Frosty Morning

frost,
originally uploaded by pollyalida.

I've always admired photos from frosty English gardens. Finally, I had a perfect morning of frost and sunshine to take some photos myself. A very lovely frosty primrose here.

Gardeners' World - Dec 2007

Odds and ends of notes from the December 2007 Gardeners' World.

Roses

• Banana peels to reduce black spot?
  
• Allium, leeks, onions to reduce aphids
• Lacewing and ladybug houses?
• Aphids - spray with solution of dishsoap and water
• Rich soil - lots of compost and well rotted manure
• Mulch will help prevent black spot?
  
• Twice weekly feeding in the spring

Potatoes

• Pippa Greenwood's choice of salad potatoes: Harlequin (Thompson & Morgan)
• Other close runners up: Charlotte, Nicola and Belle de Fontenay

Dolce Rosso Tomatoes?

We had some wonderfully sweet little tomatoes while in England last month. They were Dolce Rosso tomatoes from Morrison's grocery store. A quick search for seeds has been fruitless. Will look again when I have more time. Someone on a UK gardening board mentioned they'd had nice plants grown from the seeds of the store bought tomatoes. Wondering if "dolce rosso" is a supermarket name? Are they known by something else?

Sweet Peas at Easton Walled Gardens

Easton Walled Gardens (Easton, Lincolnshire, UK) is a wonderful find. The large estate house was torn down after WWII and the grounds and garden left to go wild. In recent years the family have begun the restoration of the grounds and gardens - a mammoth undertaking. But with wonderful results.

Though the whole estate is quite impressive, I was really taken with the rows and rows of sweet peas. I've never been able to grow them in my hot, dry, sandy soil. This was definitely sweet pea heaven! And I love how this picture came out with the gray clouds above.

We only had an hour or so to visit, but we'll be back. Do visit - it's well worth it! http://www.eastonwalledgardens.co.uk/

First daylily of the season

Daylily,
originally uploaded by pollyalida.

This is the first daylily that I noticed in the garden. Turns out there were some small ones hidden among the masses of coreopsis out front. But this one was the first I saw and it was prettier as well. Can't wait to see what colors all the other plants are. I planted about 30 daylilies last summer - all from a White Flower Farm bargain bag. Which means I won't have names for any of them. Names would be nice, but I'll enjoy them just as much without the names.

Lovely Blue Columbine

Columbine,
originally uploaded by pollyalida.

What a wonderful color. I planted these 2 years ago. I bough them with a gift card that my cousin gave me as a wedding gift. So they're in the "Nancie Sue" corner of the garden. They didn't do well last summer. Thought they'd fried in the heat. But here they are back in force. Though I love the blue, you can't see it from across the garden. White or yellow might be better, but this is a nice surprise when you get close to the garden.

Tulips

Tulips,
originally uploaded by pollyalida.

My tulips were lovely this year. I didn't plant too many, the deer have devoured them in the past. This year they nibbled down the first bits of foliage. But then I sprayed them with a deer repellant and the deer actually left them alone!

I also spread a lot of Milorganite around the garden. It's an organic fertilizer that has the added benefit of keeping the deer away. The neighbor said the deer ate all of her daylilies, mine are intact. Fingers crossed that they stay away for the summer!

First crocus of spring

First crocus of spring,
originally uploaded by pollyalida.

Finally a crocus in bloom! Spring can't be too far behind.

crocs

crocs,
originally uploaded by pollyalida.

New purple crocs ready to go. The snow is melting. A couple of crocuses have bloomed. And my new crocs are ready for a workout. They're already getting lots of use walking around the muddy yard looking for new life. Bring it on!

Weird weather

January? 60 degrees and rainy? Odd. But not unheard of. Still this is a record high for the day. Noticed that my chrysanthemums are growing again. One rather long stem of 3-4 inches and lots of shorter growth. I watered them yesterday. I figured, why not. This might be one of those winters that they manage to live through. I wonder if I bury the window boxes in the top of the compost heap if they'll stay warmer? An interesting experiment to try.

Landscape master plan

In November, I contacted the Land Design Office in Wynantsill to draw up a plan for our garden. They did a wonderful job! John Kelly, the owner, came over and met with us to find out what we wanted to do with the garden and hardscape around the house. This was supposed to be a Christmas surprise for my husband, but I didn't plan carefully enough, he was still home when the landscaper arrived. Oh well, he got to put his 2 cents in as well!

John took lots of notes and returned later in the week to take pictures. A month later he presented us with a plan. He'd re-arranged lots of the shrubs and trees that we already have and re-grouped the perennials into better groupings. A number of plants that I've wanted to try were also incorporated.

