Not a proper blog post today as Ben & I have been busy with #BensMagicGardenPawty for his 17th birthday - its been a mad night on twitter with 550+ tweets to the hashtag. I am blessed with some lovely friends on social media - #cattwitter is the best!
Saturday 11th June
Its extremely windy here today and its doing quite a bit of damage ripping foliage and snapping stems including of my potatoes in their sacks. I spent the afternoon putting in temporary stakes and planting out more of the collection I have amassed.
I did a bit more tying in of the blackberry and gooseberry and then a thorough watering of the whole of that back corner. I am really pleased with how it is coming on and particularly proud of the foxgloves.
Ben patiently sat and waited while I watered everything and then put water ready for the birds. He does like the catnip but has been much less interested in the patch than I thought he might be.
Friday 10th June
Today is the first anniversary of my father’s death so I have been thinking about the things he would have said to me about my garden. I have his secateurs and was using them this morning as I was persuading the blackberry and goosegogs to create the spatial barrier that previously the bulk of the gooseberry bush had provided. This evening I sat with a cup of tea in my garden rocking chair and watched the bees going in to the foxgloves but feeling too lazy to pick up the camera. Ben is in summer mode enjoying being out in the garden and around me.
Thursday 9th June
Despite rather unpromising weather forecasts it managed to stay dry if mostly rather grey. The garden is looking very lush after the recent rain and mild weather.
The bees are still really enjoying the garden. I’m hoping that my soft fruit crop will be good with their efforts to assist pollination. I’m pleased to see how much the ligularia has perked up after being potted up.
Wet Wednesday
We’ve had a fair amount of rain today with some quite heavy showers. This was probably as well for the getting on with things in the house but did cut down the amount of time spent in the Magic Garden. I potted up the Ligularia ‘The Rocket’ up into one of the big statement pots. I’m not sure its destined to stay there but I need to find something as a foil to its beautiful dark stems and bright green leaves.
I was sad to see that the slugs have chewed up my supermarket dahlias. I’m a little surprised as they tend not to like the red dark leaves. My response was to give the back of the garden a dousing in anti-slug nematodes.
Tuesday 7th June
The sun came out this afternoon and so not only did I get a load of washing dry but I also had a bit of time in the garden planting out some of the contents of the collection that has been sitting either in my dining room or the patio. The heuchera, leucanthemum and a blue isotope have gone under the rowan tree and the bergamot into the west quarter.
Leucanthemum Madonna
Heuchera ‘chantilly’
Bergamot ‘Croftway Pink’
Ben was busy watching the paving stone cracks, while the blackbird has been finding the suet block is more of a challenge than the balls.
Monday
I’ve taken this week off work to try and get on top of ‘life’ including of course spending some more time in the Magic Garden. It was cool & grey again today but the threatened rain didn’t happen. I pulled out some weeds, deadhead some more geraniums and checked in on the sweetpeas and climbing beans to persuade them to twine upwards rather than their preferred horizontal. I also potted up the two ‘patio’ tomato plants, the bigger of which I’ve put with the courgette in the pop-up cloche. Ben spent sometime in the wilderness at the back before settling into his favoured fabric trough
Sunday
It was surprisingly cool today and grey but the rain has held off. I spent some time in the back corner pulling out nettles and chopping down the spent geraniums. I tied up the blackberry again and inspected the gooseberry bushes. I am pleased with how its settling out as a border but remains in the ‘wild’ corner. I’m very pleased with the white foxgloves as these came from collected seed from home.
I like the leaves & look of the red shiso plant that I bought yesterday but I’m not entirely sure about its taste - its quite astringent.
The garden is full of bees at the moment - I rescued this one from the spider’s web & cleaned the silk off its legs.
Saturday 4th June 2022
I spent this afternoon in the Magic Garden enjoying the sun.
I bought some anti-duck weed treatment for the wee pond today having taken out another bucket load. I’m pleased that the flags are coming out so there is a bit of yellow to be seen on the far-side of the pond. On the ‘rock’ garden the fox & cubs are out - I always think of my Dad when these flower as he called them the Gairloch weed and gave me the first ones for my garden.
The flag irises complement the blue dutch irises under the rowan tree. These always cheers me with their beautiful blue. I planted out a new scabious today too with another pretty blue at the front of the patio and further round a Chinese foxglove or dragon flower
I planted out the violet-podded climbing beans and potted up the yellow courgette plant to go into the pop-up cloche at the back of the garden. The other courgettes are not big enough to come outside yet. I hope the cloche survives a while as its a bit nippy at night still.
Platinum Jubilee bank holiday
I have had a lovely day off and spent the afternoon in the Magic Garden with Ben - I did a fair amount of weeding, tidying and took an enormous amount of weed out of the pond. Even after removing a bucket full of weed there was still loads left. The valerian has seeded all over the garden now from its place by the pond but as its loved by the bees I tend to let it be.
