Through the garden gate--March

The weather has not been very Spring like in March and I know we are all longing for some warmer days with more sunshine. No more snow please!  We have been working on our new garden whenever we can but we have had so much rain.  We get so disheartened when it rains hard and the bottom beds fill with water, but we can see progress. The spring bulbs which I planted weeks ago have brought some colour to the borders.

        

I have been enjoying the Hellebores which I planted. Some of them are a lovely dark red colour, one of them is called 'Anna's Red'. I bought it because my granddaughter is called Anna and she has red hair. I just had to have it! I łove plants which for different reasons remind me of people I know. I wonder now if I should look out for plants which are named after my other grandchildren?

On my potting bench is a collection of small pots of spring bulbs--tete a tete daffodils, yellow and purple crocus, blue Chionodoxa and Pushkinia. It's a lovely display of colour. I have planted some containers of violas too. They are around the garden in different places-- the garden table, outside the kitchen door.

Under the Weigela in the front garden are some bulbs which in  last month's 'Through the garden gate' blog were covered in snow. They are looking much more cheerful now and I have added some lavender and Heucheras to the front of the border. 

This is a border which is tucked away and can get forgotten, but it does get quite a bit of sun. I cut the Weigela back last year when we moved into our new house to make some planting space underneath. It will be good to have a bit more colour there this year.

I am pleased to say that my ankle is recovering well and I am able to get about the garden more, I can even use the spade and fork now, so as soon as the weather is better I will be doing much more planting in the garden beds.

I am linking this post to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.

Our new garden project 4--planting up the beds

Gardening experts always say that when you move into a new house not to touch the garden for a year to see what plants are growing and what the soil conditions are etc. We haven't done that with our new garden as the back garden was just lawn. There were no trees or shrubs--nothing. So we were able to get started straight away.

As we continued with our plans for the new garden, I spent time thinking what to plant where. There were problems with the soil as I mentioned in previous blogs. In our last garden we had a lot of shade so I always had to bear that in mind when buying new plants. In this garden there is more sun, still some shady areas and heavy clay soil which retains water. So I have had to think about these conditions when planting. I did a lot of reading up on the best plants to grow in moist conditions and I now have a long list. 

When the seating area and raised beds were completed at the end of the summer last year, I decided it was time to start planting up the beds.  Those raised beds looked so good filled up with soil and the good thing was that they didn't have the problem with the water that some of the other areas of the garden have.  I had brought some plants with me from our old house, I bought plants in plant sales, I had garden gift vouchers given to me for my birthday, I explored all the local garden centres. For months after we moved in there were pots set out in the borders, whilst I decided the best places to plant them all. Much as I wanted to get plants in the garden, I often felt daunted by it all not wanting to make any mistakes. But mistakes don't matter because plants can always be moved if they are in the wrong place.

We wanted to plant some trees for height and structure so the first to be planted was the trees. We bought a Silver birch, a Rowan, an Amelanchier and a Liquidamber. I also had a contorted willow in a pot given to me by a friend a few years ago which I decided to plant in the ground. I was so excited when the trees were delivered. It's lovely to be able to have your own choice of trees instead of being stuck with something which came with the garden and you may not like.  I love silver birch, as well as the lovely white bark they are a really graceful tree, their small leaves creating dappled shade. Rowan has berries in the autumn, so good for the birds.

Amelanchier

The amelanchier has blossom in the spring, berries in the autumn loved by birds and good autumn colour. Liquidamber also has good autumn colour and lovely shaped leaves.

Liquidamber

Once they were all planted I put some of the shrubs in. I had read that Hydrangeas soak up water so I thought that would be a good one for our garden. Other shrubs I planted were Pittosporum for evergreen foliage, Cottinus, Fatsia, Physocarpus, Cornus.

Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight'

Trees and shrubs form the backbone of the garden, providing structure during the winter months. After these the herbaceous planting went in. There were  grasses, some tall ones for the back of the borders, some smaller for the front or middle. Grasses look good in the autumn and winter when other plants have gone over. I like grasses, there are so many different sorts, some of them are so tall they can provide screening just like shrubs can. I was able to bring some from our old garden.

