Bring On The Greens!
Red campion (Silene dioica) has seeded itself in the terraces.
Performing an exquisite double act with Iris sibirica, how does it find the exact perfect backdrop to set itself down? I will enjoy it there until the blooms start to wither and then it will be whipped out quicker than you can say “Oh my, you have a terrace FULL of red campion and nothing else can grow.” It is pretty but in the wilder areas of the garden it’s also rampant.
Still on the terraces I’m loving this mix at the moment as well: Geum ‘Apricot Delight’, Carex comans ‘Milk Chocolate’, Cerastium tomentosum (Snow in Summer) and, soaring up from the level below, Phormium ‘Pink Panther’. And a stinging nettle. Doh. Only just noticed that..
The garden does its own thing whether I like it or not. This Spring has happened in so much of a rush things have bloomed together that normally never would. Two inherited azaleas. Wham. Very Christopher Lloyd. If you weren’t fully awake by this point on the morning tour of inspection you certainly would be now.
One at a time is vibrant enough.
So what of the Greens? Greens of the vegetable variety.
Changes are afoot.
One of the first projects we took on after moving here was to construct two very large raised beds, approx 7m long and 1.2m wide, set into the hillside. For the first few years I used them to grow vegetables but increasingly the ornamentals moved in as the beds became a safe haven for cuttings, seedlings and, hard as it may be to imagine, all those plant fair impulse purchases that didn’t have an immediate home.
The plan has always been to revert them back to veggie beds. I’d intended to relocate the ornamentals gradually over the course of this year, distributing them out across the garden but mainly into the newly built greenhouse terraced borders. Then along came the virus, a Dig for Victory spirit swept across the country and a few packets of seed later it had me firmly in its grip. Along with home baking. Except that I still can’t get any yeast. Or flour. You?
My veggie growing space is limited by how quickly I can shift the remaining ornamentals but I’m getting there, about a sixth of it cleared so far. It’ll be a gentle reintroduction this year. I’ve started off with salad leaves and herbs but as we progress through the season peas and beans will follow on, with broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale and squash bringing up the rear. Tomatoes, cucumber and melons are already taking over in the greenhouse. In our continuing self isolation it will be even more of a pleasure than usual to have stuff to eat that is minutes or less from being picked.
Planting has become a job of mammoth proportions and it isn’t limited to clearing the raised beds. Virtually everything here in the pot ghetto has been raised from seed or split from existing stock. The sooner they get in the ground the sooner I can get my evenings back from the never ending trundle with the watering can. And on top of that, as the nights have turned unseasonably chilly this week, the back breaking shuffle in and out of cover with trays of the more tender plants.
But I can’t complain. In my favourite month of May the borders are just coming into their own.
Astrantia ‘Roma’ and Persicaria bistorta ‘Superba’.
Cirsium rivulare ‘Atropurpureum’
Itoh Peony ‘Pastel Splendor’, back for another year and absolutely smothered in flowers.
Itoh Peony ‘Pastel Splendor’
Grass of the moment: Deschampsia flexuosa ‘Tatra Gold’
A diminutive species, just 40cm or so high with brilliant lime green foliage. Perfect for edging.
And finally for now, pampered in the cold frame for most of the winter Tulbaghia montana has rewarded me with multiple flower stems this year. The flowers open in clusters, each bloom barely a centimetre long but fully deserving of close inspection. It hails from the Drakensberg in South Africa and therefore needs a well drained sunny position. Much like its owner as it happens..
Stay safe x
A wealth of blooms. Whenever a colour-fix or a shot of blooming variety is needed, your photos provide it. Thanks and good luck with all that planting!
Thank you Mary. Planting has come to an abrupt halt on the possibility of a frost tonight. In Mid May! Every time it gets chilly I hope we have seen the last of it for this year. This time surely.
Gorgeous photos, especially the macro ones. Enjoy your favourite month.
Thanks Linda. May is going past way too quickly.
Good to see your usual splendid garden photography
A bit rushed this time, I don’t know where all the hours in the day go. The bee was a split second capture over the top of the builder’s dumpy bags. Thanks Derrick.
Peony envy has struck – your Pastel Splendor is so beautiful, with all the shades of pink. The Itohs are wonderful, aren’t they? And the Tulbaghia montana is fascinating. Thank you for all the images. I’m about to start the planting scramble, now that nights are finally going to get warm enough.
