Sizzling Colour

First Attempt

Nature does colour well, doesn’t it?  A vase of cut flowers from the garden lifts the spirit.  Number One Daughter (And Very Experienced Floral Designer) gave me a good tip.  I initially used some white flowers to compliment the reds, yellow and orange tones.  She says this is a common mistake when using colour.  She suggested I add some lime green foliage and as ever, she is right.  She also reminded me that less is more so I must curb my enthusiasm to achieve a more satisfying result. The subsequent vase looks so much better - though clearly I still have a long way to go.  She also suggested that pink would work equally well but I could not find a suitable pink flower with the right tone.  Maybe next time….. 

Improving

A little snooze on the side.....

Most people find preparing for holidays stressful. There is a lot to do and if you a gardener you have to make sure there are watering systems or babysitters organised for your precious plants.  We decided to increase the pressure level and have our new Garden Room built just 2 weeks before our trip. In hindsight it was good to have a tight target to work to but supervising the Electrician the very afternoon before our departure was cutting it fine. However, once the electrics were installed without any problems, Doc and I unwrapped the furniture and did some hasty ‘room styling’ before moving on to packing for our holiday. Needless to say we did not actually sit in the Garden Room other than to test that the furniture was okay.

The Garden Room had to be finished because 4 days after we got back from the Baltic cruise, our family came to stay for a week. It was just the surprise we had hoped for (lots of wows and ahs) and we could not prise Doc’s mum from the new home-from-home. In fact at one point there were 9 people in the retreat which seems like a contradiction in terms but no-one seemed to mind the crush.  In fact, it reminded us of our caravanning holidays. It has a cosiness and friendliness about it.

Doc had shifted 2 bulk bags of cotswolds chips for the drainage strip around the perimeter of the Garden Room and we are still admiring the chips when we go in and out of the door.  We know the effort it took to bring the gravel down the garden!  A barrow load looks substantial until you lay it on the ground. Doc laid some temporary paving and now has to plan for a newer, larger paving area, flower beds, pergola and water feature. However, the next step is to finish the steps behind the Garden Room and put hand rails across the banks. That is all before we plan any new planting.  We had hoped to be doing that in the Autumn but have revised that ambitious target. 

We had concerns that we would not use the Garden Room enough to justify the expenditure but we need not have worried.  Because of my disability, I sit in it the most and even though Doc is running around doing jobs he is still finding time to eat meals in there and take a tea break in comfort. Now we have somewhere lovely to sit, we go there and because the room is winterised with insulation and a heater, it really is a home-from-home all year round.  An internet connection was a must too and now we can watch TV programmes or listen to the radio.  What we like the best is the fact that the room is actually in the garden, away from the house.  Once we are inside, relaxing, it is going to take Herculean effort to leave our haven and do some chores.  Yawn, I feel the need to go and sit down right now……  

This and That

We have been very busy this last few weeks.  We had a wonderful cruise to the Baltic countries and then family and friends came to stay for a week.  Since then Doc has been assessing the garden and trying to catch up with maintenance but the harvesting is getting in the way.  But that’s nice.  Home produce is always welcome and a full trug is satisfying and useful in the kitchen.  Rosy tomatoes will always bring a smile to our faces and the smell of the leaves is intoxicating.

The strawberries are abundant and we are full to bursting.  I have decided to try freezing some of the surplus to make jam in the autumn.  Using frozen berries works with raspberries, blackberries, red currants and blackcurrants so we will see if it works with strawberries.  I doubt the flavour will be as good so I will add lemon juice to perk it up.

The sugar snap peas are doing well and lots of pretty white flowers means there are many more pods to come.  We eat them raw or steamed.  I have never tried freezing them but we don’t have a glut - yet!

The courgettes are slow in getting going. The plants are still small though there are a couple of flowers.  I have a couple of spare courgette plants in the greenhouse and they are producing tiny courgettes so that is nice. The squashes and pumpkin are just about the same size as a month ago which is bad news.  I blame the cold May and June. 

The cut flower bed experiment is not quite as glorious as we hoped.  Again, the cold weather earlier in the season did not enable the plants to get established quickly.  The plants sulked when put outside and they needed a boost of warmth and sunshine.  Still, we have picked some bunches and together with some bits and bobs from the rest of the garden, the house is looking a little more loved.  Our grand-daughter liked the Helichrysums or ‘Strawflowers’ because of the papery, crispy petals.  They are remarkably long lasting in the vase too.

A friend brought me a large bunch of yellow roses and I cannot resist posting a pic.  The gypsophilla is homegrown and it looks good with yellow.  The flowers are only starting to fade but they have been amazing.  So far, we have had them 11 days and they still look good.  I change the water every day.  This was a top tip form our daughter.  She is a florist so she should know.  It works!

The very wishy washy pale pink peony is delightful and the scent is heady.  This was a plant that was here when we moved in over a decade ago.  Half of it was dead so we rejuvenated it.  Then it was moved several times and then had to sit for a few years to recover from its trials.  We did not know the colour of the blooms and assumed it was the same as the other peony which was also hiding in a border - a beautiful magenta.  How different could it be?  Anyway, last year I staked it and a couple of large flowers were well supported.  However,  this year the stakes were not quite high enough, there are masses of flowers and it rained on them.  The plant nearly keeled over in exhaustion!  I had to pick most of the flowers and they were a bit of a mess but I have saved a few for the vase.  The plant is huge now so next year we need stakes of nearly a metre to support the almost dinner-plate sized flowers.

