End of Month View - October 2011

I joined this meme at the end of last month, choosing to focus on just three areas of my garden that needed a bit of love and attention.

Potted Garden

First, the good news:  the potted garden on the gravelled area outside the back door has gone from this, at the end of September:

To this:

You can see I haven't cleaned the gravel yet or spread it out evenly, but the area is looking much better with more pots and plants.  I'm not sure about the watering can (this is the one I use for these pots, so it's handy to keep it there) but I think I like it providing a contrast to the terracotta pots. 

Here is a plan of the plants I've used:

Some still need to fill out a lot more, but I think they'll look great in a few months. I need to replace the Violas as they have mildew.  I have never had this problem before and I think they must have been infected at the nursery, as those I planted in a pot on the front porch have it too, whereas others in the garden, from a different nursery, do not. Violas won't last here in this sunny spot once the hot weather comes in about a  month anyway, so it doesn't really matter. If the Oleander is not filling the pot by then, I'll plant a yellow or orange summer annual.


Honeysuckle Bed

As for the other area I'm trying to improve, the eastern end of the front garden, there hasn't been much progress, although there has been a lot of thought. I wanted to wait until all the Vinca had re-sprouted so it could be dug out properly. This has been done three times now, and hopefully we have it all, so the area has been watered, fed and mulched with Sugar Cane Mulch.
Looking south:

Looking west:

I've called this the "Honeysuckle Bed" because there is a Honeysuckle on the arch at the back of it.  I hope to start planting next week.  I've bought the first few plants to create my colourful "tapestry" here:

There are two plants of Salvia "Wendy's Wish" that starts flowering earlier than any other I have, and keeps on going into autumn like the others. It has unusual flowers - magenta with a prominent plum-coloured calyx that lasts after the flowers finish. The dark stems echo the colour of the Honeysuckle stems. There are also three plants of Calibranchoa Million Bells "Coral Chimes". You can see they're more pink than coral, although they become more coral in hotter weather.  I want the plants in this area to be really vibrant, but they will need some cooler contrast to tone them down, and I noticed that the Convolvulus growing near where I put the pots looks good with the Calibranchoa:

Same flower shape, same kind of  low foliage, but a contrasting colour.  Maybe just one plant of this would be good. I'll need a lot more plants, but this is a start, and once I've planted them I'll decide what else I need here.


The Steps

The bed behind the front steps has had nothing done to it this month because the soil is very poor here and needs building up. 

We're going to replace the slate edging with taller blocks to match the edging of the front garden and then dig in lots of manure. Hopefully this will be started by the end of next month.  I still want a climbing rose on this wall, but now I can't decide between red and pink, so I may wait until the Honeysuckle garden is planted up and then decide what will look best as a background. 

I think I'm going to put wooden lattice in front of the steps, but I need to see what's available locally and what it will cost.

So that's my End of Month View.  If you'd like to see posts from other bloggers who participate in this meme, or would like to join in next month, visit Helen at The Patient Gardener's Weblog.

The Spring Rose Derby

The starters are lining up for the annual First Rose Race in Bathurst.  There are only eight in the field, all stayers. 

The odds-on favourite is the Hybrid Musk, "Cornelia".  A two-time Derby winner, she's looking in good shape to take it out this year, too.

Second favourite is "Madame Isaac Pereire", from the Bourbon stable. A past winner, she is known as a sprinter to the finish.

The Floribunda, "Bonica", is slow at the start, but could come from behind at the last turn.

Showing very strong form this year, another of the Floribundas, "Queen Elizabeth" is in with a chance.

"Fourth of July" is a galloper and has strong support.

Australian bred "Brindabella Bouquet" is a newcomer this year. Previous form is unknown, so this one starts at long odds.



"Eglantyne" from the prestigious English stable of David Austin, unplaced last year, looks like it might be worth a punt.

Finally, an exciting late entry.  French two-year old Pierre de Ronsard was a non-finisher last year and is handicapped heavily by shade, but seems to have matured recently and this could be his year.

They're under starter's orders, and ... they're off!

First Forays into Garden Weaving

I need to prune my mauve Hibiscus syriacus quite hard each year to keep it reasonably compact and stop it from smothering everything near it in the garden. This year I left this pruning quite late, until I could see the leaves just starting to emerge from the buds. I cut all the shoots down to about 3 leaf buds:

When I had finished, I got ready to pick up the prunings from the lawn, and I noticed something.

The prunings were really thin and straight and had very few forks or twiggy bits attached. I started to think I could do something a bit more creative than just run them through the mulcher.  I remembered a magazine article I read years ago about making a Christmas wreath from just these sorts of prunings, plus fresh leaves and flowers.  I had liked the idea at the time, but never got around to trying it.  Until now.
I took a long piece, curved it into a circle and tied the ends together, wrapping string around to bind them tightly.  Then I wound other sticks around one at a time, tucking in the ends. I thought it might be tricky, but it was surprisingly easy, and soon I had a 30cm circle.

This is the foundation of the wreath.  Near to Christmas, I'll build it up with pieces of greenery and flowers poked into the gaps, to make a fresh, pretty decoration for the front door. Happy with my first project, I looked around for something to do with the rest of the prunings.

