It has been a fortnight since I last reported and I am worried that you are expecting great things of me. I am sure you do not wish to hear excuses, if necessary I can come up with a baker’s dozen, so I will just say “these things can not be rushed, I am an artist and I must wait for my muse to inspire me”. Which of course is bunkum, but worth a try. What I present you with here is a particularly dull Six on Saturday. Apologies, but perhaps you could read it just before bedtime to aid a good night’s sleep. If stimulation is what you are looking for, pop over to Mr Dynamo himself, The Prop, and find out what himself and his acolytes have been up to. Right, let us get this over with.
To begin, a new border, the first. It is north facing. I may call it The North Border, although this is unlikely. At present it is pathetic and feeble, pretty maids all in a row, but it is a start and the hydrangeas especially needed to have their feet in the soil once more. Talking of soil, I am pleasantly surprised in that department. A few inches of nice dark stuff, then a more red sandy clay type. Not a fag packet, Gregg’s carrier bag or bit of rusty metal in sight. I must get a pH testing kit. I was asking Jim a couple of weeks ago about a small camellia to suit and I would rather not grow it in a pot.
In the new North Border (working title) I planted a cutting from our wonderful red hydrangea in Ilfracombe (above not looking very red), Hydrangea aspera ‘Hot Chocolate’, Impatiens omeiana and Begonia ‘Claret Jug’. All a bit deciduous so in the middle went Pseudopanax ‘Moas Toes’, which is heading for the stars. I’m thinking about nipping out the top to encourage some horizontal growth, any thoughts? I will wait til spring so you have time to think about it.
Much as I would love a hand crafted artisan compost heap, I am realist enough to accept that a dalek is as good as it is going to get for the foreseeable. This is enough to make me very happy. The evidence of border excavation is nearby. As tidy a pile as an untidy pile can be.
I had bulbs to plant. I had no pot to plant them in. So I made a mini bed and planted out Rodgeria ‘Heavenly Gill’. If ever a plant should not be in a pot, surely it is a rodgersia. Hopefully it will thrive here, it has struggled up to now.
Then in with the bulbs of Lilium ‘Forever Susan’. This must be my five hundredth attempt to find the real thing. Fingers crossed for next year. And yes I did cover the bulbs with soil.
Some traditions must not be ignored. The violas are doing very nicely.
Your trial is over, you have stayed the course. I can’t promise much more excitement next time. I can promise I will try. Stay safe my friends.
Off The Edge Gardening 
Pseudopanax, impatiens omeiana, rodgersia … lots of nice things that I can’t wait to see grow! … patience…but you already know that.
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Nice to see your garden from the very start….and of course your little viola. We were there from the start!
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You were! By the way, I’ve still got your little fuchsia. Well, Peggy has!
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Interesting. Being interested, I Binged (don’t Google) that Rogersia to see what it looked like. Having got thru advice to change my search criteria to something more temporal, I found myself directed to a blog called “Ontheedgegardening”. So whilst I am none the wiser as to Roger, I did enjoy reading about your (I presume) younger sibling’s indiscretions.
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Always glad to entertain Mr K.
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That sounds like a really nice border with lots of lovely foliage (I looked a few up!). The Hydrangea aspera ‘Hot Chocolate’ with its dark purple leaves looks very enticing. Great to get the composting going too, even if it means a Dalek in the garden.
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Yes, compost is a fundamental to me. I could always decorate the dalek, might tinsel him up for Christmas.
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😆
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I’m looking forward to watching your garden develop from scratch. That pale blue Viola is a beauty. I’ve never heard of Pseudopanax ‘Moas Toes’ – off to look it up…
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It must be wonderful to be planting the first things in your new garden and I’m going to enjoy watching them grow and the garden develop.
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Thanks Archie, it is great. x
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I love violas, then I hate them, then I love them again. Did you like the look of the Moas Toes?
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I did! It looks rather exotic.
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What fun that you have started planting, looking forward to seeing how it develops.
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Thank you, who knows which way it will go.
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A promising start that bodes good things for the future. I am impressed by your rational prioritization of plants that struggle in pots. All my past plant-moves have been pretty willy-nilly.
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By nature I am willy-nilly. We will see how long this rationality lasts. 😀
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It looks like you’re getting stuck right in! Fingers crossed that your Lilies prove to be the right ones this time.
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I hope so too, I am not sure I can go through another disappointment! I will keep trying though. I hope I actually like them after all this heartache!
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It is coming along splendidly..I have never had such a lovely compost area. Mine is frightening with odd fruit and bromeliads growing in it.
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Your compost heap sounds far more exciting!
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Pseudopanax made me pause and think. I suppose that several of them can live here and where winters are cooler. So, they might not be so far fetched in your garden. I just think of the genus as something that prefers milder climates. I only see it in the Los Angeles region.
Dalek made the pause also, as I tried to remember the common name. Oops.
Fag packet? . . . , Okay, a brief pause, but I figured it out.
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Ha, yes I forgot about fag in the US 🙂 The pseudopanax is borderline here. Fingers crossed always.
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That is such a weird family (the Pseudopanax). There is an aralia that comes up in the middle of the road below one of my vacant parcels that a colleague told me is a native Pseudopanax. I believed him of course. However, Pseudopanax are NOT native here, and the exotics are uncommon and mostly houseplants. It is an Aralia californica, and does not resemble any of the Pseudopanax. Anyway, I think of Pseudopanax as aralias, but the many different aralias within the many different species are all so extremely variable, and I can not keep them all straight.
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