Plants

Exit January… enter February

Did you feel it? The subtle season shift?

Yesterday, on the 1st of February, the air felt different. The sky was a bit lighter, the greens were a bit greener. It was as if – once January was finally out the door – the world could breathe a sigh and get on with the business of spring.

There are only very early signs: a few little snowdrops nodding on their stalks, fat shoots of daffodils poking out of the soil and leaf litter, an extra few minutes of daylight each afternoon. I even heard the sound of a woodpecker hammering on a tree in the woods – which always gives me a thrill because it’s one of the earliest spring sounds.

These are just little things, small signs, and we are still very much in the depths of winter here in Scotland – but it’s enough to inspire hope and a sense of anticipation about the new season that’s around the corner.

Spring preparations

While we wait out the last blasts of the winter winds and (no doubt) icy, cold days still to come I’m getting busy with preparing indoors for the growing season. That means sorting my seeds: checking which open packets still have seeds in them, assessing their likelihood of germination against the suggested expiry date, reminding myself of those plants I want to grow again, and those which I’ve lost enthusiasm for.

One of the beautiful things about growing a garden is that you can change it up every year if you like – or keep things exactly the same. Or something in between! There are some flowers and vegetables that are on my ‘must grow’ list, including tomatoes, dahlias, sweet peas and cosmos. I grow these every year and I mix a few favourites with new varieties and colours.

Then I also look down the notes and lists in my phone or saved photos on Instagram which remind me about new plants I want to grow or new varieties to try. I think about the colours I’m most drawn to – I like to choose shades which complement each other and at the moment I’m loving soft pinks, creams, apricots but also pairing this with a dash of dramatic dark red or purple.

For example, I love cosmos and will nearly always grow white ‘Purity’ as it’s such a fantastic, reliable plant and great in cut flower arrangements. But this year I’m very excited to try ‘Apricotta’ as I’ve admired the many Instagram photos I’ve seen other growers posting last summer! It looks like a gorgeous soft colour which will probably vary between blooms and change as the petals age, which is often the way with coloured cosmos.

So, now I’ve got an idea of the seeds I already have, and I like to arrange these (and any new additions as they arrive in the post) into the months I’ll plan to sow them so that I can keep track of what to do and when. It makes it much easier when I have an opportunity to get into the greenhouse to simply glance through the collection and pick the ones I want or need to sow that month.

January and February’s selection is always much smaller than March and April! But there’s no rush – for me, the timings are more of a guide and way to prioritise rather than a hard and fast rule. And it’s also important to keep an eye on the weather – I may hold off some of the sowings in February and March in order to give more plants a better start later in the spring as they will catch up fast in warmer, sunnier conditions.

In the meantime, I’m browsing some of my favourite seed suppliers to fill the gaps in my wish list and look out for any good bargains.

In terms of other indoor prep, I also usually draw a plan of the raised beds in The Secret Garden and figure out what I should plant and where, with a loose idea of crop rotation. If I’m feeling really nerdy I’ll open my spreadsheets (Airtable in fact) and update the plants and seeds I’ve got in stock – I might even start a mood board of colours for my sweet peas and dahlias!

Most of these plans will probably change and be adapted as the season goes, but it always feels good to start off with a plan – and it’s something enjoyable and constructive to do when the days are still short or the weather is, as they say round here, “blowing a hoolie” and making it difficult to get outside.

What I’m looking forward to growing in 2024

Here are some of the flowers I can’t wait to see in flower in my garden this year:

Cosmos ‘Double Click Cranberries’ – I resisted growing these for ages but sowed some last year and instantly fell in love with them; gorgeous deep pink coloured flowers, a good size with little frilly double petals – like a jewel in your garden.

Sweet pea ‘Juliet’ – I usually go for pinks and purples (and have plenty of these this year too!) but I was drawn to the soft cream-apricot colour of these, so I’m giving them a try.

‘Amazing Grey’ poppies – they look a bit weird in photos but when I saw these in real life at Gardeners World Live not only were they a mesmerising grey-red-purple colour, they were heaving with bees! I managed to resist buying one then and there, and ordered seeds instead to grow my own!

Calendula ‘Sunset Buff’ – these grew in huge clumps at Hospitalfield where I’m a garden volunteer and they are the prettiest soft peach-pink. A lovely alternative to the more common bright orange varieties and they just caught my eye every time I visited.

Dahlia ‘Café de Paris’ – related to the Insta-popular ‘Café au Lait’ dahlia, this one has a similar shape with a soft pink blush to the petals – it looks absolutely gorgeous.

Other good stuff…

📖 I can’t wait to get started on Arthur Parkinson’s latest book The Flower Yard: Planting a Paradise. I want to do more container growing this year and Arthur has the best eye for combinations of plants which also benefit pollinators and wildlife – I’m certain I’ll be inspired.

🧤 More spring prep – I’m ordering more gloves from Niwaki. These are my favourite light gloves with a nice neat fit which makes it easier to weed or do more fiddly work with them on – I dislike bulky gloves. I’m ordering two pairs this time as I lost one of my existing pair and have been bereft ever since!

👩🏻‍🌾 I love the variety of international horticultural jobs in this list from Mr Plant Geek. It really shows the variety of roles and skills you can combine in the world of horticulture – so check it out if you are entering the industry or fancy a career change.

Finally… are you going to this? I’m tempted 🤔 The brand new RHS Urban Show seems like it will step away from the usual, more traditional ideas of gardening with its focus on urban and indoor growing and an emphasis on wellbeing. I’d be interested to see if the kind of gardens and exhibits they will have on show are realistic and achievable for all or simply a token nod to houseplants and balcony gardens… could be interesting!

Winter Sown Sweet Peas

Sweet peas were one of the first plants I grew from seed – or, now that I think about it, from seedlings. It was quite a long time ago when my children were still small, and I felt the urge to grow something in our little garden. It needed to be easy and rewarding and I remember picking up some small sweet pea plants in cardboard pots from somewhere – probably a local garden centre.

They succeeded, and the love of growing was awakened from deep within, although at the time I had two youngsters and a job and not very much time to do anything about it. Fast forward a few years later and sweet peas are still one of the stalwarts of my garden. I sow some in late autumn/winter and usually some in the spring too, aiming to have at least two or three large frames with a variety of colours and scents, and a steady supply of flowers to pick and bring inside for the vase.

As far as I’m concerned these are fair game to sow at any point between now and spring. I sometimes even make a point of sowing on New Year’s Day – a welcome break from the festivities to mark the turning of the year and the beginning of a new growing season.

Autumn/winter sown sweet peas are generally stronger and flower earlier than spring-sown, but you do have to have a bit of space somewhere to raise them and overwinter them. This year I’m germinating mine on a windowsill in a small north-facing sunroom at the back of the house, and will then move them to the greenhouse where they can grow on, slowly and steadily, until spring when they can be planted out surprisingly early – sweet peas are hardier than they look.