For years, I have been intrigued by the idea of woven "wattle" fences, made of willow, hazel or other pliable wood. Now was my chance to try some weaving on a small scale. Inspired, I wondered where I could erect such a thing, and saw the plant tub that I said needed some trellis behind it to hide my rubbish bins. The perfect site!
I poked some of the largest twigs into the soil in the back of the tub and started weaving. I discovered two things almost at once:
1) It's surprisingly easy to lose track of whether you should be weaving in front of that upright or behind it (or maybe that's just me).
2) I was using what seemed like an enormous number of twigs to create a rather small amount of trellis.

I could see I was going to run out before the job was done, but I kept going just to see how it turned out.

It's not pretty, I know.  It's wonky and the ends are messy and it doesn't really do the job, but I'm proud.  This is my first garden weaving and I can see the potential. I don't mind that it's a bit crooked and uneven, but for my next project I'm planning to use thicker sticks and make the whole thing a bit more stable, and also bigger! 

Meanwhile, I'll leave my creation in place for a while, and enjoy the evidence that I've finally tried an ancient craft that has interested me for so long.

Positive Reinforcement

As if to convince me that, yes, weeding is worth doing, my vegie garden gave me a lovely surprise today.

I tamed the The Naughty Corner a few months ago, and even planted up a pretty pot there:

But the area next to it still needed work.  There are strawberries thriving in the front part of this area, but between them and the back fence was a large patch full of winter grass and weeds, about 80cm high.

The grass was starting to form seedheads, so I got to work hauling it out.  And then I saw some flashes of pinky-red.  Parting the clumps, I found some Ruby Chard thriving in total shade, completely swamped by grass and looking very smug, despite a few chewed leaves.

You can see I haven't quite finished weeding in the picture above.  The untouched grass in the back left shows how high the patch was before I started.

I didn't plant this Chard. My plants from last summer (about 4 metres away)  have self-seeded, and it is only here, in a little micro-climate protected by weeds, that I have plants this advanced.  The other seedlings, which I knew about, are much smaller.  Cheese and Spinach Triangles are now on the menu for this weekend. 

I am delighted by this unexpected bonus, but I can't help wondering if the whole thing is some kind of Vegetable Plot, some kind of Positive Reinforcement employed by my garden, aimed at manipulating my behaviour.  And an even more worrying idea has occurred to me.

My first, simple thought was that my garden was rewarding me for working hard and banishing the weeds, thus uncovering the delicious and nutritious vegies. But what if, instead, the reward is for being lazy and letting the weeds grow up over winter in the first place, thus protecting the seedlings? 

More hard work or more idleness - hmm, it might be best to think about this a bit.  Lucky for me, Chard is high in iron and other minerals essential for good brain function...

The Bits In Between

I've always loved flowers: 


Sedum 'Brilliancy'

To me, flowers were the stars of the garden and leaves were mostly just the bits in between the flowers. I say "were" because today, suddenly, that has changed.  Let me explain.

Last month, Steve and Cathy, at Our Garden Journal blogged enthusiastically about foliage, and mentioned a book, Foliage by Nancy Ondra.  They convinced me I might just be missing something, so I bought the book and today I started reading it.  I looked at the beautiful photographs and something clicked.

Foliage is more than the in-between bits. Leaves can be lovely. I was inspired to go outside between thunderstorms and assess my own garden purely in terms of foliage.  What kinds did I have and did I already have any interesting combinations? I was expecting to find more deficiencies than successes, but I was surprised at how much good foliage I found. After a while, I started to see it everywhere.

Lamb's Ear (Stachys byzantina) is a classically good grey foliage plant and I have lots of it:

It does flower, but look how utterly beautiful the leaves are, silvery grey and furry.

Another wonderful silvery grey plant is Curry Plant (Helichrysum italicum):

The new growth is practically glowing.  I decided I love both of these plants individually, but in one spot I found this:

How elegant is that? They are almost the same colour, but the leaf size and form is so different that they complement each other brilliantly.  A symphony in silver. This was a lucky accident, but now I'm going to plant some more together on purpose.

This gorgeous thing doesn't need a companion because it harmonizes with itself:

It's Russian Red Kale, actually a leafy vegetable, but pretty enough for the flower garden, don't you think? I must have more of this, maybe next to the Lamb's Ears too.

Moving away from grey, this common Houseleek (Sempervivum) looks like a flower itself:
 

Isn't it lovely with raindrops scattered across its face? How did I miss all this?

Although there are flowers in the next picture, the foliage combination would be lovely even without them:

The large fresh green leaves of the Hellebores (Helleborus x hybridis) look great underplanted with the smaller, yellower leaves of  the self-sown daisy (Feverfew:  Chrysanthemum parthenium). I also think the dark purple Hellebore flowers look at their best against this golden foliage. This was another unplanned partnership, and in autumn I'll scatter more seeds of the daisy in this area.

