Planning the extended borders
I have spent the whole day in bed. Not snoozing though. I’ve been planning the make over of our herbaceous borders. On the south side of the garden they measure 21 yards long and are 7 yards deep. On the north side the borders are 21 yards and will be about five yards deep when I extend the borders on that side this week. I’ve finished the digging on the south side and the mysterious wall turns out to be just that. Some sort of soak away. So we haven’t journeyed to the centre of the earth just yet. When I started to plan the new...
read morePosies on the spring gate side stand
Last week I popped into Homebase to see if they had potted up flowering spring bulbs on sale. And they did! At 25%-30% of the usual price these are even cheaper than buying bulbs. They would enable us to start selling posies on the gate side stand and then plant the bulbs in the garden for next year. When I got home I tackled the posies. It was fun looking around the garden for foliage and other flowers. Luckily the winter flowering honeysuckle is blooming so I added some of this to each of the posies – the smell of these tiny creamy...
read moreBoning up on flowers for the gate side stand
Having come from a long line of perennial gardeners I always thought of annuals as the sort of summer bedding that you see on roundabouts and parks. I usually put geraniums in the big barrels beside the cottage front door and add a bit of lobelia. Apart from a few marigolds to grow with tomatoes and lots of sweet peas, that’s it. I had no idea that there were so many gorgeous annuals available until I read your comments on this post and on the post the next day. In the end I decided to order some plugs and some seed. This past week has...
read moreFlowers for a summer gate side stand
My mum gave up driving some time ago. Now she walks or takes a taxi – there aren’t many buses in her part of Cambridge. She rang me last night to say that she had had a taxi ride with a retired commercial flower grower who had given her a list of the flowers that are popular and last well in water. Apparently he said that you can’t grow enough Sweet Peas. Asters and Pinks are good sellers and of course Sweet Williams. I’m growing Cosmos and Zinnias as both last well in water. My mum added two of her own pet choices that keep going...
read moreFlowers from the garden: February 2010
It’s been just over three years since I gave up buying flowers for the cottage. In January 2007 I decided to save a cool £500 a year and not buy those tempting bunches from the supermarket. The first year was quite tough as I didn’t grow many flowers in the garden and I like to have vases of flowers dotted about the cottage. Gradually I’ve overhauled the herbaceous borders and planted more flowering perenials. This year I’m even growing flowers from seed to sell at the garden gate in the summer. Over the years I’ve come to...
read moreSowing Sweet Peas in January
“My grandfather always grew Sweet Peas in an arched walk. I visited him a lot as a child and can still remember the smell of them now.” Melanie mused. This was years ago when I was starting to design the garden here. I could see the scene in my mind’s eye, a little girl in a summer frock suurounded by flowers. Since then I’ve always fancied a walk or even just an arch of sweet smelling Sweat Peas but I’ve not been very lucky with this pretty scented flower. I grow a few each year to scramble amongst the beans and encourage...
read moreFlowers from the garden: November 2009
Today is my mother’s 90th birthday. She was born at home in a lovely old house in Kentford. When ever I drive past this house I look up at the large bedroom window and imagine her opening her eyes in that room back in 1919. The window overlooks a walled garden. Were the birds singing or was it dark outside? Were there flowers in the room where she was born? So this little posy is travelling over to Cambridge this afternoon. A bunch of country flowers for her bedroom. Picked from a garden that she helped to create. Just a few miles from...
read moreFlowers from the garden: October 2009
The leaves on the forsythia in the front garden are gradually turning from green to yellow and deep red. I don’t think I’d have noticed if I hadn’t been giving the hedge a very gentle trim. As it flowers on last season’s wood a short back and sides would mean no pretty yellow flowers in the Spring. In the past this was a ‘John job’ so I noticed if the shrub looked shaggy and that was it. Since John retired I’ve become much more deeply acquainted with our hedges and lawns. Danny and I were working together – clearing an...
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