GARDENER'S WORD

For a week or so now we have had alternating sunshine and rain here on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire.  The garden is loving it, and so am I.  Also the rain has encouraged me to rest after doing my back in a few days ago, bending down from the waist, rummaging in cupboard.  Not smart.  Anyway, now I have the garden room , I get the best of both weathers, rain or shine.  This time of year is the best time of year for me, with the least gardening to do (apart from winter when I hibernate).  The small lawn takes no time at all to skim over with the Flymo, and apart from the occasional dead-heading and watering of containers, there is little to do.  The hanging baskets, which do need watering and feeding, rain or not, because they are somewhat sheltered by the house and because they are densely packed with lush plants, are fabulous with their white and purple flowers.  Below is the image of Bacopa Scopia Double Ballerina Snowball, I have...

Although I love my garden, it's just not quite right.  But it's getting there.  As the borders have been widened, it has meant that low growing plants that used to be at the front of the borders are no longer at the front.  They need moving forward.  It hasn't been possible yet because when the borders are widened, the grass turfs around the edge of the lawn are turned upside down and left to rot naturally.  There's no way of planting in them until that has happened.  Also, the replacement of 6ft fencing (5ft + a 1ft trellis) with 5ft fencing has meant that climbers no long have quite the same height to climb.  I got rid of three jasmines which were taking over the old fence and instead, on the south-facing fence, I planted two lilacs ( Syringa vulgaris 'Andenken an Ludwig Spath'  and Syringa vulgaris 'Madame Lemoine') and Buddleja davidii 'Empire Blue', leaving the various clematis in place.  As the lilacs and buddleia mature,...

At last, after almost giving myself sciatica by sitting on what I once thought was a comfortable cane chair (but which I discovered is not comfortable for slouching over long periods), my New York Swivel Rocker in washable Harrow Crushed Velvet Cream (SR16072) has arrived.  And that's it, all the furniture that can sensibly be put into such a small space, a little under 9 x 7ft, is in place.  The marble table takes up a lot of room but that is staying put.   New York (double arm) swivel rocker Alfie, the resident Ragdoll cat, has finally decided that the garden room is not such a bad space after all.  I think the smell of paint which I used on the shelf (Once by Dulux) was too much for him.  It was too much for me too at times and it took weeks for the smell to go.   Alfie, the resident Ragdoll cat, sitting on a Hug Rug. 

Well, this is a new one!  A first for me.  After many decades of gardening I have discovered yet something else I have never seen before.  Gardening is full of surprises.  Exobasidium vaccinnii, a fungus also known as Azalea leaf (or flower) gall has got a hold on poor Azalea 'Tit Willow' , the little azalea which I uprooted to make way for my new garden room in spring.  Seems Tit Willow is not happy.  After photographing the strange, white, puffy growths on the branch ends, I did a bit of research on the net and came up with the name of the problem.  Actually, they look rather like prawn crackers.  Exobasidium vaccinnii also known as Azalea leaf (or flower) gall  Exobasidium vaccinnii also known as Azalea leaf (or flower) gall  Seems the remedy is to snip them off as soon as you see the problem, dispose of the cuttings where they cannot contaminate further, and clean your secateurs.  I cut the little branches well bac...

I was just going outdoors to pull up the blinds in my garden room this morning, to let the glorious sun warm it up inside, and was stopped in my tracks.  On the concrete patio, near to the kitchen door, was a glittering leaf.  It was flat on the concrete and shining like silver with rain.  I just had to take a photograph.  It was then, in the photograph on my computer monitor (I can see the man on the moon but not the end of my nose without my glasses) that I noticed the slug approaching the leaf for a drink or a breakfast nibble.  I left the slug alone, to do its thing.  It got off lightly.  Believe me.  Slug blending in with concrete as it approaches a glittering Polka raspberry leaf - 16072017 At first I couldn't figure out where the leaf came from but after taking photographs, I picked it up and reversed it and realised it was from my Polka raspberry canes.  Bejewelled Polka raspberry leaf on concrete after rain - ...

I was mooching, like I often do, around the large Marks and Spencers store on the outskirts of Leeds the other day and they had a sale on.  Like they often do.  And I saw in the sale a set of three small, metal, lanterns for little candles.  I'm going to either keep them on the marble table or dangle them from the shelf which goes around three walls in the garden room .  I've put in them the artificial battery tea-lights as I don't plan to use candles in my wooden garden room.  Ya know?  Marks and Spencers candle lanterns

I always fancied the idea of having one or two of those fancy bay trees, laurus nobilis, grown as a standard on a single stem, but I never fancied the price of them when I saw them in garden centres.  So I bought a baby one, a little thing, about 8in (20cm) high or so, for about £2.50 at my favourite garden centre, Gordon Rigg's in Walsden, West Yorkshire.  It was tucked among parsley, chives, mint and so on.  I read somewhere that laurus nobilis plants grow very slowly and so I accepted that it might take a while before I had to decide whether to just keep it as a small shrub in a container, or try and train it as a standard in a container.  But actually, since I bought mine in spring this year, it has more than doubled its size and it's only in a very small pot, about 6in.  I've already cut off some of its leaves for cooking and look at it: it has more than doubled its size in a few months.  I may take a cutting off it and try and grow a standard out...

