GARDENER'S WORD - IDEAS AND TIPS

While I cannot complain about the weather today because it is not raining and it is not cold, it is blowing a mini gale out there.  A big fat bumblebee was diving in and out of the Iceberg climbing roses and I decided to make a video of it but the bee attacked me, or at least warned me off, and all I got was a close up of my face panicking as I waved the camera at the bee to ward it off.  Once recovered, I decided to take a video of the wind chimes.  They are far less aggressive.  Now, when I say it is windy where I live, do you believe me?  The bee did, however, allow me to take a still photograph or two.  I didn't dare get any closer.  Bees are not a worry to me and I will happily sit near them but if they think you are threatening them, best keep well away.  Bee and climbing Iceberg rose Bee and climbing Iceberg rose

Sunny days have been really scarce this year and I am still hoping that we will have some kind of summer before autumn arrives in just a few weeks.  I decided, while the flowers are dry, to take some photos.  Apologies that they are not the best but I just have a mobile phone camera - for now. Wild Eve rose Viola  White trailing lobelia and one that doesn't know whether to be white or blue  Blue trailing lobelia White trailing lobelia   Trailing begonia - Rose  Trailing begonia - pink  Margaret Merrill rose

Had a lovely visitor to my garden today.  A blue-tailed damselfly.  Isn't it beautiful?  Apparently they like to live near pure, unpolluted water.  There is a small dam very near to my home and apart from that, just the remains of rainwater here and there.  It's clinging onto the stem of the Aloha rose and is probably looking for aphids to eat.  They are very beneficial in the garden, so don't kill them, please.  Blue-tailed damselfly 21 July 2012 Blue-tailed damselfly 21 July 2012

It's several weeks since I put a feed and weed down on my lawn but it still doesn't look as it once did, not thick and lush and weedless.  Clover is trying to edge its way in and it's a difficult thing to get rid of.  I've decided to try reseeding.  I confess, I just cannot be bothered with all the spiking (you should try it on my lawn,there is rock about 1 or 2" underneath) but I have thrown down a fine layer of compost over the present grass and raked in the seed.   In seven days, all being well, the seed should germinate.  My aim is to achieve a lush density with fine blades of grass, and a weed free lawn. July 2011 June 2012 If you click on the images above you will see how the lawn has deteriorated.  You can see a patch in the lawn where I sprayed a little Tumbleweed on a robust weed.  It killed the weed all right but it also killed grass around it although I thought I had been more careful.   On the right edge of the...

All in my garden is not roses although readers of my posts will realise I have a mini-obsession about them.  There are a few newcomers that I have not mentioned yet, including a fern which I bought yesterday.  I think it was a mistake.  Usually I read labels carefully before buying plants but sometimes I just think I know all there is to know, which can be disastrous.  The fern, it turns out, can grow about 1 1/2 metres tall.   I had in mind something about 1 1/2 feet tall!  Oh, well.   I have decided to try and grow it in a tub, like a conversation piece.  It would look very nice if it worked out.  These are a few of my yet unmentioned plants: Symphyandra hoffmannii - Ringed Bellflower The above symphyandra flowers look a bit tatty but blame the weather, not the plant.  This was bought as a tiny, cheapo plant two or three months ago and is now a couple of feet tall.  The flowers are about 2 inches long and if you ...

I have decided to grow more roses and less vegetables.  It is far too disheartening constantly battling the rain, the wind and the cold where I live.  This year has been diabolical.  Very few peas have germinated - it was the same with sweet peas, two packets and not one has germinated - and even the radishes, that everyone should be able to grow, are doing nothing.  The carrot seed has germinated but the plants are about an inch tall.  The Tumbling Tom tomato plants which I grew last year and the year before yielded very decent crops but this year's plants, three of them, have very few tomatoes on them and those that are there are green.  Ruby Ruby I have bought three patio roses today.  I've never grown them before but the nice thing is that they remain quite small bushes and so I can grow them in tubs and move them around as I please.  The flowers are only a couple of inches across but the plants are very floriferous. ...

It would be nice to be able to write my first post in almost a week and say that the weather has turned around and now it is glorious but unfortunately I cannot.  It's sad to watch the roses rotting on their stems.  The water has impregnated them to such a degree that many are not opening but simply turning to mush.  Needless to say, other plants are suffering too and the lawn is full of worm casts as the creatures are having to push up out of the saturated soil to get to the surface for air.  I've managed to pick a small amount of raspberries - possibly six - but the loganberries are not faring well and they had such potential.  There are hundreds on the plant but they need sunshine and many are looking decidedly mildewy.  12 July 2011 This time last year, I was reaping the benefits of my hard work as you can see in the image above. The courgettes were a bumper crop off just two plants but this year, while I still have two courgette plants, they a...