Sowing

Some people soak sweet pea seeds first but I’ve never done this and my seeds usually germinate very reliably. I use a mix of general purpose peat-free compost with a couple of handfuls of horticultural grit and perlite. For pots, I either sow one seed each into rootrainer modules (like these from Sarah Raven) or three seeds into regular square 9cm pots.

The benefit of the rootrainers is that they are nice and deep, giving the roots lots of space to develop, running up and down the grooves inside each module. And once the seedlings are big enough to be planted out there’s very little root disturbance as you can just pull apart each module and plant out the whole seedling, roots and compost and all.

Although not quite as deep as rootrainers, 9cm pots also do a good job, they save a little bit of space and compost as you can sow three seeds into each one, and you can opt to pop the three seedlings from container to ground as well, no need to pull apart each plant.

Pinching out

This needs done when the seedlings have put on some good growth, which is likely to have happened by spring. When the plant has three or four pairs of leaves, either snip or squeeze off the top of the main stem, leaving one or two pairs of leaves. This means side shoots will develop, leading to bushier plants and more flowers.

Planting out

This will depend on the spring weather! For me, in Scotland, I choose an opportunity in April or May when the weather is reasonable and there’s no imminent heavy frost or cold snap. This wouldn’t necessarily kill them off, but would certainly check their growth, so ideally I’ll try to wait until I’m fairly sure the weather will be settled to let them get established. If it’s very mild it’s possible (but perhaps more risky) to plant out in March. As I said above, sweet peas are tougher than they seem and although a touch of frost may nip the youngest leaves, it shouldn’t do more harm than naturally pinching out the top growth.

Support

Sweet peas need support, and when they’re first planted out they may need tied in or at least pointed in the right direction – as they grow they’ll develop little twining tendrils which will keep them attached to the structure you provide (or to nearby plants!) So check on them regularly and tie them in with soft wool or jute twine to ensure they’re growing against the structure, otherwise the weight of the stems or a stiff wind could bend them over and damage the plants.

I used to craft a V-shaped structure out of bamboo canes and twine – until summer 2022 when most of the twine was stolen by nesting squirrels, leading to major structural integrity issues! Last year I bought a couple of these willow obelisks from Wilko and they’re fab – they look natural and are really easy to pop up and place wherever you want them in your garden. I put them onto the surface of the raised beds where I grow most of my cut flowers, but they’d blend in really well in a mixed border too.

Varieties

When it comes to what kind of sweet peas to grow, that’s entirely up to you and there’s a plethora of colours, sizes and scents to choose from. There are different groups of sweet peas, so you can choose broadly depending on what you’re looking for:

Grandiflora – as the name suggests, have large flowers and a good scent

Spencer – bred to be frilly and brightly coloured, good for showing

Species/heirloom – these have smaller blooms and simpler colours and a really strong scent

There are also dwarf varieties – these are compact and good for containers.

NB – there’s also an everlasting sweet pea – this is a perennial variety, so it comes back year after year, but it doesn’t have any scent so if that’s important to you then make sure you go for the annual types!

Recommendations

I’ve grown a lot of different varieties – I usually mix it up year to year, going for colours that I’m drawn to, or names that are meaningful – or simply sowing whatever packet I happened to have received as a gift or special offer!

These are some of the sweet peas I’ve enjoyed most in recent years and would be happy to grow again: Jimmy Shand, Cupani, Judith Wilkinson, Cream Egg, Erewhon. I also usually grow a packet of heritage mix, which reliably provides a variety of colours and good scent.

No Mow May

I’ve spotted little flashes of soft pink and purple in my back garden in the past few days, glad to see the return of some of the wildflowers which will help the local pollinator population.

It’s No Mow May, which is a great initiative for improving biodiversity and encouraging homeowners to do their bit to help bees and other pollinators. It’s a very appealing opportunity to be lazy in order to benefit wildlife – basically all you have to do is… nothing! Just don’t mow your grass for the month of May, allowing daisies, dandelions and other wildflowers, which would otherwise be razed, to spring up. This then provides a feast for bees, butterflies and other insects during spring and early summer as they feast on the pollen and nectar provided by lawns full of flowers.

There’s evidence that bees and other pollinators are in decline; we’ve also lost nearly 97% of flower rich meadows since the 1970’s. However, there’s a patchwork of gardens across Britain, which has the potential and the plant diversity to provide a feast for our struggling insects.

Daisies, dandelions, clover, buttercups, self-heal, speedwell, ladies’ smock… these are all the wildflowers – not weeds – which spring up in my garden when left unchecked. When you think of them as wildflowers, and not weeds, and you consider how pretty they really are, it’s much easier to keep the lawnmower tucked away in the shed. Not only that, but they are excellent sources of nectar and pollen for bees and other insects.

Cardamine pratensis – aka the cuckoo flower, lady’s smock, mayflower, or milkmaids

I enjoy taking part in No Mow May, partly because I love to see the grass in my garden come to life on a sunny day, with big fat bumble bees bouncing from flower to flower. Plus it’s easy, you really don’t have to do anything – an excellent propostition for the time-pressed amongst us. Less time mowing, more time to spend sowing seeds, keeping on top of weeds and planting up the summer borders – what’s not to like?!

I hope that people aren’t put off by the month-long commitment of No Mow May, or feel pressure not to mow – or worse, feel shame if they do mow! Gardening shouldn’t be about guilt – it’s about doing what’s right for you and your garden. And if you are twitching at the sight of the grass getting up to your ankles there are plenty of things you can do to boost biodiversity during May.

🌼Mow your lawn if it’s really getting too long and you can’t stand the scruff – but choose an out of the way patch to leave uncut, or leave the edges to grow long instead.

🌼Alternatively if you’re into a super-neat look then mow as usual, but consider planting up some containers with a wildflower mix in it, or some seasonal pollinator friendly flowers – pots of lavender, catmint, hardy geraniums or late spring bulbs will provide some goodness for the insects, with the added benefit of adding some colour to your garden.

🌼Do ‘Minimal Mow May’ – this is a less catchy name but is fun to say. Minimal Mow May is what I do – we have a back garden regularly used by family members and chickens, so it’s a bit more practical to keep it fairly short – I usually do at least one cut during the month of May, leaving some wild edges and a patch of longer grass at one side. We also have a front lawn which sets off the borders nicely when it’s neat, at least for a few days – all the dandelions and daisies tend to grow back very quickly anyway both front and back, so I never feel like I’m depriving the pollinators for very long.

Find out more about No Mow May at the Plantlife website.

The RHS has more tips on how gardeners can help pollinators here.

