(Newest entry at the top)

26/10/22

Went to Canterbury Garden Centre with Mum and Dad and the kids. Bought two terracota pots, another Japanese Painted Fern, a sagina subulata (lime moss), a heuchera coral, a pack of winter bedding things (2 cyclamens, 2 violas, a senecio), a reduced alstroemeria Princess … and lots of tulips. Planted Marquise de la Coquette (species) with Verandi, Blushing Lady with Black Parrot, Negrita Double with Daydream.

 

01/10/22

Went to Perry Woods and walked to Chilham Garden centre (Badger Hill garden centre). It’s a funny place, looking more like a garden than a shop. Bought two echinacea Cheyenne Spirit (not given up yet), a tray of violas, two pots of cyclamen they are more expensive than the supermarket ones but also prettier. The petals are fancier, with pink fading into white for example. Also bought a burd bath with a toad ornament.

 



October 2022

17/09/2022

Tackled the goldenrod today. I have a cutting growing in a pot with another thug (echinops ritro) so got rid of it near the dogwood cutting.

18/09/22

Sorted out the iris. Dug them up, got rid of old tubers, replanted the cestrum parqui cutting in its place. Unfortunately, I sort of yanked it out of the pot it was sharing with a hosta, so it lost most of its leaves and will take time to recover. Just when it was going to flower.

03/09/2022

The kids folded the mini greenhouse down. It was broken.

September 2022

30/08/2022

Treated the box for boxwood caterpillars with xentari.

24/08/22

Noticed clematis Etoile Violette has grown through the purple buddleia and flowered!



20/08/2022

Lots of unplanned gardening again. Big changes.

My beautiful viburnum I moved to the other side of the garden, near the new fence, where this year the gooseberries stayed after being evicted because of the new shed. I will see it better. It was getting hidden because the roses have grown in front of it.

In its place in the shade I planted my acer seedling which suffered from the heat this year in its pot.

Got rid, sadly, of Grandad’s rosa rugosa. Don’t have the space for it alas. Kept a bit for a cutting.

Cleared the bit of wisteria which was growing behind it.

Dug up the lavender from under the birdfeeder. Did not do well there. Potted it up.

Cut the mint back. I never eat it. It’s supposed to keep the aphids away from the lupin. Seems go be working – I suspect it’s just luck really.

Rearranged a few pots.

Mulched the roses and the agapanthus with some manure.

I never was really in love with rudbeckias but to be honest without them the garden would be very dull. And their longevity is mind-blowing.

18/08/22

I have stopped recording gardening activities this Spring.

Got rid of my old clematis montana which was behind the Osakazuki maple. The tree has grown much in recent years and now completely hides the clematis which was too vigorous for its location. It was one of the first plant I ever bought.

Yesterday I rearranged part of the sunny bed. Dahlia Waltzing Matilda unfortunately has kind of rotted. I planted Orfeo in its place. In the middle of the bed I have planted the canna lily which had no space in its pot.

 



 

Took cuttings of the St Aubin gorgeous rose and noticed… it seems to prepare a second flush !!! Thrilled!

Talking of roses the supposed Felicia is ever rising in my love. Superb second flush and OMG such a divine scent.

None of the Crocus lilies bought in April have grown. Not one. 😡 No sign of any Crocus plants. That was 40 pounds wasted. Except some tiny leaves on a possible iris in the sunny bed.

After an evening walk to the cemetery, picked up two bits of persicaria where I already stole some before (in the dark passage, it’s an escapee from a garden) and planted them in the sunny bed.

AUGUST 2022

20/04

The new enormous shed is buying built.

On Saturday 16/04, we walked to Canterbury Garden Centre, from the woods. I am very glad I decided to go on that walk instead of staying at home to work. It was a glorious day, not a cloud. I bought some pots (they did not have the ones I like though). Bought two pelargoniums which I have now realised are trailing and clematis Etoile Violette. Was tempted to buy a climbing rose for the new shed, Wollerton Old Hall which is apparently very scented, but then thought it better to wait until the shed is actually completed.

Moved the Euphorbia which was near the pond to a much better location with the crocosmia.

Try not to be disheartened by the slugs and snails’ damage.

APRIL 2022

23/03/22

Spring officially. Week of beautiful sunshine.

Received more of the stone-mats (stepping stones) which I placed in the border along the new fence.

Received a very disappointing order from Crocus: three of the iris I ordered and the three martagon lily “Arabian Nights” are of very poor quality (the iris are quasi non existent). Asked for a refund. Still planted: iris Loop the loop and iris Edith Wolford, 2 Claude Shride martagon lilies, the bad 3 Arabian Nights (I’ll be surprised if they grow), 15 gladioli Plum Tart (first time trying gladioli), 1 Zantedeschia Cancun. Had received 3 knautia macedonica before and planted them.

Moved a geum Totally Tangerine into the sunny bed.

Threw away one clump af allium neapolitanum.

Recently repotted a number of houseplants.

16/03/22

Watered the pots – we are going to have a long sunny spell.

Placed the three “stones on a net” stepping stones in the border.



Planted my clematis Marjorie cutting at the foot of the firethorn. Hoping it will grow on the firethorn.


Planted clematis Rooguchi which was in a terracotta pot near the rose I am training on bamboo hoops (the one which looks like Sceptred Isle but does not repeat). removed the heuchera Berry Smoothie which was there. Heuchera do very badly for me alas.

My melanochrysum leaf has started rooting in perlite. Fingers crossed.

MARCH 2022

18/02/22

Found out, as suspected, that my very expensive beautiful variegated monstera cutting has root rot. Cut out all the black (significant chunk alas of the stem), soaked in diluted hydrogen peroxide and planted with the other monstera. I don’t have high hopes. To be fair Emma sold it as rooted but it wasn’t really. These looked more like aerial roots. And the verrucosum she sold me, i overwatered and planted in dense soil as I didn’t have anything else and it is NOT happy. I repotted it today in what I hope is a better and dry soil. ☹️

16/02/2022

Finished reducing the firethorn. Now its just a few bare “trunks”. Luke shovelled the rubble at the back of the bench which had been put there after we dug the pond. Now the bench is moved back to the fence and we have more space at the front.

15/02/2022

Canterbury Garden Centre under the rain with Grandad and son. Got new secateur, new hedge shears, new “Capability Trowel”, some houseplant and cactus compost, some pots, two types of thyme.

 

14/02/2022

Started cutting back the firethorn behind the bench with Grandad. Without the ivy, it has collapsed into the maple.

09/02/2022

Our sole and only snowdrop in flower under the Osakazuki maple.

The marquise tent is erected as a temporary shed (thanks to Adam’s and his builder friend Dimitri’s help). Absolutely gorgeous weather.

Received a rooted philodendron verrucosum from Emma. The unrooted cutting died some time ago.

05/02/2022

Received a rooted phildendron Florida Ghost from Emma. Gorgeous!

04/02/2022

Very exciting day: Alex the carpenter starting work on our fence! Long overdue. Farewell rebellious ivy full of birds, farewell dear shed, old friends, I am sad to see you go, but needs must.

01/02/2022

Iris reticulata starting to flower.

FEBRUARY 2022

21/01/2022

Bought a highly variegated rooted VM from Emma on Strings’n Things.

01/01/2022

Repotted the variegated monstera and the syngonium white butterfly in Soil Ninja mix.

 

JANUARY 2022

2022

10/10/21

• Repotted some houseplants in luxury Soil Ninja specialist mix. Made a pot of mixed calatheas (leopardina which needed to be replanted deeper, rufibarba, beauty star and some ctenanthe amagris).

October 2021

27/08/21

• The verrucosum is rotting. Cut back and putin a box on perlite.

25/08/21

• Pruned the copper beech.

20/08/21

• Bought a canna lily Tropicana at Wilko
• Found very overpriced macrame hangers in Siesta…

19/08/21

• Received two sets of planters from Olive and Sage (3 sets now !) and spent too much time arranging and rearranging.

18/08/21

• Repotted the pink freckles photinia. Used a big terracotta pot where I had tried to save a lavender.
• Received a potted philodendron melanochrysum and a philo verrucosum (unrooted cutting) from Emma.

17/08/21

• Pottering about in the garden.
• Dug out the ribbon grass which was near the hydrangea. There were a lot of rhizomes in the soil ! I have replanted some in a pot. The grass is still growing near the pond.
• On the houseplants front, last attempt at saving the rotting variegated monstera with a contraption made by Aidan to have only the aerial root in water.

15/08/21

• Back from two weeks in Normandy two days ago. So glad we managed to see the family. Garden overgrown but in good shape thanks to the rain while we were away. Some fungus growing around the wooden stepping stones. Hope it’s not honey fungus – will have to remove the steps anyway I think. Cut back a lot of wild carrot and rose campion. Bishop of Llandaff still fighting to survive against slugs.
• Bought in Wilko : pilea Ellen / silver and echeveria Pink Frills – my first echeveria ever.

August 2021

25/07/21

• Tidied : cut back wisteria tentacles, bramble coming from the neighbour, bind weed coming from both sides. Got rid of the evening primrose – have decided I don’t like them and they don’t earn their keep, being so big in a tiny garden with only one or two flowers at a time. Cut back alchemilla and geranium Rozanne even though they were still beautiful – we are going away in a few days and they will grow back while we’re away.
• Potted maranta leuconeura and golden pothos cuttings.

Around 20/07

• Tidied the garden
• Dug up cistus Alan Fradd. Put it in a bucket of water whilst thinking about its fate. In its place, moved rosa Roald Dahl.

July 2021

 

30/06/21

• Added compost in the bottom of the monstera adansonii’s pot, repotted dizygotheca elegantissima in a smaller pot as I discovered its roots were in fact quite small.
• Yesterday, received two leaves of monstera albo. Now in moss to root.

27/06/21

• Auntie K was here. Cut back the yellow honeysuckle.

26/06/21

• Dernier jour de la Petite Ecole. On est allé au Wildwood.
• Went to Canterbury Garden Centre from the Wildwood where the Petite Ecole had its last session for the year. Walked through fields (runner beans ? Wheat), got a bit lost in a wood, went back through the fields. Bought two pond plants : a cyperus longus (a mistake as I wanted to replace my cyperus alternifolius) and a red-leaved lobelia (Queen Victoria), two of those lovely small rolled top pots, and some compost.

20/06/21

• Got to visit a fellow Canterbury dweller garden !
• Propped some roses up with bamboo sticks. Managed to break my most precious flowers today : the martagon lily and one of my eremurus spikes. I mean.. 🤬🤬🤬

13/06/21

• Today as we walked back from a stroll on the campus, we stopped to admire the roseraie in a neighbour’s front garden. She then let us have a peak of her small but absolutely beautiful back garden. A small fish pond, with a stream, lots of foxgloves, a magnolia, a hydrangea petiolaris on the house, a small and gorgeous lawn. A dream garden. I wish I could have taken pictures.
• Planted clematis Ville de Lyon and Clematis Frankie on the fence where the Montana was. That freed two big terracotta pots.
• Dug out one of the lavender babies which was smothered by other plants. Cut it back and planted in a pot.
• Installed bamboo hoops over rosa Sceptre’d Isle. Not sure it looks good.

12/06/21

• Cut back clematis montana and asked Iona to get into the green bin to crush it all. Admired the blue petunias. Threw away a cutting of cornus which died and planted cosmos seedlings in the pot.

05/06/21

• Back from Lancashire. The garden’s grown, the blue and white lupin is in flower, first roses.
• Pulled the forget-me-nots – big volume. Pulled a few wild carrots.
• Dug out the big lupin, which for many years was the biggest and boldest perennial in the garden. Never thought I would get rid of it. It wasn’t going to flower this year and looked poorly. Who knows if it would have picked up next year.
• In its place, moved the St Aubin climbing rose which was in front of the bench. Tried to support it with the remnant of the persimmon.
• Dug up poor Waltzing Matilda which was bullied by slugs and potted it. Placed the pot in the same place.
• Mulched the roses in the ceanothus border with a bit of manure.
• Divided Hosta June in three. Potted one section.

June 2021

• As there is almost no sign of achillea Terracotta, plonked the potted lysimachia punctata and a potted dahlia in its place.

26/05/21

• After much hesitation, decided to get rid of daphne mezereum.
• Potted 2 giant sunflowers in the David Austin container in which Roald Dahl arrived and the other two with the gooseberry.
• Dug up the big alexanders which was behind the hydrangea.
• Daughter made daisy posies and daisy chains.
• Yesterday, I think, planted dahlia Waltzing Matilda in the border. Finally noticed signs of life from Bishop of Llandaff.
• With L. complaining of itching and rashes, treated the lounge plants with hydrogen peroxide and installed ugly yellow sticky tapes. The fungus gnats are not to blame but I need to reduce their number anyway.

