Summer Rain

Five minutes ago I was baking in my chair reading Monty Don's 'Gardening at Longmeadow' and I felt the first droplets of rain. Since then it has moved on considerably with really wet rain, a swirling wind and a truculent and wet kitty.

I wasn't surprised by this damp development, as the weather forecast did say light rain. As you can see from the photo above, I have left the kitchen door open and have parked myself with laptop at the kitchen table. Many poets have rhapsodised about summer rain and we all know the smell, not always pleasant but instantly evocative. It's all caused by the most simple and obvious of events, where cool water falls on warm earth and like many things the most prosaic is the most deserving of notice. Throughout the years of human existence many people have looked out of their home at the rain and smelt that memorable seeping scent. That is a thought both inspiring and grounding at the same time.

New Arrivals, a few days in

So, as mentioned in the last post, I was allowed to make a Dobbies trip earlier in the week, and this time I bought mostly sensible plants. Here, are some Alliums which have been dotted about (no regularity of drifts for me, oh no). I think they look particularly pretty underplanting the Gillenium Trifolata which is llooking especially spiffy just now.

Above are the Sweet peas that Laura gave me for my birthday. They are from M&S, so as you'd expect they are doing well. Depending on the colours they will either stay hanging there of move to the hanging basket hook by the front door. The paenolias are running out of steam a little anyway.

Above here is my second attempt at a grass! This is a prarie ornamental grass and I love it's green helathiness and blue-ish tinge. This has replaced a French Lavendar that finally gve up the ghost, and I am hoping for a verdant clump. That position is key for the view from my french windows so he needs to step up and get established.

 Here are the roses that finally made an appearance despite the inclement conditions! Roses cause such pain because they are so beautiful and their scent is exquisite. To the left is my demure Wedding Day rose which is honouring us with her beauty.

And to the right is Compassion, the troubled one. Poor old Compassion is riddled with the Black spot and have uffered in the rain. This bloom is wonderful and encapsulates why I let it bust my colour scheme! There are another 5 blooms, which are mostly balling or bedraggled, but overall this is so much better than last year when we had 2 blackened and dry blooms all year.

Garden design corner here! Under the Eucalyptus tree you can see my bright white stones, and these are also gracing pots with Rosemary, Agapanthus and Bay. I was inspired by a lovely walled garden in York with simple and healthy kitchen based plants and a mulch of white pebbles over some of them. I really like the way it adds light to a dim day.

Here is a new arrival and a mover, in my troubled slug bed!. To the right is a new Lonicera World's Dart which has been trained up the trellis. I felt it was tough enough to cope with the variable conditions of that corner (wet, dry, shade, sun) and clothe the trellis in lovely leaves and flowers. Here's hoping. You may also see the Stipa Tennussima sitting next to it? Well, I was unhappy with it in it;s last location and the wispiness offended me because I could see it from the kitchen doors. So he has been given a second chance in this slug bed (bet he gives them indigestion) and visually I like the change.

And here is the final New arrival, another silvery Hebe. This one placed itself; as I moved the pot about to see where it looked good it inconveniently fitted in right in front of the Fennel. So that's where it went and it should fill out that space nicely. Unless the slugs eat it.

While I was looking the other way, this happened...

So, the theme of this post is mixed emotions! Due to the utterly torrential rain, I haven't been in the garden 

much over the last fortnight. And in that time there have been some nice surprises but also some less nice. So the Geranium Kashmir White at the top has come out and looks stunning. Also the front flower bed is looking verdant with flourishing poppies and healthy sweet peas.

The first lily of the summer has also popped just by the front door. Still lilies of white, yellow, orange and mystery to come, with some mystery Hemerocallis also potentially making an appearance.

This white rose is also preparing to make a demure entrance, if the black spot does not marr her beauty first. The BS is rampant this year, completely infesting the Compassion rose, although some blooms are attempting to fight back.

Bolting is another theme with 2 aspects. My salad has bolted because I wasn't quick enough and the weather hasn't been clement. The curry leaf plant has however flowered and it's rather nice.

Also the pests (birds and Bugs etc) have been ravaging my garden. In tune with the Eco Nazi theme of current gardening, I haven't sprayed anything. Next year I will and make no apology. They leave nothing for me.

But my Allium Nigrum is playing the game - and look how lovely he is. Apparently he'll been turning dark purple as the bloom ages. I think more of these next year.

The Eucalyptus continues to deliver - now we have beautiful bark, silver leaves, white new leaves, berries and burnished red leaves. What a trooper, while my Cosmos and Delphinium seedlings make no headway and get eaten to death, Old Euc just keeps on delivering. Fab.

To finish on 2 good points:

1) I got to go to Dobbies yesterday afternoon so more pics and some moves are on the way.

2) Aren't Geraniums beautiful?