I’m quite pleased with the progress of the cauliflowers and the broccoli at the back of the garden and my salad troughs are doing really well and so far are not slugged so may be the copper tape does work. Ben wasn’t impressed and snoozed the afternoon away
Thursday 2nd June
Despite the Bank Holiday I was working today and watching blue sky through the theatre windows. I was sorry to come home to wet although it was just showers. I still had a quick look round and enjoyed a few moments of watching the birds at the feeders.
Wednesday
After another long day at work it was rather lovely to come home and sit in some sunshine in the Magic Garden. The nematodes against my sawfly caterpillars arrived today so I drenched the gooseberry and surrounding garden with them. I will follow up tomorrow with another drenching with the rhubarb leaf drench
I find something new to see each day - today the little aquilegia under the rowan tree gracefully swinging in the breeze while Ben was watching the bees
Tuesday
Its been disappointingly chilly today and damp. The bees weren’t deterred though and besides enjoying the white & blue centaurea & cirsium, have been helping pollinate the raspberries - I’ve totally failed on the photography front when it comes to this so only a blurred image!
My soft fruit crop is looking promising with the blackcurrants forming and the blueberries are still blooming too. I will get a little gooseberry crop but nothing on the vast amounts I used to get from my poor battered bush. I drenched it again in rhubarb leaf spray again and hopefully will be able to apply the nematodes tomorrow evening when I come back from work.
Monday 30th May
It rained while I was at work today so I got damp when I opted to sit on the garden rocking chair this evening. Ben wisely chose to enjoy the sun sitting on the coldframe. The view from the chair is a bit different and I noticed a few new blooms out - the main ones of note being the Dutch irises & my wee white jacob’s ladder. I’m pleased that my broad beans are looking healthier as the salad cropping continues.
A bit of birdwatching followed as the goldfinches in particular appreciated the fill up of the nigella seed. The robin seemed to appreciate the suet balls being topped up too. I did a bit more caterpillar squishing and doused the bush again in rhubarb leaf spray.
Sunday
It was wet this morning when I toddled off to work so it was a pleasant surprise to come home to find it had dried up and even has occasional sunshine.
The usual distractions meant that I was busy with the macro photography. I also did a bit of real gardening including starting to plant gladioli bulbs out. I’m planning to get the remainder in tomorrow and Tuesday together with some peacock orchids. I think they will need to go into troughs as I’m running out of empty garden.
I had a very satisfactory, if probably futile, session squashing caterpillars on the gooseberry bushes and then I made a rhubarb leaf solution and doused the bushes in it. Hopefully this will help and the nematodes should arrive soon so I can get better protection in place.
Sunny Saturday
I’m aching all over this evening having been in the Magic Garden all afternoon. I tidied up around the gooseberries and back corner including tying up the blackberry. The poor gooseberry has got sawfly caterpillars trying to defoliate it - I squashed a whole lot and have ordered some nematodes to try and control the problem.
Ben has stayed around me all day which has been lovely, snoozing while the bees enjoyed the garden especially the chives and alliums scattered through the Magic Garden.
I planted out the celeriac in to a new trough and watered it heavily. I then harvested some more salad and some rhubarb.
Friday
I had a busy day at work and so was rather late home. It was sunny but still quite windy so I did another tour of the garden retrieving things and putting things back upright. The garden is looking a little battered but still in lush green with enough colour to show promise for when the wind eventually stops.
The stocks that I rescued yesterday ar looking ok in their new pot. The other main task of the day has been to water the multitude of seedlings and newly sown.
Wind damage again
I spent the afternoon waiting in for the men who came to fix the security alarm - they were rather late and rather foiled by the system’s fault. Meantime I had spent the afternoon potting on the golden globe buddlea cuttings and some of the young plants gracing my window sills. Ben went and sat by the potted apple trees - I’d had to move them together because the wind was blowing them over again.
I opened the backdoor to find that the tiered troughs had blown over. I rescued three nasturtiums but have just had to accept the loss of the planned crops.
Its lovely to see the late spring / early summer flowers starting to appear with the start of the geranium next to the rhubarb.
Windy Again!
Home this evening to it blowing a hooley but it is beautifully sunny. I did a quick tidy up and returning things to where they should be!
The sunshine catches my summerhouse perfectly in the evening. The wind was really blowing things around in the garden but it didn’t stop Ben enjoying his catnip patch.
Tuesday 24th May
We’ve been having really heavy showers today which somewhat curtailed my activities. I did plant out two supermarket dahlias & the catmint I bought as a teat for Ben on my way home yesterday (Nepeta Six Hills Giant) into the back border.
I planted out the broad beans into a trough and hope they survive better than the first lot I planted into the ground - hopefully Ben won’t sit on them! In between rain showers, I enjoyed watching the bees still enjoying the bloody cranesbill and the new cirsium. I also had my first proper tea of leaf salad this year.