19/05/21

• Repotted the lilium regale album in a bigger pot even though it is going to flower.
• Instead of potting on the seedlings of ammi majus, orlaya grandiflora and cosmos, I just planted them in other pots (spent daffs, lily…). Other seedlings are still too young – no true leaves yet. Some Victoria tomatoes seeds have finally germinated but I don’t know what I’ll do with them.

18/05/21

• It’s raining a lot this May. Storm yesterday.
• A day of clearing today : Dug up daphne mezereum which has never performed well in the years I have had it. Then I realised it was two plants tied together with a dine elastic band. Plonked them in a bucket of rainwater whilst I think about their fate.
• Cut and got rid of the persimmon tree I got from Gardening Express in Jan 2019 – it was alive but not leafing out and I just don’t love it anymore. As OH still wants to build his shed, I will lose a lot of space in my small garden anyway. Planted the gooseberry plant in the pot.

14/05/21

• Finally plantlets have appeared in the peperomia argyreia watermelon propagation pots ! Gave one to Harry this morning. Turns out we both love Japan and houseplants.
• Repotted alocasia wentii (which is pushing out a new leaf, how exciting) in a slightly bigger pot. Mixed some manure in the compost, hope it’s not going to hurt the plant.
• Potted up 4 giant sunflower seedlings.

12/05/2021

• Spent the morning dealing with houseplants.
• Divided the red sundew – only to realise I didn’t have enough specialised compost. One of the plantlets is now in spent normal compost.
• Repotted crassula ovata Gollum – it had almost no roots when taken out of its pot. The roots were in a case of extremely dry old compost – even dunked in a bucket of water, the soil would not loosen. Then the plant sort of split in three. I wonder if there were three plants in the pot in the first place. Now I have 3 Gollums.
• Repotted the Blue Star fern (phlebodium aureum) which is growing nicely.
• Repotted the dracaena. Was surprised to find a big worm in the pot – poor chap has spent more than a year all alone in there, and I didn’t even water often. Was released in a garden pot.

11/05/21

• Put some plant support in. There will be no alliums purple sensation to flower with the geums this year. However the iris will be much better as the very dry Spring discouraged the snails.
• Received two new sundews : drosera capensis red form and drosera binata. Poor plants have spent a long time in the post.

09/05/2021

• Got the last square plastic planter out of the shed and planted rosa Roald Dahl in it. When I took it out of its David Austin pot, it didn’t have the strong thick roots I was expecting, but only small white roots. Half of them were broken when the wet compost collapsed. 😦 I had envisaged a beautiful and bigger pot for it but nevermind, at least it won’t be too heavy to move.The poor rose was already in bud and I hope it is not going to go into shock.
• Some time last week, planted 5 of the 6 very small salvia nemorosa Caradonna between the roses. Removed heuchera Berry Smoothie for that and potted it.
• Alocasia wentii is pushing a new leaf.

May 2021

• Some time in the last week, have received my order from Crocus : 3 salvia nemorosa Caradonna (the 3 plugs I got from ebay looked unhealthy after the cold nights), one expensive dahlia Waltzing Matilda and one discounted martagon lily Claude Shride.

25/04/2021

• Repotting some small houseplants : sedum pachyphyllum and morganianum and syngonium Neon.

24/04/21

• In Wilko, got a baby croton Red Banana and a pilea involucrata Moon Valley.

18/04/21

• Removed the lavender and the beautiful euphorbia Ascot Rainbow I grew from cuttings at the front of the pond. Planted elsewhere. In their place, planted the two lavender Hidcote – hoping this variety will be more compact and not hide the pond.

17/04/21

• Went on a very special walk today to the garden centre near Herne Common. Will have to write about that.
• Bought three rolled rim pots, two very small Lavender Hidcote and… a David Austin rose : Roald Dahl. Hesitated to buy a calceolaria but left it in the end.

16/04/21

• Planted the new aquilegias here and there. Will have no space left for the flowers I sowed 13 days ago which haven’t germinated because of the cold and the fact the compost dried up. Watered the seed trays.

14/04/21

• Dug up euphorbia characias wulfenii, which on the paper should be thriving in our garden but isn’t. I have had it for a few years now and it still looks very poorly, losing almost all of its leaves. Nothing like the twirling green glory it can be in other people’s garden. Potted it. Put the flowers in the cream jug on the washing machine.
• Went to BandQ with the kids. Bought an euonymus fortunei Harlequin and a pack of 6 aquilegias (pink, blue and white). I think I am maturing as a gardener and now look to plant things which I know will grow well in my clay, instead of looking for rarer plants which might struggle.

09/04/21

• OH’s birthday. He takes the kids for a walk and I pot up the petunia Grand Rapids. I know it’s too early and we are forecast some possible frost but nevermind. Don’t have enough pots so put some in the dahlia pots as they are not going to appear until later in the season.

08/04/2021

• Potted up the new photinia Pink Crispy and the little salmon rhododendron bought last month in B and Q, and the bedding plants. Don’t know what I will do with all the petunias – they need full sun and I don’t have much.
• Plantes the tiarella in the space of the liriope which has never performed for me. Potted that liriope.

07/04/2021

• Walked to Chartham. At the garden centre, used my birthday vouchers qnd bought a tray of 26 (!) petunia Grand Rapid, a choice of bedding plug plants (petunia Night Sky, three types of pelargoniums and three types of osteospermums), a photinia Serratifolia Pink Crispy, a tiarella Spring Harmony, one beautiful earthenware pot, two cheap terracota pots, a sundew (drosera capensis alba) and peat-free compost and manure.

03/04

• In M&S, had the great joy to find nice foxgloves, lupins and hollyhocks for 3.50 each. I needed foxgloves so was over the moon. Bought 3 foxgloves and 2 dark red double hollyhocks.
• At Wilko, bought a bag of dahlia tubers : Polka and Purple Haze.
• Sowed Sainsbury’s cherry tomatoes and flowers : orlaya grandiflora, cosmos dazzler, ammi majus, sunflowers.

02/04

• Freezing Good Friday.
• A long afternoon spraying the houseplants with an insecticide because OH is convinced inoffensive fungus gnats are eating him or that some other imaginary pest is causing him some itching. That’s a lot of houseplants to treat. Didn’t even do the cacti. I would never use insecticide outdoors and will not do it again indoors just for fungus gnat.
• Took this opportunity to repot calathea orbifolia and pilea peperomioides.

01/04

• We have lost ten degrees. Picked the first cat’s poo of the year. Moved the delphinium pots on the dahlia bed to prevent that happening again.
• Moved – without breaking my back – the big green glazed pot with the pink penstemon near the golden euonymus.
• Took euonymus cuttings.
• Pruned crossing and rubbing branches on acer Katsura. Its branches are still thin so it was possible to do it now. He seems very happy in its new place and is leafing out beautifully.

APRIL 2021

31/0/21

• Houseplantwise, this month I have bought alocasia Wentii (probably), sedum stahlii, another sedum, ctenanthe amagris, crassula hottentot.
• Cut back the ivy above the pond.
• Tried to organise the « dahlia bed ». Planted Jescot Julie and Orange pompom. Had to move a deschampsia cespitosa clump for that.
• Moved a few forget-me-nots under acer Katsura.

30/03/21

Saw Svetlana this morning. Planted the leucanthemum which I had potted up more or less where it was before but divided it.

• Moved a foxglove near the pond. Alas, most have been eaten by slugs.

29/03/21

• Moved the Maiden Blush rose which was too near Felicia (?). Just before hot days, well done me.
• Sadly, geum Mrs Bradshaw looked dead so I planted the blue penstemon grown from a cutting in its place.
• Gave Marie some cuttings – sambucus Black Lace, a cestrum parqui, an erigeron, a leucanthemum superbum, and some iris sibirica Butter and Sugar.

28/03/21

• This month, I didn’t do much. After « Fool’s Spring » came the second winter which killed the basil. I probably shouldn’t have cut back what I have cut back, like the salvia Hotlips. Nothing new re the fence. Some minimal weeding.
• The iris reticulata which were absolutely gorgeous – I don’t regret the expense for the grit ! – have gone and some daffs are cheering up the view from the kitchen. The hepatica are opening. I can see from other people’s gardens that, as ever, my North-facing garden is behind.
• Today I moved some pots around. Worry about the new shed which OH has been planning to build for years and the fact it will eat up my gardening space.
• Potted a salvia Amistad which did very poorly last year – didn’t even flower.
• Cut back the big heuchera Berry Smoothie and planted the tops in pots.
• Sadly our frogspawn has disappeared. However, we filmed the gorgeous newts.

MARS 2021

24/02/21

• Broke down the rotten wooden planks (ex fence).
• Divided the supermarket basil into 5 pots.
• Dug up the hellebores under the Redwine maple and binned them. They never looked very good. Black spot, munched leaves and petals… In their place, planted the heucheras which were in pots – Sweet Tea and one of the Alabama Sunrise (I think). They don’t look too good either but we’ll see.
• Had tea after lunch with husband in front of the shed. First time this year. The problem is the fig tree is now in the way.

23/02/21

• Pulled two of the rotten fence panels.

19/02/21

• Repotted maranta leuconeura. It is throwing up a new leaf !
• Trying to rescue peperomia watermelon. Separated into bits and repotted. Will see.
• Brought some Venus flytraps and the pitcher plant indoors. They will need to recover from the cold and snow and then start earning their keep by catching the fungus gnats.
• In the garden, euphorbia Ascot Rainbow seems to have suffered from the snow a lot.

02/02/21

• Received philodendron hastatum Silver Sword and calathea rufibarba. That’s it, no more plants.

FEBRUARY 2021

19/01/2021

• Received Philodendron Malay Gold

13/01/21

• Received a Dischidia Pangolin Kiss cutting and two free Senecio h Purple Flush cuttings.
• Received sedum morganianum, a baby calathea Pink Star, a syngonium White Butterfly (completely leaning on one side) and a peperomia argyreia Watermelon which has most most of its leaves in the transport. Am trying leaf propagation.
• The Orpin de Morgane and the Pangolin Kiss are just the most beautiful little plants. Succulents are really growing on me. As are calatheas, at the other end of the spectrum.

JANUARY 2021

2021

 

Separated the cuttings in the new houseplants pots. Got three plants out of each. Smaller, obviously.

28/11/2020

Have tried various ways of placing the planters in the lounge. Obsessed. Not sure I found the best way. Received two houseplants from Jack at Jungleabode : Epipremnum aureum Marble Queen and Philodendron scandens Brazil.

27/11/2020

Received the bamboo planters bought at Olive and Sage. They are big !

24/11/2020

Decided to rescue the maidenhair fern from under acer Redwine. Indoors it is now.
Have quite a nice small jardin d’hiver in the lounge now !

23/11/2020

Potted the Cyperus for indoors in the green Ikea pot. Repotted the small heart fern in a small pot.

22/11/2020

• Divided the Cyperus. The light fell so quickly I didn’t have enough time to do things properly. Started to plant one of the big plastic pots which doesn’t have drainage holes with pond plants.
• Moved the houseplants around. Cut one of the branches on the dracaena marginata and will root it.

21/11/2020

• Brother-in-law is 50 today.
• Tried to tidy the nasty cut with a small saw.

20/11/2020

After the RHS Garden magazine and reading about tree care, I started to notice things. Crossing and potentially problematic branches on my acers. So decided to cut out one of the leaders on Osakazuki. Made a horrible splitting cut. Was upset. Not sure at all that was necessary in fact.

19/11/2020

• Pruning itch. I had a go at the chamaecyparis obtusa (at least I think that’s what it is) near the pond. Cleared the branch structure that was covered in dry needles and cobwebs. Made openings in the canopy.
• Tried to clear the pond unsuccessfully. The frogs were not happy.

 

13/11/2020

Today, I cut back the copper beech. Quite puzzled at the start at how I was going to manage that with a stepladder with only 3 steps, a rubbish pair of loppers which need 180 degrees opening before you can get anything between the blades and my short unfit body. Then after a few minutes I remembered that wonderful tool Father-in-law bought, with the telescopic handle and the string you pull. I managed the beech ON MY OWN.

Now I would really like a small stone Japanese lantern to add to the shady bed…

12/11/2020

Just as dusk was falling I was taken with the sudden urge to move my red acer dissectum a few feet away near the hydrangea, and to put the pink azalea in its place. Battled the poor little tree by the outdoor lightbulb, cutting roots. Then, almost had a change of heart. But now I am happy with the result. Phew.

10/11

• Cut back the pink honeysuckle, tried to lift salvia guaranitica B&B which falls over.
• Put a bit or manure and old compost around the Bishop.
• Got rid of the spotted pink dahlia. The tubers were massive.
• Dug up the white buddleia and potted it.
• Repotted the new cacti and got stung.

09/11

Cut some bits of the gaura and put them where I think they might look nice.

05/11

• Acer Katsura took the place of the old dogwood of which a cutting took Katsura’s place whilst the azalea supplanted the pulmonaria and the anemone upgraded from plastic to glazed pot (which meant the rhodo had to be downgraded) (meanwhile, the bird feeder station decided to travel too, why not ?).
• And most sadly, my beloved and faithful old fork lost a tooth. Oops.

