GARDENER'S WORD

Yesterday I brought inside several of the pelargoniums that had been so beautiful outdoors since spring.  It seems a shame to let things die with the attitude that they can just be thrown away and replaced with new plants the next year.  I suppose that is just me railing against the throw-away nation that we have become.  Unfortunately, the only sunny window bottom that I have in my home is the one that is reserved for Alfie, my Ragdoll cat.  The plants take second place to him and have to manage on the kitchen window bottom and on the breakfast bar, both facing the same easterly direction.  The pelargoniums, over winter, survive but they become rather leggy with the lack of light.  I water them sparingly and in very early spring I take cuttings from them.  This way, by the time the threat of frost is over, I have a lot more pelargoniums to colour my tubs, troughs and borders. Zonal pelargoniums inside; ivy outside.   In the image above...

At last I have managed to conjure up whatever it took me to empty the trough under my front window, pot up the three trailing pelargoniums and the ordinary ones, and discard the poor lobelia that could have gone on a bit longer if I had not been so cruel as to drag them out by their roots and throw them on the garden border where I will later chop them in.  The pelargoniums will over winter on my kitchen window even though every spring I say that that is the last time I am going to have a load of pelargoniums on my kitchen window.  I just cannot do it, sacrifice plants that serve me so well.  I've thrown away all the ones that grew in the border in the back garden but the ones in the trough are my favourite colours - cerise, vibrant red, and shocking pink.  They have been spared because of my colour prejudice in their favour!  They are such undemanding plants, you know.  All they ask when in the garden is a bit of sun, a drop of rain, and to be left al...

As winter is descending upon us here in West Yorkshire like a freight train on a ski slope, I have decided to protect my marble table from the ravages of ice.  If the temperature drops below freezing and water is on the marble, it could well crack it as the frozen water expands.  Each winter I put a piece of thick carpet underlay on top of the marble table top, then an expensive waterproof canvas that was actually bought to protect the swing but was way too big.  And, on top of that, also protecting the table, is a cheapo garden table cover.  Overkill, I hear you say?  Maybe, but every spring when all that is removed, the marble table remains intact. Spring 2011 - marble table survived a bad winter   Not only that, but the cushions on the hammock/swing have now all been stored in the shed, sealed in a tough, Jumbo vacuum storage bag which I bought online via Amazon .  That way they will remain fresh and dry right through to...

Dead dahlia flower heads can be very deceiving.  The flowers begin as rounded, firm buds and gradually open up and bloom.  Then, unlike many flowers where the petals just drop off, old dahlia flowers close and actually look like a pointed bud that is ready to open.  If you press them though, they are spongy rather than firm.  If you prise one open, you will see that there are no colourful petals ready to unfurl. Firm, round, 'Fascination' dahlia bud about to open.   As my dahlias never get a chance to form dead heads - I remove the old flowers before they get to that point - I took a couple of photos elsewhere.  The thing about dead-heading dahlia flowers before they get to this stage is that, if you keep up to it, you force the dahlia to keep on blooming and for a longer period.  It's like a lot of flowering plants; dead heading stops them from setting seed, 'thinking' they have done their job, and 'thinking' they can now just relax an...

Now this is going to sound plain silly but it has never occurred to me before to store tuberous begonias over winter in the same way I do dahlia tubers.  Last year I dug up the dahlia tubers once the frost came and started to blacken the leaves.  I cut down the stems to about 4-6" and then stored them upside down in a tray in my dry shed.  The idea is that any moisture will drain away from the tubers and out of the stems.  Once they were well and truly dry, I just put mine into a rough bag that I formed from garden fleece and stored them in a dry and frost-free place over winter.  I replanted them again this past late spring and they have never looked better than they do in the border this year.  The recommendation though is that you store the tubers over winter upside-down in dry compost, sand, vermiculite or sawdust in a tray. I don't have room for trays all over the place and I kept my dahlias, in their fleece bags, in a sheltered por...

I have never, ever, had success with growing cyclamen and I confess that I gave up trying many years ago.  I think I watered them too much and if I remember rightly they don't like their crowns getting wet and should be watered from the base.  Anyway, they had a fabulous display of cyclamen at the RHS Garden Centre in Harlow Carr, near Harrogate today and I thought I should share it with you.  I think they can be grown outside in the right conditions and so I've added a link in case you are interested.  Click on the photo for a closer look. Cyclamen, RHS Garden Centre, Harlow Carr I saw a beautiful anemone which I thought would look pretty in my garden but right now I am waiting for the dahlias to finish so that I can lift them out of the ground and plant four roses that I have growing in tubs, so I didn't want to buy anything else to plant right at the moment.  Pretty though, isn't it?  Maybe next year.  Anemone Hortensis I always t...

At the RHS Garden Centre in Harlow Carr they generally have metal garden ornaments on display as well as natural stones ones.  Although they are not the sort of thing that I think would enhance my small garden, I do think that the metal ones would look very pretty in the right setting.  They certainly make a change from stone statues.  I think one would look pretty next to a pond.  Click on an image to get a closer look.      

