Blogs

I've gotten fed up with waiting for rhubarb "crowns" to grow (which didn't in the end) so investing in some decent-sized rhubarb plants. They need this season to establish so I can start picking next spring. My garden doesn't get enough sun to grow much in the way of fruit and veg but hoping it's enough for the rhubarb. They force rhubarb in the dark? so they must be able to cope? My sweet boy Scarecrow amongst them.

polyanthus pots I did for neighbours, this one also has lupins

this one also has a foxglove

some hyacinths and borage in bloom, lupin small plant from late last year's sowing to the right, sea holly both in pot and in the ground in the back, also the ubiquitous green alkanet, forget-me-not and snapdragons

all the gardening essentials: seeds, trays to put them in, inc egg cartons, camera, coffee and Diet Coke - and a cat!

see my Seeds page for more about growing from seed

He's the naughty kit who chewed these catnip seedlings (2 on the right) so I planted some more seeds. There are 2 kinds of "catnip"/catnep/catmint, the basic herb nepeta cataria  which I grow from seed (I have never seen these plants sold at a garden centre) which has small white flowers and nepeta faassenii (eg Six Hills Giant) sold in the garden centre as an ornamental plant with purple flowers.

seems that every day Scarecrow is destroying more of those plants so I had to move them out of his reach. When I have a consistent supply I am happy for him to have them - that's what I'm growing them for - but they need to grow to a reasonable size or my seeds need to germinate better.

Usually those nepeta faassenii are larger plants in bloom at the garden centre later in spring but I noticed these in the herb section so decided to get some now and hopefully grow them into larger plants. I've also been curious to see which cats prefer, if either.

scabious small plant from sowing last year

I wasn't sure if it was scabious but from the side it looks more scabious-like, the way it leans over.

the anemone and ranunculus are slow to get going

this ranunculus is the largest

the green below is not an anemone but on closer examination, with those distinctively-shaped seeds, they are calendula seedlings

close-up of the calendula seedlings, the calendula was growing nearby above and the dried seedhead dropped in this pot, unnoticed by me

these small poppy plants overwintered, I had planted the seeds end of last summer/autumn

some more small plants from last year, foxglove on the right, scabious to the left, sea holly far left, Japanese anemone in the middle, 2 possible viper's bugloss at the bottom

these borage have been growing - and flowering - right through the winter, above (centre) and below (below right) are knautia small plants

I was wondering how long the muscari seedlings and bulblets would take  to bloom and this very very small muscari bloomed already after less than a year in this pot. Also snapdragon self-seeded in this pot.

on the right is a rush which has self-seeded in this pot

my neighbour's forsythia makes a magnificent display

Last year, both these hostas' leaves turned transparent and rotted (can't find a pic right now) so pleased they have come back. I will repot them and hopefully they will do better this year.

This is the time when the gardenwithindoors overlaps with the gardenwithoutdoors, some bulbs which were intended for indoors are blooming outdoors. Those red tulips in the small tobacco jar were indoors but the aphids were so bad I banished it outside and now they are blooming. I had intended those muscari for indoors but never took them in.

a week later (after the next pic) those muscari are looking fab

I had so many muscari in recent years and had so many seeds, which I tried planting but nothing happened, so surprised to discover these seedlings the other day. I don't know what's different about these, something about them, the conditions, the timing, made them germinate. Now I have to try to thin them and repot them. I wonder how long before they actually bloom, years I imagine.

I tried repotting those muscari seedlings and have made a bit of a dog's dinner of it. I had this idea of one seedling per cell but they are too fiddly and there are too many of them so I started putting clumps in and a few in a cell if I could. I guess the best way in future is a few seeds in each cell when I sow them. I never expected that amount of germination this time.

I planted all my spent forced hyacinth bulbs outdoors. That purple one in the middle decided to bloom again.