The peony is almost better today I think (day 2). It has acquired more of the apricot tones on the inner petals. The itohs are wonderful. They seem to do well in my soil too, I’d have more if they weren’t so pricey. Enjoy the planting, it’s such a satisfying thing to do. Especially at this time of year when you have all summer to watch them grow.
Oh they are stunning photos with such super colours. Quite productive too – I’m still behind with some things though. I’m really enjoying the lush green landscape at the moment but not enjoying the sudden cold blast – even if the sun is shining.
It certainly does need the sun at the moment, that bitter north east wind goes right through you. I managed to find a lovely sheltered spot this afternoon for some weeding and tidying. Until I mistook my finger for a branch with the secateurs. Game over.
Oh big OUCH! Look on the bright side – you didn’t saw it off with the pruning saw! LOL! Bet that is sore – and sounds like you managed not to go to A&E!
A trip to A&E should probably be avoided right now. No, a proper scrub and luckily the secateurs were recently sharpened so it was a good clean cut. I managed to push the sides back together and already you’d be hard pressed to spot it. As a precaution though I have taken some anaesthetic this evening. Pinot Grigio. 🙂
LOL! I have learnt that having a large supply of steri-strips in the first aid box does help reduce these accidents. But always there if needed – which is when the adhesive goes kaput! I like the sound of your anaesthetic! Every medicine box should have a good supply! 😉
I’m debating whether a repeat prescription might be in order tonight..
I’m on the triple distilled Waitrose own white spirit and coke this evening. Um – not gin! Definitely medicinal – fox got one of the ducks! But it shopped to order and didn’t go supermarket crazy. She is a very refined Mistress Vixen. But it didn’t upset me as much as the chicken – possibly they aren’t as cuddly, but they are funny and I do like them. Or maybe an acceptance of rural living. But we have 3 eggs being cooked by a broody hen and after candling this evening, veins are there so all fertile! Fingers crossed this lot reach hatching stage. Goodness knows what “mum” will think when her chicks go swimming! LOL!
I’m really sorry to hear about the duck, I do love ducks. I’m not so familiar with chickens but gather they have just as much character. We rented a cottage on a farm for a few years, with a lake outside the front door complete with ducks and geese. The losses though did upset me which is why my ducks will now be forever rusty.
I’m always amazed that one species will accept the offspring of another, you’d think they’d know. Good luck with the hatching, let me know how it goes!
Cheers! I have a rusty rooster (solar – he lights up all night long when the sun is out) called Cyril. My son bought him for my 60th – to redeem himself for getting me a Zimmer frame! Quite cheery seeing him there.
LOL!
Greens? I think that was the last thing I noticed! Such beautiful colors and wonderfully crisp photos, I’m glad to see how much there is to enjoy in the garden while some of the other projects are on hold. You seem to be busier than ever.
The geum/ phormium combo is outstanding. I bet you could almost walk past it in the garden to go see the azaleas, but up close what a good job. Oh and the peony as well!
It feels busier than ever but that is Spring for you I guess. And a self inflicted over indulgence with the seed catalogue back in autumn.. do we ever learn? No.
The flowers of the Cerastium just lift that combo enough to make it show up, but the effect is as fleeting as those blooms and then it does tend to disappear. I need to find another white!
It’s my favourite time of the year too and you have some gorgeous May beauties. I am crazy about the Itoh peony. And that Tulbaghia is amazing, I’ve never seen one like it. Yeast is hard to get hold of but I have flour so I’ve been making soda bread which is delicious.
We keep putting both on the grocery delivery order and hopefully sooner or later one or the other will turn up. I have some flour and have never tried soda bread. I will give it a whirl, especially as it looks quite easy.
I’m totally smitten with the Tulbaghia. I bought it at East Lambrook Manor last year. It was just sitting there on a bench as we went into the plant centre and it spoke to me. As did many other things but that’s another story. If you are ever down this way that place is well worth a visit.
Growing fruit and veg is the best thing.
It is. I’m really excited to be getting back to it. I’ve already started thinking about all the things I will be able to grow next year if I can get the raised beds fully productive again.
We visited Drakensberg in South Africa three years ago – such a spectacular area, just like the the attractive little Tulbaghia montana flower in your garden.