New Year, new blog post, new garden plans

It’s 2023! Garden-wise January can be a bit of a grim month. Everything looks brown and soggy and the days are still very short and usually cold, offering far fewer opportunities to get outside and do anything more than tidying up fallen leaves or cut down decaying stalks.

I do always get strangely excited about the turn of the year though, because I know that very soon I’ll be seeing the first little shoots of bulbs poking through the soil – and in fact many of them are already doing just that. January also means it will soon be time to start some early seed sowings. True, it’s still much too early for most annuals or vegetables, but there are a few seeds which do benefit from an early start, especially in Scotland, if you can time it right.

Bulb shoots are nosing their way out of the soil in my back garden

Instead of making new year resolutions, I prefer to consider what I’ll do more of and what I’ll do less of each year. These are small shifts, as opposed to grand gestures, which are more likely to fall by the wayside.

In the past 12 months I’ve moved up from part time working hours to full time – and that has definitely impacted on the time I can spend in the garden, so I’m taking that into consideration for my 2023 growing plan.

What will I do less of in the garden this year?

Grow dahlias – I tell myself every year not to buy too many dahlias, and I inevitably fail miserably! However this year I think I’ve really learning my lesson – the dahlias definitely suffered because a lack of time, not to mention the very cold weather we had quite suddenly in November, and as a result of not lifting them and protecting them at the right point I’ve lost most of this year’s tubers. So this year I will grow fewer dahlias and look after them better. I’m certain I’ll enjoy growing, taking cuttings and nurturing a smaller group, especially if it results in a better display of flowers from them this year.
Growing less, better! – Again, my time in the garden is more limited than it used to be – and I want to avoid spiralling into overwhelm because I have 40 million seedlings to pot on, grass up to my knees and borders full of weeds! So simplification is the key – growing a smaller collection of vegetables, cut flowers and hopefully keeping on top of things as much as possible.
Spend less time in the garden – but MORE OFTEN. This is key – I may not have 2 hours to spare every day but I can still get a lot done in 10/15 minutes, or half an hour here and there – and I’m reminded of that every time I do it. Pulling a few weeds, deadheading flowers, pricking out a few seedlings – these things never take quite as long as I think and even a short spell in the garden or greenhouse is time well spent on my own health and a welcome break from work or home life!
Hatching chicks – we love hatching and raising little chicks, but after a difficult time rehoming a number of boys last year, I swore I would not do it again. I’m planning to sell the incubator and enjoy the lovely hens we already have this year.

What will I do more of in the garden this year?

Design – I need to revamp one of the main patio areas in the garden; it’s been looking sad and bare (apart from the weeds) all winter and it’s one of our main sitting areas when the weather is good, so I really need to crack on, decide what we’re going to do with it and then get it done! I have a vision for a combination of circular paving, gravel and some drought tolerant, airy planting.
More design – I’m interested in Scone Palace’s design competition (details on their Facebook page) – I have no idea if I can do it, but I’d love to give it a try and I already have a few ideas around a possible theme… it seems like a good starting point to test my garden design skills, which I am currently studying to acquire so that I can pass some…
…exams – I’m determined to complete the RHS Level 2 course this year so that I can finally achieve a horticulture qualification. Two more exams to go in February – fingers crossed!
Pollinator friendly plants – more, more, more. I think this (and a decent level of drought tolerance) will be guiding my decision making this year – I just love seeing bees, hoverflies, butterflies, bee flies, ladybirds, all manner of insects flying or crawling around the flowers in my garden, so I’ll be choosing and growing more of the kinds plants which attract them and feed them.
Podcasting?? This is a very tentative late entry. I miss writing and recording and meeting new and interesting Scottish gardening people. I might need to experiment a bit with format, content or routine, but if I can work out a way to make podcasting fit into my life alongside work, family and the garden itself, then you might be seeing some new episodes of The Scottish Garden Podcast in 2023…

I’ll be growing more pollinator friendly plants in 2023, like this Knauti macedonica, which bees love

Cambo Walled Garden, August 2020

Photographs taken by me at Cambo Walled Garden, late August 2020.

Wildflower Love ♥

This year I have set myself a casual challenge to learn to identify more wildflowers. When I say it’s a casual challenge, it’s one that has developed in part because of my natural curiosity about plants and in part through necessity. Garden visits have been almost impossible this spring and summer because of lockdown restrictions, so my focus has fallen to the flowers and plants around me – in the woods and hedgerows where we’ve walked more than ever, as well as further afield as restrictions have been eased and we’ve been able to go out for day trips.

I’ve looked out for all kinds of wildflowers since they began emerging in the spring, and have watched the forest floor and the hedgerows grow and develop through into summer. Some plants are of course common and easy to identify – wild roses, foxgloves, cowslips and primroses for example. I love the big fat red clover flowers which are a cousin of the smaller variety popping up in my lawn. It’s also fairly simple to spot ox-eye daisies and now at this time of year the statuesque rosebay willowherb is gradually turning its eye-poppingly pink flowers to fluffy seedheads.

All the pinks and purples! Rosebay willowherb, red clover, field scabious, pink yarrow, foxgloves

But there are lots of flowers which I had previously disregarded or just didn’t look closely enough to really see them, and now I find myself peering into the undergrowth when I visit a new place to see if I can find anything unusual. I use my phone to take photos of whatever I find, and anything I really can’t identify I can then look up in my handy Wild Flowers book at home. It’s a slightly old-fashioned book, with illustrations instead of photos but I’ve found it simple to identify each plant according to its kind, and I can also be slightly smug with myself about looking up an actual reference book for a change instead of relying on Google or an app!

One of my most exciting finds this summer was a Common Spotted Orchid, discovered at the Glenfinnan Viaduct, and the infamous Himalyan Balsam which I found on the banks of the River North Esk. It’s not uncommon, which is part of its problem – it’s an infamously invasive non-native plant but up until recently I had read about it, but never knowingly seen it.

Common-spotted orchid, Himalayan balsam

Closer to home, I was also gifted a Seedball to trial earlier in the year, so I’ve used it to help develop a wildflower section in one of my raised beds. I’ve documented the sowing and growing on my Instagram feed, and there’s a video in my Highlights showing just how easy these are – you just scatter the little clay balls in spring around the area where you want to grow your wildflowers and they will naturally break down and germinate in time to flower for the summer. I’ve also been growing Ragged Robin from seed, a wildflower which loves damp soil around ponds, so a little group of these is now in a pot next to my tin bath pond. I would love to introduce more wildflowers to my garden – they’re tough but pretty in a natural, uncultivated way, and loved by all kinds of insects.