As well as growing plants and shrubs that look good at different times of the year, I like to grow plants which I can cut to bring in the house, some for foliage some for their flowers, so that was another thing to think about when buying plants.

Japanese anenome

Salvia

I set out pots of plants in the borders so I could get an idea if they would look right. This took a lot of imagination. The pots got moved around several times before I finally decided I just had to make a start. Once they were in the ground they looked great and as I said before, if they are in the wrong place I can always move them. Most plants are fairly tolerant and don't mind being messed about.

I planted up the raised beds and the border down the right hand side of the garden with mixed planting--trees, shrubs and flowers. In the bottom border where all the water is I just planted the trees and shrubs for the time being as there is still work to be done down there.

The garden looked so much better with plants in, especially those around the seating area.  Well that's the first lot of planting done, there will be more to add over the year as we do more work to the garden. I want to put some climbers and wall shrubs in along the fences. Months later everything is looking ok and although the cold weather hasn't left us yet, the plants seem to be coping well.

A quick visit to the allotment

Before the snow arrived last week and as my fractured ankle was recovering enough for me to walk outside, we decided to pop down to Plot 8 for a quick visit. The intention was to take some bags of kitchen peelings to put on the compost heap and bring back some egg boxes which were being stored in the shed so that I could start chitting the seed potatoes.

Over recent weeks since I injured my ankle I haven't felt any interest in the allotment knowing how slippery the paths can get down there with mud, but once the sun started to shine I started to feel the urge to get down there and see how it was looking even though I wouldn't be able to do much work.

There's only leeks, kale and garlic in the ground now. There's a big bed of leeks, but they are not growing well this year, I think we will be having baby leeks to eat rather than a chunky leek and cheese bake. The kale looks to be getting to the end now, although it does sometimes perk up in the spring. I picked a few leaves to make crispy kale to go with our tea. The garlic was planted in November and is growing well. I was pleased to see lots of  rhubarb was poking through the soil, its pink shoots showing some welcome colour. More welcome colour was appearing in the woodland garden at the top of the plot in the form of spring bulbs.

After wandering round the plot seeing how everything was doing I felt I wanted to do some work, but I can't move around too quickly at the moment. I decided to give the pond a bit of a clean out, it was covered in pond weed and dead leaves. It will only be a few weeks now when the frogs return and it will be full of spawn so I wanted to make sure it was all ready for them. I continued tidying up around the pond in the bog garden, weeding and cutting the plants back. They grow really well in this little garden and as we have a lot of damp soil in our new garden at home I thought I would split some of these plants up so I could take some home with me. Richard came to the rescue here as any work which involves the use of a spade at the moment is beyond the capabilities of my poor ankle. I brought back home two Marsh Marigold plants, a water forget-me-not and a big clump of a golden grass whose name I have forgotten, but which grows really well in damp soil.

Whilst I was working on the pond and bog garden I felt I was being watched and I looked up to see a fluffy little bird staring down at me from the top of the water butt. I don't know what sort of bird it was, I could see a little bit of yellow around its neck and on its wing. I thought it was a bit early for baby birds yet, but it did look like a baby bird because of its fluffiness. It stayed there for ages and didn't seem frightened of me even when I got close up to take a photo. I wondered if it was injured, but it flew off after a while without any problem.

Back home the potatoes have now been set out in the egg boxes in a spare bedroom. That was a good bit of useful work done considering we only intended to spend a few minutes down at the plot.

Through the garden gate--February

February started badly, when I went flat on my back on the wet lawn sustaining a fractured ankle . I was on my way down to the bird table with a pot full of seed. The seed ended up all over the lawn and my husband reported that a flock of starlings descended shortly afterwards to consume it all. I do wonder if they missed any and if we will be seeing sunflowers and other things growing out of the lawn later on in the year.

