hoping the bees will appreciate it too.

After I’d planted this out I also planted out the spare lupin and a stray thyme cutting. The perennial sweetpea is pushing through next to the rowan tree so I’ve put in the obelisk there & tried to persuade the shoots to climb up it.

Ben wisely kept out of my way initially watching from the hedgehog house & then he was back to occupying his trough. It must be fairly warm as it catches sun almost all day.

I then spent an hour cutting out the dead wood of the gooseberry, leaving about 1/5th of the original gooseberry left compared to a year ago. Worryingly on some of the pruning I found what looks like coral spot - a fungal disease that attacks dead wood primarily but can spread to ‘living wood’ too. I shall have another pruning session in a day or two to try and make sure I’ve taken out all the dead wood I can see and to clear all the dead wood from around its base. I hope the coral spot is secondary.

Monday 25th April

Today started off very unpromisingly with showery rain & felt quite chilly so there was something special about having the sun come out at lunchtime. Today’s main activities were around sowing cucumbers, courgettes & pumpkin seeds which are now safely on my bedroom windowsill. I put in a few more plant supports & did a bit of thinning of overenthusiastic growth. Ben had a happy roll about on the patio so is probably rather pleased I have created some space for him to do so.

A bit of sunshine goes a long way to make me happy! A few bees to photograph help too.

Bliss to just sit in the arbour seat in the sun!

Busy Sunday

I have had a busy day in & out the Magic Garden. First thing I took a picture from top of the house so I could see where the spaces are in the borders. I am amazed by how quickly everything is growing now & by the constant changing look of the garden as the perennials come back into life. I then spent several hours finishing off painting the fences, the back border edgings and the cold frame. I took the opportunity to rearrange the pots again and to move the raspberries as far away as possible from the potato sacks - raspberries & potatoes should not be grown near each other or so I was told when I had an allotment. It seemed to be true there!

I am very pleased with the grey of the fences - its a bit darker than I intended but I think will weather down quickly & I like the green against it.

The pulmonaria is looking lovely & I think is happier for getting more sunlight. Along with getting some more heuchera I plan to get some more pulmonaria for this back corner.

The goldfinches look lovely against the grey fence and its good to see them enjoying the nigella seeds that I had bought with them in mind. The pigeons seem to really like them too.

Sunny Saturday

Today has been another beautiful day. I have painted a large chunk of fence so that there is about a panel & a half left, plus all the edging & the arbour seat. I then spent a long time talking to my brother on the phone sitting enjoying the sun and then just sitting. Sitting on the garden rocking chair I really enjoyed the scent of the broom from beyond the pond. Looking across the garden its bright yellow is beautiful against the grey fence.

Broom is in the legume family and has the typical flower type. It has a strong vanilla scent & apparently the flowers are edible although as they are supposed to be flavourless I don’t think I will bother finding out!

Broom was used as a heraldic badge by Geoffrey of Anjou & thereafter by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of England. Their name supposedly is derived from its Latin name of plants genista.

The bees & other insects are busy around it too although I think there are fewer bees than in previous years.

Its magical use is in spells for purification and protection although in Italy it was burnt to stop witches. Stories of witches riding sticks made of broom may be related to compounds within it that are psychoactive. Otherwise its used as a diuretic & in the form of an ointment in treatment of gout.

Sunshine

Its been beautiful today so I have spent quite a bit of time sitting in the Magic Garden as I’m still not feeling 100%. I’ve painted another chunk of fence and watered the pots and potato sacks but otherwise just enjoyed a quiet spell with Ben watching the bees and the birds.

Lots of little snails around so I will soon have to start an eradication programme!

The dunnocks are very busy at the moment & demonstrating how clever they are by enjoying the feeders. I think my local birds are a bit unusual because the pigeons and the blackbirds also use the feeders.

Thursday 21st April

Another cool grey day with the occasional period of sunshine and another chunk of fence painted. I am pleased with the grey paint and think its going to be a perfect foil for the Magic Garden.

Ben unfortunately took a liking to the patch of earth in front of the broccoli patch. I have given up hope of the broad beans appearing and so today I planted out the cauliflowers that have been looking for a home here.

I have also planted out the last of the sweet peas - I have planted out so many that I hope some will do this year! I received in the post today a packet of seed for the perennial version so I hope this time next year to be looking forward to them flowering.

Rhubarb crumble might be on the menu this weekend. More apple blossom is out & the blueberries are coming into flower too.