What a Difference Some Lavender Makes

Lavender is such a useful semi-shrub.   It can be used in so many different ways – for cooking and medicinal purposes, in the garden it attracts pollinators and can be used to create a variety of “feelings” in a given planting scheme.

Here in my Northumberland garden I use it to edge the raised terrace on which our house stands.

Lavender loves a sunny spot, it prefers free draining soil and apart from a trim when it’s finished flowering and a quick feed, it’s practically maintenance free.

The terrace is raised up about three foot from the rest of the garden.

The bare stone work is severe as can be seen here but isn’t our view fabulous

About five years ago I purchased, online, 50 Lavender Hidcote plants in 9cm pots and planted them in the gravel between the paving slabs and the sheer drop of the terrace.

I also planted them in the narrow border between the paved area and the house.

before

after

before

after

Now the terrace to the east and south of our property looks like this.

on the east side of the terrace

 
 

on south side of terrace looking east

I hope you enjoyed our spectacular lavender bushes and incredible view.  

Hope to write soon.

June: Where has the month gone?

For me, June has been a very busy month in the garden. 

On the 2^nd and 9th I took some surplus plants to sell at my local mid-week car boot sale.  I thought the stall looked very good but next year I will need to increase the range and amount of stock.  The first week I took £86 and the second £65.  I think this is pretty good considering all the plants were propagated from those I had divided last autumn.

Spraying was required on our three lawns (450sq m, 190sq m and the 210sqm lawn).  I always use lawn weed killer in an 8 litre sprayer.  I like to keep on top of the speedwell, thistle and dandelions as the seeds are constantly drifting over from the neighbouring fields.  

I also sprayed weed killer on our paved areas, the courtyard and the drive.  I find spraying so much quicker than hand weeding especially given the large paved areas I have to deal with.

In the courtyard there has always been an area I thought was unsightly, between the rose/winter border and the greenhouse.  As you can see, it is shaded by two large hollies and a Scots pine.  I thought that as weeds clearly thrive here why not perennials. 

It did not take long to clear the area of weeds and fork it over,

this barrow load of leaf mould was dug in

and the plants came from a social distanced plant sale organised by the gardening club of which I am a member. 

There were two astrantia - one pink one white, and a lamium, I also added some plants from my garden; geranium macrorrhizum and geranium maderense. I think they will all do well in dry shade. And that’s Pippin in the back ground, she is constantly by my side when I am working in the garden and sometimes gets into shot.

Once planted I spread more leaf mould around the plants to act as a mulch then added a metal orb to give height at the back.  In the photograph the orb doesn’t really show up so I might paint it.

It hasn’t rained here for I don’t know how long and the south facing main lawn (450sq m) is suffering.  We haven’t cut it for at least a month and I think the grass seed heads give it an American prairie feel to it. 

Thursday was such a gorgeous day in the garden I decided to finish it off with a bbq.  I lit the charcoal and went inside to prepare the food and, would you believe it, the heavens opened and down the rain came.  Not to be put off with a bit of rain I was inventive with the location of the bbq.  This is the open porch over the front door.

Lastly, thought you might be interested to see a handy hint which I have been doing for a few years now.  I find that with so much to do in the garden some things get forgotten such as which plants to divide in the autumn or spring.  So Instead of writing a list and putting it where it might get lost, I now write the instructions on  metal plants labels which I then push into the ground next to whichever plant needs attention. 

Happy gardening.

Changing Fruit Bushes and the Wildflower Hedge

Like so many other gardens mine is constantly changing and evolving - sometimes I have regretted putting in a particular planting scheme, or choosing a certain plant, or I have just felt like having something completely different.

In the fruit cage I have become very disheartened with my two honeyberry bushes.  Ever since I planted them (about five years ago) they have never produced much fruit and yet have put on a lot of growth.  I have pruned them, fed them and given them everything they could possibly need but to no avail - they have remained virtually fruitless.  So the other week I decided to replace them with two different types of fruit bushes.  After some online research I chose Gojiberry synthia and the Chilean guava Ka Pow (both purchased on line) - I thought these were an unusual addition in the fruit cage.

The honeyberry shrubs looked very boring so up they came.

After digging up each bush,

I dug out roughly half the soil from the planting hole and replaced it with a mixture of my home made garden compost, pelleted chicken manure and fish blood and bone, and mixed thoroughly with a spade.

I then planted the two Gojiberries close together in the middle of the bed. 

Then in the second bed, the Chilean guava.

Lastly I gave them a jolly good watering.  I am hoping that these will romp away and be more productive than their predecessors.

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The wildflower hedge is putting on a colourful display –

the cerise pink flowers of red campion,

the dainty forget me not,

the ox eye daisy,

I am not sure what this is I think comfrey, it is pretty but if it is comfrey I will have to keep it in check otherwise it will take over the whole area,

and this beautifully frothy cow parsley.

Also in flower is the hawthorne, I am lucky enough to have the pink variety.  I think this goes very well with the red campion.

In early spring I sowed yellow rattle and am now waiting to see if anything comes up.  I shall write about this wildflower hedge in a future entry.

Till next time.

 

 

 

 

 

May Catch Up

I haven’t written anything for this journal for a while as I have completely lost track of time and my To Do List keeps getting longer with little chance of getting smaller.  But just the other day I noticed that the sun had come out and then I realised that it was May.

Since my last report in March, the weather here in Northumberland has been absolutely pants.  We have had gales, rain, sleet, hail and snow – not very conducive to working in the garden.  However, I have been able to get out into the glasshouse and take the bubble wrap down from the ceiling, I gave all the plants in there a sprinkling of pelleted chicken manure and a thorough watering - now everything in there is romping away.

We have also been able to mow the lawns several times.  T wanted a new lawn mower as he found that the ride-on had a habit of turning over when he rode it down the slope to get to the front lawn.  After a lot of research he swapped the MTD ride-on for a 20 inch Hyundai petrol mower, it has four speeds, an electronic start and two cup holders on the handle bar.  Lawn mowing is really his department so I don’t know much about mowers other than here is a picture of it.

In the fruit cage, I picked some rhubarb and made crumble – sorry but no expensive rhubarb forcers in my garden just a large terra cotta pot once broken now glued together with Araldite.  The crumble was delicious.

Still in the fruit cage, I am experimenting with companion planting under the fruit bushes.  Under the blueberries, I have planted Fragaria vesca or wild strawberries, under the currants are chives and under the raspberries Achillea Desert Eve Red.  I shall be interested to see whether there is any difference in pests and diseases.

The bluebells in the wood are, as ever, beautiful. It gives me so much pleasure to sit in the wood on a sunny day with a cup of coffee.  I think it’s lovely to see the sun glinting through the fresh green leaves and to listen to the birds song – its somewhere where I can forget about the stressful things in life.  A beautifully tranquil scene to end this entry.