GARDENER'S WORD - IDEAS AND TIPS

When I was at the Royal Horticultural Society garden centre the other day, mooching around, looking for violas to plant in a trough under my living-room window, I spotted this insect house, or insect hotel, built into a wall.   It's a good idea if you want to attract a lot of insects into your garden.  Personally, my garden is crawling with them and they have lots of places to hide out but if there is nowhere in your concreted, flagged, paved, gravelled, tarmacadamed outdoor space, you might want to give insects a chance. Insect house / hotel at RHS Garden centre, Harlow Carr If you want more ideas of how to design one, just do an internet search for insect house, insect home, insect place in garden.  Lots of images will come up for you to inspect an insect place. :)  There are some good ideas here: Insect houses (Growveg.com - external link).

I got quite a surprise when visiting the RHS garden centre at Harlow Carr the other day.  I saw these strange but architecturally interesting plants.  I suppose you would call it topiary although they did have a bonsai look about them.  They are actually Junipers:  Juniperus squamanta 'Blue Carpet'.  They were very expensive at over £40 for this size.  Larger ones were about £75.  Juniperus squamata 'Blue Carpet' at RHS garden centre, Harlow Carr Bonsai training Juniperus squamata (guide.makebonsai.com link) Juniperus squamata 'Blue Carpet' (RHS link)

I visited the RHS garden centre in Harlow Carr the other day and bought some violas for planting in the trough under my living-room window.  They seem to be surviving the strong breezes and rain we have had these last two or three days.  RHS gardens, Harlow Carr, October 2015 I only carry my iPhone with me when out and about, rather than my larger Canon EOS 6D.  For the above shot of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) gardens I had to zoom in somewhat as the image was taken from the garden centre.  iPhone images aren't the best for that, but I think the photo turned out quite well (albeit rather pixilated) and shows how beautiful autumn can be.  The colour combinations are quite inspirational and the over all appearance made me think of what a garden border in autumn can look like on a much smaller scale. Below, the RHS garden centre where I buy many of my plants and pots.   RHS garden centre at Harlow Carr, October 2015 ...

It's a while since I last posted.  Almost a month.  Little is happening now in the garden except preparations for winter.  I'm no winter gardener, I'm afraid.  I've bought two new mini-greenhouses (my old one was collapsing with age) and put them side by side at the top of the garden, facing south.  The lovely red pelargoniums have now been removed from the trough at the front of my home, under the living room window, cut down and potted into large pots.  For the moment, they are out of the wind in a mini-greenhouse which has been left open for the time being.  The Italian parsley (a biennial, said to be hardy) is in there too, as well as some pots of herbs, like lemon thyme - just to get them out of the way of my feet on the top patio for now.  The front trough has now been replanted with tulips for next spring and on top of them some little viola plants (like the ones I grew in a pot last year, shown below) which I am sincerely hoping will...

Lewisia tweedyi 'Rosea' is an alpine plant that has such lovely flowers in summer and dazzling coloured leaves in autumn.  This is an unedited photograph I took yesterday of the leaves.  Lewisia tweedyi 'Rosea' leaves in autumn Below you can see Lewisia tweedyi 'Rosea' in summer flower. Note that the leaves are simply a dull green in summer. Lewisia tweedyi 'Rosea' Lewisia tweedyi 'Rosea' 

Months ago I planted sweet peas (lathyrus odoratus) that I bought as small plants from the RHS garden centre in Harlow Carr.  Although the number of flowers produced has been disappointing and probably down to yet another disappointing summer here in West Yorkshire, they have steadily given me enough blooms to put into a small vase in my kitchen.  Those small blooms, perhaps no more than half a dozen, can fragrance a whole room.  They grow on a south facing fence (right next to the Wisley Magic runner beans), and I am still picking them so it's worth growing them even for just a few flowers.  The more you pick, the more flowers are produced.  I took this photo yesterday.  Sweet Pea - Lathyrus odoratus

