Yet another scorcher!!

The good weather continues, and thanks to days where we got some rain but it still managed to stay nice and warm, things really are starting to motor and flowers are ready to burst out all over the place. Most of the tulips have now gone over, though the ones planted in the rosebed are hanging on in there, the poppies and the white geraniums are in full swing, there are a couple of roses open just by the gate, the first hemerocallis opened today and numerous other perennials are on the point of flowering.

So, on to what I did today. First off I planted out the brassica plants from the greenhouse - the Petit Posy (sprout x kale) and the Stem Broccoli . 1 dozen of the first and a dozen and a half of the latter. I also tried to prick out a pot of lettuce Salad Bowl Mixed that Sally had been given, but after getting a dozen or so into the ground, I gave up as I was destroying too many - their roots were a tangled mess. So I took the remaining clump, potted it up and gave it to Sally to take up to the kitchen to use as CCA salad leaves.
I planted up the 4 bamboo wigwams I erected last week with sweet peas (Horizon Mixed) and also planted up some Primrose and Primula plants that I brought back from my mum's garden in Glasgow at the weekend.
So what's left in the greenhouse?
There are still some Heleniums that Sally already has a spot earmarked for in the long borders, the Hollyhock and delpninium seedlings, the 54 cell pack of assorted veg, the runner beans and broad beans, a few Sunflower Pastiche, three courgettes plants, a dozen tomato plants, a cucumber plant and 5 Capsicum plants.
I laid the four large slabs at the entrance to the greenhouse today - they are laid on top of granite dust and we have decided that the rest of the floor area will be gravel. The beds will be filled next week.
And on the subject of next week, the digger is coming! Work to landcape / terrace the middle section of the garden is planned to start next Wednesday - so Phase Two commences!

This is what it looks like just now.

The plan (at the moment - always subject to change until it is finally completed of course) is to have a semi circular area sweeping round the existing apple trees, a level area about 12ft wide along the bottom hedgeline which will be where the vegetable beds will go and the top area, which will be slightly sloped will be planted up with shrubs and small trees and will have a winding path through them. As I say, that's the plan - watch this space!!

And finally, at Richards behest, I dug up some self seeded Horse Chestnuts and potted them up. As you all know, there is a saying "Big Oaks from little acorns grow",  Well, if we can succesfully translate that into "Big Chestnuts from little conkers grow" we'll all be happy people, though it might take a while for these.......

 to get to be as spectacular as this stand just outside the garden..........

Well, if they keep growing, who knows, maybe Jen's grandchildren will enjoy them !!

Phew! What a Scorcher!

Well, first thing I weeded the rosebed but as this week has been amazingly hot, this has meant that everything has really got going and the perennials in the herbaceous borders are beginning to fill in the blank spaces ( anything that means less weeding has to be a good thing don't you think?).

The tulips are still going strong and have now been joined by the massed ranks of the oriental poppies and two of the peonies are flowering too.

Other plants starting to flower include the white Geraniums and the Centaurea (aka Knapweed)



Courtesy of our local Gardening Club, a member of which got hold of his neighbours bamboo which had run to seed and then died, as is the way of all bamboos, the garden is now the owner of approx 100 bamboo canes cut to approx 8ft in length, ( the actuial length is the length of my van, from front windscreen to rear doors) with the removed tops, which are about 3ft, being kept too for use as pea sticks and plant / bulb markers. These will be used for beans and sweet peas in the borders this year.

Sally had been to Inverness and returned with another couple of perennials so I planted out 5 x Campanula persicifolia Alba and 2 x Erysimum Bowles Mauve. The ground is unbelievably dry and all the plants received a full watering can to help them settle in. She (Sally that is) then brought down 4 pot grown lavenders and some clumps of Nepeta (I think that it is probably Six Hills Giant) from the house to be planted out alongside the steps down to the greenhouse. The lavenders needed a bit of TLC and the Nepeta just needed a haircut after planting.  I think that the top side of the steps would look quite nice with Alchemilla mollis and some welsh poppies (Meconopsis cambrica) - all yellows - and I can dig these up from my own garden without missing them! Feel free to suggest alternatives though!

In the greenhouse, although the toms hadn't put on as much growth as I had expected, the Petit Posy and Stem Broccoli had not only fully recovered from their mice attack but had grown on so well that they will be ready to plant out next week. The hollyhocks sown last week have germinated already and so have most of the other veg that was sown, with the exception of the crimson flowered broadies and the runner beans. I spent the rest of the afternoon knocking together two raised beds for the greenhouse - one being a deep bed and the other a single height bed. The photo shows just how much ground needs to be brought in just to raise the floor level to the correct height, never mind to fill the two beds!

That it for another week, hope you're enjoying the journey as much as I am.