Gardening Journal: Life of Brian in Our Garden

I have decided to try and keep a journal about the Life of Brian in Our Garden@19. Depending on how busy I am will dictate how often it is published, when I do, I hope you enjoy reading my ramblings about life in the garden.

Thyme walk.

25th March.

I have thought for sometime about removing the grass around these circular stones and replacing it with thyme. The inspiration originally came from King Charles’s Highgrove Garden and the thyme walk there. I have planted it with four broadleaf thyme which hopefully will eventually spread out and when in flower will smell and look wonderful, especially for the pollinators.

Plugs and Seeds.

2nd April.

I had ordered some trailing Begonias as plug plants which arrived today, sadly some had been damaged in transport however the nursery which I have used before has arranged for some replacements. They are destined to go onto the north, shady side of the house for the summer. Potted on the plug plants and sowed more seeds then pricked out some of the seedlings into seed trays or individual plugs.

Planting Alliums.

3rd April.

Went to help, MrsGerminator : Mr Germinator to Plant alliums through two borders in his garden. These he had grown on from bulbs in pots ready to plant out in the garden this spring when the beds were cleared ready. They were mainly allium Purple Rain.

It is very similar to Purple Sensation that I have in my garden, it will be interesting to see them all in flower in their garden later in the year.

Atragene Clematis.

7th April.

I recently read an article in the RHS magazine about this group of clematis, I had not heard of them before but reading the article I realised they are the Alpine ones that I very much like and already have some within the garden. Inspired I went to the garden centre and bought three more one to go in the blue garden to climb up into the rope swag to join another one and two others to go in the corner of the raised beds with the aim of one of them growing up into the cherry tree and the the other into the crab apple tree as was suggested in the article.

Hot and Dry.

10th April.

Fixed some shade netting to the pelargonium greenhouse to help keep the temperatures down during this very hot spring weather, it has on some late afternoons reached 35° in this greenhouse. It was recommended to do this by Mr Pelargonium on his YouTube site for the Pelargonium Society.

I have also fixed a small 100 L water butt to this greenhouse for extra storage when the rains finally come, it has been an exceptionally dry March and April here in the UK with most of the existing water butts empty.

Allotmentering.

12th April.

Went to my daughter Mary‘s today to help with her allotment. We cleared an area where her strawberries have been and laid a membrane down replanted the strawberries and tided up around the raspberry canes fixing new wires to support them. Mary has had some health problems for a while so has been unable to look after her allotment. This is the first step in trying to reclaim it for her to start again.

Tomato plants and Ivy.

13th April.

Tomato plants potted up today into bigger pots planted nice and deep so that the stem roots will develop. They are in a tray of water for a drink.

I think two Robins are nesting in the garden. It looks like they’re using the robin nest boxes I put up in amongst Ivy growing on the fence. The beauty of ivy in the garden is it does give cover for nesting birds.

New Alpine Bed.

Replanted the Alpine bed the builder created for me yesterday to replace the wooden Alpine boxes that had gone rotten. It is planted with species tulips, small iris and Allium Kartaviense along with Nerines along the back wall. This is facing south which should be ideal conditions for these plants.

It will take some time to settle in now, hopefully the Nerine bowdenii will be flowering for my October NGS open garden day.

With mentioning the National Garden Scheme most of the current garden work is towards my open day on May 19th preparing the garden and plant sales.

What is keeping you busy in your garden?