Corn Marigolds popping up where I scattered my tin of Seedballs

So it’s been a mini journey of discovery for me so far this year. I’ve really enjoyed spotting and identifying the plants I’ve seen every day but couldn’t name, such as lady’s bedstraw, field scabious, self-heal, eyebright and also looking out for the best and most beautiful specimens of some old favourites, like harebells, foxgloves and meadow cranesbill. Try it yourself – take a closer look and use a book or an app to figure out what you’ve found. The plants which grow in our home environment are so important for biodiversity, supporting pollinators, providing a healthy eco-system and help us to notice the change in seasons as early dots of colour give way to blousy, overblown hedgerows. It’s useful and enjoyable to know what’s growing just outside your garden walls.

Harebells and self-heal at the River North Esk

Meadow cranesbill, evening primrose, wild thyme, cornflower, rest-harrow (I think!), yarrow at Elie, Fife

Wild rose, in the woods behind my home

Quadgrow trial – part 1

Let’s talk tomatoes. At the beginning of this year’s growing season I was lucky enough to be sent a Quadgrow planter, after spotting them at this year’s Garden Press Event in London (back when we are able to travel freely around the country – remember those days?!).

The Quadgrow display at the Garden Press Event, March 2020

I was really impressed with the set up on display – they had a selection of chilis growing in these, as it was March and still early in the season, but they’re also suitable for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and other tall cropping plants. The really big deep pots are placed into a large tray which you fill with water, making it a self-watering system which keeps your plants from drying out for up to 2 weeks. This makes it incredibly useful during the summer when a) the weather is hopefully nice and warm, making your greenhouse very cosy and b) you might (under non-Covid circumstances) be planning to go on holiday. With the Quadgrow you simply fill up the tray and can leave your plants for a few days, knowing they won’t be crispy when you come home again!

After speaking to the guys from Greenhouse Sensation at the GPE they got in touch and asked if I’d like to trial the planter and I jumped at the chance. Growing tomatoes is one of my favourite things to do in the garden – I love the whole process, from sowing the seed right through to harvesting those ripe red fruits, and as I’m always interested to try new varieties and techniques I thought this would be an excellent system to use this year, in pursuit of the perfect tomato!

The package came safely in the post, complete with two trays, four pots and some plant food and I set up the system in mid-May when my tomato plants were getting big enough to plant out and live in the greenhouse. Bearing in mind that I’m not particulary handy or technically-minded it was easy to set up and I had the thing slotted together in minutes. You simply have to connect the trays with a little pipe and also insert the filters and make sure the wicking material is in place within each pot. This is how the system keeps the soil moist so it’s important to make sure the wicking material is in contact with the water. I actually left a little corner of it visible above the soil so that I can check it’s still damp – that way I know the soil is still getting the moisture it needs. Once the pots were filled up with some peat-free tomato compost I popped in each plant, inserted a bamboo support and tied them into place as I usually do.

In the interests of not-very-scientific experimentation I’m also growing the same varieties of tomato in the same peat free compost but in growbags and pots. I’m looking forward to seeing how each method compares, and whether I have healthier plants, or better fruit, from those grown in bags, pots or the Quadgrow. There will have to be a lot of tasting to find out… 😋

And if you’re wondering what varitieties I’m growing, I’ve got: Gardener’s Delight, Sungold, Rosella and Black Russian. I’m also growing one plant called Maskotka outdoors – another experiment to see if it’s possible to get a decent crop of tomatoes outdoors in Scotland. I have my doubts, but actually this plant seems to be doing fine – although a bit more compact than the others it’s setting fruit and looking fairly healthy!

So far, I’ve topped up the Quadgrow with water about three times and it hasn’t yet been empty when I’ve checked. The plants are definitely more thirsty the bigger they’ve got so I’m keeping a close eye on the water level each time I’m doing a #Fridayfeed.

You can check out photos and videos of the Quadgrow on my Instagram feed @mycornerofearth – there’s a series saved to my Stories including the set-up video and I’m including regular updates as the plants develop. I’ll report back more progress here on this blog as my plants grow and hopefully give me some tasty tomatoes!

My tomato plants are flourishing so far in their Quadgrow planter!

A good year for the roses?

Roses are the quintessential country garden plant – they’re a symbol of royalty and romance, celebrated in art, and even flavour our food. For some, they’re an essential element of a good garden, while others find them old-fashioned or fussy. It’s true that some roses can demand a little extra care, but there are so many varieties today that it’s easy to find a rose which suits your garden and, more importantly, your style of gardening, whether it’s hands-on or low-maintenance. If you’re caring for an existing rose, or want to introduce new plants to your garden, now is an excellent time to lay the groundwork for healthy, happy plants which will reward you with some beautiful blooms later in the year.

Every rose has its thorn…

Pruning roses is an important winter task and best done before March, when they will be waking from their dormant state and coming into growth again. Cutting back older, established plants is almost essential for roses, to avoid leggy growth, prevent disease and maintain a good shape. The first thing to do, if you can, is to identify what kind of rose you have in order to make sure you’re following the correct advice for your particular plant. If you’re unsure follow these general rules to reinvigorate the plant and keep it healthy: using secateurs, cut the branches back by one to two thirds and trim off dead or damaged stems, any which are crossing/rubbing as well as any leaves showing signs of blackspot, taking care to remove these from the site completely so as not to re-infect the new growth. The best way to prune is to cut back to just above a new leaf bud (small nodule on the stem).

Bush roses: these include floribunda types and hybrid teas, such as ‘Lady Marmalade’ and ‘Mary Berry’. They flower on new growth each year so can be pruned back hard to encourage fresh new shoots which should also eventually bear flowers. Don’t be afraid to cut right down almost to ground level – these roses respond well to a good cut back and it’s highly unlikely you’ll kill the plant.

Modern shrub/English roses : these are usually larger, repeat flowering, scented roses, including ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ and ‘Sceptr’d Isle’. They need to maintain a more natural framework of stems but it’s still worth wielding the secateurs to remove any dead or damaged stems, cutting back older, woody branches and pruning side stems down to two or three buds.

Climbing roses: such as ‘New Dawn’ or ‘Mme Alfred Carriere’ are tall and vigorous, and need tying in to ensure they don’t end up in a tangled mess. As with other types, remove dead or damaged stems, cutting out any very old branches or any which are rubbing, as this can create a wound and therefore an entry point for disease. Make sure your main framework is tied into its support, then add in any new side shoots, and trim flowering shoots back by two-thirds of their length.

Rambling roses: eg ‘Rambling Rector’, ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’ are similar to climbers but usually only flower once in the growing season. They can be pruned similar to climbing roses too by making sure they have a framework of branches fanned out and tied into supports. One in three of the oldest branches can be cut out and side shoots trimmed back by about two-thirds.

