Gardening frenzy

Today I have been fairly busy with gardening things.

I found that the wood is used to make a frame for my climbers had rotted in a section and fell off landing on hostas and veg. Thankfully the climbers seem to have had little harm.

I went to a fire salvage company and was surprised to see they had named hostas, healthy and cheap! Needless to say I bought a few.

I also managed to get some gold dust – aka Compost.

My friend and I headed to a garden centre that I haven’t been to in years. I can happily say it will be many years until I return … if ever.

I popped to my parents and drilled a hole to add the newly bought tap to convert a bin into a water butt.

I’m happy to see my yucca flowering so well.

Back home I took a look at my indoor plant nursery. Here are some pilea that I am growing. Roots are coming in nicely. I want to see if any additional grow. Last time I did this nothing happened.

Here is my Alocasia macrorrhiza ‘Borneo Giant’, it’s growing slowly and as with many of my plants this year has an attack of aphids! Let’s hope it grows stronger.

Here is my luffa. I grew this from seed but doesn’t seem to be doing much.

I also potted on the grape and bomarea that arrived recently as they both had roots growing out of their pots.

A quick water of some plants and then time for a shower!

Well it was today…

I hope you’ve all enjoyed time (bearing all) in your green space today.

After all it is World National Gardening Day!

Here is David touching up the paint job I had been doing on the fences whilst I sat and read my little book of hostas.

Other than this it was pretty much a gardening free day.

I’m sure there’ll be more to catch you up on tomorrow.

All fenced in …

Not much to report today. Popped to my parents. Thought I’d share some pictures of plants growing there.

Really happy at how fast this impatiens tinctoria is growing.

Canna that over-wintered in the ground is back up!

The abuliton is soon to flower!

I love the colours on this euphorbia.

The paeonies are growing really well this year.

Most of the hostas are out…

I love the colours when they shoot and how they change.

These fences are about to be painted!

My friend David and I had a socially distant visit and ‘swapped’ some more plants.

His knowledge of plants (more the unusual and bizarre) and his kindness make me forever grateful.

Today I add the following to my collection:

Beschorneria septentrionalis

Echinopsis lageniformis (pictured)

Hylocereus undatus – Dragon fruit (pictured)

Punica granatum – pomegranate

Potted up

Tomorrow I am on a search for a clematis and painting fences.

Until tomorrow.

Thank you

Good morning, apologies for such a gap since my last post.

I hope you have all been enjoying plants and your green space wherever you are in the world.

I have had a busy 2018 and experimented with new exotic plants. It has been a very mixed year for Hostas. Some really didn’t like the dry weather, as much as they were watered they simply didn’t like the dry air. Non the less, I don’t give up hope, adapting, enjoying the love of plants and hostas.

I have decided I am going to try and grow many of the plants on my wish list for a few reasons:

• Cheaper
• The sheer joy of growing
• Quantity
• Experiment

Heated propagators

Here I am trying to grow agaves, colocasia, hedychium, hibiscus, impatiens, musa and sonchus.

I promise to try and share more of my journey in the garden in the new year and many more pictures.

I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the very best for 2019!!

Plant frenzy yarden jungle

We haven’t had any rain for some time and it has been so warm that all the plants having been growing faster than I ever imagined!

Space in our yarden is getting more and more sparse! Though I can always fit in just one more plant.

Lately I have had lots of deliveries and at one point I thought that I got a delivery every day of the week!

Here are some plants that’s have arrived recently:

In a clock wise direction. Setaria palmifolia, Impatiens tinctora, Canna x ehemanii, two Eucomis pole evansii and Hedychium yunnanense. This was literally when I had just unpacked them. They are all doing great now.

I bought the impatiens as this is a white variety and is meant to have an incredible scent. The canna is meant to grow huge! These Eucomis are meant to grow really big too and the Hedychium has luscious leaves and hopefully will have beautiful white flowers. Fingers crossed!

I am really lucky that one of my friends was recently holidaying in Cornwall and she was generous enough to get some plants from my wish list whilst there. Here is another Setaria palmifolia, an exotic grass that has palm like leaves, giving that truly tropical feel and Zantedeschia ‘White Giant’, a much larger version of my already much loved Zantadeschia aeotopica, I’m hoping that this will grow to to about 4.5 feet in the next couple of years.