04/11

• Battled the ivy

03/11

• Repotted the blackcurrant in a big black container.
• In the freed terracotta pot, planted the philadelphus Snowbelle.
• Planted the rest of the Thalia daffs. Bought too many bulbs this year, they occupy too many pots.
• Repotted one of the hepatica transsylvanica in the new dark terracotta pot.
• Put the new bamboo hoops in the clematis pots (Ville de Lyon and Rooguchi).

02/11

• Potting up : tree fern, clematis rooguchi, miscanthus kleine Fontane, Iona’s new little primrose. Potted dahlia Akita which didn’t flower this year. Got rid of Procyon which was a garish yellow.
• Planted Thalia daffs with iris Harmony.
• Tidied the small greenhouse and put cuttings in there.

01/11

• Walked to the Garden centre (sponsored walk), bought terracotta pots and compost and manure, and baboo hoops to make a cheap climbing structure.

NOVEMBER 2020

26/10

• Went to B and Q with Aidan. Bought bamboo canes, plastic pots and three lovely small cacti that Aidan liked.

23/10

• The squirrel has been digging in all the pots again… except the bulb pots covered in grit. Fingers crossed !
• More bulb planting : narcissus Minnow and narcissus poeticus in the green RHS planter where the lily of the valley are not. Replanted the daisy, the erigeron and the aquilegia (Tequila Sunrise ?) that were in there and discarded the rest.
• Got rid of some tomato plants and finally planted the fig tree in the biggest pot. The spent compost I have used for the bulbs and the rest I have bagged – might be useful to store dahlia tubers if I lift them.
• Repotted the Black Hamburg grapevine in the pot freed by the fig and pruned to train as a standard (the RHS says to do that in November but too bad).
• Potted a bit of iris sibirica Sugar and Butter.

21/10

• Bulb planting day ! Hopefully the squirrel won’t ruin it all. The grit at the top might help.

19/10

• Cut back a lot of the clematis montana. Hope it still flowers next year. Have decided I will drastically cut it back every year just after flowering to control its size. If that doesn’t work, it will have to go and be replaced by the clematis alpina Frankie I received a few weeks ago, alongside with a clematis Rooguchi.
• Really need to do something about the fence !
• Planted three of the little roses Corinna bought me for my birthday : two in the border, one in a pot. Reminds me that I did the same years ago with a rose Auntie Shelagh bought me. The stems were never strong enough for the blooms, but it flowered gloriously in the shady acers’ bed.
• Have decided that dahlia Bishop of Llandaff will go in the sunny bed, so dug up the helenium and divided (one in a pot, the other one replanted where the kniphopfia was. This went near the orange rose). Those areas will need reorganising.
• 
• 

18/10

• Wilko didn’t have any bulbs left. I find the shop less and less interesting. I used to buy alpines there years ago. Now they don’t even stock proper bulbs anymore. Even the Halloween stuff is sad this year. So I bought a selection at Sainsbury’s. Waiting for bulb potting compost to arrive. Have received a bag of horticultural grit.
• 
• Cut back the Japanese aucuba.
• Potted or repotted the white agapanthus. Had to break the small plastic pot in which one of them was. It wasn’t coming out, even with kitchen knife. Scary strong plant.

15/10

• Finally shifted the rest of the big pile of soil near the shed ! I used quite a lot of it in pots, mixed with compost, then bagged the rest. Alleluia !
• 

14/10

• Bought eight 40cm plastic pots (6 square ones, 2 round ones) on Facebook marketplace a few days ago, which I cleaned in the bath with bleach. Today, repotted the horse chestnut tree, the spindle tree, the purple azalea, the baby acer, the potentilla fructicosa, the standard choisiya, the three delphiniums rescued from under the dahlias.
• 
• Cut back the small boxwood.

06/10

• Finally a bit of sunshine !
• Emptied the green pot, in which I grow pond plants as it doesn’t have deainage holes, from its excess water.
• Removed some lower branches on Acer Redwine. Now I can see the underplanting of hellebores, brunnera and carex. Looks quite nice actually. Noticed the maidenhair fern is still alive down there in spite of the very dry summer !
• Moved some pots around near the lupins.
• Decided to plant nandina Obsession near Katsura and Osakazuki. So exchanged places with hosta Canadian Blue (which had taken the small anemonés place).
• Thinking of what to do with the St Aubin climbing roses and got some ideas from the gardening group on Facebook.

04/10

• Heavy rain these days, after a long dry spell. Have applied nematodes (against vine weevil larvae) under the pouring rain. Wonder what the neighbours thought seeing me emptying watering cans after watering cans under the downpour !
• My cuttings of what I think is cestrum parqui (yellow night-scented jasmine), from a neighbour’s bush which was overhanging on the path, have struck, yippee !
• Am very pleased calamagrostis brachytricha has flowered well this year in the ground. Looks good next to euphorbia Ascot Rainbow.
• A few weeks ago, bought euphorbia amygdaloides purpurea at B&Q.

October 2020

05/09

• Managed to dive under the dahlias to dig up the three poor delphiniums and pot them up.

04/09

• Gave Ada and Michael my dogwood cutting which had grown beautifully, and one of Dida’s fig trees. They are after Japanese maples.
• Dahlia Orfeo now beautiful but the moved philadelphus is clearly suffering. Still waiting for my Akita but the sky blue delphinium is flowering again. It has been much happier in the tin pot than in the ground.

September 2020

30/08

• Pulled the bearded iris from behind the lupins. Replanted along the fence near the wisteria trunk. Gave the leaves to the lids who matted them.
• Cut a chunk of the iris sibirica and plantes elsewhere.

24/08

• Were promised rain and will probably get none.
• Pulled a number of verbena bonariensis which were in front of the roses. Replanted some, chucked the rest.
• Planted the bits of chive I had potted up near the roses. In case they do help with black spot or aphids.
• Organised the pulmonaria in the shady bed.
• Dug up the philadelphus which hasn’t grown for two years and planted it in one of the strawberry planters, with a black bin bag to block the holes.
• Had to deal with two lots of the horridissimo cat poo. No comment.
• Still waiting patiently for dahlia Orfeo to resume flowering and for the new Julie Jescot buds to fatten up and burst open.

23/08

• Collected astrantia seeds in a bowl, only to find that somebody threw them away.
• Planted the two baby fig trees from Svetlana’s parents’ garden. Now known as Dida’s fig trees. The leaves seem different to a normal fig. The fruits are white, according to Svetlana.
• Threw away a weak cutting of the blue penstemon (Sour Grapes?) and planted some blue centaurea montana I had in a pot. Still to see a flower on them this year.
• Dug (or rather pulled) up the dark elder, which hasn’t grown at all this year and potted it up after having thrown away the tradescantia Sweet Kate. I still have a small one in a pot. In the elder’s place, moved the small golden euonymus. Not sure this elder is worth keeping.
• Moved pots around. I realise I need potted plants for when the lupins need to be cut back. Lots of ugly bare ground otherwise.
• Acer Katsura has put on a crazy and totally disheveled type of growth. Don’t know what I shall do.

22/08

• Came back three days ago from two weeks in Normandy. David watered the garden and everything survived except two carex and the white rose cuttings L got me from a bike ride. Raspberry All Gold and strawberry Cambridge delight ripening.
• Today, planted out two small rooted cuttings of Salvia Black and Blue. The wise thing to do would be to pot them up but nevermind.
• Moved a lavender cutting nearer the fence (got rid of the red valerian).
• Moved the potted potentilla fructicosa near the purple buddleia.
• Weeded the passage outside the house with the kids’ help while poor husband was getting rid of some disgusting thing full of maggots that had been dumped in front of our house while we were away.
• Am thinking I mat have to remove the clematis montana which is way too vigorous and keeps climbing in the acers.
• Next year will probably only grow cherry tomatoes. Not sure the Black Russians, though beautiful, will ripen.

AOUT 2020

30/07
Hot day.
Removed the non flowering paeony and got rid. In its place, planted the fuchsia which had been in the strawberry planter for a few years.

Asked son to collect nigella seeds. Not efficient.
Daughter hurt her foot with the fork and is now going to the hospital.

29/07
Finally tidied the passage near the shed that had become impenetrable with ivy, cotoneaster, spiky rose and honeysuckle. Rearranged pots. The sandpit is now a strawberry plants and baby plants stand.

28/07 ?
Decided to put the unnamed dark purple dahlia in the ground near Orfeo. The orange pompom is now near the bench.
Potted up the bluish penstemon I got from a cutting in the park.
Planted the second lavender cutting near the red valerian.

25/07
Rain finally. Moved one of potted dahlia, which was supposed to be a white pompom but is orange (maybe Brown Sugar), near the Bishop.

24/07
Cut back the gooseberry to a vertical shoot. Will train it as a standard.
Tidied the potentilla fructicosa in it spot.
Disturbed a frog while slug hunting.

23/07 (?)
Plugs have arrived : echinacea Cheyenne, echinacea White Swan, two Scabiosa, one Japanese painted fern (Red Beauty), one ostrich fern, one hakonechloa Sunflare (to accompany the one I already have).

21/07
Dahlia Jescot Julie has arrived !

15/07
– First self seeded sunflower to open… with a crab spider and his bee prey.
– Moved (again) the poor dahlia Orfeo from behind Bishop of Llandaff to the front (where a shasta daisy was).

– Planted out the oxalis Iron Cross here and there and used the blue glazed pot for a bit of heuchera which was struggling in the border.

– Dug out anemone japonica Wild Swan, divided in two, cut back all the leaves, potted one half, replanted the other half near the clematis montana. It used to be very compact but this year was floppy and didn’t have enough space under the acers.
– Planted Pteris ensiformis in its place in the shady bed, will see if it survives.

14/07 :
– Cut back or pulled the purple toadflax. Don’t want it seeding everywhere. Shame for the bees but the flowers were almost finished, and I have left some. Bees are on Rozanne a lot now, and the echinops are going to flower very soon (eryngium planum already blue).

13/07
– Day of repotting ! Moved rapsberry Autumn Gold which is not doing well (only one cane and leaves reduced to lace) to a big black container. The freed terracotta pot is now housing a St Aubin rose cutting with buds.
– Potted up cuttings and young plants : the remaining lavender cutting (gave the 3rd to Hayley), the cornus, the spindle tree (euonymus europaeus).

11/07
– Tackled the other side of the pond : planted phlomis russeliana, a bit of ribbon grass and the santolina. Moved the cordyline behind the miscanthus and am very happy about it.
– To hide the awful slug and aphid-ridden lupins, put the lysimachia and the nandina in front of them.

10/07
– Pond surroundings makeover : took the big beautiful white centranthus out (hiding the pond, and for a change after two years) along with the yarrow. Replaced with cuttings (lavender, euphorbia Rainbow Ascot, white dianthus).
– The son added Roman tiles.

JULY 2020

25/06
– Took the strawberries out of the rose pot and planted them in individual pots. No strawberries this year I think.
– Cut back the big lupin and moved Salvia Hotlips in front of it.
– Move the big St Aubin rose near the hydrangea. It is developing lots of buds !
– Dug up some centaurea montana stump and potted it. No flower this year, the slugs have been very aggressive. I pick them every night and still…

24/06
Hot day
– Rescued the hepatica which was dying between two hellebores under Rory (acer palmatum Redwine).
– Am not sure whether echinacea White Swan will flower this year as it’s cramped under a purple toadflax and some liatris spicata.
– Achillea Terracota is not doing as well as last year.

21/06
– Repotted the Chilean lantern tree (crinodendron hookerianum) in a bigger pot and cut all the lower growth. I don’t know if it was a good idea.
– Potted two of the cherry tomatoes together in a 40 cm pot. They seem a bit too cramped now.
– Dug eryngium Neptune’s Gold out of the border where it was being eaten by slugs and bullied by a tall pheasant tail’s grass. Hope it recovers. Didn’t flower last year either.
– Noticed tiny buds on one of the St Aubin rose cuttings.

19/06
– Cut back the Shasta daisy. See you next year !
– Dug up the white dianthus from the pond edge as it was completely hidden by the yarrow. Planted it where the rose campion was near the daphne mezereum.
– Dug up sedum Lime Zinger from under rosa Warm Welcome, divided and replanted randomly.
– Made a pot with astrantia Hadspen Blood which was struggling under bigger plants, the platycodon which will hate having been mistreated and a twig of fuchsia.
– I need to rescue eryngium Neptune’s Gold, as well as astrantia Buckland which is threatened by the march of the tricyrtis.

17/06
– Made a sort of pond pot with the green Ikea cachepot (without drainage holes) for the cameleon plant, some of the hesperantha and the heart fern (hemionitis arifolia). The fern will probably rot but for the moment looks beautiful.

– Planted the rest of the hesperantha in the ground near the big box.