Once you’ve got your roses back into shape, they’ll also benefit from a feed of general purpose or fertiliser, sprinkled around the soil at the base of the plant and then covered with a layer of well-rotted manure or compost – this should ensure they’re off to a good start for the new growing season.

I never promised you a rose garden…

Gone are the days when having roses in your garden meant a square of bare earth with half a dozen rose bushes displaying only thorny branches for half of the year. Modern planting design encourages combining the roses which best suit your style of garden with other shrubs and perennials in a mixed border. The cottage garden is possibly the best example of this and wouldn’t be complete without a few romantic roses in amongst pretty poppies, airy cosmos and tall spikes of delphiniums and foxgloves. They blend beautifully with the lush and lax style of other cottage garden plants, taking a back seat in the spring when bulbs and other early flowers appear, then centre stage from midsummer until autumn, when regular deadheading will ensure repeat flowering roses are the stars of the border.

Not only that but there’s a colour to suit every palette. Red roses such as the velvety ‘Deep Secret’ are, of course, the classic choice, but pinks are often easier to combine in a mixed bed, with every shade available from bright cerise through to soft blush. ‘Gabriel Oak’ is a brand new rose from renowned breeder David Austin in a shade of deep pink, with a full, rosette style flower and a strong, fruity scent. Climber ‘New Dawn’ on the other hand, is a pale pink, with a classic petal shape and sweet fragrance, and blooms reliably from summer until late autumn.

If you don’t want to go down the ‘obvious’ red or pink route, there’s also a multitude of white and cream roses to choose from, including the top performer ‘Iceberg’, with open, single flowers which are good for pollinators, and the pretty ‘Mary Berry’, a hybrid tea with a traditional shape and beautiful scent. Yellow and orange flowers are not to everyone’s taste and can be trickier to include in a mixed border – but combined well they can also make an impact, providing a hit of colour or a bright contrast to darker shades of purple or green. To test your tolerance of yellow shades try ‘Tottering-By-Gently’ which was introduced at 2018’s Chelsea Flower Show and is a soft yellow shrub rose, with simple, open flowers which would pair beautifully with purple lavender or zingy orange heleniums. In my own border I have the brick-red ‘Hot Chocolate’ next to the orange geum ‘Totally Tangerine’ and deep purple salvia ‘Amistad’ – the colours are unusual but tone well and provide a dramatic contrast to the soft pastels elsewhere in the garden.

Kiss from a rose…

Get roses right and they will reward you. With just a little care and attention they really can be the showstoppers of the garden. To keep your blooms in tip-top condition during the growing season feed, weed and deadhead. As well as mulching and fertilising in the early spring, give your plants a second feed after the first flush of flowers to keep them healthy. Weed around the base regularly (avoiding any spiky thorns!) and cut off faded blooms, which for most floribunda and repeat flowering types, will ensure more flowers will follow. Although established roses don’t need regular watering, a watering can full once a week is beneficial during especially hot and dry spells, although if your rose is in a container, it will need watered and fed more frequently throughout the season.

And finally keep an eye out for greenfly, which will love your roses almost as much as you. There are various chemical sprays on the market to get rid of greenfly but the safer and healthier (and lazier!) approach is simply to sit back and wait. A good garden ecosystem usually balances itself and with aphids come ladybirds. These natural predators will take care of the pests within a short space of time – however, if your infestation is particularly bad you can spray the stems with soapy water, blast them with the hose, or put on your garden gloves and rub them off between your finger and thumb.

Plant a bare-root rose

Bare-root roses are available during the winter and up to the end of March, and they’re often the best way to introduce a new plant to your garden. Bare-root simply means they’re sold without a container, with the roots exposed. Although they might not look as attractive as a potted plant, bare-root specimens are cheaper and usually establish better as they have plenty of time to develop a strong and healthy root system before energy is diverted into flowering during the summer months.

To plant a bare-root rose:

Rehydrate the plant by placing in a bucket of water for at least 30 minutes before planting
Choose a sunny, well-drained position and dig a hole approximately 40cm wide and 60cm deep
Add well-rotted manure to the base of the planting hole
Place the rose in the hole, spreading out the roots and ensuring the graft union (swollen area between roots and stems) is just below the surface of the soil
Fill in the hole with soil and firm in with your foot
Water well after planting

This article was published in Platinum magazine’s March 2020 issue

Cosmos – out of this world!

No garden should be without cosmos and its heavenly flowers. After a bit of a slow start with these brightly-coloured blooms, I’ve become a convert, and now I sow them from seed every year to ensure I’ve got plenty of these cheery favourites to brighten up my borders.

Cosmos bipinnatus are half-hardy annuals, which means, like bedding plants, they will grow and flower within one season, and can then be composted when they’re spent in the autumn. Their large, daisy-like flowers are most often seen in shades of pink or pure white, but they can also be found in ‘hot’ red and orange – there’s even a relatively new yellow variety. They are very easy to grow and you can easily buy them as young plants – but you’ll get much more for your money if you sow them from seed any time between March and May. Simply sprinkle onto a tray of moist compost and cover lightly. They’ll benefit from bottom heat, but will also germinate fairly readily if covered with a plastic bag or clear lid and left in a greenhouse or sunny windowsill.

Once their second pair of leaves is showing (the ‘true’ leaves) they can be pricked out into bigger pots and grown on until they’re ready to plant out after the last frosts. Pinching them out (removing the growing tip) makes for bigger and bushier plants with more flowers so this is well worth doing at this point or when they’re about a foot or so tall. Once they’re in the ground and flowering it’s a good idea to deadhead them regularly as removing the spent flowers makes room for more to bloom – and bloom they will! These generous plants will flower non-stop from midsummer until the first frosts, perhaps even later. With last year’s mild autumn, it took a real dip in the temperatures to kill off my cosmos, so I was able to enjoy them well into November.

There’s quite a wide variety of cosmos to choose from, but all are reliable performers so choosing is simply a matter of taste. For a pure hit of colour you can’t go wrong with ‘Sensation’ – a mix of light and dark pinks with some white flowers and well worth growing. There’s also ‘Dazzler’ with large deep red flowers, or ‘Versailles Tetra’, which are slate-pink with a red centre surrounding the bright yellow eye of the bloom. Last year I was quite taken with ‘Daydream’, which is a bit more delicate looking – very pale pink, deepening in colour towards the centre of each petal. However my firm favourite is ‘Purity’, These are quite a tall variety, so best towards the back of a border, with large, brilliant white flowers. They look fantastic with other cottage-garden style plants or in a vase, providing light and texture with their feathery foliage and stunning white blooms.

