I prefer window boxes that don't need much watering, as it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll forget to, and I also hate watering pots.
So I fill mine with succulents that'll take almost no care and will keep looking good all summer.
I've finally found my dream greenhouse.
Granted, it's a bit of a fixer-upper, as is the rambling little 18th century Cottage Orné it's attached to.
Now, I've just that small matter of winning the lottery to sort out and I'm all set.
Permanent planting of Pseudopanax 'Dark Star' & Astelia 'Silver Shadow' underplanted with tender annuals for a blast of colour:
Petunia 'Easy Wave Red Velour' & 'Surfinia Lime', Verbena 'Showboat Dark Red' and Pelargonium 'Moonflair Brugundy'
Ever the bargain hunter, I spotted a few of these wire cloches at half price in
@DunelmUK
I'll use them to protect my seedlings and emerging plants from this beast.
The pack is growing.
Robin the lab was rehomed last January and now Maisie, saved from a puppy farm, where she'd an awful time.
They were 'helping' me plant up some forgotten bulbs I'd found in the shed.
Two ginger gingers.
A hardy Hedychium that should also flower here before winter hits?
Yes, please!
Hedychium deceptum (syn. rubrum) has the look of H. greenii, with reddish-orange blooms and maroon backed leaves, but is supposedly much tougher.
I planted this Laburnum x watereri about 25 years ago as an unpromising little twig.
Despite being butchered and hacked back a few times it's still looking pretty spectacular and is currently humming with bumble bees.
The things us gardeners discover under our car seats.
😂😂😂🌱🌱🌱
Others may find loose change, food wrappers, maybe an errant pen. I find sprouting Echeveria leaves.
This is entirely normal.
This is Ireland.
On a dull and cloudy day.
With a cast of plants from South Africa, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Southern Europe, Uruguay, Himalayas, China and Taiwan and Eastetn North America.
When buying tender plants early in the summer, I don't allow myself to worry about overwintering.
That's a problem for my future self to deal with.
We're at crunch time now.
That's me, doing a spot of guerrilla gardening yesterday.
200 Camassia quamash and 200 Narcissus, I can't wait to see the results in a couple of months.
I still have a few Narcissus pseudonarcissus that I want to stick in elsewhere and some dwarfs to plant on a nice sunny bank.
Allow me to indulge in some intense smugness, after a 10 year wait I'm finally surrounded by the powerful and intensely fragrant blooms on my Rhododendron (Loderi Group) 'Loderi King George'.
Despite the crapshow that's currently swirling around us in the UK, the USA and elsewhere, some things can be relied upon, year after year.
They're not considered native but they enrich us and we welcome them with open arms and hearts.
I'm opening my christmas wreath order book (which is already filling up!). 🎄
Priced at £30 (UK) or €35 (Ireland) each.
Local delivery in North Antrim.
Postage at cost to UK and Ireland.
The time has arrived to remove the 3.5m flowering stems on my Beschoneria yuccoides.
I'm bored of having to climb over them to access the path behind and we're sick of them catching on the clothes line.
Order has been restored.
Honda, Nissan, Ford, JLR, Schaeffler, Airbus, P&O, AXA, Bupa, Prudential, Barclays, Bank of America, UBS, Credit Suisse, Hitachi, Toshiba, Dyson, Panasonic, Sony, Philips - and that's just in the LAST MONTH.
#Brexit
I'm a little disappointed in myself, having been seduced by these wacky Primula 'Sirocco'.
They're not a bit of me at all, yet here we are.
I spent some time selecting out those with divergent colours and extreme flower shape to grow on.
Not classy at all but fun little things.
The uniquely coloured blooms of Strongylodon macrobotrys cascade in 90cm long racemes from a twining vine. Pollinated by bats it's deadly endangered in its native Philippines due to habitat destruction. Known more commonly to us as the jade vine it's known locally as Tayabak.
Agave lust 100%.
Newly discovery: A. Argenteum.
Huge rosettes of platinum/silvered floppy leaves, edged with a micro serrated margin & topped by a small terminal spine.
Habitat photo credit (with permission) by discovery team member Jeremy Spath.
📷:
@hiddenagave
(Instagram)
In my previous garden the design process went something like:
Buy a plant 'cause it's amazing. Take plant home, walk around garden loads of times, over several days to find the perfect conditions. Spy 4mm of bare soil. Shoehorn plant it in. Done!
Repeat ad infinitum
#Cramscaping
I love this stuff, so mulch.
Ideally, it should be stacked (and covered) to allow it to compost a bit further.
I, however, won't be doing any of that.
I'll add organic fertiliser when I spread it as a mulch to counteract the fact that it'll remove some nitrogen as it decomposes.
My Lily of the day is this coral-pink stunner.
'Pink Flight', being an asiatic is tough and easy.
It's unscented but entirely gorgeous with these butterflylike blooms.
I'm moving into an forgotten greenhouse in *Tuscany, who's coming?
It forms part of an abandoned thermal bath resort, its faded beauty captured by the fantastically talented @ suspiciousminds on Instagram.
Shared with permission.
*I'm not moving to Tuscany
Glenariff Valley, dressed in its autumnal cloak.
The Eagle eyed among you will note the Mull of Kintyre a short distance away across the North channel.