I dread to think how long it will be before we can travel again. Certainly with the degree of freedom that we enjoyed before. I’ve only been to South Africa once, to the southern part of the eastern cape, and I’d love to go back.
If you just say “Christopher Lloyd,” you can make us think anything you show us was all part of a brilliant plan. That second photo with the Geum is heaven, especially with the ducks parading in the background. I happened to get some flour just before everything began but I finally got some yeast last week, having tried since March to do so. Got it at our local butcher shop where we were getting meat, milk, bread, potatoes for curbside pickup. Sort of as a joke, I asked if they had any yeast and voila! But I am not going to make bread until I get a bit more flour. I haven’t made yeast bread for years so it will be a re-learning experience.
I’m afraid I cheat and use a machine. Even so there is nothing like freshly baked bread. Interesting to know that the shortage of yeast is not just a UK phenomenon. I wonder why. Or is it just, as is so often the case, an Instagram led craze?
I use Christopher Lloyd as a cover for so many experimental colour combinations!
Lovely 🥰
Thank you Gillian 🙂
I’d love to self isolate in your garden. We are now doing OK for flour and yeast but it was a problem at the beginning of the lockdown.
As ever the West Country will be the last on the list for supplies. I’m sure it will come eventually. The irony is that I can easily buy bread. In fact at the moment we’re being substituted a loaf double the size of the one we normally have and so we’re throwing part of it away. Or, as it’s wholemeal and seeded, giving it to the birds!
just lovely. Really lifted my spirits. x
Thanks Jill. I don’t know what I’d do without a garden at the moment. Keeps me sane. Mostly.
One lovely photo after another but of course my heart stopped for a moment when I reached the Itoh peony, which I consider the holy grail of flowers. My own Itoh produced foliage but not flowers again this year, even after I have it a generous side-dressing of compost. *SIGH* I love that Tulbaghia too but a quick review suggests it may want cooler temperatures than I can provide. Best wishes with the veg patch!
I wonder if your Itoh might be planted too deeply? I know it’s an issue for herbaceous peonies, producing foliage but not flowers, but no idea whether it is the case for Itohs as well.
Love that peony – they are one of my favourite flowers. I have been doing the plant tray shuffle too and got the fleece out again! x
I haven’t seen the forecast for ‘oop north’ but even down here there’s a frost risk for tomorrow night. Mid May! Crazy.
Loving all your blooms, just gorgeous. Good to know you have food in the ground. No luck here with flour or yeast.xxx
We’re a very long way from the Good Life, but there is a strange sense of security to be had in growing something. I shall have plenty of salad. May have turned into a rabbit by the end of it.
Sourdough is the new tamagochi! It needs daily care, but replaces the prescious yeast. (At us, you can get yeast, as it was smuggled. You need to ask the cashier, and they give you one piece/person from under the desk.)
Victory gardening feeling took over me too, I planted tomatoes in growbags. I never grew any vegs before! Year of surprises.
Ha ha! I love your comment about sourdough. It does seem to need treating like a pet.
I got yeast! First time today. Couldn’t believe it. If I can get another packet while the going is good the pressure will then be on flour.
Good luck with your tomatoes, it’s very satisfying growing your own food. Mike eats all the tomatoes here, I don’t like them, but he says the taste is completely different from shop bought.. SO much better.
Oh there’s nothing like being able to pick your own vegetables and eat them the same day Jessica. Sweetcorn is another experience all together 😂 Good luck with your project. If you are prepared to pay for postage Seeds Of Italy have flour in stock at the moment.
Thoroughly recommend Franchi Seeds of Italy too – just for the seeds. Lots in a packet and seem to germinate very well! Also, while not flour – Tamar Organics are a good seed company (also fruit etc)
Just looked up Tamar Organics, sounds right up my street. Thanks for the recommendation.
I’ve grown sweetcorn before and I couldn’t agree more. I decided I probably wouldn’t have enough space this year, but next year.. definitely!
Thanks for the heads up on Seeds Of Italy, I will check it out.
What a great post, gorgeous gorgeous flowers and plants…your macro photography is superb, especially the bee tucked into the flower. The grass ‘Tatra Gold’ is very pretty, I’d love to fit that into our garden. The orange azaleas could light up room!
Happy gardening!
