12th June 2007

Winter is finally here. Nights are frosty and days not much better, and my central heating has packed in. Am waiting for gasfitter to arrive and install a new system, Brrrrr!

I have been away for 2 weeks photographing Tasmania (and thus little garden news as I have allowed the garden to do its own thing for the past few weeks). I will put up a page of photographs shortly. Tasmania is just so beautiful.

Later: here is a page of photos.

16th June 2007

No sooner had I arrived back from holidays than plants started to arrive en masse. 9 mop-top robinias are here and are currently heeled into one of my compost bays. I also have new strawberry plants, clary sage, coneflowers (white and reds), hollyhocks, yet more gunnera and Angel's Trumpet (Brugmansia), lavateras, anemones, salvias, violets (why on earth did I order those?) and some oakleaf hydrangea.

Today I have started to either pot them on or plant them out. I have a space 'out back' which wasn't attacked by the landscapers and which I use as my 'nursery section'. Trouble is, it is overrun with weeds, so I have layered down weed mat, and in the next week or so will order a bunch of river pebbles to go over the top, which hopefully should improve the look of it. It is an area I've needed to do something with for ages, and this should be an easy and effective fix.

And I'll need new pots for the strawberries - I think they will line the back fence in pots where they'll be easy to net from birds.

Gardening never ends! I ordered in some more compost from Chandler's yesterday, and they gave me some russel lupins as a gift. I love lupins - so now they're potted on and will go out later once they are more firmly established.

It is turning into a nice day - I've been gardening in my thermals and fleecy tracks and layers and layers and layers - very cold and foggy earlier - now I can start to peel off!

We do need rain, though - no rain for ages.

 

19th June 2007

Five of the robinias planted - this entry is procrastination to avoid going back out and planting the remaining four. It has been so cold recently!! Much black ice and frost and occasional drifts of snow. The strawberries are all planted out as well.

We did manage 10 mm of rain last night, and this morning the Bridgewater Gerry rolled in and enveloped the house in fog for a few hours.

Later: well, three more of the robinias are now planted. There is one more to go, and I could really do with two more (I wonder if the nursery has any more left in stock?). The one left heeled into the compost cried and wept and demanded to be planted out as well, but I told him to get over it, and I'd attend to him over the next few days.

These nine robinias are really starting to give the front garden some height and form - I can't wait for them to grow and mature, when they'll look spectacular.