As a child I had a proclivity for making mud pies and generally messing around in the garden - as a small child I even came in with a slug in my mouth!! This proclivity has stayed with me through my life, the mud pies not the slug eating, and I am never happier than when I am wielding a fork and turning the soil or up to the elbows in compost sowing seeds and potting up. This weekend I have had the luxury of indulging all aspects of my enthusiasm.
I have sown the first batch of seeds for the coming year. These are seeds are from the Alpine Garden Society seed distribution scheme, which I helped with on Thursday. I was pleased to get the majority of my first choices although because I compiled my order in a hurry I seem to have requested seed for three different varieties of peony. I sowed the peony seeds and other seeds, such as Ranunculus and Anemone, that need a cold special to help with their germination and have left them on the patio table ready for the cold spell that is forecast.
Today I really indulged my mudlark tendencies and started to dig up the plants that I have decided to remove from the bog garden that was. I have said before that the bog garden (above), formerly the pond, just doesn’t retain enough moisture to be a successful bog garden so it is being redesigned to make a woodland border and to give my two camellias a new home. We have also decided to use some of this area, which is next to the workshop, to create a small seating area. While I was digging around working out what was going where I found an area of old pond liner under the wood chip path which probably explains why it is so sodden and slippery. After much hefting of gravel and stones and mud that had accumulated on top of the liner I managed to pull it out and re-level the area. Hopefully it will dry out now, although it still doesn’t explain why the bog garden is so unbog-like!
I have also planted three new roses which arrived this week from Peter Beales. Two of these, Anna Pavord and Ophelia, were planted in the Rose/Cottage Garden Border along the top of the wall. The third, Eden Rose, has been planted under the obelisk which was relocated to the Big Border back in April. I am hopefully for many beautiful roses in early summer.
The weather has been cold and windy so the gardening efforts have been short and sharp and I have had to dodge the rain on a number of occasions by ducking into the greenhouse and checking up on my over winter succulents such as the Aloe aristata ‘Cathedral Peak’ above and peering at the Cyclamen persicum which I grew from seed probably 4 years ago to see if they will finally flower this year. I have been feeding them diligently and I do believe I can detect a few flower buds forming which is rather exciting. I have also moved a pot of Iris reticulata ‘Cantab’ into the greenhouse to bring them into flower early.
I’m not sure how much I will be able to do in the garden before the end of the year as the forecast indicates more rain and lowering temperatures but at this time of the year, for me, every opportunity to spend time outside playing in the garden is a bonus.
