My gardening DIARY
MONDAY Several weeks ago, on our new show Gardening with Carol
Klein (you can see it on Thursdays at 7pm on Channel 5), we sowed our parsley sparsely, then watered the seed tray with water just off the boil. It germinated brilliantly well!
TUESDAY Running out of space is a common problem among gardeners, especially at this time of year, and particularly when growing veg. Often we sow our brassica seeds in short rows in the veg garden. This year I opted for sowing in trays. Sprouts, cabbage and broccoli were all sown in half trays in good seed compost. They’ve made fine young plants but we’re out of space so we’re planting them out in two of the beds freed up by lifting astrantias near the kitchen.
WEDNESDAY Clare, our researcher and assistant producer, was kind enough to plant out the beetroot we’d grown in modules before we finished filming. To my u er dismay, the lovely, leafy li le plants she put in have been reduced to practically nothing by some hungry animal.
THURSDAY
The huge copper bath outside our back door has been a picture, full to the brim with the best white tulip, ‘Purissima’ or ‘White Emperor’.
FRIDAY Rodgersias are a favourite foliage plant and we watch every spring for the emergence of their bronze, palmate leaves. They’re always slow but this year late frost has disfigured their foliage. Thankfully those higher up the garden weren’t affected.
ISATURDAY We planted up a trough in full sun with alpines. A few are happier in shade and, since one of our troughs is underneath an evergreen cotoneaster, it should be ideal for rue anemones and hepaticas.
SUNDAY There isn’t a single flower on our ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’. Last year it had an enormous crop of apples so perhaps it’s just having a sabbatical, a chance to recover.
I’ve really enjoyed walking around the garden, noting the established plants that perform year after year (such as our red Camellia japonica) and delighting in new additions that are starting to flourish.
I lingered to look at shrub rose ‘Penelope’ and enjoyed recalling how we chose her on an outing to Marwood Hill Garden three years ago. So many plants connect us with places visited. During lockdown we’ve enjoyed sharing our own surplus plants, cuttings and seeds locally and have been lucky to receive a wonderful variety in exchange from friends and neighbours. I loved seeing these new additions starting to blend into the borders. There were delicate pink flowers from Pulmonaria rubra ‘Redstart’ (a nice contrast to my ‘Blake’s Silver’), a salvia ‘Hot Lips’ showing promising growth, the unfurling leaves of an unnamed pink anemone, frilly foliage on a tiny Alchemilla mollis and small clumps of Persicaria bistorta ‘Superba’, all establishing nicely and sparking reminders of friendships and the memory of being gifted to us during these strange times.
There’s hardly a bare patch of soil and the garden delights with rainbow colour, fragrance, birds and pollinators. One of my favourite combinations is orange tulip ‘Ballerina’ through purple drifts of honesty – Mother Nature has been generous with her planting of Lunaria annua this year!
While looking back is important, I do relish the thought of looking forward, so we always try to involve and encourage our children to join in our gardening pursuits.
When they do it gives us the greatest pleasure. My own gardening journey started with my dad,
a pack of cottage garden mixed flower seeds and my own patch of ground in the front garden. Similarly, we’ve set our children a sunflower and wildflower patch challenge, where they’ve planted their seeds and are left to tend them as they see fit. Naturally, our eight-year-old is desperate to beat his older brothers and so far is very enthusiastic with his new ‘grown up’ watering can, so we’ll have to see what happens!
We also painted signs together for our allotment and finally bought a fire pit, which has brought warmth and much fun to our evenings. The biggest pleasure for us is continuing to make our own garden stories with our children, hoping that the seed of gardening, responsibility for the planet and sharing a love of the outdoors is sown and keeps growing within them throughout their lives.