After a beautiful hour or so of sunshine, the sky is starting to look gloomy again but there is still some blue up there; some potential sunshine.  Talking about peaks and troughs of weather, I grabbed the opportunity of feeding my four tomato plants with Tomorite and my hanging baskets and troughs with MiracleGro - amazing how they can get thirsty so fast.  So far I have a few green tomatoes and not a ripe one in sight.  Still, I am really happy with the way the trough under my front window has filled out.  I get a beautiful display from inside too.  I've been growing on those pelargoniums for years, each year taking cuttings from the old ones and eventually throwing the old ones away but I got to the point where I got mixed up with the colours and had no idea how the trough was going to turn out.  I did know that the two trailing pelargoniums would be cerise though.  I have one at each end.  Hanging baskets filling out well Ru...

At last we have some sunshine but this morning, after a spell of rain, I took some photos of my roses which were sparkling in the pale, early morning sun as if they were covered in dew.  There's something about rain on roses that is magical which is why, no doubt, florists often sell roses with that stuff sprayed on that resembles water.  Here are a few of today's photos.  Slowly but surely my roses are coming out although some are way behind for this time of year, such as Princess Alexandra of Kent which was astounding in July last year and this time the year before.   As usual, if you click on the roses you will see a larger image. Champagne Moment Aloha - Climbing rose New Dawn - Climbing Rose Prima Ballerina So far, not a single bud has yet opened on Princess Alexandra of Kent although there are many forming.  This is a photo from 2010 and it was floriferous last year too.  It smells divine and it's one of the David Austi...

The weather here has been so dismal lately that the garden is suffering.  Strawberries are going mouldy on their stems with that dreadful botrytis fungus, the loganberries don't appear to be swelling or ripening, some of the rose blooms are rotting at the base and falling off before they even get chance to open, and even the radish seeds that I planted are doing nothing much.  There is just not enough sun to keep everything growing well.  Botrytis starts like this Ends like this The slugs and snails are happy though. Meanwhile, I keep on mowing the lawn as often as the rain allows to try and get the grass to thicken up.  Even the lawn doesn't seem as thick and lush as it usually does at this time of year and I thought that all this rain would have the opposite effect.  I understand that we, in the UK, have had the wettest three months in recorded history.  I believe it.

My geraniums came from plants pulled up from a friend's garden.  I knew I was getting pink and blue but I didn't know which plant was which when she put them together in a bag.  So, I planted them all together and I think they make a lovely contrast.  They grow at the lowest part of a north-facing border, where it is shady and damp in the not-too-glorious position next to the dustbin.  They really do look pretty.  I think they look so much better grown together.  However, the geraniums were swamping a clematis, Arctic Queen, which seemed to dislike the spot I had given it, facing north, and so a few days ago I dug it up and put it in a big plastic container.  I am babying it along.  When I dug it up the new shoots that were struggling to come out of the ground were only a couple of inches long when the plant should have reached to the top of the 6ft fence and been in full bud.  Here you can see what a difference a move makes.  I'm...

Be kind to bees.  Even if you only have a tiny space outdoors, grow something in a pot that flowers and gives pollen or nectar to bees.  They are more important than some might think.  I once read that it was no good growing honeysuckle for bees because they cannot access the pollen.  Rubbish!  Look at this bee having a great time on my honeysuckle (Lonicera Scentsation).  Once the flowers open up fully the bees manage to collect all the pollen they want.  Also, honeysuckles are loved by moths although few of us get to see that, when they come out at night.  You probably didn't notice that this bumble bee has an orange bum!   (Click on the images for a closer look).  See?   Some of the bees in my garden have white bums.  Check my other post.  Save our Humble Bumble Bees The British Beekeepers Association kindly provide a list of plants that bees love.  www.bbka.org.uk 　 http://www...

I don't think I mentioned that I bought a floribunda called Margaret Merril.   It is considered a white rose, although I would say it is creamy with an apricot centre and looks rather like another rose of mine, Champagne Moment.  Margaret Merril, however, is supposed to have a far stronger fragrance.  I think it will also be nice when cut and used in the home.  Margaret Merril (c) David Austin Margaret Merril is supposed to have a strong and exceptional fragrance.  Great!  What more could I ask for than a beautiful rose with a fragrance to match.  By comparison, my new rose of the year 2006 Champagne Moment has a light fragrance.  I have also discovered that it might be much taller than the 2ft it said on the label.   Caveat emptor and all that!  But still, it is rather lovely. I think I did a dumb thing.  I intended to buy a rose that I had grown before, many years ago, a very prolific and so fragrant f...

I bought three small pots of stocks today and have planted them in my garden.  I haven't grown them for years but I cannot resist white, fragrant plants.  While I pushed my garden centre trolley around, the scent was nearly knocking my head off!  They should be lovely in the garden.  They are grown as annuals and, really, it would be much more economical to grow them from seed but these were purchased on an impulse.  One of the pots of stocks, planted I understand that once the flowers are done, I can cut them off and more flowers will appear.  A once flowering plant never interests me so I am looking forward to seeing these bloom right through summer.  While white is not particularly my favourite 'colour' (I know, white is not a colour) I do like it in my garden as they light up at dusk when coloured flowers fade to grey and disappear.  I also bought a hardy herbaceous perennial today called Brunnera Macrophylla 'Jack Frost'.  I...