Start a proper garden diary...

My gardening friend has inspired me - I have decided to start a proper garden diary. In it I will write of my garden experiences, my successes, my failures... day by day even... starting with today.

You can see all the pink and white roses that seem to annoy me. There's a Sea Spray, Abraham Darbys, Clair Matin, and others I don't remember.
A Silly Looking Icing Sugar Border

Wednesday 3rd December

Today is the day that I found the cat Ginger Puss, or rather I smelt what was left of him, over past the pond. It has been a nasty nor-west windy day, with Mary Rose swaying and the big Nicotianas flapping around. I've done some sneaky watering at the very top of the Icing Sugar Border. I must get a red flax to put on its fence-line.

I must also ask Stephen if he can irrigate the Pond Paddock. And I must write down all my ideas (even if they are silly) because that's what you do in diaries.

List of Ideas

Wonder if lavenders should go there too? It could be at the back of the pond (where I found Ginger Puss).

It could go over the water race with white and black-skinned peaches and nectarines... yum!

This garden looks too silly with its marshmallow pinks and whites (roses - like French Lace and Perle D'Or and Clair Matin) sprinkled everywhere. It needs a flax - and some yellow things.

Thursday 4th December

Keeping a garden diary is a brilliant idea - it's cheaper than traveling around England writing a diary. My children think that I'm a twit. Oh well... Today I won't do any gardening, because I am going to watch the cricket one-dayer. I am going to think hard about garden things I will do tomorrow. Here are some definites:

This photo was taken before the pond paddock was developed.
the pond used to look like this
I didn't know how much the gunnera would like being planted here.
by November 1997 it looked like this

Friday 5th December

I have sneaky watered the top of the Icing Sugar Border again. I was hoping to get a trailer load of horse-poos but the rose arches have arrived and are roped on the trailer. Cool! And as to my investigations - I'm still thinking. Today I also pulled out the remaining foxgloves and replaced the despairing polyanthus plants in the house planting boxes with daisies. I cut some pale lemon roses for the house (The Pilgrim is what they're called). And I attacked the Pond Border.

But I still haven't done any cuttings - I need lavenders (all types), and penstemons (purple and white). Watering is what I do the most. The sun is a bit hot - where's my hat?

Saturday 6th December

I've just gone apres-gardening, as the Southerly rolled in. Great timing!

Today I have cleaned out one trailer-load of horse-poos and put it on the garden underneath the glass-house. I also shredded some of the annual rubbish to build up the organic matter in the soil. I may shift the Everest rhododendron.

I've decided that the Shropshire Lass rose can go... maybe next autumn? It's a once-flowering rose (not necessarily a problem) but it goes all sprawly. All its neighbour roses are soft and pinky. I think a Cotinus would be nice in its place - then a red flax in front of the two Abraham Darby roses. Decisions, decisions.

Newly planted...
The Jelly-Bean Border

Bargain Perennials

I potted up my bargain bin perennials which arrived yesterday from Kaydees. They'll survive - only the golden leaved euphorbia looks nice at the moment. And my next load of horse-poos MUST go on the Jelly Bean Border.

I also planted daisies, pink annual lavatera, calendula and foxgloves in the JAM Garden around the old apple tree. The corner flax is growing far too slowly - I need a bigger one!

Sunday 7th December

I'm watching the rugby - Eeek! We are losing! I might dig out the Forsythia and the Genista today. They both look like two old sillies, stuck in the house lawn.

Later...

I didn't. I put pea-straw over the JAM Garden, shifted the Everest rhododendron, and moved in some aquilegias. I have lots more ideas. For example, that weedy geranium under the Iceberg roses which self-seeds so much - it needs moving and replacing with a sterile one which will flower better (I got that ides from one of my gardening books!). And the rose Shropshire Lass can definitely go. I will cut down the delphiniums by the glass-house and replant them in the space thus created. It's sheltered there (I've read that some gardeners stake their delphinium flower-heads).

I am rethinking the Apple Tree Border. It's very shady. I'll put in some foliage plants and some variegated things (like the aquilegias I grew from seed) to lighten up the look.

This has always been one of my favourite foliage plants.
Iris confusa

Monday 8th December

I shifted the Camellias (three of them) from the Hump to the Wattle Woods. I think they will be happier there. Also I have filled some spaces with bits of Iris confusa. Shropshire Lass has a temporary reprieve - I've pruned all her long straggly canes. Now she is a neat little bush again, and fits nicely in her garden space. So she can stay!

I've dead-headed the Abraham Darby roses. And I've had an ides - I could shift some Agapanthus into the holes left on the Hump by the departing Camellias. Mustn't forget to water them (the Camellias)!

Tuesday 9th December

I did absolutely no gardening today. Absolutely none. But I've got some ideas from my library books. One has a picture of the borders at The Vicarage, East Ruston, Norfolk, England. I've been there! Strangely that was a garden I didn't find much inspiration in. And even odder - I didn't even take one photograph!

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