These are forced hyacinths from previous years blooming in the garden this year. Not so large but there's still life in them.

a week later and lots of those previously forced hyacinths are in full bloom, some rather small, but they are blooming

a close-up of one of those above, not sure which variety it was but it has the colouring of those Fresco hyacinths but I never bought them before so don't know

There were 8 or 10 hyacinths in that pot but doesn't look like it now. They weren't forced so what's their excuse! The small ones in the ground were forced from previous years.

self-seeded viola

I am so happy I have flowers on my new rosemary from last year, one tiny flower is in the middle amongst the daffs. It's taken a year to flower but I feared it would be longer.

close-up of that first flower and buds

my other flowering rosemary which I bought in bloom a couple years ago

I received a £5 voucher from the garden centre and was going to put it towards more perlite and vermiculite, which I like to mix with seed compost, but at the garden centre I couldn't resist more ranunculus. That makes 3 suppliers to compare (unexpectedly). I wasn't really intending to buy so many or to do a formal comparison but it looks like I will. Soaked tubers today and planted them. Still awaiting first sprouts from the other 2 suppliers' tubers.

I'm not sure how so many seeds get into a small pot like this but they seem to have. I see grass, green alkanet, cerinthe, viola, lesser knapweed, foxglove, maybe centaurea montana. I will try to repot and give them all more room.

I was trying to get a shot of Bear (black and white cat) on the fence next door but he's just too far away but wanted to document how the garden looks now (in March).

3 of the polyanthus I sowed last year are in full bloom now, 2 more in bud, 5 plants in total from a packet of 100 seeds, not great but at least I got something!

I was given a few snowdrops a few years ago by a fellow gardener and a few have bloomed recently. Most seem to be smothered with grass and weeds but it is the garden next door and I haven't cleared it recently. I pretty much leave it and it just gets on with it.

even though it's been so cold the lupin seeds are continuing to sprout up after being planted last summer/autumn

I bought the ranunculus and anemone from Sainsbury's and planted them the other day, soaking both for a few hours before. Those ranunculus sure look pretty dry and shriveled but will wait and see.

the next week I bought these Lily of the Valley rhizomes

The tulips in this dialene bowl are sprouting. I'm not sure what variety but maybe Silver Parrot. I didn't buy that many tulips but that was one kind I did buy. I think the bulbs in the rack of terracotta pots are muscari.

I think these must be Tête-a-tête narcissus but I can't remember exactly why they ended up in this pot. Looks like an anemone as well. The pots in the background on the right are the anemone and ranunculus I just planted. Not sure the best time to plant those but I know in the past when I've planted them in the autumn they grew leaves quickly which then just died back so this year I'm trying February but I did notice some in Sainsbury's yesterday that said plant March - May so maybe I'm a bit early but confirms autumn is not the time. (Even though I did order some anemone and ranunculus with my hyacinth bulbs, no doubt I will be tempted to try those Sainsbury's ones).

I think these are Little Princess tulips in the blue and white pot at the front but my records aren't complete so will have to wait and see for sure.

Sadly my large SylvaC pot which I left outside this winter has broken. It did have a crack before but that didn't seem to be a problem. I think those are Tête-a-tête narcissus but again, will have to wait and see. I see there's deadnettle growing through them.

Looks like this anemone has been eaten by slugs already. The slugs survived the winter.

the anemone in this pot seems to have been out of the way of the slugs, agastache just sprouting to the left

Concentrating on plants the slugs don't eat seems the best bet. I see 2 slug-eaten seedlings left front of this pot yet the viola is untouched.

my seed-grown polyanthus also seem to be uninteresting to the slugs, as does the foxglove

as are these scabious

violas are great self-seeders, this one is growing right through this prickly sow thistle

Seeds

It's time to start thinking about seeds. I have some seed I collected last year, eg borage, nigella, etc (will check what seed heads I have), some seed packets left from last year, eg cornflower and scabious and I carefully chose 5 kinds to buy. If I want to track them carefully I can't do too many:

  dierama, monkshood and echium blue bedder (aka viper's bugloss)  tried all 3 before without success but having one more final go before I give up and just buy plants if I want them

  meadow cranesbill and greater knapweed, think I've tried both before without much luck but can't remember how carefully

In January, the brilliant orange of the Chinese Lanterns is fading, leaving a skeleton around the seed pod.

