End of Summer

Summer officially ended this weekend, however, the sun shone brightly all Saturday, the sky was blue not a cloud to be seen and beautifully warm all day.  So I was in the garden all day.

I planted 75 of the Allium bulbs, started to cut in some new flower beds, planted Spring Cabbages, re-sited the compost bin, uplifted the red onions, picked another large handful of chilli peppers to dry and dumped the squash that the squirrel had started to eat !

Sunday the weather was much cooler and cloudy, I didn't have the same inclination to get out there and start digging.  Geoff did make the cuts in the old patio for its 'new' shape.  So we need a few more dry weekends to finish up a few jobs in the garden if we can.

This summer although slow to start was the warmest since 2006, we have had a really good run of warm dry sunny days.

RHS Delivery

My 'holiday at home' arrived, the plants did not... I waited a day then contacted RHS online plants... turns out they were holding the whole order until the last items due in two weeks were ready to go..agghh, why can't they give you the option when placing the order.  Needless to say I arranged to split the order. Next day the plants arrived with the rain !

Item	Price	Qty.	Size	Availability	Subtotal
Monarda 'Fireball' (multibuy)	£15.00	2	3 × 9cm pots	within 2-3 days exc weekends	£30.00
Phlox paniculata 'Mount Fuji' (multibuy)	£15.00	2	3 x 9cm pots	within 2-3 days exc weekends	£30.00
Carex testacea (multibuy)	£15.00	2	3 × 9cm pots	within 2-3 days exc weekends	£30.00
Paeonia lactiflora 'Adolphe Rousseau' (paeony / peony)	£7.99	1	11cm pot	within 2-3 days exc weekends	£7.99
Imperata cylindrica 'Rubra' (Blood Grass (syn. Red Baron)- Multibuy)	£15.00	1	3 × 9cm pots	within 2 weeks	£15.00
Leucanthemum x superbum 'Beaute Nivelloise' (Syn Leucanthemum Old Court)	£2.99	2	9cm pot	within 2-3 days exc weekends	£5.98
Designer alliums (Ornamental onion bulb collection)	£19.98	1	2+1 FREE collections	Delivered late August onwards	£19.98
Delivery charge	£4.95	1			£4.95
				Total	£143.90

The bulbs arrived the weekend just gone, made a slight mistake, I thought they were just ones..not 25 per packet, I have 250 bulbs to plant, good job I am going for planting in swathes !

Maple Bed

I have tried to change the aspect of the garden, so you can't see everything at once.  From the gravel area, from the hot tub the path winds up to the Vegetable Garden, the new maple bed then comes between this and the rest of the garden.  Maples have been growing in tubs for many years previously now in the ground.

The plan with this bed is to use grasses for backdrop to the garden side of planting but also to be the edge, to the grasses side, so the theory being, as you walk through from hot tub to vegetable gardens the path is lined with billowing and swaying grasses. I love their movement, sound and the way the sun catches them.

The inspiration for the maple bed and the rest of the garden that will surround the new patio table & chairs, follows a visit to Great Dixter last summer, I loved the fullness of the beds and the array of colour and texture.  I bought a few books (as you do) including one by Sarah Raven who also uses planting and colour in the same way as Christopher Lloyd did.  I think this planting style will involve a lot of work but I am hoping in the fullness of time it will look spectacular. Not putting too much pressure on myself !

How its looking so far:

Summer 2012

Summer 2012

 

Summer 2013

Last weekend I lifted all the granite sets from the edges, took the small grasses out of the maple bed and moved them over to the grasses bed.  I planted some new taller grasses as edging to this path.

I saw this fabulous hydranger on holiday in France, such big flower heads, just had to add some to my garden, so my Dad bought me two small plants that I planted either side of the massive Spanish Oat grass.

Spanish Oates in the July evening sun 2013

I await a delivery of new plants for both beds and two beds at the front of the house for RHS...

The Vegetable Garden

My inspiration for the vegetable garden came from watching the Chelsea Flower Show way back in 1999, where I fell in love with the basic idea Terence Conran had presented in conjunction with Laurent Perrier, The Chef's Garden.  I just loved the way the kitchen was outside and the seating in the middle of all the vegetable planters.

As much as I would love to have an outdoor kitchen, the weather just isn't reliable enough, even here on the South east coast where we seem to get more good weather than the rest of the country.  So I set about working this idea into my own garden.

Originally I had planters made in timber directly outside the kitchen with a table and chairs on the patio looking out over the area.  The area between the planters was gravelled to create the paths between. It is a very hot and sunny area with no shade.  Too hot really for the vegetables.

Last year, we cleared and opened up an area at the top of the garden, which turned it into a sunny area that does get some shade during the day. Last spring I set about unplanting all the planters and set them out in the new Vegetable Garden.  Back breaking work moving the soil and gravel from one end of the garden to another.  Its taking shape and looking good, we have also decided to relocate the green house to the left end of the Vegetable Garden for convenience and again to benefit from some shade during the summer months.

Here is the progression in pictures.

The big move

Planting of the weeny hedge plants

It has to be straight !

Re-site

Re-plant

Re-grow

Bean plants

Bean Feast 

Doing well

Bees love the herbs

Just 18months hedge growth !

Filling out

Squash

To garden is to believe in tomorrow

 I read that yesterday...and it is so true, you plant your garden with all the things that take your fancy in the hope they will, in turn put on a great display for years to come.

The garden we inherited with our 1930s house is a manageable third of an acre, thereabouts, it's secluded from our neighbours with various trees. It's sunny most of the day, the morning sun streams in from the front into the back garden, as the sun moves round, the back garden catches the sun right through until early evening when it sinks behind the houses.  Most of the planting needed to be remove long past it's sell by date and not quite our thing.  A few trees had to come out too, don't freak, we do plant others in their place, not necessarily the same place, but a tree for a tree so to speak.

My earliest memory of a beautiful garden full of colour and benches to relax and take in the view, in the garden and beyond was a relatives garden in Lancing, high on the hill, or it seemed so then.  I remember following them round the garden, proudly showing all the things they had planted, wondering how they could possibly find it all so interesting apart from knowing all the names of the plants... Never thinking one day I would be just as besotted with gardening.

Over the years I have visited many gardens that have influenced me, but I'll talk about them later.

So I embarked on the re-design and re-planting of the garden about 18 months ago.

To make it easy to follow the progress the garden divides into four areas, five if you include the from garden too. This is how we refer to them.

1. Ornamental grasses bed

2. Maple bed

3. North facing bed  

4. Vegetable garden

5. Front garden

This is my journey (my garden diary, to be more precise).

Wisteria on south facing wall