For those of you who read my blog regularly (if there is anyone who does) you might be thinking 'Oh, no, she isn't on about her Polka raspberries again'.  Well, yes, I am.  I am trying to persuade wannabe a raspberry grower how great this plant is.  After having a fantastic crop this summer, in this mostly miserable British summer we have just had, I am now getting an autumn crop of raspberries and even I am surprised at just how big the raspberries are.  I have long slender fingers and just look at the size of this raspberry.  Whatta Whopper!  Sadly, since the taking of this photograph, the subject raspberry is no more. Polka raspberry 28092015 Polka raspberry 28092015 More about Polka raspberries (internal link)

Autumn's on the doorstep and here, on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire, it feels very much like winter is nearly here some days.  The weather is mercurial.  This morning we had sunshine, so I did the washing, hung it out, and dark clouds came over.  So I brought the washing in, dried it indoors, and the sun came out.  I went outside to read, on the swing, and the sun went in.  Anyway, you get the picture.  The way I feel must be how the garden plants are feeling as nothing has been as it should be this year weatherwise.  I'm picking the tiny alpine strawberries as they ripen, about one every three days!  They are worth growing, you know.  They have an almost sweet perfume to them.  So different to ordinary strawberries and great for putting with breakfast cereals, if you have enough.   It's taken what seems like forever for the Wisley Magic runner beans to get going—but got going they have.  I don't think I'...

What a relief!  We've had a lovely sunny day here on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire.  It has been warm but not too warm.  The breeze has been gentle and not too cool, yet strong enough to blow my washing straight and dry.  For the most part, I have been sitting on my hammock/swing (lolling, actually), reading "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" by Stephen King, and watching Alfie while he snoozed in the dappled light of the penstemons and the hebe.  Ragdoll cat, Alfie, snoozing amid the penstemons and hebe Life really doesn't get any better than this. 

It was a busy day in the garden today with birds of many kinds arriving to have a free meal at my expense.  There were finches, and Coal Tits, Blue Tits, Robins, the lot.   This morning I was watching them through my kitchen window.  I have two seed feeders.  One has two perches and the other, a taller one, has four perches.  I alternate them and when one is empty, I clean it (if you don't keep them hygienic, disease will spread among the birds) and hang the other out.  Today the two perch feeder was out there and a little Blue Tit was impatiently waiting for two finches to get off the feeder and let it have a chance.  It was so funny.  It was hopping around from the shed roof to the water feeder.  Having a little drink, then hopping around, all the while checking out the seed feeder.  The finches, however, didn't plan to move so the little Blue Tit started flying close to one finch to try and make it shift.  Eventually the fin...

I saw this wonderful display of Laurentia (aka 'Isotome') axillaris 'Blue Stars' today when I visited the RHS garden centre at Harlow Carr.  There were six of these containers spaced out along the entrance walkway and, to be honest, I didn't recognise the plant at all.  A little bit of investigation revealed the name to me.  What strikes me is how neatly it grows, when many are planted together in a container, forming neat mounds of green and mauve with hundreds of buds yet to open.  It reminds me very much of the way some campanulas grow and it does, indeed, belong to the campanulaceae family.  It's a half-hardy evergreen perennial and is best grown as an annual, but otherwise seems unfussy.  Laurentia (a.k.a. Isotoma) axillaris 'Blue Stars' It has a plant hardiness rating of H3 (internal link)  Laurentia (a.k.a. Isotoma) axillaris 'Blue Stars' Laurentia (a.k.a. Isotoma) axillaris 'Blue Stars' Laurentia (a.k.a. I...

This is one type of hardy perennial that I have never grown or been tempted to buy, but which never fails to make me stop and admire it when I see one.  It's obvious why Physalis franchetii is commonly known as Chinese Lantern.  I saw these for sale yesterday when I visited a favourite garden centre of mine: Gordon Rigg's in Walsden.  Apparently, they are easy to grow but can be invasive, like mint.  Further information can be found at the link below the images.  Physalis franchetii - Chinese Lantern Physalis franchetii - Chinese Lantern Physalis franchetii - Chinese Lantern  Further information can be found about Physalis franchetii at Gardener's World (external link). 