I have tried planting the seeds but not in any controlled scientific way. I tend to throw collected seed into any old pot with other seeds and other plants. Not surprisingly I have not noticed anything of the chinese lanterns but I am going to try again this year doing it properly. From what I see, these have spread by roots and without those annoying bluebell clumps which I removed a few years ago, they are doing very well.

I collected some of the lanterns which contain the fruit with seeds. One thing I hadn't noticed before is the slugs! so many of them had traces of slug slime and slugs themselves on them. They were eating the orange covering. As those inner orange fruits dry, the seeds are released. The two top right are just showing the seeds in them.

I was hoping I might get flowers on the prostrate rosemary I bought last year as very small plants and it looks like there might just be buds. I'm very excited - and impatient for them to develop and open - if indeed they are flower buds; maybe they're just new leaves. (Sadly my camera is just not focussing properly to show them more clearly.)

The cold weather is not stopping this one from blooming. I know it's hard to see but this one has beautiful purple/blue flowers and has done on and off since I bought it, regardless of the temperature.

My front garden is both too tidy and too messy, there's both room for a homeless man to roll out his sleeping bag and have a kip along with rubbish from the neighbour making him think it was okay? Seeing him in the morning was the last thing I expected to see in my garden!

on the other side of the garden . . . the chinese lanterns at at their peak

the self-seeded borage is in bloom

borage with the blooming rosemary in the background

the rosemary is still in bloom

close-up of one of the rosemary flowers

cerinthe and borage in bloom, spent flowerspikes of agastache and spent sedums flowerheads

close-up of the cerinthe flowers from above

the snapdragons are still in bloom

with all those pots shown above, I have little room to plant more bulbs but I find if I want a decent display of even a few bulbs I need to buy fresh so a few daffodils and tulips have gone into new pots, a bit boring plastic ones but at least I can move them around easily when they are in bloom (end of October, fine for tulips but perhaps a little late for the daffodils)

Victor sitting in the centre of the back garden

close-up of Victor, looking ever so serious

the time of year for the chinese lanterns in the front garden

that sycamore stump in the middle keeps sprouting and I keep cutting the sprouts back - difficult at this time of year because I don't want to walk on and damage the chinese lanterns

this cyclamen coum has been eaten by slugs but has some flowers left

this clycamen coum is not far from the one above but it has even more slug damage, still has a few buds

I think of borage as being a spring/summer flower but these self-seeded plants have buds, I'll see how they survive as it gets colder

It's a shame snails can look so cute when they are SO destructive. I found 3 snails and a huge slug in this small watering can when I went to use it to top up my bulb pots in the cellar.

the nasturtiums are still blooming

blue green alkanet flower in the background

About a month ago now (mid-Sept) the snapdragons were at their peak in this flowerbed, to the left my new rhubarb and lots of green alkanet starting and some foxgloves (one in centre above the snapdragons). Hard to tell apart but I have lots of both so very familiar with them: foxgloves have very soft leaves, green alkanet have textured rough stinging leaves.

one lone blue cornflower in bloom on those brown stems

I was surprised to see the comfrey in full bloom mid-October, all summer the bees were on it every time I saw the flowers, sadly no bees right now

While I was at the back of the garden looking at the comfrey I was reviewing my sad-looking compost pile. Apparently Camden (my local borough) is moving onto rubbish collection every other week, recycling collection every week and charging for garden waste so thinking I need to do more composting. I'm not sure I have enough material for composting to break down stems like ivy but too much for a small pile like this so I need to improve it, so far, not sure how.

I'm still intrigued with red plants and what causes them. I have lots of forget-me-nots as they are a very stong self-seeder and I like them (ie I don't pull them out) but I have never seen one so red-tinged as this one. Coincidentally the nasturtium on the right is one of the darker-leaved variations I have. Does that have anything to do with the forget-me-not? I don't know.

