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08/29/04 |
   
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Early June 2004
In Early June, we added some plants to the garden. I hope to see their progress as I put them in this garden journal. You can see the pink colours as the foxglove is in its peak, as are the pink rock roses and the unknown flowering shrub??? The newly planted hosta promises to fill its space.
We planted some new things around the pond: a variegated-leaved iris with light purple flowers, a white thrift tufted on some rocks, some variegated and green grasses, an additional solomon's seal to supplement those which were there (and which we have stepped on in July - I hope they come back), and a zantedescia which will make flowers that look like white calla lillies. In the bed where the broom is finishing, the new hostas and fern have been planted. The helianthemum will spread and its orange flowers will look nice with the yellow broom next year.
Our spur of the moment early June barbecue was a success! In the backgrounds you can see the end of the yellow blooms of the broom and flag iris (only 1 flower stalk from a large stand!) finishing. You can see that the shrub in front of the glasshouse has been greatly reduced, thanks to a Tucker family blitz in April. Not pictured is all the hard work we did in June removing overgrown plants. We removed a huge, ghastly sycamore which grew 'shrublike' into a 10 foot monster in a few weeks. Also the honeysuckle which ballooned into a scary mass was trimmed down to very 3 single vines. The ivy which may have been slightly attractive covering the back wall was harbouring millions of snails and couldn't be reached for trimming, so it went for the most part, as well. The ornamental cherry tree which was badly pruned and heavily infested with woolly aphid also has been eliminated. This winter, I only have plans to remove 1 more tree and 1 more shrub!
Early July 2004
Since the end of May, the 2 poppy plants that I bought at Blickling Hall have developed from being individual mounds into sprawling through the entire bed and many shortlived flowers bloom every day. The rock roses have finished, and I just pruned them back, hoping to develop the vigour of the white-flowered one. The sunflowers (sown at the end of March before the hosta found its home) have finally shot up, and are now 2-3 feet tall. A new home for sunflowers must be found next year. The convolvulus is hiding behind the tree trunk, and is still very small. The grass has thickened up from a month ago, but still has a way to go before you can putt a golf ball on it.
Although we deposited some tadpoles into our pond in June (left, really very small!), an adult frog (right, really very large!) has come to live in our pond only several days afterwards - causing some surprise as she lurched towards us while we were waiting to catch glimpse of the tadpoles!
One of the more disgusting types of larvae in the ponds develops into this - a hoverfly, kindly maintaining his hovering position for the photo.
The Agapanthus is starting to pop some flowerbuds out, and the nasturtiums I planted in April are starting to have flowerbuds, although the foliage looks nice under the poppies. Perhaps the flowers will come in after the poppies are finished.
The main foxglove stalk is done, but the small ones from the bottom are still going. The bees make funny noises while inside the tubes. The white thrift at the pond is starting its second shift of flowers.
Some plants that just turned up which I don't know, and my carefully planted sweetpea growing since April has only reached a height of 9 inches.
The biggest hosta has sent up a flower shoot.
The potted hostas Paul's Glory and Sea Lotus are looking well, but growing slowly.
And the smallest hosta is also starting to flower. The yellow-leaved Sun and Substance has done well in its slug and snail resistance, but still has yet to grow to the 4 1/2 feet expected from it.
As edibles go, I couldn't phograph the red chard, because last night I ate an entire bowl full of it. We just went to the recording of Radio 4's Gardener's Question Time, and one question was about one man's chard which bolted unexpectedly. Mine is doing very well, and hasn't bolted due to my diligent watering during the 3 week dry spell we had in June. My successful pot has nasturtiums (flowering nicely), mint (really taking over and filling out), and sweetpeas (still have yet to grasp their willow trellises and emerge from the forest). the beetroot greens are disappointing (thank goodness the chard is doing well) but you can see the root developing. In the glasshouse, there are finally flowers on the tomatoes, which I started from seed (next year, will buy seedlings or germinate on a heated mat indoors). The peppers (jalapeno, red hot, and banana) aren't growing much since I put them in the growbag - too wet I think, but the basil and parsley has given several crops already.
This site was last updated 08/29/04 |