Warm Summer Rain

What a weekend? Strangely lovely weather - not cold and most of the time the rain was very light. I sat out in the garden yesterday reading Russell Page and several times it started to rain. I just stayed and it stopped soon after. The sun and showers should help the plants along. I also had a lovely walk up to get some pak choi and in the warm air and brief flecks of rain it was rather thrilling - made me feel alive. Edinburgh just now is lush and green and the trees are reaching for the sky in verdant glory I'll confess I walked with a beatific smile on my face and probably looked like a moron but I felt alive. You have to see the beauty around you when it's there or you'll miss the best of life.

Desert Island Plant: Geranium Orion

If I could only have 5 plants in my garden, this would definitely be one of the first I added to my list. I bought it at Gardening Scotland last year and it proceeded to make my garden a better place. Tumbling over the edge of the wooden trough, it's beautiful without being in flower. But now it is, and the colour and restrained delicacy of the flowers is a real treat.

In spring I took a deep breath and chopped off part of the clump with a kitchen knife and replanted. This plant flowers over a long period because it does not set seed, so the only way of to divide in spring. I was, quite frankly, terrified and it initially looked like I had made a terrible mistake as both drooped terribly. The original plant is now of course flowering and the child is looking healthy so maybe we'll have flowers yet. I also have Geranium Clarkei Kashmir White and a new blue Geranium whose card I have lost. Great plants.

Deborah Kellaway - The Making of Town Gardens

I have just finished reading a book by Deborah Kellaway - The Making of Town Gardens which was sent to me by the Garden Poet. Like many garden books it is for long periods lists and descriptions of plants - the triangular leaves and white flowered Viva Bundy X Pundiflorum (I made that one up) grew by the fence, and so on. But there are some part of it that I really enjoyed. There is a section about her learning about gardening which many novices can relate to, when you are just having a go and picking what you like and planting it. I also like the section when she is helping her daughter plant up a new garden and there are the odd moments of fractious words exchanged.

Where I think she hits the nail on the head is with the experimentation phase followed by the knowledge (Well that died last year, I'll either try it somewhere else or try a different plant). But where I think she loses it is with the enigmatic statements later in the book where she clearly feels she has moved to the next gardening stage (Judgement with a bit more knowledge). Deborah even identifies that herself in one section but continues to make the statements: "I thought then that painting it white was a great idea" (paraphrase by the way). Well why wasn't it?

Gardeners do go through phases of knowledge and ability and your tastes change in this area as much as other areas of your life. I remember a blue fur jacket I had as a student which I though was the most amazing and cool garment ever. Suffice to say it was not and I looked like a special variety of loon when wearing it. But I look back on that with amusement and understand that I may feel like that about my current wardrobe in the future, notwithstanding the lesser experimentation levels that come with advancing age. We need to be like that about gardens. Let us not decry our earlier tastes and ideas as somehow wrong now we have achieved a greater level of knowledge, instead let us see it as a natural progression.

Like many things, gardening has an inbuilt snobbery in that many of us want to climb up the ladder of knowledge and ability. Some people have natural talent and luck with it, however for others it is the love and experience that help them be better gardeners. Sneering at your earlier choices indicates that you have moved on from them and therefore have progressed up the gardening pole and are therefore higher than others. 

The British are a nation of gardeners but we are also a nation that likes to benchmark and grade ourselves. I suppose it's only natural that this should apply to gardening too.

Plantsman VS Designer: New GS Purchases

From reading gardening books and magazines, I understand that there is a broad distinction between planstmen and designers. A plantsman is someone for whom the plants are the central aspect and they want as many as possible, in great shape and probably of those tricky types that show great skill to raise (meckonopsis anyone?). A designer is someone for whom the plants are secondary only in as far as they must fit within a robust design. Garden designers seem to largely look down on plantsman, and so far I haven't found the reverse because plantsman don't seem to be as vocal in their case - maybe because they are in the majority?
I am fascinated by garden design and even with some brief reading it is clear to see that a good design is key for any garden. However let's use my own case as an example. When I arrived my back garden was paved and decked out completely. There is no point in imagining any other basic hard structures because the cost of changing what is there is beyond me. So I built long raised beds (with Outlaw support) and have made the best of the situation can I can create my vision. Because plantsmen can have visions too, but ours is likely to be more about the feel and the plants. My vision is for an urban oasis - looking from my back door and seeing plants grow upward and outward so you must part them as you go. I was inspired by a picture in the wonderful Dan Pearson book Home Ground: Sanctuary in the City. I also knew I wanted a limited colour palate mostly around white and what plants I like. Later I realised I also loved the idea of a monastic courtyard and this works with the strong linear shapes and many herbs I have already and may support further a water feature in the future. Sometimes pure design is not possible for those with a limited budget, but we can still be motivated by our own vision even if that is plant-centric.
Anyway, the thoughts above were triggered by my visit to the stalls of Gardening Scotland. As we went Jamie exclaimed a few times about lovely tall White flowers (because he knew I was looking for more height and ideally more white. Often I was pleased to tell him that the objects of his attention were plants we already had - utterly smug is perhaps closer to the truth! The first plants I bought was a deep red thistle - selling out on several stalls I finally tracked it down. This is also a nice link between front and back so we have thistles in both. And I forgot how spiky they actually are. The front bed caused me the most problem because I needed to move some plants around to get sun for my thistle and fill up some spaces.

