Last day of annual leave

Today is my last annual leave day and having met a friend for coffee and cake & catching up with tasks, I spent a couple of hours in the Magic Garden planting things out & weeding with some time spent just enjoying being out. Ben wasn’t impressed with my efforts and spent most of his day in the front garden.

I planted the alpine primula and the pulsatilla in the alpine bed between the summerhouse and the pond. This is the spoil from when I dug out the pond and is solid clay at its core but is covered in specialist alpine compost and grit. I’m pleased by the number of daffodils that have survived along the fence and the survival of the shrubs in front.

I planted out two distinct forms of lavender - augustifolia (English) & stoechas (French) along the five lines extending from the inner pentagonal planting. In this main planting area I also planted out the sea hollies and lupins that have been waiting in the cold frame. A further heuchera went into the catnip patch too.

I always water in new plants but today I was giving a soaking to other plants including the pots as it has been dry for the last week and more. Its odd to be thinking of using the hosepipe in March but I may well need to give the Magic Garden a soaking this weekend.

Wednesday in the Sun

I had today off & was blessed with sunshine. After months of ignoring it, I spent the morning tidying up the border that is the front garden & clearing the leaves from the footpath. In November 2020 I planted a large number of daffodils & other bulbs in both the front border and the Magic Garden & it always makes this time of year special with the sheer number of them in flower.

I saw my first ladybirds of the year today too

On the other side of the bamboo, in Ben’s catnip patch, I planted out the Epimedium grandifloras ‘Bandit’ - I’m not totally convinced that it is that but time will show especially if it flowers! I also planted the pulmonaria ‘blue ensign’ & to Ben’s delight, two Nepeta Persian Blue. I’ve not covered them completely (yet) but hope I will manage to stop him killing them with love!

I then planted out this year’s first curly kale (Reflex F1) plants. Last year’s are going to seed now but have provided greens throughout the winter. This wee bed has tended in the past to get completely overshadowed in the summer but I think will get more light this year. I then covered them with mesh mainly to protect them against the pigeons.

Back to the Magic Garden

I’m back in Newcastle tonight with Ben after a rather long day in the car. I was fortunate to have an easy drive down but it was still rather special to be able to come back to sit in the Magic Garden with Ben. It was a little chilly but the sun was out as are the majority of my daffodils now. The white ones are my favourite.

I was relieved to find that Ben hasn’t totally finished off the catnip plants although his favourite pair are looking a bit sad. I was also pleased to find my seedlings upstairs are looking healthy & I’m going to be able to prick out the rudbeckia this weekend. The seeds downstairs are just germinating but also look okay despite my absence. I need to do some gentle watering tonight but I have had less casualties than I expected.

I planted out a new erysimum bowles mauve as part of the continual regeneration of the Magic Garden and the heuchera joined the others at the back of the garden. I did quite a lot of pulling out of weeds while I was out there remembering that its our first garden waste collection this coming weekend

Rudbeckia Marmalade

I’m looking forward to a good sleep tonight and then I intend being in the garden for as much of tomorrow as possible & so far the weather forecast is good!

Home (3)

Today is my last day at home and again it has been sunny and bright although there had been a hard frost overnight and temperatures remained lower than yesterday. I have rather worn my mother out so we had a mainly quiet day so I took the opportunity to decide with her where to plant the alpines that she bought at the Garden Cottage Nursery on Saturday. She has a small rockery which is really just the natural stones built up into a bank away form the patio as the garden slopes upwards and away. It was a little challenging creating planting holes for these new plants and the lavender I brought from Newcastle for Mum. I will be particularly interested to see how the dwarf curry plant does as I quite like the idea of using these as edging plants.

Dwarf curry plant

Lemon thyme ‘Silver Queen’

Saxafrage Monarch

Dianthus fusilier

Saxifrage ardensii Alpino Early Picotee

Sedum spathulifolium Cape Blanco

Once I had planted these out for Mum and watered her seedlings and the cuttings in the greenhouse for her, I took the opportunity to take some cuttings from one of the buddleja globosa - the yellow ball tree. Mum had taken these as cuttings years ago and says they strike easily - we shall see!

Home (2)

I have been incredibly lucky with the weather staying up here in NW Scotland but of course that means I’m worrying a bit about my baby plants and seedlings back home - I hope my system of capillary matting has kept them alive. I’m missing Ben-cat too although I’ve spied on him on the video doorbell cam. This lovely weather has meant I’ve been out & about & even sat in the garden.

Down in front of the house is.a a large heather & juniper bed. My father deliberately chose heathers to try & give all year round colour. He had it divided up by prostrate juniper creating the impression of water flowing.

The heather provides important sustenance for the earliest of the bumblebees to appear although there were more on the native coltsfoot.

Round the side of the house & in front of the garage is the vegetable plot with its old plum tree and large blueberry bush. I’m always impressed how the large cold frames have survived the harshest of weather here.

