Garden Report 2007 - 8

I need to label the different sections of the long bank - it gets complicated saying what is where.
LB1: half way up the drive
LB2: to the end of the drive
LB3: to the end of the rose bed
LB4: to the end of the high bank
LB5: to the lobby
LB6: to the end of the house

I had a day off from the garden on Monday - I was still aching from Saturday. But - joy of joy - the dump at Duns had at last reopened after their refurbishment from one skip takes all to separate skips. I was surprised that it only took Paul two trips to get rid of all my sacks of green waste accumulated since about November last year...

On Tuesday I decided to make a start planting the bulbs I had bought from Aldi's last month. I have decided to make life slightly easier than I did for the spring bulbs and plant them much closer together - this means less digging. I also have a new system - one bag for weeds and one bag for stones. I started with the Dutch iris at LB6 (yellow/white/blue), planting about 30 in four patches between the saxifrages. I also got in one patch of acidanthera (white). The grape hyacynths, which I have planted in a similar fashion, are now beginning to flower.

We had a freak heat-wave yesterday - the temperature must have been well over 20C as the thermometer on the house wall read that at 6.30 p.m. when the sun eventually reached it.

I had remembered to soak my anemone de Caen bulbs overnight and the first task of the day was to plant them. I had decided on LB2 for these - five groups. That completed I commenced weeding and digging over the seed beds at the bottom of LB4/LB5. After a while I had to stop - I was feeling slightly faint headed when I stood back up. I still had my sweatshirt on over my shirt as I had been in shade when I started, and I was overheating. I decided to take it slightly easier and plant up some more of the Dutch irises. After much wandering up and down I identified/planted up three more patches in LB6. The remainder will go in after I have planted up the azaleas and any suitable perennials coming from J Parker around the aucuba stump.

Paul did his part with the first lawn mow of the year.

In the evening Ann and Neil from the lodge came round. Neil brought me a yellow clematis (tangutica) he had potted up. I am still deciding on whether to experiment using it as a scrambler down the bank rather than as a climber or saving it for the new back garden...

Today the weather was almost perfect - not as hot (maybe about 18C) and a cool breeze. The sky was a beautiful clear blue.

I decided to continue clearing the high bank in the morning before it became too hot. I had not been up there long when it looked like smoke coming from Margaret's. I thought I had better check nothing was amiss. When I got round there Margaret was emptying her car of bags of compost and more garden pots. There was no sign of smoke. Paul said he thought he had seen it too, but now we wonder if it was dust.

After a coffee at Margaret's I took my fork back up the high bank and cleared about half of what remained to be done, going back to my rule of stopping when I had filled one sack with rubbish. I tried to pull out a large bramble root, getting a good foot or more of it out of the ground before all my digging/tugging made no more headway. I will need to cut out as far as I got on my next trip up.

I then decided to chemical attack the hogweeds again. They were starting to go a little brown around the edges, but from my experience of last year it takes several sprayings to complete the job. My final task of the day was to plant the rest of the acidanthera at the top of LB5 - three groups.

Work completed I went out with my camera. As I was walking along the bottom Anne and Jenny drove along and stopped for a chat. I took the opportunity to ask if I could get some more of the clay-busting soil from the wood - no problem :)

High Bank
The heathers are looking spectacular at the moment. On the shrub front there is a large flowering currant that looks more like a tree, a forsythia and a mahonia (?) in flower.

There are several clumps of daffodils in flower dotted around.


Long Bank
Aubretias are flowering everywhere now. They are even trying to be climbers in places.

The double narcissi that Janet gave me last year are now in flower. They look as if they have been scrambled...








Several groups of scillas are now flowering. These ones look particularly vibrant next to the cerise aubretia...

One of the pierises that I bought from Morrisons last year is flowering, as is the one I inherited in one of the tubs. The other one I planted is looking rather sad - I may try moving it at some time.

I only noticed the corydalis breaking through the soil a couple of weeks ago, and today a couple of them are in flower.

And the hellebores are still flowering...



The daphne I brought up with me is just starting to flower. It smells divine. I also have a pulmonaria that hitched a ride in a pot of day lilies in flower.