Midweek garden musings.
And starting to think about making plans.
Hello my garden loving friends, how are you? I thought I’d do a little midweek in the garden post. I’ve been picking courgettes- We have too many! Every year I say to Mr C, we only need two plants, actually one will probably do. And every year he insists on three. You don’t need three plants for two people, you only need one! Next year I’m taking over the veg growing side of things. I only grow what I’d like to eat. When it was left entirely to Mr C we had all sorts of things, one year he grew the beetroot that looked like sweets, you know the one, it’s pink and when you cut it open it has stripes, turns out Mr C isn’t even that fond of beetroot, after that incident I decided to have more input in the veg seed ordering. At the other end of the scale, I only had one kale plant this year which had self set and I was so grateful as I didn’t get round to planting any, you might guess where this is going as it is the year of the butterfly! But no, they didn’t get a look in, it was Bella our last remaining chicken, then I remembered, when I grew kale last year it was fenced off. All these things are learning curves. If like me, you are forgetful, it helps to keep a garden diary, nothing fancy, just a small notebook where you can write the months and leave a good amount of pages for each. My nan taught me to do this, she recorded the weather too. Just don’t forget to write in it.
I’m dead heading cosmos almost by the hour. It’s my favourite annual to grow as it’s great at attracting pollinators like bees and hover flies (I love those little dudes) and the ladybirds love it too. Haven’t the ladybirds been fantastic! I was hoping they would be as at the start of the year we had so many aphids, now I haven’t seen a single one on my roses.
When we moved into the garden it was like a football pitch, there were no plants at all. The gravel garden was just a mass of box and had been designed to be a formal garden, it was all just so green and there was a distinct lack of insects. It was this lack of insects that upset me the most, particularly the lack of bees. It’s coming up for three years now that we’ve been here and the gardens have seen quite the transformation. I’m not done yet. Actually, I will never be done, but I may be content with something for a short while. At the moment I’m just happy to have so much wild life back in the garden! I still can’t get over the size of the garden compared to the cottage either and I love how they are both higgledy-piggledy. One of the things I enjoy doing most with any garden is creating rooms, different areas for different needs and moods. This year it was clearing away old raised beds under a sprawling apple tree and putting it back to grass for somewhere to sit in the spring when the tree is in full blossom. Despite the heat the grass seed has sprouted and is growing, it’s patchy in places but it will get there and I’m looking forward to putting a little bistro set under there in anticipation for next spring. I can already imagine drinking an afternoon coffee under the blossom.
One project I haven’t managed this year is the development of the romantic border. The idea is to curve a deep border down one side of the main garden and fill it with roses, delphiniums, geraniums and salvias, not forgetting some grasses. There will be some statement plants too like the plume poppy (macleaya cordata) which I’m rather fond of but you need to be careful it doesn’t run away too much. Giant scabious (cephalaria gigantea) and buddleja alternifolia. We’ve made a start but are now waiting for the ground to soften up again before we can continue.
This afternoon I’ve been tidying the greenhouse and dead heading the roses, tying in the sweet peas, sorting through old pots and pulling a few weeds. As I work I start to ponder what it would be like to look after this garden full time. This year has seen me so busy painting and getting ready for my solo exhibition this October, that the garden has really been left. I’m 21 paintings in and 6 to go, plus ceramics and prints. I’ve also got a couple of photography shoots on and I’ve another show in November and then that’s it for the year. We’ve put the house move on the back burner for a couple of years so I will be coming up with more ideas for the gardens. Not to wish life away but i’m looking forward to September already- it’s my favourite month! Things seem to slow down, the light is beautiful, as are the colours of the landscape, the evenings are still light and the earth is just staring to smell really good- you know that smell, it’s shoulder dropping, I breathe in that scent and everything seems alright with the world.
I love to keep photo records of the garden to look back on, it’s one of the reasons I’ve always loved to write about it too, to keep an ongoing journal. I hope you still enjoy the mixture of garden posts, art and observation of life, plus the occasional business advice I throw in. If you you know of a friend that would also enjoy reading these posts, please feel free to share it with them. And don’t forget to follow along with my instagram stories if you have it.
Emma