The summer is rolling along and the garden is full of colour.  The foliage is starting to billow and it won’t be long before the wisteria needs a bit of a tidy up.  It flowered well this year.  We missed the whole show because we were away.  Gardeners should never go on holiday……..

Green is the colour

I know a lady who hates yellow flowers and another who loathes white ones.  Me? Well, I have no hang-ups about colour. I am cheap and cheerful, easy to please and content to mix and match colours with scant regard to tone, hue or matters of ‘good taste’ - whatever that is. I like bold and brassy, cool and sophisticated and I don’t mind mixing the two.  Life is a struggle against pain, there are too many long, grey winter days and in any case, more than one notable gardener has said that since nature does not create a colour scheme in the wild, why should we?  Nothing clashes and colour literally brightens us all up. 

The colour we often take for granted is of course green. This is probably because it is forms the very structure of our gardens and the power of it is that it blends in, is easy on the eye and has a very calming effect. It is not until we visit a green-free zone in a town or city that we feel a strong sense that something is missing.  

At flower shows there are often gardens where the only interest is a mixture of different shades of green in different textures.  I do ‘get it’ and quite like to see such creativity but it has never been ‘our thing’ at Springfield.  I started with a hot border, a cool border etc but over time the poppies seeds fly off and mix it all up and I am happy if the plants are happy.  

For me it is the pops of colour fizzing in front of a green backdrop that excites me.  There is one exception however (does that prove the rule?) and that is my small collection of hostas. They demonstrate perfectly how infinitely varied the colour green is and how our perceptions of green can be altered.

This hosta is outside our back door in a big pot and it is a delight every year.  In spring it awakes from its winter slumbers and erupts into tightly furled cigar shaped shoots and within a few weeks these open out to reveal acid lime green and deep green leaves which are glossy and corrugated in texture.  It is a joy to behold when I go out to the dustbin I cannot resist touching it.   It lights up the passage way leading to our garden. 

Of course as the season progresses we may see the results of a slug or two nibbling the edges of the leaves but keeping a hosta in a pot topped up with coarse gravel, minimises the invasion.  Sometimes I even put copper tape around the top of the pot and sprinkle over a few organic slug pellets, but not always. I also find that the thicker and glossier the leaves, the less the slugs attack them.  I assume the leaves are too tough for their little teeth.

The pots of hostas by our garden shed do well in the semi-shade but hostas seem to do well anywhere in our garden. I split them all this year and Doc dotted clumps around the garden.  That is the beauty of a perennial.  You buy a plant, grow it on and within a couple of seasons you can dig it up, cut it into sections resulting in free plants to plant out or give away .  

I am told that you can have too much of a good thing.  Number One Daughter bought a house from a hosta collector and yes, you’ve guessed it, the garden is full of them.  Needless to say, I can take a few off her hands.  She is all ‘hostered’ out….!

Droning on

The fact that the use of technology is accelerating faster than it takes to send an email is an understatement.  Doc and I like to think we are nifty when it comes to computers, email, digital photography etc and our ipad is so well used that the cover is wearing out.  However, Ashley, our neighbours’ teenage son has been showing us that we don't know nothin’ yet!

Ashley has a drone that takes pictures and he called round the other week and politely asked us if we would like some aerial shots of the house and garden.  We jumped at the chance, well who wouldn’t?  ‘Shall we take the washing in from the line?’ we asked him.  ‘Oh no, you don’t need to do that,’ he said.  ‘I can edit that out later.’  Heck.  It crossed my mind to ask him if he could neaten up the borders and add a few ornamental trees to create more of a wow factor but decided that maybe we might be accused of mis-representing the garden.

The drone an impressive piece of kit.  It is no bigger than a frisbee and very stable when airborne.  Ashley is well practised with the controls and he can zoom it around smoothly and quickly.  After a few circuits of the garden, he nipped over the garden wall and in no time at all, we had a couple of really good pictures. The drone also takes video too which Ashley adds a soundtrack to.

Doc wondered about asking Ashley if he could do a survey of the roof of the house.  Old houses are so high it is very difficult to find out if there are any slates loose.  Technology is great, what’s not to like?  Thanks Ashley!   

Farewell

Funeral Flowers?

Doc chopped down our beautiful column ornamental cherry tree this morning.  He said that wielding the axe felt even more savage because the tree was just coming into flower.  He came in from the garden, carrying an armful of branches bursting with pink blooms.  We put the branches in a vase and now the hall is filled with a delicate fragrance.  

There is a lesson to be learned from this sadness.  If you plant a tree you are investing in the future and planting something that will take a long time to mature.  All the more reason to think carefully what you plant and where you plant it.  Think how big it will grow, what the spread will be and how it fits into the landscape of the garden.  It is not a decision to be taken lightly. 

Our cherry tree was simply outgrowing its space and planted so close to the boundary and high hedge beyond, it was straining to get to the light and bending instead of growing upright.  It did not look right at all. It had to go.

We shall of course plant another tree, but somewhere else.  There are so many moderately sized ornamental trees.  We have a fruiting espalier cherry tree in the vegetable garden but I would like to replace the ornamental cherry tree.  We will probably never see a new specimen reach its maturity, but that is a good gardener's lot.  We will leave something good behind.

I spotted some fritillaries underneath the new damson tree in the orchard, nestling alongside some grape hyacinths.  They helped lift our spirits.  I am glad today has something positive in it.