My Birthday

Today’s my birthday and it has to be one of the most gloriously sunny & warm ones I can remember. I drove Mum up the coast to the Garden Cottage Nursery at Tournaig and selected some plants to mark the occasion. I have a love of meconopsis poppies and will put them in with the blueberries to enjoy the acid soil.

Meconopsis Baileyi Alba

Heuchera Solar Eclipse

Alpine aquilegia x 2

Meconopsis napulensis

Pulsatilla

Mum’s collection of alpines

Meconopsis Lingholm

an alpine primula

Today was the first bumblebee picture of the year too & it was enjoying the pussy willows. The sky really was that blue! I made my day entirely by visiting Red Point and going to my favourite beaches.

'Home' (1)

I’m spending a long weekend with my mother in Badachro in the NW Highlands. The garden here has developed over the last quarter of a century from when Mum & Dad moved in. The first thing they did was to plant over 100 trees to try and create a bit of shelter. The resulting garden at the back has three main areas merging into each other - the bottom is where Mum has an alpine bed, the bird table and the pond as main features; the middle layer has perennials and shrubs leading up into what becomes the woodland garden.

Bottom level back garden

Middle level back garden

Middle level back garden

Woodland garden

There are two glorious lenten roses which are at their best at the moment in the perennials. I love their hanging heads & particularly like the deep ruby version.

The frogs are still cavorting in the pond with lots of frog spawn already. I spotted some newts today too but didn’t catch them on camera

The mahonia is a survivor - the deer almost destroyed the original plant. Once its head had been chopped of it has re-sprouted and is now rewarding with flowers. The other is hidden away in the wild patch.

St Gertrude’s Day

St Gertrude is the patron saint of gardening and cats so is I suppose the patron saint of Ben’s Magic Garden. I’ve come home for a long weekend so am worrying about the Magic Garden and my seedlings & baby plants already. I hate being away at this time of year but have promised myself a trip to a local plant nursery to compensate in advance from any losses incurred through my absence!

I can still plan for the future & I would love to have some erythroniums & more pulmonaria

Pulmonaria ‘Mawson’s Blue’

Plants for Free

Tidying up the Magic Garden yesterday I found several welcome progeny of plants. I took some wee ‘cuttings’ and potted up other youngsters that were not quite where I’d want them. I hope the achillea will take. I will probably give away some of the dusky cranesbill as I do have rather a lot of it in the Magic Garden already. I will try and establish a patch in the front garden too although strangely its never done as well out there.

Its been tipping down with rain today so it was almost okay to spend the day at work. At this time of year I get itchy fingers wanting to get outside as much as possible. Ben is perhaps beginning to agree with this as he was determined to go and sit in the arbour seat & watch the rain this evening. I sat with him for a bit hoping to do a bit of moon worshipping as it is a Full moon by tomorrow morning.

Busy Tuesday

Its been mild and occasionally sunny today. I was so engrossed in working in the Magic Garden this morning that I nearly forgot to go to a hospital appointment. My Magic Garden is one of the key components to keeping me well, that with photographing it and being with Ben-cat. Today, amongst other tasks, I was planting out some more of the perennials that I’m using to fill up any gap I can find. Today’s mainly went into the western quarter of the Magic Garden’s centre.

Penestemon Dakota burgandy

Campanula persicifolia caerula

The ranunculus however has gone under where the asters will come up. Its yellow flowers will stand out against its wonderful deep coloured leaves & I love the fresh green of its stems. I think I will try and find another of these for under the hazel arch.

Ranunculus Brazen Hussy

Salvia ‘caradonna pink inspiration’

More of the daffodils are coming out into full bloom now including the yellow ones with orange trumpets & the earliest of my white ones

Ben has become overly enthusiastic about the latest additions to his catnip collection so this afternoon after this demonstration of love I have now put some protection in place - suspect I will have to buy a replacement white-flowered Nepeta before long though! Still, the 50 pence heucheras might survive.

Working Monday

Another sunny day outside while I was working. At least the mornings are getting light now but the evenings are still dark by the time I’m leaving work again. Its pretty mild here and I think the season may be slightly in advance of last year. Its strange now to look at a photograph from a year ago today and to see how the old fence looked with its curtain of greenery. The arbour seat looks less worn too - I shall need to get a new set of prayer flags out & perhaps a replacement solar star mobile.

Ben was a little less inclined to go out than a year ago perhaps because his archenemy the blackbird was in full possession of the fence.

A Bit More Planting Out!

Another day which improved into sunshine this afternoon & I spent the afternoon in the Magic Garden. I planted out the echinacea into the border in front of the fence & the six foxgloves that I reared last autumn & another of the catnip plants - this one is a white flowered one.

Echinacea is used by herbalists to boost immunity & is often used to try and shorten the symptoms of colds & coughs. In the Magic Garden they are to attract more pollinators.

Ben is liable to over love the original catnip plants & burrows his face into it. I will keep an eye to see if it will need protection from him to survive.