I love rosemary with flowers and have not been able to get them to flower so I bought this prostrate one in flower, the only reasonably priced rosemary in flower I have come across, presumably because it's small.  I have re-potted it once and it's filled this pot so needs re-potting again.

it was sitting in this flowerbed but I moved it to photograph it more clearly, I hadn't even noticed the lesser knapweed self-seeding in the pot until I looked at the photo

Having found one small prostrate one in flower, I though these prostrate rosemary might be quicker to flower. Waiting to see.

At the end of the summer I am preparing for my bulb forcing (see gardenwithindoors), beginning with tidying up the patio. In the background to the right are some more shelves for the garden I bought on ebay.

I painted those shelves and started getting my hyacinth vases organized. As soon as I put that small table there, Bear had to jump up on it.

When I checked on the Green Wizard rudbeckia I saw the slugs have now found it, must get it off the ground but so far nowhere is safe. I'm investigating hanging some pots on the fence.

One of my outstanding tasks was to sort out this chicory which I grew from seed. The pot it was in I had put on another pot not realizing what would happen.

The roots went down into the lower pot and out the bottom of that.

I took off the bottom pot relatively easily.

I could not remove the upper pot unless I destroyed all those roots so I cut it off the best I could, leaving the bottom of the pot between the roots.

I chose a reasonably clear space in the garden so I could dig a large hole to accommodate those long roots.

The other chicory plants I had already planted in the garden. The slugs had initially eaten all the chicory seedlings but luckily there had been a few out of the way which they hadn't gotten to so I ended up with 5 plants. I feared the slugs would eat the chicory plants when I put them in the ground but either I managed to removed enough slugs or they only like the fresh growth but the chicory are still there and appear undamaged.  (They look like giant dandelion, the clearest one is at the back, there's also one front left and right.) They're biennial so will bloom next year.

the nepeta is looking good, the bees love the purple flowers

I found myself at a garden centre last week and couldn't resist the 4 perennials for £10 offer: another sea holly which looks so healthy and beautiful next to one of my self-seeded ones, a green wizard rudbeckia which I have attempted at least twice from seed without success, a sedum which I thought would be good in this hot dry weather needing less watering and a hosta as my current ones are like lace from slug damage.

sea holly

green wizard rudbeckia

pics of sedum and hosta to follow

oenothera versicolor, not bad for a self-seeder

even more morning glory flowers every day

the snapdragons are producing flowers of various colours, this colour is my favourite

this rose appeared to be half-dead earlier in the summer but it's come back and flowered, in 10 years it hasn't grown any larger and produces only 1 flower

these are my roses shown to compare sizes, the orangey one above is quite small, the pinky one is very large behind, would be even larger if I didn't prune it, I don't understand why that foreground one is so small and never grows taller

one oenothera versicolor that has self-seeded this year, a couple years ago I had dozens self-seeding from just 1 plant that bloomed the previous year, I will need to remove the flowers after wilting before the seeds escape, surrounding the oenothera are verbascum seedlings, again from only 1 plant I had a couple years ago

this is my seed-grown delphinium, I put it up on the top shelf to keep the slugs away from it but the nearby morning glory strangled it

an update on some of my seedlings: that oenothera in the middle before I repotted it, the chicory behind it looking like giant dandelions (must get them planted in the ground but worried about the slugs), nepeta on the left, polyanthus to the right of the nepeta, scabious on the right, so far just upright leaves

the Grandpa Otts morning glory continues flowering, still no flowers from the other variety

the water lily keeps flowering as well

surprisingly the red poppy (was supposed to be Seriously Scarlet but I doubt that) has a second bud

the bees are loving the buddleja in the front garden near the pavement

the last shrub I had in that position people passing pulled off every woody flowering stem, eventually ruining it, the buddleja was free!

this phormium bloomed recently

hollyhocks are the star of the garden next door

The ornamental artichokes are fantastic at this time of year.

They have spread next door and the next garden as well.

a better view of the artichokes next door

bees are also loving the scabious

and the lesser knapweed

the velvety buds of and "ebony" (of Ebony and Ivory scabious

Liverwort: how bad is it?, can self-seeders grow through it?

