Last weekend saw me fill two pots. I was planning to wait until the patio had been repaved, but as we’re not sure when this will happen I’ve added two new pots. Lots of wildlife is still visiting the garden. The behind our garden is swarmed with the remaining bees and wasps. I’m finding I’m reading a lot of gardening material currently. As the season shifts to mundane jobs of weeding, pruning and clearing it seems more fun to plan for next year.
1. Azalea japonica-Agadir
Amy has commented before on an azalea at her dads that she likes. I have another rhododendron in a pot that has become too leggy. This is going to be removed to school after it flowers next. The rhododendron has large leaves that suffer from the sea winds we get and last winter did it no favours. I’m hopeful the smaller leaves and more compact shape of this azalea will cope better with my gardens conditions.
2. Ceanothus-blue
I picked up a cheap ceanothus. These give lots of small blue flowers in late Spring potentially filling a gap in my seasonal interest. As with the azalea, this isn’t the ideal time to buy as I now need to keep it sheltered, but it was reduced. I’ve put it in a pot, for now, to give the roots some protection beyond its plastic pot, but long term it will be going in the border.
3. Hellebore
For some winter interest, I’ve added in two hellebores behind the bench area. The area is partially shaded for much of the day. I’ve tried hellebores before and liked the flowers, but I put them in too sunny a pot where they fried as it went into Spring. Then got eaten to pieces by slugs. The two I’ve gone for are angels glow, which flowers with dirty white-pink flowers. Then Christmas Carol, which has pure white flowers with a yellow centre. The leathery foliage isn’t the most attractive in my foliage corner, but the flowers can provide a good source of pollen for early Spring insects.
4. Garden gate
This is the gate from the front garden. It has been kicking around the back garden since I moved in. I feel I should make a feature of it somewhere in the garden or at any rate grow a climber through it. Any ideas anyone?
5. Garden robin
The birds have been visiting a lot recently, but the robins are one of the few that come in while I’m working. This one is practising its Christmas card pose.
6. Shelfie
I have tidied the downstairs bookshelf and sent a number of books to the charity shop. I have moved down a number of garden and wildlife reference books that I refer to pretty regularly. I often have breakfast before the rest of the house is up, so like browsing garden books to make future plans. I thought it would be better to have more of them together where I tend to read them over a cuppa. Just finished Christopher Lloyd’s exotic planting for adventurous gardeners and exotic gardening by Ian Cooke. I’ve moved onto new small garden after a twitter recommendation. So far lots of good design advice. I’m up to a point with the garden where I’m keeping plants alive successfully, propagating and filling the garden. But I need to look more at how it all ties together and this book has helped me find a few ways forward.
This weeks six featured a lot of potential interest in future months, so hopefully, the three plants featured this week will provide future posts in the coming months. Surprisingly the fuschias are still providing bright burst in the garden, the roses have more buds to open and the hebe is still providing colour. But the overall feel in the garden is still a bit drab in comparison to Summer. Better to return to my book and dream of warmer, more colourful times.
Enjoy your weekends.