My gardening Diary
MONDAY Eryngium
bourgatii is one of my favourite plants. We have a particularly blue form of it that seems extremely happy growing here, though it does best in the sunnier stretches of the brick garden beds and the big raised bed. Our seedlings in module trays were looking a bit weather-worn but they’ve now been tidied up and they’re ready to be po ed up.
TUESDAY At this time of year there’s any amount of shuffling around to accommodate new plants that have just been po ed on, young plants that have overwintered, not to mention seed trays and module trays of both veg and flowers. There are all the tender plants, too – dahlias, cannas and their ilk. Perhaps I should a end juggling classes!
WEDNESDAY There’s a semi-circle on the far side of our variegated box hedge which needs to be planted up. On the edge of the sleepers that form its boundary are bronze fennel and hemerocallis ‘Stafford’, with warm mahogany petals lit with yellow. They need similarly hot colours close by, lots of warm yellows, brick reds and terraco a. Heleniums and rudbeckia perhaps?
THURSDAY Seed sowing has begun in earnest for the wedding of our youngest daughter Alice in late September. The idea of dahlias has been sidelined at the moment in favour of white cosmos, ‘Love-in-a-mist’ in white and pale blue, Nigella damascena ‘Miss Jekyll’, and nicotiana for its lovely evening scent. We’ll grow the la er in big pots.
FRIDAY The terraced beds that run down the sunny west side of the garden have been cut back and tidied up, but there are still weeds and soft moss on the soil’s surface. Because the weather is mild and fine, it’s the perfect opportunity to clean it up before adding some new plants.
SATURDAY We usually start taking basal cu ings of phlox in April but some of our more vigorous varieties have already made shoots 8-10cm (3-4in) long. Although it’s early it seems daft not to take them now. If left until later they may be too leggy.
SUNDAY Photographing some of our snowdrops, which were lifted out and lined up in an a empt to identify them and replant them in separate situations, but some of the labels have been lost. Hoping that some of my galanthophile friends will help me out!