I noticed this sprout in the middle (towards the left) and wasn't sure if it was part of the liverwort or something that was growing through it.

I pulled up the liverwort, the roots are like cotton wool, and that sprout does seem to be a separate plant.

As well as that original sprout I saw there seems to be another on the left, I will see if they survive - and what they are

A green alkanet has self-seeded against the fence amidst the sea hollies on the left, that is coming out, much as I love green alkanet I don't want it everywhere. The nepeta is blooming, the phlomis is still blooming and a viola has appeared in the small pot. A globe thistle has appeared in that pot of poppies. It's going in the flowerbed (to the right).

This sea holly, still in a pot, suddenly bloomed recently, there's another sea holly next to it that has not bloomed, also a self-seeded scented-leaf geranium which has not bloomed yet, a hollyhock and a snapdragon.

that slug-eaten sea holly is to the left below, I've put that copper tape in a ring around it to stop the slugs eating it

a close-up of the sea holly inside the copper

My first morning glory in bloom.

My first scabious in bloom, not sure if this is "House's Novelty" or "Ebony and Ivory" (obviously Ivory if it's that variety). Lots of knautia Melton Pastels in the background - they've been a great success. I do love pinchusion flowers.

a week later, more of the white flowers, none of the other colours sadly

the agapanthus are just starting to bloom

the new sea hollies on the left are looking good but the one I previously had and recently put in the ground on the right is not doing well at all, sadly

nepeta with buds and a few blooms just starting to open

more water lily blooms and a nice fat bud there are on the right

that fat bud starting to open

the patio next door has the most amazing plants growing in the cracks between the paving stones: agastache,

stem coming up from between the paving stones

passionflower

I have moved some of my experiments with seeds to a separate page, Seeds, as I really wanted to know, easily, how long from sowing seeds until a plant flowers. I also wanted to show my lupins finally blooming here too. There are 2 more green buds to the back of that pot on the right. The flowers (and buds) are small as I grew them from seeds. These plants are from a spring sowing this year. I also had lupins in bloom recently from a late sowing last year. And I had a B+Q small lupin which grew enormously and flowered well, see mid-June 2016 below.

here is a close-up of that lupin flower

something very surprising, a surviving veronica sprouting

Before I had seen that veronica above I'd bought one with the sea hollies (4 perennials for £12). I usually get Royal Candles or something that looks good but doesn't last, anyway I thought this one, just called Veronica Spicata Blue, with that really strong stem looks tough enough to survive the slugs.

Close-up of that larger stem on the right, just now considering, why does it have that stem like that? Does it actually help it have any more flowers? Would it really help it survive the slugs? They slither up anything. Not sure my thinking on that is sound but will plant it and see how it does.

I planted the veronica in the flowerbed. Sadly I managed to break those 2 verbena bonariensis when I bent over to do the planting. (I'm the clumsiest woman in the world!)

I put the broken tops in a vase

luckily, after overnight in the vase, they've recovered a bit, I hope they'll bloom and be available for insects

the verbena bonariensis is showing strong shoots after the main stem was broken

I finally made an effort last night to go out and look for slugs - challenging as I usually go to bed quite early. There were loads - making a beeline for the sea holly and lupins. I wish I'd done it sooner. It was a busy half hour picking up slugs and a few snails which I put in a plastic bag, tied and threw away so no problems of killing them. - later - decided I needed to humanely kill the slugs so subsequent nights I now wrap them in a paper towel and cut them in half (sure Bob Flowerdew is right, that's the best way)

more Pink Fizz poppies

I've had a few Pink Fizz poppies from the plants in this pot (above and left) but no Seriously Scarlet - so far. There are still a few buds.

one more poppy is about to bloom, I assume Seriously Scarlet, one flower from an entire packet of seeds, disappointing

This unexpected self-seeded delphinium is now in bud although it's still in a small pot and somehow I've managed to keep it away from the slugs on the table.