I now have less than three weeks before our annual open day and the weeding of the deep interior has commenced…The process is fraught. It has been blisteringly hot recently so I’ve been resplendent in the gardening shorts, an outfit which pairs badly with the nettles and thistles which escaped the first round of spring weeding. The old Guillaume Adhésif wafts tantalising its fronds at you and looks an easier bet. Spotting the tiny flowers, you grab an end and pull, thinking to end its career of border invasion before it sets seed. This rapidly becomes an addiction and five minutes later you stagger back to the wheelbarrow festooned in the stuff, looking like an extra from Dr Who. Later, as the Radox foam closes over your weary form the stinging starts from the gazillion microscopic lacerations it has inflicted…. At the front of the borders the sun has dried the clay to a concrete like texture and I am deploying a small Japanese pickaxe type thing to extract the dandelions. However, I am getting there and Mum has (been) volunteered to help out…
In the last couple of weeks the aquilegia have flared and twirled like tiny ballerinas in frilled tutus (for some reason we seem to have mostly had granny’s bonnets this year.). They are almost past now, leaving me the grave dilemma of which to cut back and which to keep for seed. Their ephemeral colour has been replaced by stately ranks of lupins and allium which have been tremendous so far, despite the dry weather. I caught two aphid outbreaks early and gave them the squeezy liquid treatments and so far this seems to have worked. The early yellow hemerocallis, a finer, starrier variety than the late summer stormers has also been lovely. I split the clumps in the spring and there’s a ton of them lined up for the open day plant sale if anyone is interested. I know some people are funny about yellow, but I think it’s just so cheerful. The Iris I replanted along the path have repaid my for my efforts with a tremendous flowering and this has galvanised me to do another “big split” in the back end.
The herbaceous poppies are out now, a mass of red in what I’m calling the Labour Party corner, and my Patty’s Plum has finally flowered well. It’s in its third home now and I was beginning to despair, but last year I got a few blooms and this year has been splendid. The white and dark red ones I put in last year also set to have taken so I seem (fingers crossed) to have shaken off my jinx on that front. The next big job is to find spaces for, and plant up, the Dahlias Keith has been bringing on in the greenhouse. None of last year’s survived so I’ve a home for at least 9, only another 10 to go…
And now I need to dash as Lachlan’s cooking and he has given me a ten minute warning and Ishbel has wandered through waving a bottle of rum. I believe Pina Coladas may be on the menu…I’ve also been promised a trip to the garden centre tomorrow. Guys it doesn’t get better than this……
