Flower taming

The heat of the afternoon was probably not the best time to do this; but this weather is set to stay hot for a few days longer.   But the asters badly needed dead heading.

They are amazing plants – tolerating complete neglect, and flowering for months.   And for the first time I even get to divide them this winter as they have bulked up.   They are taking over the sedums and the lavenders in front of them.

And I definitely need to do more to this bed. It’s very narrow and looks odd to have so much blue in an area that is predominantly green.   The holm oak above needs a prune, and I’m going to try and get some heathers established above this bed to try and fun things up.

I know everyone says this, but it is amazing how gardening changes endlessly. There is never stasis.   You get one thing right, and then realise it needs tweaking.   I almost wish I was like Sarah and could paint a beautiful landscape and it stays on a wall unchanged.   I’m forever needing to work on my designs.

And my photography!  I can never show the vibrancy of these flowers in the best light.

It’s a bit like the bank above my potting shed.   I love the combination of my grasses (calamagrostis Karl Foester) and sedums and valerians and clary sage.   But it’s a subtle colour scheme.   So you never get it’s full glory on the blog.

Ah well. On with creating more.   I’m thrilled these little teasel seedlings survived my absence. I’ve potted them on and hope to get some statuesque plants next year.

I also decided to have a rummage about my propagation benches and see if anything is alive.   The potting shed is a bit too warm to propagate over the summer. So I will have to take santolina cuttings next week when it cools and hope they work.

I was thrilled to see that many of my soft fruit cuttings worked.   Taken in the spring.   So with Artur yowling about my feet I potted on two black currant plants, four red currants, and seven jostaberries. They will make a great addition to my hedge next year.   That is my solution to finding a way to bulk out the hedges – free plants. And productive ones.

I left the potting shed briefly and when I returned I knew the cat was in here somewhere, but couldn’t find him.   And then I craned my head right up to the ceiling. He is teetering on the most fragile boxes of perlite.   If he brings them down I will have the entire shed littered with lightweight potting mix that I’ll never be able to collect.

So I’ll wait until later and quietly remove some of these boxes. He’s more than welcome to monkey about the place, but not bring them all down on my head.