Cosmos aren’t just for the garden – dwarf varieties are great in pots – try ‘Sonata’ or ‘Apollo’, which are more compact and will suit container planting. For something a bit different, go for ‘Xanthos’ which flowers prolifically and is the first yellow cosmos in a really pretty, soft shade. There are other more unusual varieties of cosmos which come in all shapes and sizes – ‘Cupcake’ is so-called because its fused and upturned petals look, well, like a cupcake! Or there’s ‘Sea Shells’, which has tubular petals, and ‘Double Click’, with a lovely ruffled, fully double flower, in a range of colours from cranberry through to rose.

Cosmos ‘Xanthe’ (left) with chocolate cosmos in the planter with Stipa tenuissima

Cosmos are easy to grow, flower for ages and are great for filling gaps in borders, or as a temporary fix for an empty flower bed – they can even be planted alongside vegetables, to help bring in those useful pollinators, and they’re a stalwart of the cut flower patch too. They’re great dotted around the garden or in a vast swathe of airy, feathery foliage dotted with those brilliant blooms. Cosmos are cosmic for every garden – so get growing!

Chocolate cosmos
Chocolate cosmos is another member of the cosmos family, but not exactly like the others. Why is it called chocolate cosmos? Well, partly because of its rich, dark, red/brown colouring but also because of its scent – if you get up close to the flower you’ll smell its wonderful vanilla-chocolate aroma. Also known as Cosmos astrosanguineus, this plant is perennial, and if you look after its slim tubers (by lifting or covering during the winter) then it will return year after year. It’s not as common as its bright and beautiful cousins, but it’s got a velvety, sultry charm which is hard to resist. These are most often bought as young plants, as seeds are hard to come by and can be tricky to germinate. Chocolate cosmos are much smaller than Cosmos bipinnnatus, with loose, slender stems. I plant mine in a large container with grasses to give some contrast and also to help support the flowers…after all, I want them as close to my nose as possible for that fantastic hit of chocolate!

This article was originally published in The Courier’s Beautiful Homes supplement, Spring 2019

Get Into Grow Your Own

“Nothing tastes as good as home-grown!” – a familiar cry from allotment owners and keen gardeners everywhere. But is it true? And are you ready to find out for yourself?

Why?
There are many reasons why growing your own is a good thing to do – both for yourself, and for the environment. When you grow your own food, you know exactly where it’s come from: your own soil, pesticide-free and freshly picked. Often, the produce we buy from the supermarket shelves is already several days or even weeks old and may have been treated with preservatives to prevent them from spoiling. Carrots, for example, are typically stored for anything from 1 to 9 months before being sold in the shops; in contrast, you can pick a carrot from your garden and have it cooked and on your plate within minutes – guaranteed freshness which also means fantastic flavour.

And the total food miles? Zero! At a time when the climate emergency is on everyone’s lips, reducing the amount of carbon emitted by food transportation is another way we can contribute to the fight against global warming. Not to mention that growing your own food completely bypasses the plastic packaging involved in unnecessarily wrapping fresh produce. But perhaps one of the best reasons to get into ‘grow your own’ is because it’s really enjoyable! It’s incredibly satisfying to sow some seed, watch the shoots germinate and grow and eventually harvest some delicious food to feed yourself and others.

Where?
You don’t need a huge garden or allotment plot to begin growing fruit and vegetables – any outdoor space can be adapted for growing. Garden beds are useful, but if space is limited you can grow in pots, window boxes or growbags. If you are fortunate enough to have some room in the garden, or even an entire allotment plot, you can sow straight into the ground or create raised beds, which can be constructed from various materials, and can offer easier access to the soil and plants. In terms of tools, a basic but useful set would include: a spade and/or fork, a rake, a trowel and a watering can or hose.

Your growing area should be prepared during autumn to late winter, so that the ground is ready for planting in spring when the soil warms up. This is the time of year to begin sowing – a wide range of vegetables can be started from seed either indoors on a sunny windowsill or under glass in a greenhouse or cold frame; these will be planted out into your veg beds once they’ve established a good root system and after the last frosts (generally around mid-late May for Scotland).

What?
You’ve got the space and the tools – now what to grow? The best place to start is to think about what you like to eat, and grow that. Love potatoes? They’re quick and easy, and even better fresh from the plot. Can’t stand carrots? Then don’t bother – they have a relatively long growing season, so put your efforts into something you prefer. Figure out how much space you’ve got, and choose the crop to suit. Peas and beans grow vertically, so don’t take up much room; potatoes, on the other hand, are large and leafy and need to be spaced around a foot apart. Smaller, fast-growing salad veg such as lettuce, radish, beetroot and spring onion can often be planted among those which take longer to harvest, maximising your growing space.
Tomatoes require some extra effort, but are well worth it – there is nothing to compare with the flavour of a fresh, homegrown tomato. These usually need to be grown in a greenhouse, with careful watering – but there are some outdoor varieties which may withstand the variable weather of a Scottish summer. Other greenhouse (or warm conservatory) options include chillis, peppers, cucumber and aubergines.

The other addition to your plot should be some flowers – these are important for attracting beneficial insects and repelling pests. Pollinators will visit for bright blooms such as cosmos, calendula or nasturtium, while marigolds are said to be effective at repelling aphids.

How?
To find out more information on growing your own you don’t have to look far – there is a plethora of books on the subject, along with websites, apps, magazines and podcasts. Charles Dowding is the creator of the ‘no-dig’ movement and a master of grow your own – his books and website are a great place to start. If you’re short of space, try Huw Richard’s book ‘Veg in One Bed’ for a very simple guide to growing as much as possible in a small area. The book ‘Fruit and Vegetables for Scotland’ by Ken Cox and Caroline Beaton is especially useful for identifying the best varieties for Scottish gardeners.

If Instagram is your thing use the hashtag #GYO or #growyourown to find a community of like-minded gardeners and allotment holders who love to share photos and advice. There are also plenty of podcasts covering food growing and related topics – such as The Organic Gardening Podcast or The Dirt, which is produced by Grow Your Own magazine, another excellent source of information and advice – plus each issue comes with free seeds!

If you’re thinking now’s the time to try growing some food – just go for it. You’ve nothing to lose but the price of a packet of seeds – and you might gain a new passion, better health, more time outdoors and some really tasty fruit and veg!

This article appeared in the Weekend supplement of The Courier, 11th April 2020

Garden Goodies @ GPE 2020

Last week I attended the Garden Press Event in London for the first time – this is an event organised to allow the horticulture industry to come together so that journalists can view the latest products, find out about new campaigns and generally share information and news. It was a whistlestop tour of all the big names in the industry, plus lots of smaller and emerging businesses with new and interesting products to bring to the market. Not to mention initiatives like National Children’s Gardening Week and Garden Day which aim to raise the profile of gardening generally.

