All in the garden

This morning started with a walk to the station, delivering Mirinda to her train for her very short work week. We decided not to have lunch today…given we’d already shared a breakfast.

I took a roundabout route to the shops in order to take some photos of the Maltings. I wanted a good one to add to my version of the U3A website. Even though it was quite a dull, grey day, I managed to get one that will work. I’d rather hoped for one of the entrance but some clown had parked a big white van in front, which would have worked for a website selling big white vans but not the Maltings.

Having shopped, it was back home and into the garden in order to get down and dirty in the hot border and holly extension.

The holly extension is where the holly tree extends out into the garden. It separates the hot border and the (once) shady bed where I planted the bleeding hearts and lords and ladies. It’s quite a narrow strip which is generally filled with holly leaves and weeds. Mirinda suggested bushy lobelias.

Holly leaves are not the nicest leaves in the world (it always amazes me how little birds can fly in and out of the tree without ripping their feathers off) and I managed to stab my fingers a number of times. They are so tough, they penetrate leather gloves. One particularly vicious jab on the end of my thumb left it pretty inoperable – the thumb, not the leaf. Still, that was a pretty minor part of the gardening.

I planted a number of the bushy lobelias through the holly extension and also through the bidens. According to the great Gertrude Jekyll, a hot border can be enhanced with the inclusion of some tiny deep purple flowers and, given that we take heed when the great woman speaks (or writes from long ago, seeing she’s been dead for a few years now), the lobelias seemed to be the perfect flower.

Somehow a couple of nasturtiums have appeared in the hot border so I supplemented these with a few yellow and red seeds. Mirinda figures that if they manage to grow there without any help from us then popping in some seeds can only be a good thing.

We have tried to grow all manner of climbers up the fence between us and the Crazies. Most have proven unsuccessful but one that has exceeded all expectations (ignoring the golden hop which we had nothing to do with and I think is left over from when Farnham brewed beer) is the honeysuckle. It has spread out (and up) on the fence behind the gazebo.

A lot of it is reaching into the higher branches of a holly tree in the Crazies garden. With great care and patience (and a few jabs from the holly leaves) I pulled it all out and guided it along the fence instead. I also threaded it into the gazebo to try and encourage it to provide some pleasure in the seating area. Only time will tell whether I’ve now managed to kill it.

I think I should explain about the Avenue of Pots which I featured yesterday. Here’s a shot of the whole thing.

The Avenue of Pots

They are lined up in their regimental preciseness, just waiting for Mirinda to plant them up. I’m not sure whether they’ll be staying in this configuration.

But, back to the hot border…here’s an updated photo of it at the moment. There’s now three poppies with lots of buds still to burst out and the gladiolus are sprouting well after last year’s planting. The bidens are already starting to grow and if you have a very good eye, you can just see two tiny yellow dots which are the first blooms on the yellow climbing rose.

The Hot Border

As well as working in the hot border and the holly extension, I weeded the shady border and moved one of the white bleeding hearts which was being swamped by the insane periwinkles. It was then into the main part of the garden to weed around and then insert a new mowing strip around one of the bushes which I can never remember the name of.

New Brickwork

And then, just to test it, I decided to mow the lawn.

I felt like I’d managed to achieve quite a lot and all completed between intermittent showers which would regularly drive the three of us inside every 20 minutes or so. Because of the weather, I only managed a ten minute sit amongst my work to enjoy it all.