15/06
– Potted / planted Angela’s cosmos seedlings.
– Pulled up two of the rose campion that were crowding Geranium Rozanne.
– Put some of my small cherry tomato and Black Russian plants outside the front door with a sign written by Aidan. All of them have gone. 🙂
– Luke went to the garden centre for more compost and containers, including two greyish terracota pots.

14/06
– Used one of the two enormous containers I got (again, not very good at estimating size…) to plant 4 Black Russian tomatoes. Gave two to neighbours. Don’t know what to do with the others.
– Planted 3 of my Verbascum seedlings.
– Hayley will take my choisiya cutting, one of the lavenders, the rest of the verbascum.

Don’t remember which day
– Cut back the butterfly lavender completely.

07/06
– Repotted a few houseplants. All of my shiny brown pots (a set of four bought for nothing in Wilko many years ago) are now indoors, having housed various garden plants outside for a few years. They look nice together. I need more as most houseplants need a bigger pot, and have been browsing websites for suitable decorative indoor pots or cachepots, but haven’t found anything yet that is both beautiful and affordable.

06/06
– Rain finally came yesterday (?).
– Don’t remember the day, but received massive plastic tubs and repotted the persimmon tree in one of them.
– Camellia sasanqua Rainbow has been repotted in the light turquoise pot which once was used for the Osakazuki maple, then the persimmon. The smaller green pot thus freed is now housing the pink azalea. I am trying to assemble the acidic soil lovers’ pots under the copper beech, and obviously can’t remember where the daffodil bulbs were planted…

JUNE 2020

30/05
– Yesterday, received cosmos seeds from the lovely Angela, admin of the Facebook gardening group I am following. How very generous of her ! So planted them.

29/05
– Cleared the gardening basket in the shed as an old packet of Miracle Gro fertilizer had leaked. An occasion to see old plant labels… Threw many away. Still miss my little Silene Druett’s variegated.
– Used the left-over fertilizer to feed the plants. So many back-and-forth wanderings with the watering can for such a small garden…
– Potted 10 of my Black Russian tomato seedlings. Potted up some of the Vittoria tomatoes as well. I have now lost my sunny sitting post to tomatoes…

27/05
– Dug the pomegranate tree and potted it up. Needs a bigger pot. It isn’t doing well.
– Planted the white buddleia (cutting from a overhanging bush taken last year…) behind the only hydrangea we have left.
– In the freed pot, potted up the small Ascot Rainbow euphorbia cutting (planted it too near the hydrangea).
– Pulled the FMN (forget-me-not) from under the beech and rearranged pots.
– Dug out Anemanthele lessoniana from under the rose and potted it up.

26/05/20
– Pulled the forget-me-nots up.
– Repotted salvia hot lips
– Slugs already had half my verbascum seedlings.

25/05/20
– Got rid of the non flowering flowering currant. Too big for my space anyway.
– Dug the potentilla fructicosa out and potted it. Gave the space to cistus purpureus Alan Fradd which was suffering in its pot.

19/04
– Husband was good enough to cycle to the garden centre in Chartham with the trailer to bring back bags of compost. Poor him, o his way back, he met a closed fence and had to throw the bike, the 5 bags of compost and the trailer over it to carry on…
– Pulled up the big honesty and made bouquets of the branches with green and purple seedpods.

17/05
– Finally realised that the funny seedlings in the tray, which I had started plonking here and there in pots and borders, are in fact the Vittora tomatoes bought from Sainsbury’s ! We had kept the seeds Aidan refused to eat.
– Enjoying the beautiful tall Shasta daisies (leucanthemum superbum) which grew from last year’s Mixed White Flowers seed packet.

15/05
– Decided to prune the second box into niwaki. It will take a few years to look good, but the big box is quite nice now, so there’s hope.

10/05
Dark and brooding, but almost no rain.
– Used long bamboo canes to try encouraging the dogwood to regrow in an even and straight way which would make managing it easier in the future.
– Same with acer Katsura which is throwing a new leader up.
– Dug out the painted fern from the shady bed where it is crowded by an astrantia and potted it up in a terracota pot. Moved the fuchsia which was in it into a plastic pot.
– Pulled one of the lunaria out to make space for the horse chestnut.

06/05
– Planted the 5 bare root Cambridge Favourite strawberries received : 3 with the St Aubin rose, the other two in their individual pots.
– Iona did the edges with a pair of scissors, bless her.

05/05
Sunny but windy and chilly.
– Potted up a heuchera sweet tea which was crowded by the purple and white centaurea.
– Crazily moved the alliums which are just about to burst open from the big pot where they were perfectly happy into the sunny bed. Their bright purple is needed with my geum Totally Tangerine ! The sunny bed is now very crowded… at least I know the allium will flower and their leaves die back before the summer plants really take off.
– In the big pot where the alliums were, i planted one of St Aubin’s rose cuttings which has rooted quite well. It should be its final abode. I love not knowing what it is and having to wait for the flower to discover that. My Dad has a flower on one of his cuttings, taken at the same time, so I may not have to wait for next year to see !

04/05
– Decided to save a cowslip which was trampled by the fat pigeon under the bird feeder and move it into a pot. Moved persicaria affinis in its place as it is too vigorous for the spot where I planted it near the pond. To be fair I don’t have space for it in my garden but I love it, so..
– Planted the lovely houseleeks in the fig tree pot. They barely have roots so will not compete for nutrient nor water.

03/05/20
Yesterday Hayley gave me back some large plastic containers. So :
– Repotted the fig tree. Thought ants were building a nest in its pot. Apparently not but they were all over and inside it.
– In the freed green glazed pot, repotted the mysterious rhododendron. I bought it as a dwarf yellow rhodo. The flower buds are dark red but it seems that the inside of the flowers is going to be of an usual sort of salmon, between yellow and pink ! Exciting times.
– In the freed blue glazed pot, moved my baby maple which grew as a seedling in the shady bed.

02/05/20
– Pricked out ammi majus seedlings
– Starting to really dislike ants which seem to be nesting in my pots and everywhere.

01/05/20
– Previous days : moved the foxgloves (already sending flower spikes) from the shady bed elsewhere. Hope they still flower well. They are quite tough. Got rid of the wallflower brought back from Broadstairs which is doing very well and even too well. In its place, moved Geum Alabama Slammer.
– Moved some erigeron into the blackcurrant pot
– Today, Took the bread knife to hosta Fire and Ice and divided it into four. Potted one, planted the other bits.
– Removed nandina Obsession and potted it up.

MAY 2020

21/04/20
– Alas, something is nibbling at the sides of some iris flower stalks, causing them to collapse…😢
– Watered with some garlic drench as the hostas are unfurling. Apparently garlic may even discourage aphids so have poured some on the roses.
– Talking of roses, the saint Aubin cuttings I have repotted are not happy and even dying.
– Moved echinacea paradoxa into the summer bed (that’s what the sunny bed should be called).
– Pulled out quite a lot of the sedum lime zinger that covered the concrete blocks in the summer bed. Replaced with a bit of erigeron k… – hope it recovers.

18/04/20 ?
– Binned the red cordyline which was in the euphorbia bed. Planted dahlia Crazy Love in its place. First dahlia to come up. Last year, it was neglected. Will try to treat it well this year. The white colour should sit better where it is now – but it will depend on the roses colours. Two of the roses arz still unknown to me.

05/04/2020
– A beautiful truly warm day ! Sowed ammi majus in the borders and also in a tray. Sowed some tomato seeds saved from the Vittoria cherry tomatoes we buy, and the verbascum chaixii album seeds from Sully’s orchard (biennial).
– Separated some rose campion seedlings.
– Put the “soucoupes” under the pots, as the weather is going to be dry from now on.
– Lost the watering can’s rosette. Really annoying. There is the daughter’s mini watering can and the spray.
– Realised I don’t have any cosmos seeds this year. That just won’t do.
– Sat on the ground and enjoyed the afternoon golden light.

04/04/20
– Kids made lunch (sandwiches) and we ate outside.
– Decided to get rid of the oriental poppy in order to plant stipa gigantea in the sunny bed.

APRIL 2020

31/03
– More manure down.
– Got rid of the enormous alexanders that had managed to grow from under the cistus pot and were crowding cistus, eryngium planum and irises. It was a shame as they were big and magnificent with their large shiny leaves, but not worth losing the other plants.
– Moved some grasses around, threw away a mostly dead bit of pheasant tail grass.
– Moved stipa gigantea (still in its pot) to the centre of the sunny bed. What to do with a plant which needs space in a garden like mine ? Yet I couldn’t not have it.

30/03
– The world is trying to fight off the coronavirus (Covid 19). Finally, the wind has subsided. Put one bag of manure down. I normally do that at the end of Autumn but this year, there was no time. 5 or 6 bags of manure would be needed, I only have three.
– Repotted some houseplants : the big Christmas cactus (finally !!!), one of its babies, tried to propagate the Kalanchoe tomentosa which is dying because of the wrong type of compost (weird sandy houseplant compost).
– Repotted the silver buddleia cutting.
– Separated three rooted rose cuttings from Saint-Aubin. I would really love them to flower this year, just to let me know which is which.

14/03/20
– Same again re tadpoles

13/03/20
– Scooped some of our very numerous house tadpoles and, after floating them on the pond to harmonize the temperature, released them. They’ll have to hide carefully as there are two newts in our pocket size pond !

11/03/2020
Sowed Orlaya Grandiflora everywhere. Just rubbed some big seedheads.

01/03/2020
Finally saw the sun today. Had forgotten what it was. Bought a funny looking little houseplant at Wilko. Turns out it is a heart fern, Hermionitis arifolia. Something that can cope with the dark but needs warmth and humidity.

MARS 2020

19/02/2020
– Finally planted the blackcurrant (Ben Sarek) in the pot in which the aubergine was.
– Gave new compost to the pulsatilla vulgaris in the blue glazed pot.

18/02/2020
– Small yellow daffs starting to flower. Pulmonaria and primroses happy. Slugs and snails very active already, and not using pellets shows.
– Started to tidy up, cut back some twigs.
– First delivery of compost via Sainsbury’s
– Finally planted Geum Sunrise in the ground, near the aucuba.
– Planted achillea Gold Cloth near the golden euonymus. Hope I haven’t knocked the tiny golden rod cutting (from Corinna’s front garden) I had planted there last Summer.
– Moved some foxglove seedlings.

FEBRUARY 2020

2020

DECEMBER 2019

18/12/19
– Finally planted the tulips ! Orange emperor and negrita.

30/11/19
Haven’t touched the garden for a month, for lack of time (new job). Today, finally cut back the black dahlia stems, the verbena and, most importantly, cleared the pond. Feeling better now.

NOVEMBER 2019

30/10/2019
– Planted a pot of (almost) random cuttings and plants : the new little aster, two lavender cuttings, a little euphorbia Ascot Rainbow, some baby pulmonaria and a blue penstemon. I am mightily pleased the Euphorbia rooted well.

– One houseplant dead : alocasia amazonica.

28/10/2019
– pulled most of the white cosmos a few days ago.
– planted geums Mrs Bradshaw and Alabama Slammer, and the echinacea paradoxa.

25/10/2019
– Went to a new garden centre with Mother-in-law : Canterbury Garden Centre just after the Wildwood, near Herne Common. Found great plants at reduced prices : three geums (red Mrs Bradshaw, yellow Sunrise and multicoloured Alabama Slammer), a little white daisy (Aster alpinum), one yellow echinacea paradoxa and a blackcurrant (Ben Sarek). And 150L of manure, of course.

OCTOBER 2019

14/09/19
– The papyrus type of plant in the pond, which is gorgeous and flowering, keeps falling over now the centranthus has gone. I have put it in a bucket for the moment.

12 or 13/09/19
– Cut back the white centranthus even though it was still flowering as it hid the pond almost completely. Dug out the smaller one on the left and replaced it with the calamagrostis brachytricha which isn’t showing any sign of flowering. It did flower last year but the plumes were disappointingly short. Anyway it looks nice on the edge of the pond (I wish the plastic edge was invisible though).

06/09/19
– Applied nematodes against vine weevil grubs.
– Got rid of the M&S small dahlia and planted one of the santolinas in the terracotta pot.
– Planted the pulsatilla vulgaris rooted cutting in the ground.

05/09/2019
– Planted my 24 alliums. Picked out the biggest bulbs, which I am assuming are allium christophii, to be planted in a big pot, and planted the rest (allium hollandicum Purple Sensation and allium aflatunense) in the dahlia border.
– Plonked the fritillaria meleagris bulbs here and there.
– Repotted two houseplants : kalanchoe tomentosum and alocasia amazonica.

03/09/19
– Received my Ebay order of three bronze fennel and a little briza media grass. Planted them, and moved other plants around. The poor gaura Siskyou Pink had to be moved again and will of course sulk forever. The white Fujiyama phlox is no longer in front of Bishop of Llandaff but near the niwaki box. Moved one of the santolina in its place but unconvinced by its new location.