Also I am so pleased at how the plants have been flowering; if you have read some of my previous posts you may realise that I tend to grow more leafy plants; yet I have had great pleasure in some of the recent colour, variety and most of all scent that they have brought to our tiny yarden.

I thought I would share some of these flowers.

I fell in love with this tiny flowered shrub when we visited Kefalonia last summer. This is Cestrum nocturnum, which although has greenish insignificant flowers, more than makes up with an intoxicating scent that gives the air a Mediterranean summers evening; even here in Stockport!

The lovely white flowers of these cosmos are brightening up a darkened area of the yard and bees love them!

Here are the Zantedeschia Aeotpica I mentioned earlier, these are a real statement plant and already stand about 3 feet tall, I can’t imagine what the ‘White Giant’ is going to look like in the hopefully near future.

This tiny annual is called Alysum, and though I never set out on using this in my yarden, a recent visit to a plant nursery changed my mind! Another scented plant and invaluable to accomplish my goal. Basically the lesson here is don’t be a plant snob!

Another of my favourite species of plants has to be geraniums. They are tough, hard working and give you lots for your money! In this case, this stunningly tiny white flowered geranium was given to me by a friend. As much as I think I have planted it in the wrong area, this is definitely an accidental keeper! I’m expecting it to self seed all over. It reminds me of gypsophila and bouquets of flowers.

You all know I love hostas and I love everything about them, here is Hosta ‘Queen of the Seas’ with lovely white tubular bells, again another regular stop for the bees.

You may have noticed, I generally grow blue and white flowers and perhaps some black, but these are harder to come by. This is Allium carulem, it is only a very dainty flower but added colour nonetheless.

I may have mentioned these beauties before, but I cannot get over how blue and stunning they are. They keep growing, flowering and though they do not provide scent like many other sweet peas I guarantee they will make you smile.

Another amazing scent in my yarden is this small alpine plant that I bought from a plant fair. I had never come cross a Zaluzianskya ovata before; I had to give it a go and the evening perfume is heavy and unmissable.

Apologies for the delay in publishing this, I am currently on holiday in Skiathos, Greece. I am currently taking lots of pictures of the amazing plants out here and will have another blog soon.

Enjoy your green space!!

Another Bank Holiday gone …

I hope this weekend finds you ready to enjoy your outdoor space and with a little luck be able to sit, relax and enjoy the sun.

The last bank holiday for me was all about gardening and plants.

On Saturday my friend and I visited Jefferies Plant Nursery in Gatley. This is family ran and they are extremely good value. It’s not a posh garden centre with a coffee shop, it sells plants. The majority of their plants are annuals or tender plants for the summer season. Needless to say we always come away with a car boot full!

Then we headed over to Bud Garden Centre for yet more compost and a quick nosey round. I really like Sylva Grow Compost that they sell. They also sell Dalefoot Compost this is slightly dearer and slightly different, I save this for my hostas.

All spent up, we got stuck in by doing some much needed gardening at my parents whilst they were in holiday. We did it to surprise them.

It was hard work, digging holes to plant my 2 musas (bananas), 4 cannas and 3 hedychiums (ornamental gingers), we also planted some pelargoniums, cosmos, coreopsis, mimulus, eucomis and an abuliton. I threw lots of annual seeds on to the bed too for good measure. I’m hoping that parents are going to like the colourful display once is gets more established.

I’ve actually still got plants on their way and some how are meant to fit in here too. Where there’s a will there’s a way. Or so they say!

On Sunday I drove up to a small village in Yorkshire, just north of York for an NGS Open Garden.

I’m pleased I made it as it is a beautiful garden, lots of lovely plants and many ‘rooms’. John is also a Hostaholic and Heuchera grower. He had lots of both for sale, along with many other plants.

I can highly recommend visiting Rewela Cottage, it’s inspirational! The hard landscaping is softened by the huge variety of plants he grows. I thought the meandering path kept interest and I couldn’t help admire the organisation! John has an amazing work bench, pots all stacked in order and his labels are all catalogued in order by using recycled toilet roll tubes.

