April summer!

By june1978

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Well, it’s been a month since my last blog. A month ago i had just planted my garden from scratch, and as an inexperienced gardener had a lot of fun and am keen to document how my garden grows.

The weather in London has been perfect for the garden this last month. it’s been mild to very warm with periods of summer sun and rain. I have had to move some items as i could see they were going to become too large to stay where i origonally planted them. I’ve added somethings and taken away others. I’m really sad my agapanthus didn’t make it and two of my muscari blue green grasses. oh well. i’ve added some senetti, which i rescued from a supermarket for a £1! the colour is the most amazing electric purple. some bulbs from the old garden have taken me by suprise and appeared between the euphorbia, as yet they are unidentified. i’ve added a couple of lovely green non flowering shrubs in the front of a bed to fill up some space and provide evergreen. my lambs ears have really grown, and after some ‘googleing’ i’ve discovered that they are quite a fierce ground cover weed! so will have to divide them up and move them around before they take over the stone garden. in the front garden, i’m really pleased with the laurel, it’s budding profusely and i can tell it will be a beautiful hedge this time nex year. the front garden has been a bone of contention for me, as the street cats have always considered it to be a public toilet! to minimise cat mess, i’ve ordered some coleus canina or ‘piss off plants’ which cats hate, they should be arriving soon. in the meantime i’ve planted some cordyline, layed some anti-weed fabric and put down some stones to try and disuade the cats. generally, i’m really really pleased with how everything is turning out and i’m having so much fun and learning a lot too.

In this picture, you can see my two euphorbia plants with the sneaky bulb growth in the centre. the euphorbia are doing well considering this part of the garden gets no sun at all.

In this picture, you can see the lambs ears at either end and by the clematis jacmanii, my blue grasses and the red baron grass in front of the clematis. the lams ears have grown a lot, the grasses have grown too, particularly the red baron. and the clematis is shooting for the stars! this bed gets early morning and late afternoon sun.

In this picture, you can see my main bed (from a weird angle). from left to right is the top of one of delphinium magic fountains, ceanothus skylark, a group of lupin and geraniums, two euonymus aureo shrubs, another ceanothus skylark, another delphinium magic fountain and a clematis alpina at the far right. this was a terrible bed to plant in, very shallow (the garden being a victorian back yard originally, now with raised decking) very clay (i’ve taken a lot of clay out and mixed the soil with compost and fertiliser and added lots of earth worms) but it does have the advantage of sun from late morning to evening. the plants seem happy enough and the delphiniums particularly have flourished. the lupins and geraniums went crazy and very leggy, i’ve had to prune them and stake them for support. you can’t tell from this picture but i’ve planted 5 very young sea hollies along the wall behind the lupins and geraniums. i’m really excited about these…if they survive and grow. also, in between all the plants there are some violets, i’ve pruned them because they were becoming leggy so they are tiny now, but they will provide some pretty groundcover eventually.

In this picture, you can see some of my pots. from left to right, i have a group of 3 ceanothus californian lilacs (they were growing to big in the bed, so have potted them) a planter containg 3 dutch lavender, these guys have grown a lot and the foliage smells divine, a square planter containing what looks like pebbles but i can assure you there is a tiny off cut of a money tree (wishful thinking!), a large french lavender which is starting to flower, this also smells wonderful (lavender’s my favourite) and on the right is the senetti. a really beautiful and striking colour. these pots get sun from morning to late afternoon.

In this picture, you can see some of my other pots. from left to right there is a very young acer palmatum (it doesn’t look too healthy) two cordyline and a muscari blue green grass pot. i’ve planted a small varigated ivy in the taller pot and will encourage it to grow down and round the pot eventually. these pots get late afternoon sun.

This is a picture of two of my beds from a different angle.

In this picture you can see where my senetti meets the main bed. in the corner there is a lovely little jasmine which smells incredible and 3 young grewia caffra lavender star next to the delphinium.

My main bed from another angle…a cheeky cider on the table (gardening is thirsty work!)

This is my front garden. the laurel still looks young, i’ve pruned it once already to encourage it to thicken. it’s budding like crazy so i think it will be a success. and some cordyline to deter cats.

well, i hope you like my pictures, please offer me any advice. my advice to you is to drink cider, listen to paul simon ‘graceland’ and work in your gardens when the sun is shining. will post another blog next month. happy gardening! :-)