They really do light up a room. The azalea is right outside a glazed door into the sitting room and the light in there changes completely when the shrub is in bloom. When the sun is shining as well it positively glows!
Oooh, that orange! Yes, I am fully awake now!
It could almost keep you awake at night.
You shouldn’t have mentioned the nettle. I consider my nettle radar to be of a very high standard but hadn’t spotted it until you pointed it out! I’m in love with your ‘Apricot Delight’ too – does it flower for long?
Hi Janna!
‘Apricot Delight’ has had a great year. Last year I divided it and it’s repaid me handsomely. It has its main flush in April/May and then puts up the occasional bloom over the summer, sometimes with another spurt in autumn. But now is the peak time and I take anything else as a bonus.
Hope you and Paul are both well and you’ve enjoyed some quality time together at home!
Always a delight to look at your garden and lovely photos, I was very taken with the coffee, cream, apricot combo, then wide awake with the oranges, but the prize has to go to that Tulbaghia – what a beauty! As for yeast, none down here for months, though as you have mentioned plenty of bread! I just like to make my own pizzas and not sure soda bread base would work.
Sourdough might work. Waitrose sell sourdough pizza and they are delicious. I’m not sure I’ve got the patience for the starter but when I read about other people doing it I’m very tempted to try.
What a delightful blog you have with stunning photos! Your azaleas really pop, so full of colour it has brightened my day. I am also impressed with your veggie patch. Mine is full of little weeds, springing up between the vegetables, since we have had some rain and the weather is still warm here in Auckland. We too find it hard to find yeast at the moment. I did manage to get some breadmaker yeast, but can’t find any wholemeal flour now. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to your next post!
Hi Rose, thanks and welcome.
Weeds are never-ending here too. I can’t keep up. We’ve had a very dry Spring overall but a little bit of rain and they all come back almost overnight. But the plants are growing too so eventually they will overcome. I hope..!
My greenhouse is now full of the tomatoes that were enjoying the warm weather outside, the tomatoes that were always going to stay inside, the potato grow bags etc. It now looks like a vegan tube train in rush our. My peony refuses to flower, apparently I should give it a few more years as it’s only two. It’s very healthy and in full sunshine, it’s just having a monster sulk I think. The rust has got the garlic, again, not going to bother next year, it’s had its chance, new ground, tomato food the lot. It’s a shame as we use a lot of garlic. Very odd year for germination, no chillis this year and only one cucumber. Odd as courgettes, butter nut and tomatoes came up with no problem. Still garden centres are open so I must go and see what is on offer.
In more exciting news I managed to get out and catch a wild brown trout on a dry fly on the first day of the new season.
I thought of you when they said fishing was opening up again.
Have to say getting pretty fed up of these cold nights. The forecast keeps adding another one just when you think it’s all over. I’m on the second germination of cucumbers and now have four. The first lot failed completely. And only three (maybe four) chilli out of eight. I don’t do courgettes but butternut and tomatoes strong here too.
We had two fallow deer in the garden this morning, the usual visitors are roe. They’re enormous! And it appears the paving slabs in front of the greenhouse have been turned by something (owl?) into a place of ritual sacrifice. Couldn’t even identify this morning’s unfortunate victim. Just blood and gore. Before breakfast too. Nice.
Morrisons have been selling fresh yeast, Jessica – in the chiller cabinets – and splitting big commercial bags of flour and selling them in 500g bags. And Aldi have had dried yeast again
Ooooh, thanks Cathy. Let’s hope supplies will soon be back to normal. Missing my bread!
Yes nature is red in tooth and claw in Somerset too. I am off to a garden centre for yet more chilli seeds.
Maybe now it’s getting warmer the seeds will respond.
Not only is it difficult here to buy yeast and flour garden seeds have been difficult to source. I have just received part if my order placed on March 30th with lettuce seeds still to come! Thankfully last year’s seeds are still viable. Jessica is there any way I can leave a comment without having to fill in my website each time?
Apologies for the commenting issue. I had thought the comment box automatically remembers someone who has commented before. I don’t know whether it is relevant but this comment went to the moderation queue, in which case, clearly, it didn’t remember. That usually only happens if a commentator changes something, like name or email address?
Seeds are indeed a problem. Most suppliers had closed their order books by the time I got around to it. I found Dobies in the end who were actually quite good (still a three week wait) but the choice was extremely limited.