Early August 2012

Lovely garden.

Your gardening style mirrors my own, Mel. That verbascum is incredible. I love monarda but haven't had success with it as it always succumbs to mildew. I'll probably end up giving it another try tho'!

Thanks Tuesdaybear! Whenever I think that the border is so wild I should really do something major about it, I just go and have a good look at it, and just love it the way it is!
So I usually just tinker and alter it slowly, because - in the end - that's what I like best!

I'm watching the verbascum with bated breath! I always seem to get just one self-seeded example, but I've never had one grow this tall before. I could tell before it flowered that it was going to be pretty big, though!

Excellent idea, Susanne, to do a blog as a record for you - and we get to enjoy your lovely garden too! I do like your Monarda: is it in a "sunny" spot? Mine haven't even grown more than a few inches in semi-shade, let alone produce flowers :(

I toyed with the idea of planting verbascums in my main flowerbed, but I'm quite glad I didn't if this is how high they get! It would have dwarfed everything else and taken the power cables with it if it was felled by the wind!

Thank you Sheila! The monarda is in semi-shade, but probably not the best position - for itself or for me. I'm hoping it will get bigger in the next couple of years. I don't really have a much better place for it at the moment. If it gets bigger, I will think about moving it. I find it takes a couple of years for perennials to establish properly, then they usually give me a nice surprise.

I can understand how you feel about the verbascum, Gattina. I don't think they usually get this tall! However, I think this is one of the commoner varieties. The more highly bred ones probably behave better - as one would expect, naturally! I love this, though. It always appears in the same area - I do nothing about it at all. The ones I have bought and planted - perennials - have never done a thing. They sink without trace!

You have a really lovely garden, whats the name of your oxyzen plants you have.

Thank you Clarice. I think this is Anacheris, or Brazilian waterweed. It is very invasive in ponds, I believe, but of course I only have it in a barrel. I'm not sure how well it's doing, actually - I'm keeping an eye on it. (I wish I could remember what it was I used to have - they are both floating ones, not ones that you have to plant.)

Thank you for that info, Mel . . . I shall have to curb my impatience, and hope my Monarda flower next year.

I was out in the garden after I read your comment, Sheilabub, and the Monarda has mildew! Not too bad, so I doused it in Bamboo's remedy : 1 part milk to 9 parts water. I shall see how that does, and report back to her!

I love your garden Mel and love your attitude to it as nothing seems to bother you. If a plant is happy where it is, leave it. I like to see plants all mixed up together in borders instead of the pristine gardens that are usually on the garden programmes.

Thank you, Rose - I am very touched by that compliment. But sometimes I sigh a little over beautifully arranged borders, and wonder if I might have a go. But it's just not my style. Just when I thought I was getting a bit fed up with the disorder, I spent a lovely two hours out there this afternoon, and fell in love with it all over again! My style of gardening is definitely "tinkering", and it all evolves slowly!

Best way of gardening to my mind, too. At least if it works, you can pretend that's what you planned all along, and if it doesn't, well, there's nothing to stop you starting again next year! A garden is alway a work in progress.

Indeed it is! And so true about the pretending! I am sometimes quite amazed at how well things come together. But I shouldn't be really - if the plants are happy they thrive and get on with their neighbours. And if they're not, they quietly disappear! I think I would be very sad if I woke up one morning to find it was all perfect - there'd be nothing to daydream about when I'm sitting out there!

Oh I know that feeling SO well :o)))))

Well said Mel! Whatever would we DO if it was all perfect all of a sudden . . . as you say, what would we dream about?! I'm with tinkering and pottering, it's the best therapy :)

I hadn't heard of that remedy for mildew. With that in mind, I may go out and buy some to try again. Thanks to Bamboo then.
And I'm with the tinkerers and potterers every time.

Oh dear, Tuesdaybear, I'm getting my comments mixed up. Sheilabub's monardas don't flower, but yours are the ones with mildew! I must just have beginner's luck!

So, Gattina, Sheilabub and Tuesdaybear we are the dreamers and tinkerers! I'm sure we're not just a tiny minority, either!

That brings to mind a poem by Arthur O' Shaughnessy, which we had to recite at the start of every drama lesson when we were 3rd formers ( today's Yr 7). It went: We are the music makers
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers
And sitting by desolate streams
World-losers and world-forsakers
On whom the pale moon gleams,
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world, forever, it seems!
Punctuation may be different and I'm having problems with setting out properly !

Oh yes, I know that, Tuesdaybear! Not by heart, I'm afraid. Elgar set it in his choral work "The Music Makers" .

That's new to me. I Like it!

Good one Tuesdaybear . . . never heard it before, but will copy it. Thanks :)

You've got some nice plants there. Gosh that Mullein ! :D You'll soon be able to climb it like Jack and the Beanstalk ;o))
I love fennel but I only look at it lol

Thanks, Hywel! Yes the mullein is rather impressive! I can see it out of the window now (leaning slightly SW, if you're interested!) and it definitely still has a way to go by the look of the growing tip. Watch this space!

Does NASA know about this?

Lol!

I love your gardening style. It is a great way to keep out the weeds. A friend had a verbascum in her front garden and the next door neighbour hated it as it too grew and grew. Outwards as well as up. It had a huge bunch of furry grey leaves out of which popped this giant flower stem. He complained so much that she got rid of it. I was heartbroken about it as I would have given my eye teeth to own it but she put it on a bonfire one day because she was so fed up with his complaints. Your flowers are lovely especially the cyclamen. Mine have not shown up yet. The flowers seem to have come on all of a sudden and the lilies are gorgeous. I do like the blue lobelia.

What a mean-spirited neighbour - I hope the smoke drifted over his garden!

Sad really.

Thanks Scotsgran. How sad about your friend's verbascum. Some people are such bullies.

Isn't it an odd feeling when you see a bit of someone else's garden and think it might be your own? I have just discovered that Monet was very keen on mullein, so although they are seen as weeds in a lot of places, he found room for them at Giverny!

Your lilies (oriental?) seem to be very happy in this border.

The lilies are actually in a pot, Scotsgran, and they get more sun than in the border. I think I could probably find a suitable spot for them, though, if they'll stand a bit of shade at certain times of the day.