Heuchera

I have had a busy time in the Magic Garden today planting out some of the heuchera that I have been amassing before they take over the dining room floor.

Heuchera ‘Timeless Night PBR’

Heuchera ‘Charlotte’

Heuchera ‘Red Lightening’

Heuchera ‘Walnut’

Heuchera ‘Tapestry’

Heuchera ‘Peachberry Ice’

Heuchera ‘Frilly Lizzy’

I’m not sure Ben is entirely happy with my planting them out in the corner where I’m making the new beds & where the majority of the catnip is planted.

Worrying about my Goosegogs

I planted a gooseberry bush really early on in this garden, about 17 years ago, and it got its feet down & grew. I’ve been picking more than 10 kg of fruit annually. I always think of my grandmother when I ‘head & tail’ the fruit as I remember her sitting happily occupied doing this in my parents’ garden in Edinburgh.

I am though very worried about it. Last summer I was away during a period of heat and drought and when I came back , the leaves were just wilting on the bush around the crop and the twigs just appeared dead. I have been anxiously waiting to see how it grows this year.

The smaller birds find shelter & safety within the bush & I am seeing the odd sign of life around them with a few leaves opening out but I’m conscious that the bush is not greening up as it did last year. The photo with Ben in it from one year ago does look as if the bush is greener (in the far corner) than in the other from this year. I’m hoping that most of it has survived but will cut out what transpires to be dead later in the spring to allow the rest to sprout back.

Coltsfoot

My mum has been telling me all week about the coltsfoot that has sprung up everywhere at home in the last week or two. It has here too. Coltsfoot is so-called because of the shape of its leaves but its flowers which are little beacons of yellow at the moment come before the leaves. Coltsfoot is Tussilago farara, tussis being latin for cough and traditional coltsfoot was used in herbal medicine as a cough remedy. It is though toxic so I don’t think I’ll be trying it out!

Optimism

I love this time of year in the Magic Garden because besides the sudden eruption of crocuses, irises & daffodils, this is the time when I over-optimistically start off seeds galore. I have already a reasonable germination of Rudbeckia marmalade & a less good germination of Echinacea. The seeds were freebies but if I succeed in raising them they will be lovely additions to use in my bee photographs.

Meantime I have pricked out some pelargoniums and some snapdragons. I love snapdragons & they usually go into second years in the Magic Garden so represent good value. I strongly suspect that my pelargoniums will be still a bit on the wee side come summer but if I can get them through next winter then I might have plants of a reasonable size to put in the borders and pots. That’s the ambition anyway!

Tuesday March 8th

Been busy today so just a quick post about my witch hazel, Hamamelis Intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’. Its now in its probably forever position in the Magic Garden behind the two dogwoods and next to where my white monkshoods are sprouting with vivid green leaves.

Together with it are two perennial foxgloves - ones white and the other rose pink. The crab apple hedging plants will eventually grow too big for this space.

Cold Monday

Its bitterly cold here today and we had a proper frost with temperatures down to -5C. The wind is beginning to get up again too making it feel colder still. I’m not sure how many times I’ve put the solar lit windspinner back up right & I’ve given up for the moment trying to get the sundial wing to stay in place.

The basic structure of the Magic Garden is easy to see at this time of the year. I need to get some more white gravel /stones for the central paths. I like the effect of having my cross of paths running north to south and east to west. At each corner there is a piece of slate giving the compass point

It is also as difficult as normal to see the patio as its always covered by troughs and pots. Besides the fruit bushes in their growbags, the troughs contain a mixture of flowers, & vegetables. The kale has been steadily cropping through out the winter and the salad crops had been doing ok until this last month where its lack of protection has taken its toll.

Sunny Sunday

Its been a beautiful day here with a real feeling of spring. Its not been warm but the sun has been out most of the day. The Magic Garden is really beginning to wake up from its winter sleep. Ben and I enjoyed some time sitting in the sun before I did some ‘instant’ gardening after a bit more impulse buying.

I’m going to gradually fill up the space in the back under where the jasmine used to be with perennials but went for a bit of instant colour with some new snakehead fritillaries and anemone blanda ‘blue shades’. There are 2 more catnip plants in there now too but Ben hasn’t noticed yet.

Anemone blanda means charming windflower which seems a good description of these cheerful winter flowering plants. They used to be used medicinally to treat gout which seems a bit surprising as they are quite toxic.

Working Saturday

Bit sad today to have missed out on the daylight being at work, so relying on old photographs for tonight’s post. I endeavour every year to take decent photographs of daffodils but am never that satisfied with the results. I have a lot of different types of daffodil in the Magic Garden but these are the most ‘traditional’!

I like the simple elegance of the snakehead fritillaries. Like daffodils, the bulbs are poisonous but in Chinese medicine fritillary extracts are used as cough remedies.

This final picture is of snowdrops in the front garden which are precious to me as they were transplanted in the green from home in Badachro.