Weeding and Planting
More Meshuga Madness
In Back Garden I’ve made a little progress with The Meshuga, cutting back a lot of the Green Alkanet and pulling out Bramble (but not the impossible roots of either), while scuffling with Couch Grass to no real avail. It looks a bit better the day I do it, but the next day Couch gets up again, singing ‘I get knocked down but I get up again, you ain’t never gonna keep me down.’ That, I have to accept, is true. In the shallow steps going up to the bench all I can do it cut at it with a knife.
I’ve decided to plant either a Berberis Darwinii or one of my own self-seeded Myrtis Communis up there at the back by the wall. I think an evergreen canopy may help to prevent some of the weeds. And halfway down, when I’ve got some of the powerful roots out, I’m going to plant that lovely waterfall of a lime green Acer, currently in a pot. The biggest Myrtis Communis seedling is currently squashed between two thin but very bony-determined Hebes. It deserves a better place.
And the adjacent two Hebes in the chimney pots, which I think of as two rough-haired Great Danes, very strokable, also want to come out. They are too big for the pots, and too big for the way through. It’s a Great Dane squeeze.
But I really need two more, exactly the same but smaller, to replace them, because they have been perfect in those chimney pots and I don’t want to try something else.
These Hebes are one of the things in the garden that have worked.
I should have taken cuttings two years ago and then they’d be about ready. I could do that now, late, and that would be better than nothing. I do wonder about actually trimming the Hebes, which I don’t think I’ve ever done…And having wondered, I looked it up and found early April recommended as a time for a light trim. So may have a gentle go now, (I know, it’s early May…) and take some cuttings at the same time.
In that photo about is one of my current Good in the Garden favourite plants - here it is in closer view - the little two-tone variegated Thymus or is it Oregano? Must go and have a look. Oregano I think. Make cuttings!
And at Calderstones
Things are looking very good in the Calderstones Garden this week and we’ve had some fine new volunteers. We welcomed Magda (from Khartoum) who worked hard and delicately pricking out scores of Amaranth seedlings, and Jigdee from Mongolia who has been with us a couple of weeks now - see him below raking new woodchip in the growing area. Lovely to see all out coldframe lights open in this fine weather.
And in the South Border, where Crown Imperial fritillaries have now gone over, I was pleased to see the Viburnum Plicatum in flower. I brought this in from home, where I’d had it unhappily in a pot for a couple of years. Originally it came from Brian Nellist’s garden and it’s a delight to see it settling in to a life at Calderstones. I was with him - somewhere - Ness Gardens perhaps - when he bought it. Characteristically, he bought me one, too. But mine died within a year or two. His lived and here it is.
In front of the Mansion the big border is growing apace, and the little island bed is doing well with its new Cherry and the dotted grasses. But this week - desperate to get them out of the greenhouse - all the Tuesday crew went round in one fell swoop to plant as many snapdragons as we could … there are still more to come but we got quite a few in. Hurray for Nathan, Chelsea, Jenny, Jan, Gary, Jigdee, Joyce, Magda and Elaine! Snapdragons! Colour lies ahead!
How lovely to see Brian's viburnum thriving in its new home! I am also growing oregano - but mine has to be in a small terracotta pot with some gravel. Your band of volunteers are so hard working and from such exotic places! Wonderful.