Well, a few weeks later after much rest, ice, painkillers and physio I am now getting about, pottering around the garden. The physio continues, the rest and painkillers are still needed after I've overdone things. I've been told it could be a couple of months before my ankle is fully healed.  But when the sun shines as it has done in the last week, I have to be outside. As therapy we have been out to the garden centre and I have bought pots of bulbs. Quite gingerly I have found that I can kneel down on my kneeler which has handles to hoist me up again. So I have planted spring bulbs and Hellebores. This is a new garden for us and one which didn't have much in it before. So I am trying to bring in some spring colour.

A box of goodies from the garden centre

In the front garden last year I cleared a space under a Weigela shrub, cutting back some of the branches to raise the canopy. This month I planted  crocus and tete a tete daffodils under its canopy. In the back garden I planted snowdrops, crocus, daffodils and hellebores in a new shrub border which we  made in January. It's lovely to see the spots of colour starting to appear. 

Spring bulbs poking through the snow under the Weigela

 Digging I definitely can't do at the moment, so Richard has done some digging out and planting up of bigger things which needed a spade. There is a large border at the side of the house which had a clump of very well established Crocosmia, yellow irises and bluebells. I dug as much of these out as I could in the autumn.  Crocosmia and irises are difficult to get rid of once they get too established and they are not my favourite plants.  Bluebells can take over a space too if allowed. They are better in the wild or in a woodland garden. As I wanted to give this bed a new look, they had to go. I brought  a Sarcococca ( sweet box) from my old garden. It had been in a pot for a few years. This was planted in the new border by the path where hopefully we will get the scent of it as we pass by. It has looked much happier since it has been planted in the bed. At the other end of the bed Richard planted a Brachyglottis.  This plant used to go by the name of Senecio. Why do they keep changing plant names I wonder? I like to grow this plant for the silver/grey foliage which I find useful for flower arranging. In the centre of the bed is a yellow Potentilla which has always been there. This is quite a good sized border and I'm looking forward to adding some perennial plants in the next few months. It gets quite a bit of sun from early morning to midday. I want to plant up some cottage garden plants which will tumble over onto the path.

The snow arrived this week, so no more gardening for a while. I was going to take some photographs of our planting work, but now the garden is covered in snow. I hope it will soon be gone and we can enjoy all that spring colour. I hope too that I will soon be able to get back to gardening properly with a fully healed ankle. In the meantime all I can offer in photographs is that of a snowy garden and a box of the spring plants before they got planted.

I am linking this post to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post

Our new garden project 3--raised beds and a seating area

We continued working on our new garden throughout the summer last year. After digging out borders down one side and along the bottom of the garden, we then turned our attention to the other side. 

One of the features I wanted in the garden was a seating area where we could put our little table and chairs. I wanted it to be a secluded area with flowers, trees and shrubs surrounding it. We decided early on in our plans that the best place for this would be on the far side. It was away from the house and faced south west and got the last of the sunshine in the evening as well as sunshine for most of the day. On this side of the garden the lawn was quite bumpy and uneven as well as being waterlogged. On a recent visit to RHS garden Harlow Carr we had seen how they had built a raised seating area with wooden sleepers and gravel and thought we could use this idea in our garden. 

First, Richard decided to investigate some of the bumps in the lawn and managed to unearth what was once a large,curved,  brick edged flower bed. We couldn't understand why it had been grassed over, perhaps a previous owner didn't like gardening? We were planning to put a flower border in this area and wondered if we should keep it as it was. It was a ready made border after all, but the more we looked at it the more we thought it wasn't very attractive looking. It would have to go.

old beds found under lawn

Because of the slope of the lawn and the drainage problems the new seating area was going to be raised up slightly with wooden sleepers to level it out and keep it dry. When we discovered the brick edged bed we decided we would still have a flower bed there but instead of the brick edge we would have it raised up with the wooden sleepers and make it bigger. This would then be at a higher level than the seating area to cope with the slope of the lawn and would look better. 

Plenty of bricks

A lot of work followed, digging out the beds. There were a lot of bricks in there, we thought we would never get to the end of all them. They are now piled up in another part of the garden,  I'm sure we'll find a use for them. A base for the shed perhaps?

setting out the timbers

Lots of digging work

Once the beds had been dug over and all the bricks, stones and weeds removed, we incorporated  topsoil and mushroom compost to help improve the soil. The timbers were then put in place.