There were a few items which particularly caught my attention, so here’s my list of Top 5 Garden Goodies from the GPE 2020:

Nemaknights – I had spotted this advertised in a magazine and then promptly forgot what it was called, so I was delighted to find NemaKnights had a stall, and quizzed them on this potentially transformative product! Essentially it’s nematodes in granular form which you can shake onto the soil as and when you need it. It’s a biological pest control which is child, pet and wildlife friendly and targets slugs and snails, although it’s also available for vine weevils, ants and sciarid flies. If you’ve used nematodes before you’ll know that up until now they’ve been a bit fiddly to use – with a short shelf life, they’re kept in the fridge then you’ve got to add water, mix and water into your soil. Nemaknights seems to eliminate the fuss, making it much easier to use a pesticide-free solution to an age-old problem. I’m looking forward to trying this as we do have many slugs in our garden – I’d also be keen to use it for fungus gnats because this is the time of year they tend to reappear, when my windowsills are full of germinating seed trays!

Quadgrow – another product I was very taken by was the Quadgrow by Greenhouse Sensation. This is a self-watering planter, ideal for crops such as tomatoes, peppers, aubergines or courgettes, and can be used in the greenhouse, polytunnel or on a patio. It promises to keep plants at just the right moisture level for around 14 days using a wicking system, resulting in 2x bigger harvests compared to grow bags or pots. I can see this working well for my tomatoes – or possibly the aubergines and courgettes which are currently only seedlings… so watch this space!

Claire Austin’s Book of Perennials – it was great to speak to Claire Austin herself who was there to promote her newly revised Book of Perennials. I had read about her most recent venture The Sarn in February’s Gardens Illustrated and loved the idea of opening a pub with a plant nursery out the back! Beer and plants – what more could you want?! And I was lucky enough to take away a copy of the book, which I am certain will fuel my daydream of one day owning my own independent nursery. The book was first published in 2015 and has been revised to include 180 new varieties with extended features on peonies and irises. It’s full of advice on choosing and caring for perennials, and how to plant them together. Plus there are 700 plants listed – a perennial lovers paradise.

Honeyfield’s – this is a company producing wild bird food and associated feeders, nest boxes etc. The brand is owned by Marriages, which makes pet food and animal feed, and is now an authority on environmentally friendly wild bird care. Honeyfield’s stands apart from other suppliers in its approach to sourcing seed and sustainability – it’s the first supplier of Fair to Nature bird seed in the UK, which means it’s commited to using cereals and other feeds from farms which grow crops to sustain farmland bird species. So Honeyfield’s not only feeds garden birds, but also looks after those in the countryside too. Not only that, but their packaging is recyclable and they encourage consumer to use a refillable ‘Tub for Life’ for zero-waste shopping. I’ll be popping one of their Easy Clean Seed Feeders out into the garden shortly and I’m certain the local birds are going to love it! Check out Honeyfield’s excellent range of feeding guides here and their brilliant Bird Bites videos, which cover a host of different wild bird care topics.

Activearth – I was very intrigued by this new product, which claims to supercharge your soil. As the owner of some under-performing raised beds, I’m currently on the hunt for ideas to help increase the nutrient levels of my soil and improve the health of the plants I grow in them. Activearth is an organic pellet which provides the soil with 4 essential minerals (Magnesium, Calcium, Hydrogen and Potassium) plus beneficial soil bacteria, to improve fertility and plant growth in a slow release format. Scattered over the growing area, Activearth promises to transform the soil ‘from compacted and dormant to biologically active and nutrient-rich’. This, I like the sound of. So I will try the small sample I’ve got and see if there are any significant improvements – it sounds like a magic formula, and it smells like biscuits! Is it too good to be true? I hope to find out and report back…

Peat free compost

I was recently sent a couple of sample bags of peat-free compost from Westland* – in fact, they turned up shortly before Christmas – cue much head-scratching as I tried to work out what on earth kind of huge, heavy present had I forgotten about ordering…

The two kinds are New Horizon All Plant compost and New Horizon All Veg compost – both claim to be 100% sustainable, natural & peat-free compost. Now, I will confess that up until now I haven’t been a huge fan of peat-free compost, although this is very likely because I’ve bought poor quality stuff. The last bag I had was dry, woody and hard to handle – I didn’t have a very good experience of growing dahlias in it last year so it really put me off. However, I’m fully aware of the issues around peat, so I’m very keen to find a good quality (and hopefully good value) brand which will be as good for my plants as it is for the environment.

So I recently gave the first New Horizon bag a try – the All Plant version – for some pots of bulbs and for sowing some early seeds**. In contrast to the previous variety of peat-free compost I tried, this stuff is lovely and soft, it’s dark in colour and nice to work with – I would have a hard time distinguishing it from ordinary compost containing peat. So, first impressions are good.

My current seed-sowing mix: New Horizon All Plants peat free compost plus a trowelful of grit and a couple of handfuls of perlite

I will report back a little later in the season once I’ve raised some seeds and used it for containers but I’m expecting good things and I’m looking forward to trying the veggie version too. I recently had a conversation on The Scottish Garden Podcast with Ken Cox, who was quite forthright with his views on peat and how it may not be the black-and-white issue it’s portrayed in the media. I found his views really interesting and I do think it’s sensible for gardeners to do their bit in avoiding the use of peat where there’s a suitable substitute. So I’m already hoping these are products I’ll be able to use again.

For more discussion about peat and peat-free compost, you could listen to the Roots and All budcast on Going Peat Free with John Walker (scroll down about 2/3 of the way down the page) or there’s some useful advice on peat free growing for houseplants in this episode of On the Ledge. And Garden Organic has good info on peat free on this page, along with great tips on the best mixes for various growing media.

The 2020 growing season is off to a good start!

*This isn’t a sponsored post or anything – I was simply offered the chance to try some of this compost, so I took it! I hope it’s interesting for others to read about my experiences of this new product.

**So what have I sown so far in 2020? Not much, as it’s still only January! But I’ve started a couple of varieties of sweet peas and I also wanted to get a good early start on some snapdragons, which need a long growing season I believe. I’ve also fired up the propagator and popped in some Verbena bonariensis (I want loads more of this in my front garden!) and some Stipa tenuissima, which is great for pots and borders too.

Time to plan…

It’s winter, but it’s not cold.

Little green shoots are appearing – but they’re too early.

Hellebores are emerging, the witch hazel is blooming and we even have a couple of snowdrops almost fully out in the front garden. It’s SpringWinter – not cold enough to be properly winter but not light enough to be properly spring. Also known – on Instagram at least – as #thatwinterspringthing.

