GARDENER'S WORD

At last the tomatoes are showing signs of fruit despite the rather cool weather, rain, and the strong breeze which seems a common event where I live. The runner beans, because of the cool weather, are onto a slow start but they are on their way.  Here's hoping that better weather is on the way too. Meanwhile, inspector Alfie, the Ragdoll Cat, is on border patrol.  

Today we have rain but the garden is loving it.  The new lawn is growing so well now that I can almost see it grow.  It is starting to thicken up with regular mowings and soon there will be no bald patches.  I have seeded those areas again, just in case! Lavender and roses I have new additions to my garden lavender - Munstead.  I already have the old English version and the leaves smell lovely when you brush past them.  Buds are forming on the roses.  Lavender and roses - the perfect combination. The strawberry and tomato plants have embryo fruit on them.  All I have to do is get to the ripened fruit before the birds do.  Alfie, my cat, is keeping a careful watch over them.

Yesterday I put together my hanging baskets and I thought I would share with you the way I do mine.  Hanging baskets with bacopa planted in the sides   I like to use the old-fashioned kind of basket and even though my baskets have a flat base, I still like to sit them on a pot.  This adds to stability and helps when planting the side plants.  I put the basket on a table as this saves having to bend over.  I have two types of basket: one type is metal and has wide spaces between the bars; the other is plastic and the spaces are narrower.  While the wide spacing allows easier insertion of plants in the sides, it does permit the plastic to bulge but this should not be a problem.  The narrower spacing, however, makes it harder to insert the plants but holds the compost in the container more firmly! Before I start, I  undo at least one of the chains .  This makes things a lot easier later on.  Then I line the basket with a ...

Yesterday, I had two more hanging baskets put up and two troughs under the kitchen window. I can hardly wait to fill them full of the lovely plants I have bought for them. However, at this time of year, in this northern part of the UK, it is too easy to be lulled into a sense of false security. There is still the risk of night frosts and the containers will need protection for a couple of weeks yet. I usually buy trailing lobelia for my baskets and tubs.  My particularly favourite lobelia is 'Sapphire' (which is a beautiful blue) though I have also bought a white variety this year for contrast.  A hanging basket can be filled with just lobelias and look magnificent.  Or even a hanging basket of violas. Violas Violas look so pretty in tubs and hanging baskets as they make lots of flowers all the time, and they smell so sweet!  Did you notice that?  Above is a picture of a tub I planted up a couple of years ago. Fuchsias are wonderf...

I must have spring fever.  Yesterday, I went to the local garden centre to buy a hoe and a springtine rake.  I got both but I also bought a load of annuals suitable for the hanging baskets and tubs: violas (yellow, purple, and yellow/purple); petunias (F1 hybrid Sunshine); dahlias (green leaf mixed); lobelia (white; and Sapphire, a dark blue); impatiens (lilac coloured, commonly known as Buzy Lizzy); and mimulus (F1 hybrid mixed).  They are all far too tender to go outside, so my breakfast room (below) has now become a greenhouse during the cold late evenings and nights.  The reason for this particular selection of annuals is that they all tolerate partial shade.  My hanging baskets are on a more-or-less East facing wall and only get sunshine in the mornings.  Violas for hanging baskets My young Japanese maple (above) (Acer Palmatum 'Garnet') that I bought recently for half the price I see it in most garden centres, looks splendid...

I could hardly believe, as I drove along to meet a friend today, that it was only 4 degrees.  No wonder my runner bean seeds planted in the garden show no signs of germinating.  Painting by Kathy Chester  (external link)  I have butternut squash seeds (Harrier F1 hybrid) in pots on an indoors window bottom and all I can see is soggy compost in a misted up bag.  I think they were supposed to germinate in 7-10 days. 

It has been an awfully long winter here in West Yorkshire, and the garden plants are only just starting to wake up.  I had to pay a gardener to dig the borders for me as they were rock hard, and I am waiting for the lawn to establish as it was necessary to cover the old lawn with topsoil and reseed (a quick way of dealing with it without all the turbulence of digging over the old lawn). I want my garden to be predominantly a rose garden, full of delightful blooms and an exquisite fragrance, and I have several climbing roses, ramblers, and small shrub roses planted around the borders.  Wherever I live, I always grow the climber, New Dawn.  It has a rich and delicate fragrant, flowers profusely, is disease resistant and can tolerate shade.  New Dawn climbing rose Last year, I had a tall fence erected and it will make a superb place for all the climbers and ramblers, not just the roses.   I also have a new kind of white and cream honeysuckle, highly fragran...