my gardening DIARY

MONDAY

The Banksian rose on the front of the cottage was hard pruned several weeks ago and looked bare for a while – but not for long. It’s an energetic rose and has now produced a multitude of new shoots.

TUESDAY

Some of our cosmos, grown from a packet of GN seed, have been magnificent. They’ve flowered and flowered but instead of deadheading them all, a few are being left to set seed. It’ll be collected on a dry, sunny day, stored in paper bags and sown in February.

WEDNESDAY

Chervil and dill are two of our favourite herbs here. Our older plants ran out of steam so more was sown, pricked out into modules and planted out in one of the troughs. Continued mild weather has meant they’ve grown well.

THURSDAY

The array of pelargoniums that have adorned our front steps for months have been carted off to the small greenhouse. On rainy days I’ll take some cuttings from the ones that have performed best so we’ll have fresh new plants for next year.

FRIDAY

Shall I sow my sweet peas yet? A September sowing from last year worked out eventually, although by the time they came to be planted out, the plants were leggy. From an early sowing you get early flowers. Perhaps I’ll try just a few of Sutton’s ‘High Scent’ in palest creamy pink with a lavender edge.

SATURDAY

Years ago a plant of Acanthus spinosus appeared in Alice’s garden. It must have arrived as a seed in some new plant. We let it stay and now it comes up all over the bed. It set loads of seed this year, loving the hot weather since it’s a Mediterranean native. We’ve removed every stem!

SUNDAY

Earlier this year, globe artichokes grown from seed were planted out in a big veg bed to join the two already living there. They did very well and a couple produced flowers. More from the same sowing have spent the summer in pots but are joining their brethren now.