Needless to say I made a few purchases.

Here is Hosta ‘Cherry Berry’, Hosta ‘Colour Carnival’, Hosta ‘June’ and French Tarragon.

For more information about John’s lovely garden and when he’s next open take a look here.

Bank Holiday Monday gave me the opportunity to potter in our yarden, I made more progress with the planters I’ve been making out of recycled corrugated metal roofing and some scaffolding planks.

I’ve also been really excited to see that some of my seeds have finally sprouted and are doing really well!

Before I leave you to carry on watching Gardeners World, if you’re local to Stockport you can find three great events this weekend.

Alpine lovers should visit

Burnage and Levenshulme Open Gardens are back! We visited a few years ago and loved the variety and creativity of these hidden green spaces.

If you’re in the centre of Manchester, King Street has been turned in to a flower and plant haven, worth a nosey..

I’m currently on the train to Leicester to help the in-laws with their garden.

What ever you’re up to this weekend enjoy your garden!

The rain is here!

I can’t imagine anyone be happier than a gardener, when it rains after a dry spell.

It has been drizzling all night here in Stockport and I can almost hear the plants saying YAY!!

I don’t know about you, but I think raindrops make flowers and leaves even more beautiful!

These iris really are the star of flowers in our yarden at the moment. Awaiting the blue ones to come out too! Who would have guessed they are even prettier with raindrops?!

…

Hosta Touch ot Class – a stunning variegated compact variety.

Persicaria Red Dragon contrasting against the Shuttlecock Fern.

Hosta Queen of the Seas – a fairly new one to me. Blueish hue with waved edges. Meant to grow to a decent size.

Hosta Frances Williams – a nice larger sized Hosta with good colouration.

Hosta Halcyon – an old time favourite blue variety of compact medium size.

Hosta Tom Schmidt – a great coloured tall variety. A must have!

Hosta Yellow River – always one of the earliest to appear and always gives a great show!

Thought I’d leave you with a quick glance of our yarden, enjoy!

Blazing Bank Holiday happiness

I hope you have had a great bank holiday weekend!!

Enjoying a long weekend in the garden and in the sun competes with holidaying abroad. My highlight this weekend was seeing a blue tit eating from my bird feeders. I love my little family of sparrows but seeing another visitor made me so happy!

The heat and sun has it pros and cons, hostas generally prefer the cool damp shade so I’ve had to move some pots, the hostas and ferns seem to appreciate it. Sadly I didn’t realise my new shrub, a lovely spring scented -Edgeworthia Grandiflora, was sensitive to the hot sun and some of its new leaves burnt to a crisp. Noted and moved! I bought this from Kevin – Village Plants

I was pleased to see the return of my hardy edible ginger, zingiber mioga, only small but safe!

There have been lots of little jobs and some bigger ones that I have managed to get done this weekend too!

Continuously deadheading the spring flower bulbs allows them to save energy and hopefully they’ll flower well again next year.

I’ve planted one of my larger hostas into a nice big pot, here is Hosta ‘Queen of the Seas’ standing tall.

I visited Bud Garden Centre for some organic compost from Sylva Grow and finished off another planter. I was so happy that the hardy ginger – Cautleya spictata, had overwintered so well and had so many rhizomes that I was able to split it to fill the planter. Adding some lily of the valley for earlier interest will give a great scent to this area of our garden. I’m excited to see how well these grow in their new home.

Two other little projects are my ‘vegetable bin’ and washing machine planter. I bought some sweetcorn plants and mini curly kale from Brenda at Bud along with some wild rocket that I bought a few weeks ago and sprinkled some lettuce, radish and pea seeds about for faster yielding crops. Watch this space!

Here is one of the three washing machine planters that I am going to try this year, I have added some acorus, a white Hawkshead Fuchsia, some black pansies and finally a trailing mint.

Another new addition to my yarden was a climber called Gynostemma pentaphylum, which is a herb that is native to China and Korea but I’m hoping it will fill a trellis and be able to make some herbal tea.

With the weather being so hot, I’ve installed my solar powered watering drip system, I bought these at Tatton Flower Show over the last couple of years.