I noticed yesterday that my sunny garden border is bursting with purple, or lilac, or lavender, or whatever you want to call it, right now.  The plants are all outstanding in their own particular way and well worth growing.  I know I mentioned them all in an earlier post but I just had to reiterate how lovely they are.  Do try growing them if you like this colour.  Petunia Surfinia 'Heavenly Blue' Above, Petunia Surfinia 'Heavenly Blue', grown as an annual, has a staggering amount of colourful blooms - let's call it purple with a silvery quality to them.  Just lovely.  I'll certainly grow this one again.  So far it has been pest free, trouble free, and looking as healthy as can be right now.  Petunia Surfinia 'Heavenly Blue' Below is the hardy perennial Veronica spicata 'Ulster Blue Dwarf'.  It's a strong and sturdy plant which is not only plentiful in its flower production but it also has a particularly beautifu...

It has been raining on and off for the last two days—mostly on.  The garden plants are revelling in it and you can almost hear the grass grow.  Everything is lush and green and as long as it doesn't go on for too long, I am quite happy because not only does it save on me watering but also on feeding as the nitrogen in the rainwater seems to invigorate the plants.  For a while I have been thinking whether or not to put some kind of flower arrangement in the vase (amphora) that I bought recently for the garden room .  I fancied dried hydrangea flowers but it's not the time for them, artificial ones are astronomical in price and are mostly naff.  I don't have any hydrangeas flowering yet in my garden even though I planted a young Hydrangea paniculata 'White Lady' a couple of years ago.  The reason it hasn't flowered is because the ****ing dustbin men kept throwing bags on it and nearly killed it off!!!   I have remedied that by inserting a metal ob...

Geranium sanguineum 'Max Frei' is a little fighter.  I planted mine about three or more years ago and it never gets very big and every year I think it's not going to appear, or it's going to die off, but here it is, still, in my north-facing garden border where it gets afternoon sun.  The pink of the flowers is so vibrant that I'm surprised the colours turned out true on my iPhone 5s camera.  Grow it.  It's a little bobby dazzler! Geranium sanguineum 'Max Frei'

I think the look of flickering candlelight is magical and is never truly imitated by artificial, battery-run candles.  However, and this is a BIG however, I cannot abide how candles damage furnishings and decorations, not to mention burn your house down.  I've heard all the talk about keeping the wick short, and buying smokeless candles, but I'm not convinced.  Also, they are expensive, and it's even more expensive decorating once your carpet, curtains, and ceiling has gone black.  Then, not to be ignored, there is the ongoing question about the impact of candles on health  (BBC link) through over use.  I also think artificial battery-driven tea lights might be less expensive in the long run.  So, that's what I've chosen to use in my garden room.  Not only that, you can use these candles outdoors and they won't blow out in a slight breeze! Artificial wax candle in glass candle holder Below, artificial, battery-ru...

As I have a permanent balance problem which makes every day life challenging, it would be an even bigger problem if I had to keep bending down to weed all the time, so I avoid weeds by regular mowing of the lawn (not too short or long) which makes the grass grow more densely.  I grow the plants in my borders quite close together, shoulder to shoulder, but not so that they are on top of each other and have no space.  This way I save myself a lot of work.  I promise you, I rarely see weeds as they generally cannot find room for their seeds.  I keep a sharp eye out for those sneaky ones that occasionally get in and somehow manage to blend in.  Weed free lawn - not perfect, but not bad Perennials like company, all happy together they collectively keep water evaporation down and keep out weeds Below are a group of plants waiting for a place of their own.  At the moment they are bunched together while I consider the best place for them...

Today, despite a meteorological warning of heavy rain, the sun is hammering down on us.  It's 30 degrees centigrade in the garden room even with the blinds down, window wide open, and doors ajar.  I saw a magpie this morning trying, unsuccessfully, to drink from the solar Pitcher which I bought a few weeks ago (even though there is a bird water-dispenser hanging on the bird feeding station).  I confess, I have squirted a very small amount of chlorine in the Pitcher as the water was quickly getting slimy.  It's a rock and a hard place.  You need sunshine for the solar water cascade to work, but that same sunshine causes the slime.  So, I searched online for a bird bath but couldn't see one I liked that I would pay good money for.  I thought and thought about how I could make my own, and did I have a bowl that was suitable.  It's dangerous to entice birds to the deep bowl of a bird bath, so I wanted something shallow.  It was while I wa...

Although I don't consciously pick plants of a particular colour to grow in my garden, I have found that I have a great deal of blue flowering plants.  At the moment, in the south-facing border of my back garden, the perennials: Polemonium 'Jacob's Ladder' is in full bloom; Veronica spicata 'Ulster Blue Dwarf' is about to burst into bloom; and Hebe 'Purple Pixie' (Hebe 'Mohawk') is in plentiful bud when you consider that I pruned it back rather harshly this spring.  On the north-facing border, which still gets afternoon sun, the border edging of  the upright annual Lobelia 'Crystal Palace' , which I planted for the first time last year and will probably plant again next year, is looking fabulous.