02/09/19
– Received my order of compost (different kinds) and bulbs from Wilko. Planted the 30 daffodils : narcissus tazetta Minnow, narcissus canaliculatus and the white Thalia. I don’t really like big yellow daffs, cheerful as they are, and have gone for miniatures and scented. Will have to plant the alliums and tulips and fritillaria later.
– Removed the white dianthus cuttings from the dahlia beds. I am gradually removing any white flowers from that bed, as the dahlias I have are calling for hot colours.
– Binned three of the penstemon Phoenix Violet and potted one that looks OK.
– Potted the balloon flower.

SEPTEMBER 2019

31/08/2019
– Now equipped with working garden table ! Better late than never.

29/08/19
– Bye bye big lavender. I loved you so… but you always invaded the path. Replaced by potentilla fructicosa which patiently waited in a pot for months.
– Plonked some of the rose cuttings from Saint-Aubin in the ground. Not deep enough at all as couldn’t push my chopstick down. It doesn’t bode well, but nevermind. I still have three bits from the tall pale pink one in water, will see if they root.

27/08/19
– Hot day again. In spite of the heat, I decided to get rid of the big hypericum that was behind the pink hydrangea. In its place I put one of the potted goldcrest cypress. It will look better when the cypress grows.
– Moved the bird feeder station that was too near the copper beech. At its foot, planted the ribbon grass (phalaris arundinacea, from the swimming pool).
– In front of the pink hydrangea, planted the little choisiya cutting and a bit of brunnera that was dying under acer Redwine as a result of slugs’ attack.
– Moved some pots around.
– Pruned the choisiya I am trying to train as a standard. I reckon next year it should reach an acceptable height.

26/08/19
– Back from Wensleydale. Finally decided to get rid of the « blue » hydrangea which never did anything much in the garden. In its place I planted the little golden euonymus I grew from a cutting of the big one. Of the three hydrangeas I had, only one remains, the big pink one near the shady bed. I don’t like pink hydrangeas very much and it may have to go one day to be replaced by a white one.

13/08/19
– Back from Normandie. All survived thanks to OH watering. Some deadheading.
– Potted up the tiny seedlings received from an Ebayer. So tiny I am not sure buying them was a good idea – 3 echinacea pallida, 4 bronze fennel, some aquilegia caerulea and aquilegia Tequila Sunrise. Very very tiny indeed.
– Pruned the copper beech. It will never be a hedge again as I cut back the lower branches. It is now shaped like a tree. I tried to give the canopy a compact shape but of course the top is out of my reach and the back is only reachable from the neighbours’ garden.
– Cut back the small boxwood. Wondering if I should get rid of it altogether and replace it with either the choisya I am growing from a cutting or with the viburnum plicatum. For the moment, filled the freed space under beech and box with pots (rhodo, azalea, etc).

05/08/19
– Game of musical chairs again. Sigh. Cut back the ivy on the far side of the golden euonymus. Then cut back the outer and lower branches of the euonymus to thin it and free some planting space. Moved the jacobaea maritima to its foot.
– Moved the phlomis russeliana which didn’t flower this year there. Moved the white gaura. To the other side of the path, moved the red cordyline (now companion to red elder and red physocarpus). In its place moved the young and floppy russian sage and cut it back. I could of course have waited to return from France to deal with this, as those plants will now need careful watering. But patience and me…

01/08/19
– A day of musical chairs again. Reorganised the sunny bed : split Deschampsia cespitosa Goldtau in two, moved the poor kniphofia Popsicle again, and gaura Siskyou Pink back in the middle of the bed, and the bigger Globe thistle which was looking healthy (not anymore), and some of the grasses. Removed the finished eremurus from the sunny bed (t’is now waiting in the leaky shed to be replanted in a large pot, I think). In its place, added some Rudbeckia Goldsturm. Added some liatris spicata found here and there. Removed the enormous borage plants. I think the sunny bed is getting there now. Next year, maybe Eryngium Neptune’s Gold will flower, as this year it couldn’t cope with being moved.
– Decided to line the crocosmia and roses bed further with stipa tenuissima. Moved some verbena bonariensis seedlings.
– In the dahlia bed, changes too : exchanged places between Phlox paniculata Fujiyama and Dahlia Procyon which was to big to stay at the front. Unfortunately the beautiful dahlia Seattle rotted (bulb) and had to go.

AUGUST 2019

27/07/19
– After a few days of tremendous heat, storms and rain.
– Reorganised the left side of the circular lawn : iris germanica stay at the back, foxgloves in the middle, lychnis coronaria and penstemon Phoenix Violet at the front with alchemilla mollis and geranium Rozanne lining the lawn.
– Found the narcissus poeticus bulbs and some muscari et relocated them.

26/07/19
– Received two bare root stipa gigantea ! I have dreamed about this grass for so long ! Bought them on Ebay, thought the price was a bit steep but had not realised the price was for two plants. So the beautiful giant daucus carota had to be binned as it was where the golden oat is going. Potted the other.

20/07/19
– Torrentiel rain last night. Very welcome, but some plants like the very tall daucus had to be straightened up with canes.
– Moved gaura Siskiyou Pink, which isn’t pink, to the lavender bed. In its place, moved Kniphofia popsicle Orange Vanilla. When it is throwing flower spikes up, of course.
– Planted the matricaria maritima collected in Reculver in the sunny bed. In the freed pot, planted dianthus Moulin Rouge. Put it on the rusty bike. Next to it, placed the white dianthus I trimmed hard a few weeks ago.
– In Iona’s little whale pot, planted a erigeron seedling. Now it looks like the whale is blowing water from its breathing hole !

19/07/19
– Mr Fox visited last night, dug massives holes, crushed a few plants, pushed a pot in a pond as well as my beloved crowned frog ornement which has now lost 2 fingers and a whole front leg. So had to fill holes, straighten what could be rescued and cut back broken stems.
– Planted out some evening primroses seedlings from Grandad’s seeds.
– Found a liatris spicata to replant in the sunny bed.
– Moved the Japanese painted fern a few cm back.
– Moved a few dahlia pots
– Potted Anemone Honorine Jobert which was crushed under lychnis coronaria.
– Decided for no reason to split heuchera Sweet Tea and replanted. Moved the gorgeous centaurea montana a few cm back nearer the monstrous lupin. Won’t be so gorgeous now !
– Am really pleased with crocosmia Lucifer, and the new pink wild rose which smells divine. Also love rosa Warm Welcome more and more even though I have no idea on what to make it climb. And finally the dark blue delphiniums are worth it.

18/07/19
– Cleared the ivy twigs that were left on the lawn
– Gave up on the stuff retrieved from the dry hanging basket which I had replanted with cypresses Goldcrest. Replaced them with erigeron seedlings.
– Pulled more nasturtiums up. Too messy.

17/07/19
– Rearranged the stipa tenuissima – the 6 new ones are now near the crocosmia and the others went back in the sunny bed where they were (hum).
– Pulled out some nasturtium (instead of deadheading and tidying) and planted some of the Geranium Rozanne plugs I had. I need 6 more if I am to line the lawn circle with them.
– Pulled out the rotary drier !!! Now that no turf is holding it, I was able to lift it with the concrete base stuck to it. Don’t know how I am going to dry sheet and duvet covers, but hey.
– In the hole left by the rotary drier, I moved one of the mystery roses that was with the dahlias.
– The blue penstemon cuttings have rooted ! I hope the lysimachia ephemerum will too, and the peach coloured chrysanthemum (?).

16/07/19
– tackled part of the ivy on the left fence. Filled our bin and Adam’s… Don’t know if my lungs will survive.

15/07/19
– Decided to remove the bright pink penstemon from its spot. Emptied the big green pot from its cosmos, replanted them in the borders, and installed the penstemon in it. It is sulking now, of course.
– Planted some erigeron seedlings in front of the sunny bed. I am so glad I didn’t give up on my seeds and didn’t buy ready-potted plants. There is such a sense of achievement when one can raise plants from seeds.
– Potted the two dark plum dianthus which were suffering.
– Deadheading and weeding

14/07/19
– Guests gone. Planted the grass I received from Crocus yesterday : deschampsia cespitosa Goldtau in the middle of the sunny bed, with 6 stipa tenuissima here and there. The sunny bed is more and more in the prairie style.
– This week, discovered that the unidentified orange rose received in the very cheap deal is very likely to be Rosa Warm Welcome, which is a miniature climber. I have no idea where I could make it climb… Another of the roses bought in the deal, which is a wild one, has opened : pale pink, semi-double, yellow stamen. Lovely and dainty.

08/07/19
– Finally the phlox paniculata Fujiyama cuttings have rooted. Potted them.
– Repotted lysimachia punctata in one of the purple tomato planter with the water compartment at the bottom.
– Googled the penstemons I am growing from cuttings. The pink one might be penstemon schoenholzeri and the amazing blue one (not rooted yet) might be penstemon Stapleford gem.

07/07/19
– Game of musical chairs again. After taking inspiration from suggestions on the Facebook gardening group, I planted physocarpus Red Baron next to the aucuba, moved the black elder on the other side of the ceanothus and replanted the tricyrtis shoot near the dogwood where the physocarpus was. So there are two dark burgundy plants behind the crocosmia now. In front of the crocosmia, I planted three stipa tenuissima which were near the pomegranate.
– Removed the non flowering delphinium and the tradescantia which were there and potted them.

06/07/19
– Gardening all day. All this started as I was trying to think of what could go with crocosmia Lucifer’s shocking red. I was already planning to buy new plants from Crocus. Turns out I can use what I have already got.
– Removed the pink hydrangea from under the ceanothus. It will go to Hayley’s home and I am very glad. Little by little, plants which I planted randomly in my first years of gardening are getting out, as I try to introduce more sense in my borders. In its place I planted an offshoot of Tricyrtis formosiana and two foxgloves.
– Decided to plant sambucus nigra Black Lace near the Japanese aucuba, behind crocosmia Lucifer.
– Removed tradescantia Sweet Kate from the sunny bed. Divided the big Pheasant tail’s grass in three and lined the sunny bed with it. Pulled a lot of nigella seedheads. I find difficult to cope with mess and decay this early in the year.

July 2019

28/06/19
– Tidied up the sunny bed.
– Planted the new dianthus, moved a fuchsia seedling near Eyngium Neptune’s Gold (which is not going to flower as it has been moved)

27/06/19
– Pulled up some foxgloves and replaced them with baby ones.
– Cut the old flowers on the white centranthus. This looks like it will flower forever. Best plant ever, and for free.
– Moved a penstemon which was hidden under a fern in the sunny bed.
– Bought a dianthus Colores Oro (or Sol ?) of an unusual pale yellow colour from the old man in town.

26/06/19
– Pulled up the white dianthus and potted it after a severe cut. Why oh why do I always do that when the plant is about to flower ? Had to sacrifice some very nice linaria to do that as well.
– Moved the perovskia in its place.
– Pulled more foxgloves.

23/06/19
– Bought a clematis Ville de Lyon and two wine coloured dianthus in wilko. Planted the clematis on the treillis where it should bloom after clematis montana.
– Moved plants around : extracted heuchera Berry Smoothie from under other plants, moved veronica gentianoides to free the space, binned the supposed rosa moyesii because it looked very weak and unhealthy. I didn’t have the space for it anyway. Shame though as Monty Don showed off his last Friday and it looked glorious.
– Planted the mimulus with the lobelia and petunia, moved the nasturtium that was there in one of the Cypress pots. I don’t think I’ll be doing nasturtiums around the circular lawn next year. Their colour is so intense and bright it clashes with the rest.

21/06/19
– dug the last logs into the lawn. Phew !
– Moved plants around in the crocosmia corner. I hope the crocosmia is still going to flower… this was very risky. One of the flowering stalks is now hanging down very depressed. Also moved the euphorbia wulfenii which now sulks.

19/06/19
– Of the 6 roses bought in the cheap Gardening Express deal, one is dead, three are wild roses including rosa moyesii, 2 are of the cultivated type. Can’t wait to discover what the flowers are like.
– the logs are almost all in now, two left to dig in.
– Pulled out spent foxgloves. There was a big storm last night which didn’t help. Lily regale album opened just before, unsurprisingly.
– Dahlia Orfeo has made an appearance in the last few days. Better late than never.
– Pricked out some erigeron seedlings and planted here and there.
– Moved some calendula to sunny spots.
– First flower on geranium Rozanne and the eremurus !

09/06/19
– With the kids, under occasional light rain, treated the logs with Eco wood treatment.
– Bought achillea filipendula Gold Cloth and crinodendron hookerianum (Chilean lantern tree) at Wilko. Planted the achillea in the dahlia border. Don’t know what I will do with the lantern tree. Bought it because Grandad has a beautiful one.
– Pulled out the tallest beautiful white foxglove because rain and wind had pushed it over. Deadheaded the purple lupin.

