The future hedge

185 gauraOne hundred and eighty five little gaura plants all in their pots and ready to grow.

You are looking at my staging tables in the potting shed where my future large landscaping project is lurking.

Here are the eragrostis grasses and gaura plants all grown from seed and pricked out and potted on.

They are going to form large rows of greenery up on the bank above the courtyard. At the oak bank. I think that’s what I called that part of the garden.

It’s bone dry and the trees I planted just aren’t thriving.  So look to what works and repeat, repeat, repeat. amazing sage

For this garden that means the reliable grass that can get to a few feet in height and girth, the willowy, billowy gaura which adds subtle colour to a planting scheme.  And my mighty sage for a decent low growing plant which behaves.  It doesn’t flower, doesn’t need much intervention except to cut it back each February or so.  And it tastes great on the barbecue. What’s not to like?

I always propagate my sage in February when I cut the plants back. But as an experiment, I cut a dozen sage tops a few weeks ago and stuck them in the compost to see if they would root at the end of summer.

seeds aowmIf you ever want to dip your toe into the making plants for free, these are bombproof.  Three weeks on, these sage have rooted brilliantly and are ready to pot on into individual pots. It’s as close as I get to instant gardening.

I will take a hundred more or so in the next week now as I can see that the out of season propagation works.

And just as I was so pleased to be near Artur (even if he wasn’t on speaking terms) and listen to his sweet snoring as I sowed some winter greens. Mustard greens, turnip greens, some wacky Japanese seeds – tsoi sim I think. I wrote them diligently on a list and now can’t find it. And it’s too far to walk to the potting shed and read the little labels.  Oh and some mache. Winter lettuce.   I think I might be a bit late for sowing, but who knows what the season will do. A few days ago I was getting sunburned in the garden; and it’s meant to be autumn.