Adding the topsoil

The raised beds looked lovely with the new soil and compost mixture and I was longing to get planting. Not yet though. It was going to be quite a decent sized flower bed so in the meantime I thought a lot about what could go in there.

muddy work

work progressing

As work progressed I did wonder at times if it would look right. I'm not used to straight lines in the garden, we've always had curves.  But there was no need to worry, once it was finished it looked great. The seating area was finished off with slate clippings.

Planting up the new beds would come later, but we now had somewhere to sit.  We loved this little seating area and throughout the summer and into the autumn we would sit there, even on cooler days wrapped up in coats! Well, having put so much work into building it we had to use it.

It's now a lovely place to sit with a drink, coffee, tea, wine, whatever--a place to take a break from gardening, relax, watch the birds, or plan the next phase of our garden.

Clean up time

A TV weather presenter recently referred to the weather we are having at the moment as 'yo-yo weather'. I think that's a good description, up and down, rain for a few days, then a dry day. If you're a fine weather gardener then I suppose you just sit back with a good book and wait for the spring. But there's lots to be done in our garden and down the allotment, so on fine days I rush outside to get a few jobs done.

We managed to get to the allotment twice last week. The paths were slippy with mud and moss and there was water running out of the gate. The lane outside the plot was really muddy. I was glad that we had finished manuring all the beds so there was no need to disturb them. Richard started work on mending the two of the compost bins which were broken and I set to cleaning out the little greenhouse. I had cleaned out the big greenhouse in the autumn, but the other one still had the dead remains of the chillies, peppers and cucumbers. Once they had been got rid of the greenhouse got a good sweep and scrub down with disinfectant. It's always a good feeling to see the greenhouse spotlessly clean ready for the new growing season.

I am a lists person and my allotment journal always has a current list of jobs which need doing. I was pleased to be able to cross cleaning the greenhouse off the list. The problem with lists though is that you never get to end of them because there are always more jobs to be added. And as we sat having our lunch at the table under the tree I noticed that the cold frames needed cleaning too. Another job to add to my list. A gardener's work is never done!  Also as I sat there I spotted a flash of blue peeping out from the debris under the tree and there was a little iris reticulata in flower. A sign of hope that Spring is not far away.

A sunny start to the new year

January is a rather dreary, dark, and depressive month and I often feel that way myself. We hadn't been to the allotment since November and I hadn't felt inclined to do so, but motivated by a few sunny days, we got down to the plot to start work.

Not having been there since November meant there were quite a lot of jobs to be done. It was quite cold so we took soup and hot drinks to keep us going. I set to work weeding beds whilst Richard followed on topping the beds with manure. It looked much better once we'd finished--all covered up and snug for the winter. The leeks are not looking very big yet, they might need a boost of chicken manure pellets which I usually do at this time of year. I was pleased to see the garlic which I planted in November is coming through now.

My next job was to clear some weeds and cut back the dead comfrey leaves growing under the hedge. Once I'd cleared these I was pleased to see daffodils shoots coming through.

Another job which needed doing was to clean out the shed. This was a job I had been putting off as it had got quite untidy and dusty over the summer and I know that there are some really big spiders which live in the shed. But first I had to sort out the onions which were being stored in there and taking up a lot of space. I decided it would be better and more convenient to store them at home in the garage. There's nothing worse than running out of onions at home just as I'm preparing a meal. So I trimmed the onions and put them in net bags ready to take home.

It was hard work cleaning the shed but it looked much better once I'd finished. It had a lovely fresh disinfectant smell too. I only found a couple of spiders which I swept outside, but they always seem to find their way back in even though there is a step.

I filled up the bird feeders which hang from the conifer hedge. This  hadn't been done for weeks and within minutes of me filling them and putting  them back, the sparrows and blue tits were there pecking away. We sat watching them whilst we warmed up with our soup.

In the last week the weather has turned cold, wet and snowy, so I was glad we managed to get the jobs done. We never know when the next spell of fine weather will be.