My Patch

@Trunky, don't open any mysterious envelopes I am one of those that think of those as unwelcome invaders...

 

I do have plenty of those dotted around the garden. I don't mind them, they add a welcome splash of spring colour, they don't mind the dry conditions on this sandy soil and they suit my gardening style, which tends to be 'if it's happy there - let it be' wherever possible.

I'm not actually intending to take any with me, but given that I'm taking several plants in large pots and containers, along with others which I've propagated by division and by potting up offshoots, I have a feeling some of them will sneak their way in to the new garden anyway.

I'm taking plenty of photos at the moment, the garden is looking particularly colourful this year and I figure they will be useful to refer back to if I need ideas for the new garden.

This little corner I planted a couple of years ago with a mixed row of lavender and variegated box. There are some osteospermums in there too and the poppies give a nice backdrop.









The first hollyhocks are flowering.



This area has a mixture of lychnis, hardy geraniums and alchemilla, with a salvia 'hot lips' thrown in for good measure.



In the veg patch, a patch of self-seeded nasturtiums have pooped up in amongst the beetroot and spring onions.



This is my 'semi- wild' area. It's a mixture of wild flowers and colonists from elsewhere in the garden. Altogether, they make a lovely colourful mixture.







Poppies and cat's ear growing in the long grass next to the chicken run.



This patch is right outside the kitchen window, many of these flowers have seeded themselves from elsewhere in the garden.

 

@Trunky I think my problem with fast spreading plants is hat I need a bigger garden.

 

Collected a few more seeds this evening to take when we move.

Aquilegias and scabious from the herbaceous border. Campion, cowslips and buttercup seeds from the wildflower area.

It's a race against time in the veg patch - until a couple of weeks ago I'd carried on planting things out at the usual time, not being sure if or when the move was likely to happen.

Now it looks as if the move could possibly happen around late July or early August, so we might be lucky with the sweet corn and runner beans, which normally start producing around that time.
Not much chance of harvesting any butternut squash though, I planted them about 3 weeks ago and they're romping away now. Oh well, I'm sure the new owners will appreciate them.

 

The forecast is for the current dry spell to end tomorrow, so I carried on with operation 'seed collection' this evening while the heads are still dry.

Collected some more foxglove, poppy, cowslip, cat's ear and a handful of vetch seeds from the wild flower patch.

Gathered some chive seeds from the herb patch too.

 

Took advantage of a dull, cool day by trying to start off a few more cuttings today.

I've been taking cuttings from a few favourite plants around the garden for a few weeks now, with mixed results so far. Hopefully a few of them will take, so I'll have some plants to get me started in the new garden.

Tried a few euonymus today (Emerald and Gold and Silver Queen), also took a few more Heliathemum and Sarcococca as I'm not sure the ones I took a few weeks ago have taken.

Also potted on some irises which I started off from a few small rhizomes in early spring, luckily these have romped away and filled their small pots with strong healthy root growth already.

Preparations for the house move continue. Spent the day moving everything out of the shed and into the garage, as we're selling the shed and someone may be coming to dismantle and take it away later in the week. The chickens have gone too, someone came to collect them this evening.

It will feel a bit strange tomorrow morning, for many years now my routine first thing every morning has been to head off down the garden to let out, feed and water the hens.

Added to this, I knew exactly where everything was in the shed, but now all my gardening tools and equipment are in the garage and I have to hunt around to find anything.

All very unsettling for a creature of habit like myself, but it will all be worth it in the end of course.

 

Oh Glod Trunk

 

The disagree button is gone so would there now be room for a "hug" button?

In the meantime ditto @Zigs

 

Thanks for the kind comments everyone, much appreciated.

One thing I have learned over the years in this garden is that it's often best to just stand back and see what nature produces before barging in and trying to plan and control everything.

These two quick photos I took yesterday illustrate this rather nicely.

This narrow border, only about a foot wide, runs alongside the path in front of the garage. A few years ago I planted it up with lavender which worked quite well for a while until the lavender became too large and woody, so I dug it all out.

