Alder terrace was raised bed

islandthreads — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:00:09 +0000

someone pointed out last year as this bed is only raised on 2 sides being on the side of a slope it’s been terraced so I’ve renamed this bed the Alder terrace as it’s a terrace sheltered from the south westerlies by Alder trees,
we had some gardening weather for a few days either side of the weekend so last Friday my first job was to clear the dead flower stems from this area, this is how it looked on the 2 December,

notice in this photo from the alder end the 2 hebes in the foreground,

after I had cleared the dead stuff, all the green blobs are plants that grew from the seeds but didn’t flower, I kept waiting for them to flower but they didn’t, I thought maybe it was the cool summer, just didn’t get warm enough for them, now as they are still there I think they are either biennials or perennials that didn’t flower the first year, all the seeds I scattered were annuals except for the packet of mixed wildflower seeds, so the mystery is which wildflower are they hopefully next summer they will flower and I shall see,

here’s a closer photo of the spinach like leaves which the slugs are enjoying and the birds are enjoying the slugs ……

now back to those 2 hebes, this is them when I planted them out early summer,

I had 2 green and 3 variegated, one of each here and one of each under the pine trees, I planted the third variegated hebe in the tweenie garden, all sheltered places as I had taken cutting before and then lost them to the weather, well I had previously thought it was the weather, this is how they looked on December second,

this is how they looked last Friday, no this one can not be blamed on the weather, they have been eaten and the 2 under the pines are just sticks every leaf gone, the one in the tweenie garden has a couple of leaves left, I’m so cross, it’s rabbit, I wouldn’t feel cross had the rabbit eaten them when we had the snow but I checked them after the snow and they were fine,

since finding the hebes I have been thinking about it and rabbits don’t like scented plants so if the hebes survive in the alder terrace and tweenie garden I am going to plant scented plants around them I am thinking of Artemisia powis castle around the green hebe and will find something suitable for the variegated one, my final aim for this garden is mainly shrubs with spring bulbs and a few perennials, in my mind I am planning the weather will decide how much I get done this year,

Filed under: alder terrace, my garden, rabbit, shrubs

this and that

islandthreads — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:22:41 +0000

thank you to everyone who left a comment on my word for 2012 post, I have enjoyed reading the words you chose,

Friday and Saturday were calm days so for the first time in weeks I could get in the garden and do some much needed work, I have several plants in pots and so decided get some planted out, I had bought a Lamium maculatum, Beacon silver, it was the beautiful silver with green edge foliage that attracted me, sorry but I couldn’t get a good photo of it, I had a place in mind when I bought it but then slightly changed it, I didn’t take a before photo but this photo is from last February so if you just imagine the daffodils only just peeping through then that’s how it looked, before I cleared this corner in autumn 2010 it had become over grown with snow in summer and 2 very straggly Artemisia,

I thought the Lamium would work well here but when I went to dig a hole I was surprised how deep the shingle went, you know how you go to do one thing and end up doing more well that’s what happened, I cleared the shingle and as the daffs were showing thought it was a good time to put other plants in here, looking at what I had in pots I have added 2 rooted cuttings of Purple sage and an Agapanthus,

my recycled protection for the agapanthus, there were 3 glass lampshades at this house this is the last, a chimney sweep broke one with his ladder and I had put one in a sheltered spot when I should have put it in the shed so the recent gales smashed it,

Carolyn’s post about Hellebores last year convinced me to try some so last summer I ordered 8 they arrived last October, this is the first Hellebore flower in my garden a bit rain splashed and chewed but there, Helleborus niger the Christmas rose, I am wondering if the brown on the leaves is due to windburn or the black spot Pauline was talking about, should I remove the leaf?

then yesterday I saw more Hellebore flowers, Helleborus Foetidus, this one is the most important to me as it’s native to the UK though I don’t know if it is native to Scotland and isn’t to the Hebrides but it’s close, I ordered 2, only singles of the others, this one arrived with the bud and I’m amazed it has survived, very pleased too,

lastly I had a nice surprise when I went down by the trees, I had dug up 2 very large clumps of bluebells last summer and I planted most under the spruce trees, I think they are ex Christmas trees they are in a line on the edge of the pines, I planted each bulb on it’s own so it has space to expand and look they are coming through already, the weather has given them a nice mulch of spruce needles, these bluebells have grown from some I brought here from my parents old garden that my Dad planted in the 80’s (he died in ‘92), last autumn when I looked after my grandsons I took some with me and my youngest grandson planted them in his garden, I just love that the flowers are carrying on through the generations,

the rest of the work I did was in a new species rose border I started and in the Alder garden which I will post about at the end of the month,

Filed under: middle front, my garden, this and that, under the trees, wildflower slope

island threads

Alder terrace was raised bed

this and that