07/06/19
– pulled out the tall alexanders plant. It freed a space for the pot of speckled dahlia and also let the light in for a salvia and a delphinium.

06/06/19
– Out of my 5 salvia Amistad only two are really growing. The one in the strawberry pot is trying but slugs are harming it. 2 seem well and truly dead.
– Put the lily pot in the place of a dead salvia.
– Pulled back some forget me not, moved the potted purple azalea there.

05/06/19
– cut back some of the ivy ball near the house

JUNE 2019

Days missing

22/05/19
– divided and moved hepatica transylvanica – one in a pot (where the black spot rose was which is now in the bin) and one under the Redwine maple between the monster hellebores. In its place I planted Hakonechloa Sunflare.
– Put the hot coloured dahlias in the ground : Procyon, Seattle, bishop of Llandaff, Akita. Also the pale Bishop of Leicester as I wanted the bishops to be able to converse.
– moved the rudbeckia which was threatening the foxtail lily. It is now with the hot dahlias. Had to move a giant sunflower seedling to do that.
– First sighting of rosemary beetle on the rosemary. Some ended in the green bin.
– Am hesitating to throw away the sickly black currant from Poundland

18/05/19
– potted up 15 foxgloves seedlings, 2 lunaria, planted out orleya grandiflora.
– Potted up Black Hamburg
– Pruned the round box and the niwaki.

17/05/19
– moved the cistus back into a bigger pot. Moved the pink gaura in its place. Makes much more sense.
– Thinned the pots of californian poppies and replanted the extra inside pots of other things.
– Binned one of the forget me nots and planted a baby brunnera in its place. Cut back the muscari.
– Moved one of the echinops ritro into the sunny bed. Again more sense.

16/05/19
– moved the Jacob’s Ladder which is going to flower. In its place, planted the chive which had rooted out of its pots really quickly. Had to transplant a small penstemon cutting.
– Bought grapevine Black Hamburg in Wilko. No idea where to plant it. Aidan insisted to buy a panda plant (kalanchoe tomentosa).

14/05/19
– Dug up pulsatilla vulgaris, divided and replanted, one in a nice pot, the others in holes in the beds. I know it will sulk. If it sulks too much it will be binned.
– Got rid of the paeony. Last year I got two flowers. This year three buds which are not fattening up. That plant was never what it was supposed to be – bought a packet in M and S which said Sarah Bernhardt. It certainly wasn’t. It doesn’t look very healthy now. It is a shame. I have loved it. But now the bed has more unity (in my eyes anyway – a sort of mix between prairie and Mediterranean style, something for full sun). In the place of the paeony and the pulsatilla, I moved a white echinacea which was suffering under irises and planted Iona’s cistus (Alan Fradd) which was in a pot. Somehow it wouldn’t come out of its pot. When it finally did, it strangely detached from all its new roots that had filled the container. But I expect this tough one won’t sulk too long.

13/05/19
– planted out some cosmos gazebo white and orleya grandiflora seedlings.

12/05/19
– bought two passiflora caerulea at Wilko, the blue one for Aidan and Constance Elliott for me. Planted Constance in a big pot with a bamboo cane tipee. Need another big pot for Aidan’s passiflore.
– Also bought trellis pannels for the clematis montana. Need at least one more.
– Checked the roses like everyday for signs of life.

06/05/2019
– Finally planted the giant sunflower seeds : 2 in the border (to keep one) and three in a big pot.
– Planted one little Penstemon cutting in the ceanothus border.
– Spotted what looks like the promise of two flowers in the foxtail lilies !!!

05/05/2019

– Planted the hanging basket which came crashing down when I tried to turn it around. Great. Started again.
– With the rest of the petunias and trailing lobelia, planted the pot where tulips Orange Emperor were. Also stuck a trailing nasturtium in there. Discarded the tulips.
– Planted the last bare root rose.
– Yesterday’s torrential bouts of rain seem to have woken up seeds… and weeds.

04/05/2019

Under rain and hail, struggled to plant the bare root roses from the Gardening Express deal. Have no idea what colour they are or even if they are going to make it. Hum. Fortunately the depth of the soil was quite dry. Not too much damage to the clay structure hopefully.

01/05/19
Have been in the garden everyday and can’t remember all the things I did. Mainly moving plants here and there. That poor geranium Black and White Army must have been moved more than 5 times since I bought it.
– Planted the nasturtium around the circle.
– Planted out the little blue penstemon I got from a cutting.
– Yesterday, noticed some minute buds on the dogwood stump. Yeah ! Still alive ! Also on the pyracantha I severely cut back as it was totally encroaching.
– Today, planted out the cowslips that I had kept in a pot to give them a chance in the new Spring border (in front of the copper beech). They are in flower now and I am hoping they won’t be too shocked and will self seed. *
– Pricked out some Californian poppies and planted them.

MAY 2019

26/04/19 :
– Received the alchemilla mollis Irish silk plugs and planted them around the circular lawn. I will have to use nasturtium Alaska seedlings to interplant as I don’t have enough of the other type bought as plugs.
– Planted two tomatoes Moneymaker in the « clever pots » (hum).

25/04 :
– Cut back lower branch of the copper beech.
– Moved some plants which were on the edge of the circular lawn to make space for what will be planted there : a very small agapanthus (i hope it is blue as I already have a white one), a penstemon, a pulmonaria, a tradescantia andersoniana Sweet Kate.
– Took a tiny cutting of brachyglottis Sunshine from school.
– Bought 2 tomato Moneymaker from the old man in town and one gooseberry Hinnonmaki Red from Wilko (wrongly spelt hinnomaki).

23/04 (After a week of garden layout transformation):
– Moved borage seedlings
– Sowed erigeron in pots and borders
– Made a bamboo tipee for clematis jackmanii superba

15/04/2019:
– Received some dahlia from Crocus : Bishop of Llandaff, Bishop of Leicester, Moonfire (in a very, very sorry state !), Orfeo, Akita. Also lilium regale Album. All planted in pots.

14/04/19 :
– Bought perovskia Blue Spire and Buddleia Black Knight in Wilko. Potted the buddleia.
– Moved Katsura in full leaf near Osakazuki (I know…).
– Potted the potentilla fructicosa and hard pruned it.

12/04/19:
– Sowed foxgloves excelsior, orleya grandiflora and honesty. It is very cold indeed for April.
– Keep pulling up baby horse chestnuts
– Pulmonaria seedlings appearing

05/04/2019 :
– Planted Dahlias Seattle, Crazy Love and Avignon in black pots.
– Severed a shoot of rudbeckia Goldsturm and planted it in the “long border”, where the strawberry planter housing salvia Armistad was placed.
– Replanted geranium Black n’ white Army under the “niwaki” box.
– The tulips Orange Emperor are out !
– Sign of life on the two main verbena bonariensis in the summer bed.

APRIL 2019

29/03/2019 :
– Some time round this date, I have planted two penstemon cuttings in the corner near salvia Black and Blue. No sign of life on any of the salvias yet.
– Have also planted the santolina cuttings. They are still very small but the roots grow so quick I hope they will bulk up fast.
– The two delphiniums planted in the same corner have disappeared, nothing left in the soil. Have planted some liatris spicata and a white gaura in their place. Still, I don’t think I can do a summer without delphinium, will have to buy some.
– The kids have sown Californian poppies and Nasturtium Alaska. We have also “rescued” some lilies of the valley which were sprouting and even flowering inside their bag at Wilko.
– Have planted Dahlia Procyon and Dahlia Snowflakes.
– Most importantly, I have cut back our firethorn ! This was long overdue ! Now, we may even have enough space for a small table and folding chairs, which would be awesome in the summer.

18/03/2019 :
– Potted up two new plants bought in Wilko yesterday : a yellow dwarf rhododendron and Cistus purpureus Alan Fradd (chosen and paid for by Iona).
– Pruned what I can reach of the climbing rose at the back. The wooden top fence at the bottom of the garden is crumbling. Storm Gareth who has been blowing for days didn’t help.
– Moved one lychnis coronaria into the long border.
– Binned most of the chiastophyllum oppositifolium which was under acer palmatum Redwine. Not very interesting plant and needed the space.
– Of the 3 physalis bits planted a month ago for my son, two are showing up.
– A few days ago, displaced the geranium Black n’ white Army from the front of the pond where it was crushed by the white red valerian.

11/03/2019
– Forgotten bulbs are poking up everywhere, fritillaries, alliums and muscari. The brunnera have started flowering, as well as the primulas. The pulmonaria have been in flowers for a while.
– Young shoots of phlox, bleeding hearts and astilbes appearing, amongst others.
– Cleared the two RHS pots which contained the old “bulb lasagna”. Binned what was left of the half-rotten tulips. In one of the pot, I put Euphorbia myrsinites which had been dumped near the pond in a totally unsuitable spot for it.
– Moved the Jacob’s Ladder into the sunny bed in order to free a space where I displaced a foxglove.
– Damaged and had to cut the best Verbena bonariensis young plant I had.
– Decided to cut Sambucus nigra in order to obtain an upright silhouette. Made cuttings of the two severed branches.
– Struggled to build a cheap Wilko obelisk to support our clematis montana which was cut back hard when we had to change the fence.

05/03/2019 :
– Helleborus x hybridus Double Ellen White Spotted (bought in September 2017) flowers for the first time.

– Repotted a few house plants : a small Easter cactus (?), an unnamed “foliage plant” from Wilko (didn’t repot Pteris ensiformis as I read it likes to be pot-bound), and Crassula Gollum (bought last April and healthily grown).
– Moved the tricolor crocus (which have almost finished flowering) into the ground around small Acer dissectum Garnet – next year, it won’t look so bare. The bulb lasagna planted in the RHS pots in Autumn 2017 has had it.
– Gathered four little cowslip plants (Grandad’s gift) in a terracota pot which used to house lovely scented Tazetta daffs, of which there is no sign left. In their place, planted some muscari exhumed by mistake some days ago.
– Managed to severe very easily a shoot of Tricyrtis formosana Pink Freckles and pot it. It might become a present… or not.
– The paeonies are well under way (especially the potted one).

Don’t remember when :
– Cut back the big hypericum behind the hydrangea.
– Planted Physocarpus Red Baron nearby.

MARCH 2019

20/02/2019 :
– Bought a small and gorgeous Pteris ensiformis and another unknown “foliage plant” from Wilko, as well as two Goldcrest cypress (what for ???)

17/02/2019 :
– I let a few days of bright February weather pass by without gardening. Today, managed to finally plant the persimmon tree in a large glazed pot with coarse grit and ericaceous compost. The pomegranate I put in the ground some time ago. Yes, I do know growing persimmon in a containuer isn’t ideal and it may well mean I don’t get fruits, but it will have to do for the moment.
– Iris reticulata Katherine Hodgson and Gordon are up and absolutely gorgeous. I need to plant more in the future (but where…).

– Acer palmatum Katsura is displaying a constellation of beautiful pink leaf buds.
– Planted 3 poorly physalis bits from a sorry bag bought in Wilko (at the son’s request).
– I suspect the potentilla fructicosa is dead… Shame, I loved it, and it was one of the things that were there before our time. But… if it is dead, it means I can use the space… 🙂

01/02/2019 :
– On the audacious (hum) purchase of a pomegranate tree (Mollar de Elche) and a persimmon tree (Rojo Brillante) : here.

FEBRUARY 2019

15/01 /2019 :
– Finally mulched the rest of the beds with manure.
– Cut a few crossing branches off the two big acers and a big branch from Redwine.
– There are a few baby leaves on the branches of salvia Armistad that I had left for winter protection. Now would be a bad time to start leafing out as we are promised some very cold weather at the end of the month. I have cut one of the salvia down.
– Washed two feeders. The seeds feeder was absolutely filthy…
– Cleared the pond and brought some daff pots nearer the house.

JANUARY 2019

23/11/2018 :
– I did other things in October that I lacked the time to record here. I planted tulips (Orange Emperor I believe), planted the alliums sphaerocephalon in the “new border”.
– Most importantly, the old broken fence between Adam and us was flattened by the wind and replaced (by Adam). Weird new very yellow fence which will probably weather down quite quickly.
– Today, went out to repot some chrysanthemum L. got me for my birthday in September and ended up doing a lot more. Namely :
– Planted Acer palmatum dissectum Garnet in front of Osakazuki. To do that, had to lift and divide a big pulmonaria.
– Planted hosta June which had always been in a pot (and was never repotted !) in the big shady bed, near hosta Fire and Ice. To do that, had to remove heuchera Berry Smoothie which I put in the new border, maybe temporarily.
– Moved some foxgloves to make space for Geranium Rozanne between Acer palmatum Katsura and a hydrangea.
– Amongst the cuttings, helenium Waltraut has rooted, so was potted. Nothing on the choisiya cuttings yet.
– First frost : leaves are blackening on various plants. I cut the dahlia down. The salvia won’t last now.