The plan included hardscaping - a deck, patio area, new walkways, a spot for a small water feature and some good ideas for improving drainage near the house. There's also a raised bed area around the shed for my veggies and herbs. A major issue was to fill in the edge of our property with some shrubs and trees to create a border that will look good from our side and the neighbor's, yet give our garden a bit more privacy and hopefully deter the deer from eating my veggies! We like our neighbors too much to put in a tall fence. Though I must say, the tall hedges of England with very private back gardens really appeal, regardless of how friendly the neighbors are.

The plan looks terrific. He did a great job. We have a large scale architectural type drawing to work from, a small one for easy reference. Shopping lists for new trees and shrubs, a list of plants (new and old) with pictures and growing info. And tons more stuff on the CD that he gave us. My father had some fun going over the plans when we visited last week. I left one of the big drawings and the planting list for him to examine in more detail.

Now we just have to do the work! They are a design-only company, which is just what we wanted. We can make the changes ourselves over the next few years. First step - the new deck and pation. Hopefully this spring.

The big pineapple

The big pineapple,
originally uploaded by pollyalida.

On top of a BIG Pineapple! In Nambour, Queensland. July 2005.

Tomato season has ended

Tomato season ended a few weeks ago - quite late for this area. Very late frosts and a protected spot for the plants kept them going much longer than normal. I picked all the green tomatoes and brought them in. So I'm still enjoying the ripening grape tomatoes as a snack and in yummy guacamole. The Juliet grape tomato plants were very productive. Tons of tomatoes.

As usual, I kept thinking I'd get around to trying some green tomato salsa recipes, but I keep putting it off and guess what? The green tomatoes are ripening. Oh well, they're still tasty. Not sure they were really any better than store bought grape tomatoes - heresy to say that I know! But it was fun to grow them and have tons to pick whenever I wanted.

Cuttings of impatiens and geraniums

I took tons of cuttings from the beautiful apple blossom double impatiens that were hanging on the porch all summer. The ones in a jug of water have rooted nicely and are actually blossoming too. Another batch in a pot of soil and perlite have also taken root, though no real signs of growth yet.

The geraniums - not so sure about them. They don't look like they're dead, but they're not really growing yet. Hopefully I can still salvage the plant from the porch. We haven't had long hard freezes yet, so I think it's still alive. They're ones that I've overwintered for several winters now.

Bulbs, bulbs, bulbs

Thank goodness for a warm day last week. There were over 100 crocuses, 50 bluebells and a few packages of tulips waiting to be planted. They'd all been sprayed with a good dose of Ropel a few week ago. Racing against the sunset, I planted everything in about an hour. Nothing was planted carefully! The crocuses were scattered around the back lawn where the new grass is coming up. Some leftover daffodils that I found in the basement went in there too.

The tulips are are in two or 3 clumps in the back garden. All ready to become part of the deer buffet in the spring. The bluebells are back there too, mixed in amongst the shade plants. Think the bluebells will ever look like an English woodland? (Amazing photography on this web site: Trek Earth)

The lawn...

... is in a sad state after all the construction vehicles tore it up this summer. The ruts through our neighbor's yard are substantial. They were terrific about letting us use their lawn for access, we couldn't have done the construction without their cooperation. We'll be fixing their lawn in the spring.

In the meantime, I raked up some of the construction debris and scattered a bag of grass seed on our back lawn. It came up in a checkerboard pattern! It took root nicely in the little ridges of soil that I created as I raked in a nice orderly fashion. Oh well, there will probably be more construction there next summer. Time to put in a deck and some patio landscaping.

Moving Plants

I moved lots of plants in September and October. There were tons of hostas and astilbes to be rescued from the apartment garden. They're now tucked in with the daylilies and daffodils at the back of the house garden.

Two small blueberry bushes (twigs really) went in next to the new shed. They were freebies from an order of Meyer Lemon trees from Wayside Gardens. The rhubarb plants also moved to the shed area. Hoping to have a raised bed veggie garden there next year.

Some hollyhock seedlings went in on the sunny side of the shed. Our neighbors should have a pretty view of those next summer and we should be able to see them out the dining room window.

Plants that I saw in England

Euphorbia - good shrub - saw lots of it in Barnesdale Gardens and all over in other gardens. Check it out.

Ruskington Garden Centre - Lavandula Christiana - very tall
Ruskington Garden Centre - Echinacea Vintage Wine - very purpley pink
Ruskington Garden Centre - Cosmos atrosanguineum

Daylilies & daffodils

The daylilies were blooming in the window boxes and temporary pots. They had to be planted. And planted they were. But first I dug holes for the 100 or so daffodils that survived the spring in the basement.

The daylilies are spread over the top of the daffodils. With room for some more plants here and there. The daylilies will need to be rearranged when I see what colors they are and how big they get. I have some more astilbe and iris I can move to that bed too. And maybe some hosta too. Yikes, I'm running out of room again.

Roses

The two roses by the front door are Angel Face and Iceberg - I think. Both have a wonderful scent. Iceberg seems much more disease and bug resistant. Angel Face is looking might sad at the moment. A bit of tlc is needed.