I visited Harlow Carr today, had lunch at Betty's café, and decided to take a few photographs of the autumn colours of the RHS gardens.  It's been a mild and sunny day, off and on, without rain this afternoon.   I thought the photos turned out quite well and that the trees looked very beautiful.  I didn't actually go into the gardens today but took these from just outside.   

After a couple of quite fair days that have allowed many gardeners in the U.K. to actually get out there and get some jobs done in preparation for colder days ahead, we now have a very windy day here on the Pennines of West Yorkshire with the rain lashing down and dustbin lids blowing off.   I've been out and secured what I can and thank goodness that I tied in my climbers some time ago.  I've also turned the outside water off by the inside tap a few days ago in case I go and forget and freezing weather hits before I know it.  The last thing I want is a burst pipe.  I have a feeling that we might be in for another harsh winter with lots of snow - hoping that I am wrong - so getting organised and bracing myself for it already just in case. 

  I did a little experiment this year with my hanging baskets.  They hang in partial shade on an easterly facing wall and only get early morning sun in winter, if there is any early morning sun.  At the height of summer it might get several good hours until just past midday.  I have to plant things that tolerate partial shade such as lobelia, bacopa, and begonia.  Last year, 2011, I grew a mixture of plants in my hanging baskets but I noticed that by winter the lobelia had almost died off but the bacopa were still blooming.  Yet, lobelia were far more floriferous than bacopa during the summer.  Oct 15 2012 - Bacopa now competing with lobelia   So, this year I planted my hanging baskets with nothing more than trailing lobelia and bacopa. All green and white with a pretty touch of blue that got in thanks to the nursery where I bought the young plants.  All summer long I have hardly noticed the bacopa at all and t...

Today I put out maize kernels for the squirrels and filled the bird feeder which should keep the little birds happy.  The bigger birds are able to feed in the neighbour's garden next door, so my conscience is clear.  When I saw the price of some of the commercial squirrel feeders, I thought the manufacturers must have been having a laugh.  At the RHS garden shop, there was a squirrel feeder which was just a bit of plywood nailed together for the price of £23.  For the squirrels that visit my garden, I would prefer to spend the £23 on food.  I just got a plant pot and threaded some strong garden twine through four holes making a holder for the pot, as you can see, and I put a few stones in the bottom to stop the maize kernels falling through the holes.  That's it.  Job's a good 'en.  I'm fairly sure, judging by the amount of squirrels that I have seen this year, that the kernels will have been taken long before they get a chance to be spoiled by ...

  Now that the nights are longer and far chillier, the dahlias are putting on quite a show.  Before long, the frost will nip them and blacken them, but for now their flowers are dominating my garden.  It was lovely this morning around 9 a.m. with the sun shining and a chill in the air.  The lawn was wet with dew and looked healthy and lush, and the hanging baskets were lit up in the sunshine.  It's good to have an autumn day like this when we are facing winter here in West Yorkshire.  I hope we don't get a lot of snow again this year.  I can't bear it!      Pink 'Fascination' dahlias putting on a show Early morning sunshine 13 October 2012 I still have the strawberry plants in the mini greenhouse but they will now have to come out and suffer the cold because my herbs are going to be put in there now.  Many of my herbs will not be able to stand the cold as well as the strawberries. It's a bit of a juggling time...

Very soon the pelargoniums will have to be taken out of the front, south facing, trough which is under my living room window.  The spent lobelia will be discarded, and the compost replaced.  I've decided to plant bulbs in it for spring but, meanwhile, shall plant some winter flowering violas over the top of the bulbs.  Apparently violas prefer light shade to full sun but the amount of sun they are likely to get is probably going to be very limited unless, of course, we have a winter that is far better than the summer we have all just suffered in the U.K.   That is not impossible, I know.  These are my choice of bulbs - chosen because none of them grow very tall and I live in hope that the cruel winter/spring winds won't knock their heads off the minute they appear. I should still be able to enjoy looking at them from within the warmth of my living room: Hyacinth 'Carnegie' Galanthus 'Woronowii' Narcissus 'Minnow' Iris R...

In an earlier post I mentioned that I had taken up the pelargoniums in a narrow border and planted the narcissus Obdam.  It was all really too bare, that little strip of soil, while I waited for the daffodils (narcissus) to make an appearance next spring, so I bought a couple of trays of winter flowering violas.  I've never grown violas in the winter and I am not sure how they will cope with a heavy snowfall, or extremely low temperatures but nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that.             They look a little sad at the moment in the border and for the first couple of days, just while they get over the shock of transplanting, I have covered them over with bubble wrap during the night.  I do hope that they take and give a good display through winter.   Maybe they will, if the slugs don't eat them first.  The Obdam narcissus bulbs are in there too, running close to the upper edge of ...