Garden’s picture perfect
Itook a picture (see above) late last month and realised it encapsulated everything that’s my garden. Rusty metal, sculpture and lots of plants! It’s quite amazing how well it still looks in November. The fuchsia ‘Riccartonii’ is elegant with its narrow, dangling, red and purple flowers blooming throughout the season. In the background are the fading flowers of the Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’ and the showstopping salvia ‘Amistad’.
I decided I needed to augment the winter storage area this year for my ever-growing collection of agaves. A two metre-long, temporary polytunnel, erected at the top of the garden, fitted the bill perfectly, located in the shelter of the sea buckthorn hedge from the strong winds.
While moving the agaves, I discovered many more babies. I extracted 25 small to medium new plants, which have all been potted up.
The small patch of garden by the front door of the house has looked the best it’s ever looked at this time of year. The profuse orange berries on the pyracantha, set against the fading, red-brown flowers on the hydrangea make it look very autumnal indeed. The front garden has seen some amazing sunrises too, quite magical.
On a recent few days away, I bought two new plants that I’d not seen before: Gentiana scabra, with amazing blue flowers, and alternanthera ‘Little Maroon’, which is a tidy, compact, low-maintenance border and ground cover with attractive deep-burgundy leaves. They weren’t cheap but I couldn’t resist them.
Some plants still dazzling in the garden are two unknown roses, one – pinky-yellow – came free and unnamed with a delivery a few years ago. The other is a gorgeous yellow shrub rose my mother bought after my father died in 2007. We call it dad’s rose and it came with her when she moved in this year. Others still looking good are the tamarisk in the beach garden and the lavender. l Read more of Geoff’s garden at www.driftwoodbysea.co.uk.