NOVEMBER 2018

24/10 :
– Found use for the two big plastic pots bought yesterday : one for rehousing Sambucus Nigra Black Lace, around which I put iris reticulata Gordon, one for the rosa rugosa that came from Tottington. The rest of the iris bulbs were planted in a middle size pot around Gaura lindheimeri. I still have some tulips and alliums sphaerocephalon to plant…

23/10 :
– Mother-in-law took the kids and me to the garden centre. We left with 200 litres of compost, 200 litres of manure, 4 plastic pots (the terracota ones are so heavy…) and saucers, and one Geranium Rozanne from the reduced shelf. Yes, just one plant (“Are you alright dear ?”).
– Have decided to give Sanguisorba obtusa to Grandad. Loved the plant, but it will be happier in his wet garden.

22/10 :
– Father-in-law, my hero, has cleared the old ivy that held the fence between Adam and us. The axe from the archaeological store proved very handy, and I am so glad it wasn’t me wielding it. How strange it is to see this flimsy fence now, freed from the many hairy arms of the ivy !

19/10 :
– One of the big edging stones (concrete) fell in the pond again. Probably because of Mr Snuffles (our hedgehog. Grandma’s hedgehog is called Mr Prickleberry. Could be Mrs, of course). So I dabbled in the pond again, cut back, moved.
– Yesterday, couldn’t resist three little pots of Viola Nice (I wonder, is it nice as in “she is nice”, or Nice as in “Pearl of the Côte d’Azur ?”) which were sold by the old man in town. Today, planted them on top of the big tulip pots where there was just the right depth of free space for them. I have run out of compost a long time ago, so have been using garden soil that was dug out for the pond. If I’m feeling generous, I sprinkle some of the manure I have left from last Autumn. Some of the unknown little plants that were growing on top of the pot have been repotted, just to see what they might be, friend of foe. I did throw some seeds there last Spring, so who knows, there might be a good surprise in the end.
– To plant the liriope muscari Variegata, moved the small fern to the pond.
– Decided in the process that the positioning of the heuchera Aumtun Leaves and two primulas could be improved, so moved everybody, even though the primulas are in flower. Sorry !

17/10 :
– Planted the beauties received yesterday. In the sunny bed : gaura lindheimeri Siskyu Pink (to complement salvia Armistad), centaurea montana (to do that, had to move Helenium Waltraut and put calamagrostis brachytricha in a pot). Where the cornus was (and still is as a stump) : persicaria affinis Darjeeling Red. Near the Japanese laurel : euphorbia characias wulfenii. Still waiting in their pots : gaura lindheimeri, liriope muscari variegata, another pheasant’s tail grass, a little asplenium undulatum. Also received a bag of nasturtium Alaska seeds. Beautiful autumn weather these days.

15/10:
– Had to remove the very numerous conkers that the kids collected with a friend and had put in pots to decorate them because the squirrel is stealing them (which is fine) and planting them in our garden (which is less fine).

14/10 :
– Planted 20 bulbs of Daffs Winston Churchill which enchanted me last Spring in two pots.
– Cut the dogwood to the ground. It had been grown to be part of a tall hedge but had become too messy, with branches twisting and almost making knots. I hope it will throw new upright stems next Spring.

13/10 :
– Because of a Facebook gardening group, I have discovered the Secret Gardening Club and couldn’t help ordering new plants. The prices are amazing and there is no postage fee.

12/10 :
– Took a tiny clump of a variegated grass, an offshoot of a plant growing near the swimming pool, in a place where it is neglected.
– Sometime in the previous weeks, rearranged the planting under acer palmatum Redwine, divided the brunnera and the carex again. Replanted a bit of the hellebore that was divided pretty much next to its parent plant (hum).

OCTOBER 2018

24/09 :
– Tried to thin the ivy on the path side. Hacked the ivy on Adam’s side. Can’t wait to get rid of it and replace the fence panel. Found there was a dead baby robin inside the pouch.
– Lifted the Sambucus Nigra Black Lace on a strawberry planter.
– Some day last week, swapped pots between the Autumn Bliss raspberry and the Poundland black currant. Repotted a little buddleia.

15/09 :
– Hacked the firethorn ! Thank Mother-in-law for the pair of loppers. Discovered that I can’t get rid of it because the fence behind it is horrendous.

– Pruned acer palmatum Redwine quite successfully – I am so pleased with myself and with the tree ! A vigorous grower, it had developed such an awkward shape that I didn’t really know how to tackle it. There was no obvious natural structure to clean up, a shape had to be revealed. It is not perfect now, and retains some awkwardness, but it is much better, less dense, with the canopy slightly lifted. Happy me.

– Planted the the 6 new heucheras / heucherella bought on Ebay (Autumn Leaves, Berry Smoothie (this is the second I have), Sweet Tea, Cinnabar Silver and the bright Gold Zebra and Alabama Sunrise). Had to move some plants again (the Jacobaea maritima).

– Moved the ‘big’ fuchsia into a pot, settled it on top of one of my Turkish strawberry planters which I now use mainly to lift plants, and moved it against the salvia Armistad in the sunny bed. Finally, the colours and structure are starting to make sense, sort of ! I know the fuchsia will sulk, especially as the new pot is too small, and might have to be replaced (Apologies, very bad picture).

12/09 :
– Received an order from Crocus : miscanthus sinensis Kleine Silberspinne (I ordered Kleine Fontäne last summer), anemanthele lessoniana (pheasant’s tail grass), helenium Waltraut and Fuego. Oh, and some allium sphaerocephalon bulbs. No idea where I will be able to plant them…
– Planted everything except the bulbs, moved other plants around in order to do so. Less chaos I think. Of course the trouble is to remember where those Spring bulbs and other now dormant plants were… The sunny border is increasingly looking like those fashionable “prairie style” pictures with grass, verbena, salvia, echinacea, rudbeckia, etc. I guess I am a victim to fashion. To be fair, I have always always loved grass. By the way, I now know the echinacea bought in Goodnestone Park is white !

09/09 :
– Had a sudden urge to cut back the turf on the left side of the garden. My God it is musculation for the arms. I think the idea came from the necessity to plant the baby choisiya (a cutting from the big one I had to get rid of to make space for the pond) where the white Japanese anemone Honorine Jobert was. I dumped the anemone in a bucket of rain water for two or three days before I had time to deal with it. Now of course, more space = moving plants around + buying new ones. 😀
– A picture of the border (temporary state)

SEPTEMBER 2018

No time to record but plants moved around quite a lot, as usual.

JULY and AUGUST 2018

See this post about the creation of our frog pond, and this other post (hedgehog appearance in the comments).

JUNE 2018

27/05 :
– Bought two small purple dianthus and a Leucanthemum superbum Snow Lady, put together in a container (black plastic unfortunately)
– Dug some iris out and gave them to the neighbour. Moved the Salvia guaranitica Black and Blue in its place.
– Inherited a bucket of tadpoles from a nearby pond in which the water was getting dangerously low. Now I need to make a small pond happen…

22/05 :
– On 15/05, went to Goodnestone Park with my in-laws. Wonderful garden. Had a long chat with Paul, the lovely headgardener. Bought a Phlomis russeliana, a rudbeckia and an echinacea of some sort.
– Moved an unforeseen hellebore in the shady bed to make more space for the heuchera Berry Smoothie.
– Planted a few plants given by Father-in-law (forget-me-nots, fox-and-cubs, cowslips).
– Tried to plant some of the very numerous stock seedlings in pots and around the rotary airer, got rid of the tulip bulbs which were there.
– Potted a little rose (badly affected by black spot) which was about to flower and planted the coreopsis in its place. Planted a little echinops ritro where the coreopsis was.
– Tried to get rid of some of the spent wisteria flowers and removed dead branches.
– Potted a little wild rose seedling.
– Admire the big blue lupin with its 14 flower spikes.

09/05 :
– I have spent these last days in the garden, taking advantage of the glorious sunshine. I can’t recall everything I did. Mainly moved plants around, for example a bit of tradescantia Sweet Kate back into the sunny bed, the chiastophyllum / umbilicus oppositifolium (goutte d’or) from under the hellebore into a more visible place, the campanula from the shade into the sun, etc.
– The garden is all wonderful scent : the wisteria is blooming, the choisiya has been flowering for some time, the honeysuckle is about to come out too. Delightful.
– On 03/05, the robin chicks left the nest. I saw one today twice (or two of them, who were five chicks). They make me happy !

Meanwhile, the blackbirds are still feeding an enormous fluffy baby.
– On 05/05, went to see the bluebells in the woods.
– On 06/05, daughter helped me sow foxgloves and stock.
– On 07/05 (bank holiday), we went to Broadstairs. From there I brought back a piece of red valerian. I am hoping to God it survives. Also gathered something which looks like centranthus ruber too, but smaller and with yellow-white flowers, and a bit of yellow wallflower (?).
– Took pictures of a common blue butterfly today.

– Am still waiting for the delivery of 6 salvia Armistad plug plants, but had the lovely surprise to find that the two crocosmia Lucifer corms had produced a leaf (tiny) ! The bearded irises are about to flower. And I am very pleased with the veronica gentianoides bought in Poundland last autumn.

01/05 :
– Sunshine today. I feel very tired (lack of sleep). Moved the santolina again, split in two and replanted on the sunny side, somewhere where it can lean towards sunlight without crushing anything else. There’s no point having a sickly plant in the wrong place. Planted the new cordyline where I am hoping it will pick up the red colour of astrantia Hadspen Blood and cocosmia Lucifer. The alchemilla are in the middle to break the red with their acid green flowers.
– Moved the “English lavender” (more probably lavendula stoechas ?), the chives, the Jacob’s ladder in a game of musical chairs, trying to fit everybody in a suitable spot.
– Planted the lilies of the valley (not sure they are still alive, came in one of those Wilko bags). Displaced a Welsh poppy to do that – yes I must be the only person on this island trying to transplant something that comes up everywhere anyway.
– Planted a raspberry Autumn Bliss. Also planted a blackcurrant from Poundland the other day, which looks quite healthy… Wait (maybe very long) and see.
– Husband and neighbour fixed a new treillis on top of the brick wall between our houses. I think the old powerful ivy’s days are numbered… The clematis montana about to flower and the robin’s nest are the last things standing between the saw and him…
– And there is the nest !

MAY 2018

30/04 :
– Lots of rain.
– The wind blew the greenhouse over. Probably lost my cosmos and other seedlings.
– Looked at pictures of the garden in 2015, before we left for Paris. It was very nice. I don’t think we will manage such a floriferous garden this year, but hey, this is our first year back. I also feel bad for pulling the dutch irises out, now, when I see how beautiful they were (but in all honesty, they were probably not going to flower, and I will have more bearded irises).

29/04 :
– Decided to move the Santolina out of the sunny bed, to be replaced by Calamagrostis brachytricha. I am not quite sure it was a good idea to swap them. Santolina won’t like it to have less sun, and the grass will resent being too dry.
– Bought another cordyline (probably Red Star) and another small dark red grass. Not quite sure where to plant them. Also bought lilly of the valley bulb, don’t know quite why.
– Pulled two alliums from the shady bed, as they didn’t look like they were going to flower, but now feel bad, they might have been late.
– Rain has arrived.

26/04 :
– Rearranged the plants in the reorganised “summer bed”.
– Replanted the ranunculus which failed to flower (the buds having been strangely excavated and eaten from inside) in the sunny bed.
– In the terracota pot thus freed, planted the dahlia which seems to have survived the harsh winter easy peasy. I find plants are often tougher than what books tell us.
– Dug up, or rather pulled up Yoshiki’s rhododendron which is very probably dead (I did scratch the bark). I am going to keep it for the moment, as I like the shape. Might be included in some art project.
– In its place, planted the little pink azalea.
– Waiting for some rain…

19, 23 et 25/04 :
– See here, here and here.

16/04 :
– Alas, today, a baby blackbird was killed. Found it on the “lawn”. It hadn’t been eaten. I don’t think it’s the cat. The magpie has been seen swooping around, chased by Mrs Black. Since then, I haven’t seen her go to her nest to feed her babies anymore.
– Planted the buddleia found in a crack last autumn.

15/04 :
– Had lunch on the bench with the kids.
– Took a cutting from a neighbour’s flowering currant…
– Planted the little plants of Smyrnium olusatrum out, here and there, knowing I will have to get rid of some of them if they all take.
– Moved a Brunnera under the yellow euonymus, and planted an Ajuga reptans (bugleweed) on each side. Replanted Silene uniflora Druett’s variegated which at the moment is rootless.
– Sowed what I think is yarrow seeds on dry patches.
– Planted the little matricaria and the other plant (not doing well, this one) taken from Reculver in november in the sandy dry bit against the fence in the sunny bed.
– Gave a Geum Totally Tangerine to neighbour.
– Enjoyed the birds immensely : Mrs Black feeding her babies in the ivy, Mrs Little Red in Grandma’s pouch nest, various others. Now that we have a peanut feeder on our new feeding station, blue tits and great tits are back. Aidan saw the goldfinch again.

