3: Gardening Diaries ...

[alp]

Good morning - I wish I could afford to be so ruthless. I removed the omnipresent aquilegias and I felt guilty, the tired and old English lavender and I still can't bear throwing it away. The great thing is that we are all different and that makes life interesting. Not very cold, but dark and certainly not warm. Need to find the salad leaves to sow the seeds, and trying my hardest to fatten the celery as they are now like anorexic sticks. Will put in a washing pole for the washing line near the felled yew. A lot to.. A most productive few days so far.

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Morning @alp

I know how you feel...3 of our Lavender bushes are well past their best and every autumn I tell myself that they must go.....but I can't bring myself to do the dreaded deed

You've certainly have been busy....puts me to shame!
But in my defence I haven't been feeling 100%, finished the antibiotics......and all the symptoms have come back Think I'll just ride it out, hate taking meds especially when they don't work!

Have go back to my brother's this morning ....itt a never-ending saga with the family lately!!!

Hopefully this afternoon I'll get out into the garden and I wil! attempt to get ruthless with some fading ( but still blooming) bedding..... not sure if I can bring myself to do it

Have a good day

 

[alp]

@Upsy Daisy Please don't do too much and if human beings don't respond, you need to do tough love.

There is this story in which a son is very lazy, so much so that the parents fashion a food ring round his neck. He dies as he's too lazy to move the food ring. It's similar to - you can take the cow to the water, but you can't force it to drink.

Any way, I have the feeling that you have exhausted all eventualities ..

Just mown the big lawn and shredded the yew branches. Will clean up the 50 years of dead debris from the Yew and hope the winds will send the foul air to the back.

I was looking at the lavender again. Why isn't there a draping lavender? I wish I were a botanical-geneticist! Variegated and draping from a standard! How about that? The poor thing is doing such a lot of good and yet I had to dig it up and it keeps staring at me, as if pleading..

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Thanks @alp

Ooooo!!! How lovely would that be ....a trailing Lavender !!!
Trouble is that each year I take cuttings on the promise that I'll dig the old woody ones up......and each year I don't!!!! Now I have absolutely loads of little Lavenders in pots waiting to be rehomed!!

What a to do!!!!

 

[alp]

Thanks @alp

Ooooo!!! How lovely would that be ....a trailing Lavender !!!
Trouble is that each year I take cuttings on the promise that I'll dig the old woody ones up......and each year I don't!!!! Now I have absolutely loads of little Lavenders in pots waiting to be rehomed!!

What a to do!!!!

Amazing that they are alive. Here in my garden which is being heated 13 hours a day in summer, all my plants in pots die in drought and/or flood as I watered the pots and the trays underneath held too much water. I am going to take 5 photos of my garden uncut. Please look beyond the mess or actually look at the mess! Going out now..

 

[alp]

alp uncut! Well, almost

My garden and the big lovely shed is not mine. All that without planning permission. The bluish bit added after his other neighbour had been petrol bombed and that was the only time they trimmed their bitter cherry tree which has root to the middle of my lawn, where you can see the bald patch left by too many bonfire.

Behind the black fabric planter is the tub housing the waterlily leaves!

The yew branches and stump

Raised bed from previous owner and tons of pots with tons of hydrangeas

Easter Star and one giant amistad with the centre the size of a fishing brolly taken for cutting as it had been snapped by the wind!

The back of the central patch

My hellebore patches and dahia flanked by sweetcorns

Glorious cluster of cosmos cupcakes. See much more flowers on one side.

Will take same photoes next week and hopefully, the mess will be less messy!

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Oh @alp what fabulous pics!!! Your garden is so big!!! What an up keeping task you have on your hands!!! Well done ,very impressive!

Love your different zone areas....what a lot of Hellebores!!

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Which side is the ' factory ' in the first pic??

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Not that I'm nosey!!!!.........OK , yes I am!

 

[alp]

Which side is the ' factory ' in the first pic??

The main house and that's so brazen about it. Where the bathroom window is where they use industrial fan to blow out the air which travels to where the Yew tree was and also the nursery bed where I have had my first excitement of hellebore babies. All trapped there. Because of that, I uprooted a whole cistus and removed quite a few branches of one clump further on. I used to stand next to the stump, holding onto the yew branches to inhale and exhale. A lot to do, but taking that tree down let the air flow to go unimpeded. At one point, the whole garden had that air overhanging, but a workman told me he walked in and out of the main house and smelt nothing. Now it has been quiet for 2 days. Don't hold your breath as it will go on as if it were operating under royal protection.

 

[alp]

Oh @alp what fabulous pics!!! Your garden is so big!!! What an up keeping task you have on your hands!!! Well done ,very impressive!

Love your different zone areas....what a lot of Hellebores!!

There were more, the heat has killed quite a few. I am thinking of forcing some in pots but I am never confident enough. Hope Zenji and Perki will show me the rope!

 

[Perki]

Your Garden huge @alp no wonder your out in the garden all the time. I can't believe you've got a hellebore patch they loads of them, I know you had a lot but not that many I thought they were dotted around the garden. The yew will very likely grow back. Do you leave all your dahlias in the ground ?

Stop being a whimp uspy and get that old lavender out, just think all them little lavenders stuck in a little pot all their life, no permanent home probably stuck in the corner out of site .

I tend to keep bedding until its gone over, I am tempted to put the dahlais to bed now with how much damage they had, it raining now and windy.

What you forcing into pot alp ?

 

[alp]

Stop being a whimp uspy and get that old lavender out, just think all them little lavenders stuck in a little pot all their life, no permanent home probably stuck in the corner out of site .

Perki 1: Upsy 0

Yes, I really hate potting stuff as plants can't stretch their roots and search for better spots. I think I won't grow any straggly lavender any more. Those Hidcote or English. I love the French ballerinas though and I have 3 white, purple and big purple. Love those and might sell some seeds if they are viable. I know exactly how Upsy feels - it's so hard to kill a plant, especially when you raise it from a tiny grain of seed! An awesome journey and a dire end for the poor bairn!

I want to force hellebores in pots. But knowing my expertise or rather the lack of it, I will surely kill them before winter is out.

I will leave dahlias in situ. They all come back. If they don't, that means I have dug around the area and killed them. It's very hot here in East London, not to mention the added artificial heat from next door.

Just potted up some of the best looking skunky fritillaria imperalis. I took your advice and used sand, perlite and some broken terracotta pieces.

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Who are you calling a whimp Mr @Perki !!!!!!
Didn't I bite the bullet and yank out the pesky daisies whose name will not escape from my lips ever again..........well yanked MOST of them out
A few of the sweet looking babies, pleaded with me to give them a 2nd chance......I have a big caring, kind heart......

My baby Lavendars are being devotedly loved and nurtured....it's not just one old timer that has past it's prime, I have 3!!
I hope I'm not put on the scrap heap ( or composted ) when I'm not staggeringly ,breathtakingly beautiful any more ( or don't smell as nice as I use to )

 

[MaryMary]

Would have to get rid of plants to make way for new ones and I can never do that. I have p!ants that have been in pots for a couple years still waiting to have a permanent home found for them!!

Um...well... I hesitate to say it... but...
What about the space where there used to be the unmentionable daisies?



Bahahaha!!! And your user name is particularly apt!!

Stop being a whimp uspy and get that old lavender out, just think all them little lavenders stuck in a little pot all their life, no permanent home probably stuck in the corner out of site .

Perki ->

<- Upsy Daisy




MaryMary ->