Instead of replanting the bed immediately, I left it for a while and quite quickly it filled up with Erigeron, which is one one those plants which happily seeds itself all around this garden. That was three years ago.

After the first year or so, a few lavender seedlings began to appear, obviously from seeds dropped by the plants which previously occupied the bed. I potted up a few and left the rest, doing nothing more than giving the whole bed a quick trim with shears in early spring.

This is how it looks today, with the lavender and Erigeron happily co-existing to give a lovely natural looking combination.



This is Allium sphaerocephalon, also known as the 'drumstick allium'. It's a small, late flowering allium which again, is one of those plants which will seed itself around quite happily.

These were here when we moved in 29 years ago and are still going strong in the herbaceous border. They are prolific self seeders becoming quite a nuisance if allowed to seed freely, so every year after the flowers fade I simply pull them all out, knowing that the odd one which I miss will still produce plenty of new plants to keep the numbers up.

At this time of year, these small nodding reddish heads look quite attractive dotted around among the other herbaceous plants, giving an nice effect, all achieved with minimal input and effort from myself.

 

Collected some more seeds today.

Buttercup and ox-eye daisies from the wildflower patch and campanulas from around the flower borders. The campanulas are mostly blue, although one white flowered specimen appeared this year, so I collected seeds from that one too.

Still got a few more to add to the collection; sweet pea pods are beginning to turn brown now so I'll collect some of those tomorrow. Got a good crop of hollyhocks this year, I'll save some seeds from those when they're ready.

The knapweed has begun flowering in the wild area, it's one of my favourite wildflowers which really says 'summertime' to me, so I'll be keeping an eye on them.

It looks as if the house move will be delayed a bit now - our buyers' buyer has pulled out, so they're back on the market, hoping to find another buyer as soon as possible.

At least it means we'll get the benefit of some of the crops in the veg patch now, the sweet corn and runner beans should start producing before the end of the month, so we'll get to enjoy eating them after all.

Had a good tidy up in the herbaceous border today, it's at its best in spring and starts to look a bit tired by mid summer on our dry sandy soil, so I did a lot of cutting back and pulled up annuals which have finished flowering too.

One of the annuals dotted around the bed is quaking oat grass, I usually try to pull these out before they seed but didn't get round to it soon enough this year. Hope the new owners like it, as I think they might have plenty next year.

 

Looks as if we're back on track for the house move now. Our buyers have found another buyer for their house, so hopefully the move will happen in a few weeks time.

I'm still collecting seeds - added to the collection today were buttercup, ox-eye daisy, campion, foxglove and poppy from the wild flower area. I also collected several of those lovely delicate, papery heads from the honesty scattered around the garden. It's an easy, unfussy plant which happily seeds itself around, so they will be coming with us to help colonize the new garden.

Did a little tidying up, weeding and dead-heading today. Although we probably won't be here much longer, as a gardener I simply cannot let everything go after all these years tending this patch of mine. I want to leave the garden in good shape for the new owners. As keen gardeners themselves, the garden was a major selling point for them so I think it's only right and proper that I should leave it in good order when we move. (This probably belongs in the 'You know you're an obsessive gardener when...' thread)

 

Still collecting seeds and potting up a few bits and pieces for the move.

Been waiting for a couple of dry days before collecting any more seeds. The last two days have been fine, so this evening I collected a few rose campion and hollyhock seeds.

Now that there's a bit more moisture in the soil and the weather is relatively cool, I've lifted and potted up a couple more herbaceous plants - a potentilla 'Gibson's Scarlet' and an alchemilla mollis.

It's beginning to feel like we'll be taking half the garden with us when the move eventually happens, I've got quite a collection of potted up stuff scattered around in little corners here and there, and a fair collection of seeds in various small jars and containers too.

 

What a beautiful garden you have and how lucky are the new buyers . I wish my garden was like yours - looking at your pictures made me realise how awful mine is .

I particularly liked these last two pictures. I wish my Erigeron would self seed, I've had it 3 years and its grown from a tiny plant into a large specimen but stubbornly refuses to self seed. I've even moved it 3 times to see if different locations might make a difference.

Good luck and happy gardening in your new place