With only getting in at 21:30 I can honestly say I’m lovely the progress of our yarden and hope to show you some pictures of how I am greening grey Britain in my own very great concrete back yard.

On that note I will say adieu for now.

A yarden is always changing

Good morning!

The sun wasn’t as bright when I started pottering about in my yarden this morning yet I still had my shorts on!

Whilst enjoying my coffee and croissant with a quick catch up of Gardeners World I thought I’d give you a little catch up of how things are improving and changing in our yarden.

I’ve been surprising myself with all the DIY that I’m trying of late. I’ve never used an angle grinder or a jigsaw until recently. And of course it’s gardening and recycling that have pushed me in that direction of DIY. I’ll show you pictures of the end result soon.

I’m so pleased how the yarden has changed since we moved in, I need to dig out the pictures of when we moved in two years ago. Here are some pictures of plants and flowers in our yarden this morning.

I planted a variety of bulbs in these planters and here are the white iris in all their glory.

A friend of mine gave me this dainty white flowered hardy geranium last year. I’ve placed it in the planter but fear it needs to be moved to a place where it can do its own thing and give a cloud of small white flowers.

These are Musa basjoo or Hardy Japanese Bananas I bought them earlier this year and I’ve now moved them outside and it’s clearly warm enough. They already need potting up. Hungry little plants soon to be taller than me!

This one of my favourite plants, it is very showy and like hostas you grow it for the foliage rather than the tiny white insignificant flower. Persicaria macropetalata ‘Purple Fantasy’.

I am sure many of you have heard of the Chelsea Chop, but if not, this is where you cut the plant down to give it a new lease of life, make it bushier and prolong the season. It’s also a great time to get some cuttings. The picture above are the cuttings, as they are so beautiful I’m going to use them as an indoor arrangement. Who needs flowers eh?

You can see it still looks good but soon will look great again.

Well that is all for now. Time to head into work. Have a great day and enjoy your garden!!

Scorching weekend and Wales trip!

Hi all, I do hope you have all had a great weekend, rating weekends, I’d say mine was pretty good.

I managed to do a fair bit in my yarden, it really is turning into a bit of a jungle. That is the look I’m going for by the way.

Other than pottering about, my friend and I had planned to go to a plant nursery that I’ve wanted to visit for some time. So on Saturday we set off at nine o’clock for North Wales.

After a quick coffee stop we realised that we were close to an old nursery I used to visit regularly when I was younger. So we decided to take a bit of a detour and allowed ourselves half an hour at Aberconwy Alpine Nursery.

Aberconwy Alpine Nurseryis a small family run plant nursery that specialises in alpine plants. It is a little hidden gem, they have been growing and selling these tiny alpines for some time. Due to ill health it’s not as packed as it once was, yet they still have some lesser known varieties and it is still worth a visit. I’d recommend calling ahead if your visiting on a weekend.

Needless to say between my friend and I bought a fair few plants, here are two of the twelve we bought between us.

Sempervivum ‘Cmiral’s yellow’

Aeonium sedifolium

Leaving here we set off for our planned destination, and only half an later we arrive to another out of the way plant specialist. Crûg Plant Farm is not what everyone is looking for, more for the inquisitive, I’d say. They have unusual plants (and some more well recognised) and an interesting garden of lesser known plants that’s worth a wander round, with this in mind the rarer plants have an understandably higher price tag. Sadly we were both a little disappointed with our visit, they didn’t have many of the plants that I was hoping to buy and it’s much smaller than you’d think. I put this down to going too early in the season. Again I would call ahead and check before making the 220 mile round trip. Saying that I’d definitely be back, hopefully I’ll meet Sue and Bleddyn next time, as they were enjoying Chelsea Flower Show.

Still we managed to buy some plants of course!

Hedychium villosum x tenuiflorum – a white flowered ginger

Holboellia brachyandra – a highly perfumed edible fruiting climber

With the visits out of the way we headed to the Black Rock Beach for a quick picnic and even had a little paddle.

I will keep you up to date with some other little projects later on. Have fun, enjoy the sun, and don’t forget to keep your plants well watered!