14/04 :
– Sat on the bench in the sun. Observed Mrs Back feeding her babies in the ivy. The fritillaries are very good this year.
– New plants for the garden : rhubarb Timperley Early, fig tree Brown Turkey, one purple azalea, one sweet pea.
– Planted an agapanthus Donau
– Installed a bird feeding station with new seed and peanut feeders.
– New houseplant : crassula ovata Gollum. Very funny-looking !

13/04 :
– New encounter with the robin in the pouch nest ! May she / he stay long !

12/04 :
– Saw a goldfinch for the first time in our garden !

11/04 :
– Back from the North. The garden has really come on during our week away ! Fritillaries, primulas, brunnera flowers ! Tulips and daffs not quite yet. The pulsatilla bloomed in our absence. Stuff growing everywhere, weeds too.

– The epimedium is not dead !!!

01/04 :
– Easter ! And April ! But the garden seems late this year. The maples are preparing to leaf out, as are the other trees and shrubs, but there is not a daffodil in flower, and the muscari are only starting.
– Cut back the mildew-prone euonymus which had taken advantage of our two years of absence to try to grow back. I need to find a way to get rid of the stump and the roots. I think that, in time, the new physocarpus will take its place. For the moment, I repotted it. I am also hoping some of the dogwood canes I stuck in the soil will take, so I can get more of that lovely luminous foliage.
– It seems a teeny tiny something is growing from what is supposed to be an epimedium.
– Not much is happening in the seeds section… I struggle to believe that something as vigorous as borage can start as those tiny strings which have appeared. Still better than nothing…

APRIL 2018

30/03 :
– In Wilko again. Bought two small tomato plants Super Shirley, a reddish azalea and a physocarpus Red Baron (hoping the label doesn’t lie).

26/03 :
– Put a big saucer out as a bird bath. Mr Black and Little Red used it.
– Fell nose to beak with a robin in the little nest offered by Grandma ! He flew away, hope he will come back.

25/03 :
– Bought and built a mini greenhouse with four shelves. Moved the seedlings which had invaded the windowsills into it. Felt very pleased.

– Planted a paeony Sarah Bernhardt (let’s hope this time it is what the label says), two purple lupins (one in the shady bed, the other to counterbalance the only surviving lupin from before our Parisian years), 5 crocosmia Lucifer corms to keep company to the plant bought from Crocus, one Dicentra Alba (the other one bought the other day, a pink bleeding heart, seemed not to be able to make it – but I still transfered it near the redwine maple, who knows).
– Amongst bulbs poking up, I can already see fritillaries flower heads (still closed, of course) ! Many other plants are just appearing, like the dark leaved geranium Black’n White Army (which was replanted at some point in front of the arching fuchsia), the phlox paniculata, etc, and maybe, maybe even the Salvia guaranitica (fingers crossed).

14/03 :
See this post.

MARCH 2018

25/01 :
– After a sewer disaster last week preceded and followed by rain and more rain, I have finally ventured out in the garden, and this is my first flower of the year.

JANUARY 2018

13/12 :
– Saw two thrushes in the garden for the first time. Other usual birds : robin, blackbirds, tits, collared doves, dunnock, house sparrows, magpies, jackdaws, wood pigeons.

DECEMBER

12/11 :
– In a bitter cold wind, planted Tulips Spring Green and Groenland (both viridiflora) and Alliums Christophii in the new green container.
– Mulched with manure.

11/11 :
– Went to Homebase and brought back a water butt, a large green glazed terracota pot, multipurpose and ericaceous compost, alpine white stones (could not find horticultural grit), a small crassula in memory of an old one I saw every summer and winter at my uncle’s house for years and a Venus flytrap for my son – it’s like a new pet.

03/11 : Long day in the garden !
– Moved the rosemary (again, final place I hope), lifted and potted the thyme and gave it a trim. Held the cut stems in my hand in a moment of fullness.
– Moved the tiny Verbena bonariensis (a seedling retrieved from a crack in the concrete slab in front of the shed).
– Finally got rid of the big pink begonia even though it is in flowers. Can’t say it hasn’t been performing, but I don’t like it : floppy fleshy stems, bright pink flowers which don’t suit the surrounding plants (what a unpalatable clash with Acer Osakazuki when it turns red !). Among begonias, I can only stand the small long flowered types, like the Million Kisses series. Actually, they could almost convert me to hanging baskets.
– Decided to give Yoshiki’s dwarf rhododendron (an azalea according to mother-in-law) one last chance. Put it in the ground with ericaceous compost obviously. Moved the sorry looking bit supposed to be Epidemium rubrum in a pot.
– Repotted Camellia sasanqua Rainbow and placed it where the begonia was. In order to use the nice pot, had to rehouse Miscanthus sinensis.
– Repotted Dracaena marginata bought on the High Street the other day. Can barely lift the damn thing now.
– Hung the little RSPB nest Granma gave to my son. Hope the robin will like it.
– Divided the variegated grass (Carex oshimensis Evergold ?) and used the bits to underplant the boxwood and ponctuate another bed. Moved the campanula again (that thing is tough if it recovers !). Total darkness meant I had to retreat.

02/11 :
– Planted some of the things bought in the garden centre yesterday.
– Baptised the loppers by taking down a beautiful holly growing against the fence in the middle of other plants. Felt bad, leaves were gorgeous.

01/11 :
– Went to the Garden Centre for manure and grit. They didn’t have any grit. Left with 150 litres of manure… but also, well, a few extras : Tradescantia andersoniana Sweet Kate and a Camellia sasanqua Rainbow, which was the plant of our end-of-October wedding (eleven years ago). From the clearance shelf : Daphne mezereum Rubra, Penstemon Phoenix Violet and a barely-alive-looking Clematis Jackmanii Superba. Plus seeds : borage, Lychnis Coronaria, Cosmos Purity, yellow aquilegia. Bought Alliums christophii.
– Was offered a pair of loppers (hurrah !) and tulip bulbs by Mother-In-Law (Spring Green and…)
– By the way, a lot of bulbs are popping up in the garden, and I don’t remember what they are.

NOVEMBER

29/10 :
– Went for an extremely windy walk in Reculver with the kids and the in-laws. Collected a small plant of what looks like matricaria maritima and another one which I don’t know yet. Big wild carrot-like flowers grew on the beach. Potted them.

Don’t remember when :
– Bought and planted Narcissi Sir Winton Churchill in a pot. My first double daffodils ever.

16/10 :
– Planted the Cordyline near the iris in the sunny bed.
– Lifted and divided Campanula muralis (portenschlagiana apparently). Replanted here and there in places challenging for other plants.
– Potted Miscanthus sinensis Kleine Fontäne. Not sure where it belongs yet.
– Tried to rescue tiny bits of Heuchera Beauty Colour which, though planted in the ground, had its roots eaten (at least they are not here anymore). Will probably plant the yellow corydalis in its place if the cutting takes.

10/10 :
– Layered bulbs in two large RHS pots with the kids. Bulbs : tulips Carnaval de Nice and Black Parrot, Narcissi Tazetta Martinette, Dwarf Crocus Sieberi Tricolor, Dwarf Iris Katharine Hodgkins / Injad Sherwood. Fingers crossed, we should get a beautiful display from February to May.
– Finally decided to put Acer palmatum Katsura in the ground…

09/10 :
– Lifted and divided Geum Totally Tangerine in a lot of plants (nine ?), potted some to give away, planted the others, trying not to waste. In the process, moved some purple toadflax.
– Cleared more ivy. Maybe the honeysuckle will get a better chance next year.

08/10 :
– Cleared the climbing rose, the honeysuckle and the ivy in the corner where the leylandii was.

07/10 :
– The tree surgeon came to fell the sycamore and the leylandii.

05/10 :
– Received the plants ordered with Auntie S’s birthday present : Salvia guaranitica Black and Blue (oh so gorgeous), Centaurea montana Purple Heart, Sanguisorba obtusa and Miscanthus sinensis Kleine Fontäne. Planted the first two plants.
– Lifted and divided the old poppy (a good occasion to move it – but why do I multiply a plant I didn’t want in the first place ?).
– Moved the only surviving delphinium into the main sunny bed.
– Used slug pellets again, alas, to help some plants get a leaf out, at least. The phlox has been trying for days, only to be shaved clean by the slugs. Cat repellent again, as the damn thing has been at it.
– Collected Verbena bonariensis seedhead from the Miller’s park, and a hop seedhead.

02/10 :
– Cleared the sunny bed (the patch near the ivy trunk). Planted the rosemary. Lifted and divided some iris, replanted some behind the fuchsias. Am considering using slug pellets again as picking the b… up every night is not enough.
– The first ranunculus makes an appearance !

OCTOBER

30/09 :
– Bought a ground feeder (mesh bird table) for the blackbird. Bought a rosemary. Birthday.

25/09 :
– Cut nearly every bit of ivy trunk I could access on the path side.

24/09 :
– With Neighbour Adam, trimmed down the copper beech and the cornus alba. Husband trimmed the ivy on the passage. Now to think about keeping or getting rid of the ivy… It is growing through the firethorn. Seen Little Red as everyday.

21/09 :
– Bought bird feeder and food for robins and blackbirds.

20/09 :
– Planted bits of Armeria maritima here and there.
– Carried on with the niwaki pruning of the boxwood. Four hours at it.

18/09 :
– Planted 15 Ranunculus corms (2 pots and in the ground). Planted an offspring of Japanese anemone September Charm near Honorine Jobert.
– Put figs in pot.
– Covered the garden in cat repellent. Sigh.

17/09 :
– Planted bulbs : 15 fritillaries, 20 alliums neapolitanum.
– Embarked on an attempt to prune the big barrel-shaped boxwood Niwaki style. Not sure it will work at all. Might have to cut the boxwood in the end.
– Sowed the Greyfriars Garden’s wild carrots.
– Sowed the Smyrnum olusatrum seeds.

15/09 :
– Moved some plants around (geranium, alchemilla, the arching fuchsia).

14/09 :
– On the way to Harbledown, collected Smyrnium olusatrum seeds. Brought by the Romans. Edible. Old veg. Beautiful.

12/09 :
– Battled the ivy on the path side.
– Planted a tiny pulmonaria in the shady bed.

11/09 :
– Hana’s mum’s gerbera is still alive ! Potted it.
– Moved Silene Druett’s variegated in its place.
– Planted what’s left of a Euphorbia myrsinites.

10/09 :
– Planted Eremurus x isabellinus Pinokkio (foxtail lily)
– Planted Calamagrostis brachytricha (Korean feather reed grass)
– Uprooted Auntie Shelagh’s rose. Replanted a small bit in the sunny bed. It couldn’t sustain its flowers’ weight.
– In its place, planted Helleborus x hybridus Double Ellen White Spotted
– Planted Epimedium rubrum (bishop’s hat)
– Potted two seedlings of Susan’s wisteria to grow as standards.

09/09 :
– Planted Verbena bonariensis, Astrantia Hadspen Blood, Crocosmia Lucifer and Alchemilla mollis (yes, garden staples) in the bed near the Aucuba. Added a bit of the divided Brunnera.
– Planted Eryngium x Zabelii Neptune’s Gold (again !) and Phlox paniculata Mount Fuji in the sunny bed.
– Potted a sorry-looking begonia. Will see how it fares. Don’t like begonias but don’t like not to give plants a second chance.
– Hatched this crazy project to grow a seedling of Susan’s wisteria in a pot as a standard.

08/09 :
– Received my birthday present to myself :

The Korean feathergrass is so beautiful I wish I had ordered more.

06/09 :
– Planted Trollius chinensis Goldkönigin (Poundland) in shady bed.
– Planted Polemonium (Poundland) near the Geum. You’ve got to love a blue-flowered plant named Jacob’s Ladder. I love English plants’ common names anyway.
– Lifted and potted Iris Sibirica Butter and Sugar, which never thrived (barely alive).
– Divided Primula Bellarina Pink Ice in three plants. Replanted in the shady beds.
– Moved Acer palmatum Katsura which has sent roots through its pot’s draining hole. Needs repotting this autumn.

04/09 :
– Trimmed Lavender.
– Found pulmonaria seedlings and potted them.
– Planted Rumex sanguineus near the chive.
– Planted Chiastophyllum oppositifolium in shady bed (near heuchera, won’t have enough space).

September 2017

26/08 :
– Divided Brunnera macrophylla Jack Frost. Replanted where I could in shady beds.

25/08 :
– Potted Coreopsis Early Sunrise.
– Planted Geranium pratense Black’n White Army on Adam’s side.

Earlier in August :
– Planted Tricyrtis formosana Pink Freckles, Heuchera Berry Smoothie.

August 2017

Summer 2017 : return to Canterbury. Amongst other plants, we lost Acer Shirawasanum Aureum.