I also bought a Poppy - Papaver Orientale Patty's Plum. I know poppies are short-lived but I have loved them since I was a child. Last year the one Ladybird Poppy yielded many seeds and I ended up with 8 small plants this year. Patty has been in every magazine I read at the moment and it was nice to have it although is comparison with the broad swathes you see in larger gardens, my 1 plant looks lonely.

We also bought a plant that is supposed to deter cats (and others) which I've planted in the corner next to the rose - not holding out much hope but needs to be tried! So here is my troublesome front bed with the thistle and patty to the right. As the iris has not done much yet and there is still no sign of the Crocosmia, I planted the boring tall variegated shrub in the back corner and moved the black celery to just in front.

Here is my Agapanthus White Heaven. As a lover of Agapanthus I have never taken the plunge until now because they are so tender and I don't think Scotland works for them. So I have taken advice and planted this one into a pot so I can coddle it a bit more. Very excited!! I also bought 1 Allium Niger that is still to come and plants so you can see it from the kitchen door - maybe I will plant more Alliums next year (they are on the plants for 2013 list). I also bought 3 sensible medium height white flowers (different Asters). I was quite restrained and avoided getting carried away or buying things that won't come this year. I am still missing some larger plants but on my next trip to Dobbies I will find something for those gaps. GS provided a little inspiration and a few plants, maybe less than last year but that's probably due to the fact that I have grown as a gardeners since then.

Ahoy Gardening Scotland!

So yesterday I was at Gardening Scotland, which is the largest garden show north of the border. It was a chilling day (in the physical sense) with a tugging tearing wind that wouldn't leave you alone. I had learnt from last year and layered up which meant apart from when sitting down to eat the largest chocolate twist in the world, I was warm. Not so my companions (Husband, Sister in law and Outlaws) who never quite got warm.

Here is my favourite stand from the Floral Hall, for Binny's plants. This won best display and really deserved to- the planting was thick and luscious with a veiled effect in places. Last year I took most of my inspiration from the Floral Hall displays and took lots of plants for these stands home. This year they were of a lower standard with drooping and browning plants. Here are some jaunty Alliums.

Although I know it's wasteful, I did get a £2 Allium Niger which ha still to come, and will start white and progress through to dark purple. I love Alliums and m planning to include them in my autumn bulbathon.

So if I didn't get inspiration from the Floral Hall, was there any kicking about? Well the good news was that the outside show gardens had some good ideas. Many were fairly horrific with a focus on some sort of gimmick rather than a great concept and delivery. Below is a picture of one of the Pallet gardens which are usually schools - Jamie and I were really inspired by this one and have decided to try some elements of 'Allotment Chic' in ours.

Many of the gardens would not have been out of place on Bournemouth sea front or in a Britain in Bloom competition - clashing bedding plants, clashing colours, hard landscaping creating a jarring effect and not height in the beds. The one below won best show garden and it was fantastic.

One of the tendencies I have as a gardener is to over plant - not in terms of volumes but by type. I know that repeating patterns of similar plants is much softer on the eye but the plant magpie in me cannot resist. This garden below has very restrained planting and I love the water. The decking however is heinous.

Finally I also loved this one - The rills and wooden boards and lovely and the plant fiend in me loved the lushness (more height needed?)

I wouldn't want to give the impression that I have sneered at Gardening Scotland, as in fact I'm very grateful it exists. I harbour dreams of heading to Chelsea next year, but in this garden show I can take plants home which is fab (7 bought, more in another post). I think that there are some great exhibitors at the show but that many of the others lack a bit of vision and focus on gimmicks and fads rather than strong design and planting.

Finally I have to mention The Beechgrove Garden which is Scotland's answer to Gardeners' World. It lack the beauty and spirit of GW but I like to watch it because the weather and times to plant out are aligned with my garden. It is a cheaper substitute with 2 older male presenters who are very knowledgeable (jumpers with elbow patches) and to female presenters who continually defer to the supposed greater knowledge of the men. They always talk about the need for young blood in gardening but are all over 50. Anyway, on Friday the Beechgrove team visited the show and did a great series of clips. One memorable one had one of the female presenters telling a disabled athlete that the accident that paralysed her was meant to be and a hilarious moment where a guest emerged from the side of the shot and the other female presenter clearly expected him from the other side. Summed it up for me.