The mild weather and green shoots are not unwelcome – in fact they’re a wonderful reminder of what’s to come. I just wonder if we’re being lulled into a false sense of security, only to be shocked back into the depths of winter by a lengthy icy blast…

In any case there’s not much going on in the garden just yet, and I’m glad of the time to plan ahead for the coming season. The main projects for this year will be:

the white border in the front garden – I’m redesigning one side of the front garden as it’s currently looking the most bare and in need of rejuvenation. I want to drastically increase the planting and hopefully stick to a mainly white theme, as it’s partly in shade and its backdrop is much larger trees and bushes within the wooded area next door. The plan is for some lush green/white planting which will lift the whole area during spring/summer
planting and sorting the area round the chicken coop – this area needs replanting after we switched the smaller chicken run for a much larger, covered run. The grass needs fixed and there’s plenty of room at the front of the coop for some new hen-friendly plants
growing/selling plants from the Secret Garden – this project began last year when I sold the surplus plants I’d grown for my own garden. I put the extras onto Facebook Marketplace and they were snapped up by quite a few local folk looking to support a small independent nursery. I got the best buzz from growing healthy plants for others to enjoy so I definitely want to repeat the experience this year! (The Secret Garden is so-called because it’s the space I have for raised beds and greenhouse behind a rather unobtrusive-looking door at the bottom corner of the garden.)

So the planning and designing is getting into full swing – I’m researching, drawing, reading and checking my seed stocks to get ready for what is likely to be a busy growing season.

This preparation includes testing out a couple of online drawing/design tools alongside the online systems I already use. I use a range of different tools for different things – Evernote for clipping and saving articles, photos and plant information; Google Drive for plants/seeds spreadsheets and keeping track of budgets; Microsoft OneNote for drawing and saving designs. I’m also currently trying the Suttons veg planner tool, which will hopefully help me to plan my fruit/veg growing for this year, as well as my cut flower bed. And I’ve downloaded an app for my laptop called Bamboo Paper which also allows me to draw and create ‘mood board’ style notebooks.

Designing the front ‘white’ border with OneNote. It helps if you do this with wine 🙂

I did contemplate starting an actual physical notebook as a garden journal, and using a real-life pen and ink…but for some reason I seem to get on fine with the online methods. I think in fact I’m more likely to access these electronic records and keep them updated than a diary-style physical notebook, as lovely as it is to hold and treasure a well-thumbed, dog-eared notebook…

Oh and one more goal which I hope to achieve imminently – sitting two more RHS Level 2 exams in February. I’ve already been hitting the books again to swot up on plant biology and soil nutrition. Wish me luck!

Happy 2019 – here’s to a great gardening year!

Where do ladybirds go in winter?

This is the question I’ve been asking myself lately.

I’ve noticed more ladybirds than ever in my garden this year. They’ve popped up all over the place – in pots, under the bin lids, on doorframes, in the house, and – thankfully – on my plants, presumably feasting on any pests which would dare to come their way. It’s no coincidence that I’ve barely noticed a single greenfly since the spring.

They seemed particularly happy perching in and around the sunflower heads, especially the slightly dried-and-curled-up faded flowers which must give them plenty of nooks and crannies in which to hide.

They also – strangely – took to congregating in the multiple hose head thing which I installed to try and keep the plants watered while we were on holiday. I’ve no idea why this was an attractive place to gather, but each time I looked in there were at least half a dozen piled into it.

So, as the season has changed and the temperature’s dropped, I’ve been asking myself what’s going to happen to the ladybirds now? Many of them still seemed to be hiding out in my faded sunflowers, and I needed to cut these down – but I didn’t want to disturb them or compost their winter hideaway. And I don’t have a bug hotel in my garden which I could encourage them to populate instead.

Apparently they do hibernate for the winter in various types of sheltered spots – tree bark, leaf litter etc. They like crevices, leaves, bark, often low down. So, having spent some time clearing the raised beds today, I did cut down the sunflowers, but took the heads of the flowers off first with a short section of stem and have piled them, and their little ladybird occupants, in a sheltered corner. Hopefully the ladybirds will make themselves cosy there for the winter or can crawl away to the many trees and piles of leaves nearby which might make a more suitable winter holiday home.

I certainly hope they will wake up and return in the spring – it’s been a real joy to have a loveliness of ladybirds sharing my garden this year.

September Stars

It seems I have a late summer garden – there’s more colour on show in September than there has been during the rest of the year.

The front garden is currently showing off all its colours – yellows, pinks, peachy dahlias and flashes of reds from the crocosmia, roses and even a few second-flowering geums. I haven’t really planned a late summer garden, but each season I have been adding layers of colour and texture so there’s as much interest throughout the year as possible. It looks like I’ve certainly been attracted to late season plants!

I do love my dahlias, of course, and they’re really hitting their stride at the moment. I’m also really enjoying the echinaceas which are flourishing, the rudbeckias (still small, only sown this year) and the cosmos, which is a great gap filler. I bought a couple of sedums several weeks ago and love to see the bees still busy around these flowers as they deepen in colour each day. These are all being propped up by some of the shrubs and plants which may have finished flowering but are still providing essential structure and mass – the two cotinus, the damask rose, teasels and eryngium for example, whose spiky texture is also providing soft browns and purples.

Some of my front garden plants have had a second wind, most likely due to the very warm summer we’ve had. The geums I’ve already mentioned – these first bloomed in May I think and are still popping out a few flowers! The hot pink salvia is coming out again for another throw, along with the geranium ‘Lace Time’ with its pretty veined pink flowers.

But the stand-out repeat flowerer has to be the rose ‘Lady Marmalade’. I might be wrong, but I think she’s currently in flower for the third time – and still looking beautiful.

‘Lady Marmalade’

It’s lovely, as the summer slips away and the temperature starts to fall, that the hot colours are still warming up the garden. I feel a bit sad about the season changing – I really loved the hot weather – but I can still enjoy the summer blooms. Plus now is the time to collect seed, take cuttings and begin thinking about next year. I know – it’s only September! – but I’m already thinking of what I want to grow and/or sell in the Secret Garden next spring and what I will add to the borders, front and back, to keep building those layers of colour, texture and foliage.

The hit list for next year includes more Stachys byzantina for its gorgeous soft leaves and rich pink flowers; more Verbena bonariensis as it’s so bee-friendly, the usual cosmos, sweet peas and aquilegia, and a plan for some new plants – Sanguisorba (inspired by a recent visit to Cambo’s walled garden) and Cerinthe major (which I loved at Chelsea). I’ll also be sowing some Stipa tenuissima as I want to add some more soft grasses and I just love the texture and movement of this feathery grass.

Sanguisorba and Stipa tenuissima in the beautiful perennial borders at Cambo

And that’s just a small selection of the seed packets I currently have spread out across my dining room table! There will be a lull around November/December but between now and next spring there’s a lot of sowing and growing to do. If you want me, I’ll be in the greenhouse…

Julianne Robertson

content creator & consultant | gardener