The weather may have been unseasonally poor this June, July, and August in the UK but in my garden, high on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire, the delightful little Syringa 'Red Pixie' is producing a second flush of welcome, intensely fragrant flowers.  They are knock-out!  Little things and all that, but such things make me happy when summer seems to have passed us over this year.  If there are shrubs that I can recommend, this is one of them. Syringa 'Red Pixie' Intensely fragrant, small shrub I grow mine Syringa 'Red Pixie' against a fence on my south-facing border, where it gets some partial shade from the house rather than full sun all day long (that's a laugh - we haven't had so much sun this summer).  I am training it somewhat so that it is more fan shaped than bushy so that it doesn't compete too much with my perennials.  Another small and fragrant shrub is Philadelphus 'Snowbelle'.  It has white flowers and smells divi...

Lots of things are happening in the garden right now.  The cold and rainy spells of this spring and autumn have cause many delays in flowering and fruiting, but the long awaited flowers on the Cherry Red phlox are now in bloom and look lovely behind Anemone 'September Charm'.  I only have the one phlox plant and so, this year, I plan to divide it.  Cherry Red phlox (left), and September Charm anemone As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am enjoying picking, from containers, the lettuce, pea shoots, tomatoes, and courgettes which taste as fresh as they look when it is only a matter of minutes between garden and my plate.  You cannot eat fresher produce than that.  There's such a lot to do though in the garden, but I'm waiting for autumn now so that I can transplant various plants to fill the gaps in my border where, sadly, the three Malva moschata plants have been removed, and where other herbaceous perennials, despite emerging after spring, didn't...

This summer in the UK, certainly here on the Pennine Mountains in the North, has been disappointing (putting it politely).  Things have taken so long to grow, flower, fruit, and for some gardeners nothing much has happened at all.  I'm not here to talk about the failures in my garden this year but of the successes.  I love to go out and pick at things that I grow and, after a quick rinse with cold water, eat them straight off.  No putting in a meal, no waiting, no messing, just gone!  Imagine, all those vitamins.   I've been doing this with the cut and come again lettuce, with the pea shoots, with the Italian parsley (ever eaten parsley raw?  It's wonderful and full of iron).  I've been picking at the Alpine strawberries, and making herb teas from the applemint, the lemon thyme, the lemon verbena, the lemon balm (I like lemon).  All are grown in pots on the top patio of my small garden.  Even people with only a balcony can do t...

Someone gave me an unnamed clematis from a supermarket as a 'thank you' present a few years ago.  Although the plant was pretty with lovely small flowers, it also wasn't very robust.  In fact, it was quite spindly.   I think it's a Passion Flower clematis.  Anyway, it obviously wasn't happy in its little pot so the first year I had it I planted it against the fence on my sunny border with its roots in the shade and its head in the sun but it never really took off.  It remained spindly and not even flowering in the following year or two, if I remember rightly.  Last year — or was it the year before? — I pronounced it dead when all that was left was a short twig, and I went about planting other clematis climbers and jasmine.   This year, the cheeky little survivor has sprung to life and clambered up the Jasmine officinale and other clematis and produced flowers.  It's still spindly but it is clearly very determined not to be written o...

I was just closing the kitchen door today and realised that I had startled a young squirrel that was in the process of raiding the sunflower seeds out of the bird feeder.  Once it had had a good look around for danger, it resumed the feeding and I grabbed my camera.    Squirrel on bird feeder  It was quite funny watching the squirrel because as it went upside down, and started to grab the feeder, the feeder would swing away leaving the squirrel clutching at thin air.  After a couple of attempts, it got the hang of it, so to speak.   

I love to see squirrels in my garden.  The other day a female squirrel visited with the intention of having a free lunch in peace but spots me through the kitchen window, taking photos.   Squirrel has seen me The squirrel decides I'm safe enough and swings easily upside down to access the husked sunflower seeds in the bird feeder.   Squirrel decides I'm safe and starts to feed Something has put the squirrel on the alert.  It jumps onto the top of the shed for a look around.   The squirrel is agitated and thrashes its tail It jumps off the shed and onto the bordering fence.  It seems that, at this point, it has not yet spotted what has put it on the alert.  It's looking the wrong way.  Squirrel looking out for danger The squirrel sits up for a better look around.  She looks like she's had babies.   on the lookout It's no good looking at me, I'm not the threat.  The cat is.   A beau...