This next golden combination is a deliberate one, that I hope will look good when the plants grow:

It's a new planting in a new pot, the beginning of the improvements to my potted garden that I blogged about in Potted Ambition last month. Clockwise from top right are a lime green succulent (variety unknown), a variegated Oregano (Oreganum vulgare 'Country Cream') and a golden Marjoram (Oreganum vulgare 'Aureum'). The leaf shapes of the two herbs are the same, but the colours are different, and the succulent provides a contrast in leaf size and shape. It is also glossier than the other two. All these should spill over the sides of the pot.  I'm really happy with this combination and can't wait to see how it develops. I planted this before I read the book, so something was already going on in my subconscious.

I found a lot of other exciting foliage on my walk, but I'll just share one more picture with you. This one shows a group of plants that I planted simply for their flowers, not realising until today what a beautiful foliage grouping they make at this time of year:

They are Bearded Irises (Iris germanica), Shasta Daisies (Lucanthemum x superbum) and Daffodils (Narcissus). They only look like this for a few weeks, after the daffs have finished flowering and before the irises start, but they make a pretty picture, don't they?

I'm sitting at my computer and looking out the window, and my garden seems transformed.  So much more interesting, textural and rich than I thought yesterday. How could I have missed all that foliage?  I've been growing the stuff for years, and there is masses of it after all. Yet I did miss it. I took it for granted. 

I was looking at my garden, but now I've started to really see it.

Excited in October

They're like little suns shining out from grey clouds, aren't they?  Appropriate, because we've had a grey, soggy week here, but today the sun is peeping out. So I peeped out, too, and found lots to get excited about. Firstly, the Arctotis "Bumble Bee" above.  I have never grown an Arctotis before and these are the first two flower buds to open. Very cool.

Then I spotted this. There were five white Aquilegias here last year, a variety called "Dove".  They were magnificent, and I was very happy to see them start growing up again. But what's this?  There are blue flower buds on that plant! So it's not an original, but a seedling.  I have no blue Aquilegias, so this is a lovely surprise, and now I'm wondering what other colours I'll get. And although I usually think I should plant more evergreens to hide the fences, I like the grey wood behind this.

I always forget how much I love Dutch Irises until they flower in October.

There are baby Loquats on the tree! (Eriobotrya japonica) Our winters are really too frosty for Loquats, and we only get fruit sometimes. But this year there are lots.

The Wallflowers are looking great behind the Rosemary, even though there are still bare sticks of Hypericum and Salvia behind them.

I love this tub at the moment. On the left are Primulas that are now 3 years old. I used to think they were annuals here, but in this cool, shaded spot they keep going. There is baby spinach in front of them and Parsley and Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) behind them.  On the right are French Tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus) and Rosemary "Gallipoli". Flowers, vegetables and herbs, right next to the back door. It would be improved with a bit of trellis to hide the bins, but it makes me very happy anyway.

This makes me happy, too.  The first Bearded Irises of the season.  These are Dwarf White and you can see they were too bright for my camera to cope with. The essence of spring. Love, love, love them.

And finally, my weedy but still wonderful front yard "woodland", with purple Honesty, (Lunaria annua) blue Forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica), Bluebells and  Ajuga, the green leaves of Violets and Iris and the grey foliage of Snow-in-Summer (Cerastium tomentosum) and Catmint (Nepeta cataria). I love the way these plants thread through each other and make different patterns every year.

Carol, over at May Dreams Gardens, says 'October has been declared to be "Fall in love with your garden all over again" month.' Even though she's talking about autumn, the 'fall in love' part applies at any time of year. And what better time to fall in love than spring?

End of Month View - September 2011

I've decided to join Helen's 'End of Month View' meme over at The Patient Gardener's Weblog as a way to motivate me to work on two particular areas of the garden. I have blogged about both these areas in recent posts, so this is just a recap.

The first area is the collection of pots on the gravel area outside my back door.  This is how it looked at the end of August:

And here it is at the end of September:

Some improvement, but still a way to go.  I need to clean and spread the gravel, and add more pots and plants. Maybe I can do something to improve the garden edge behind it too.

The other area is really 2 areas, one behind the other.  They are the bare spaces where we removed all the Vinca major.  One is at the eastern end of my front garden:

It has a honeysuckle on an arch at the far end and 2 roses, 'Mr Lincoln' to the left of the tree stump and  the Delbard rose 'Henri Matisse' which is just a few short sticks to the left of the hose. The clump of green spikes is Iris unguicularis.  The rest is a blank, dirty canvas. I want this spot to peak in late summer, as most of the front garden flowers in spring. I think I'm going to go for a low tapestry effect and jewel colours, but I haven't worked out the details yet. It gets half sun in summer, which seems to be enough for these roses.

The other area in need of help is just behind this one and consists of a path with concrete steps and a narrow garden bed behind them.  This is the path to my front door, and it has been through several incarnations, but I've never been really happy with it. The air conditioner doesn't help.

You can see there's still Vinca under the steps, but it is going!  I want to hide the steps from the front and also hide the air conditioner. I want a climbing rose on the wall.  Apart from that, I'm open to suggestions. This area only gets morning sun in summer, and none at all directly behind the steps. I'd be grateful for any ideas.

So my first End of Month View is a bit depressing, but it is spring and anything is possible.