Respite

this evening there is a brief respite from the wind and rain we have had since Sunday so I took a walk around the garden to see what has happened since Saturday,
I’d spent Saturday afternoon mulching the fruit and berry garden, so I am hoping this means I won’t have to do too much weeding here,

this photo was taken from the grass in the foreground of the above photo, I know I like long shots of peoples gardens and I thought this gave a good view of how these 5 areas sit together, the fruit and berry I am standing in is at the front of the house, I am looking across the ditch garden, then the foreground daffodils in the photo are the alder terrace which is also in the front, there is the beginnings of a hedge then behind is the alder garden which runs along the side of the house, the house being just off on the left, in the distance you can see the slope garden with the beginnings of the river of daffodils, beyond is the very big heather/calluna vulgaris area and in the far distance are the pines,

I’ll use this to start around the garden, at my feet the ditch garden, I am thrilled at how well the ligularias are growing, I planted them 2 years ago they did well that summer but in the drought we had in late spring/early summer last year they didn’t look to good and I was worried I would loose them,

I did a bit more under the alders in the alder garden,

the daffodils on the slope are starting to open, most of these were blind last year as they were small bulbs when I planted them,

now we have cut across the heather and are under the pines where these white bluebells are in bud, I like the white ones under the trees as they light it up,

at the edge of the trees is my first and only hosta, hosta halcyon, planted last autumn, I love the way the leaves are unrolling,

across to the other side of the tweenie garden (because it is between the trees) to where I moved some plants a few weeks ago, I’m pleased with how they are coming on and make it look more established than it really is,

the path between the tweenie and the damp meadow,

the damp meadow,

yellow and daffodils are the main flowers in my garden now and have been for several weeks, leaving the meadow and crossing to the birch garden, this is a self seeded mixed primmy of oxslip and primrose, it has been here for a few years and has been flowering for well over a month this year the flowers climbing higher and higher,

the first red campion flowers in the new birch garden flower patch I created recently,

at the top of the birch garden it becomes the species rose border and the new roses I planted last autumn are being to leaf out, rosa rubrifolia,

turning back towards the damp meadow just to see the first allium start to break in the rosa rugosa border,

back to the path and up the steps to the raise front garden and the house, the little bed just by the side door, the tulips are just starting, this is the second wave of daffodils, the grass like foliage on the right is from tête-à-tête,

oxslip, primula elatior,

I’m pleased at how well these little sedums are growing that I planted last summer in the middle front bed,

this saxifrage didn’t have any flowers last year and a few weeks ago I had to chase off a starling that was ripping the poor plant apart so I am very pleased to see these in the new jungle garden border,

to finish a close up of tulip ronaldo before I go back into the house,

©Copyright 2013 Frances Caple. All rights reserved. Content created by Frances Caple for Island Threads.

Friday

I went for a walk to the cove yesterday morning (Friday), I am trying not to spend every good weather moment gardening but to go for walks as well, I like walking but the last couple of years the garden seems to have absorbed all my outdoor time, the sea thrift is nearly in bloom, it amazes me how they send down these long, long taproots and cling on in the worst of the gales,

a lot of kelp has been washed up since I was here last week, the kelp has me thinking of my ancestors and the people of the islands, I read in the history that in the 18C and early 19C kelp was collected and I think burnt for a mineral that was much sort after ………… sorry I just cannot remember the details, what always stands out in my mind is the people collecting the kelp, wading up to waist deep in sometimes freezing water, just to keep starvation from the door, we (in the western world) have life soooo easy now, I do remember the reason the industry fell into decline was because the mineral was found from an easier and so cheaper source, the lack of this work in the 19C was one of the reasons leading to the eventual ‘clearances’ and the desperate plight of the people of the highlands and islands and why my mother and I were born in England,

as well as the many gulls the oyster catchers were on the beach, sorry I do not have a good camera for distant close ups, these are funny birds, they are B&W with bright red legs and beaks, they screech and chatter in the sky and tell you off if you get too close to their nest,

when I was on the isle of Mull several years ago, I had one screeching at me and I knew the nest must be near, they do not make a nest but lay their eggs in a scoop in the ground or on the stones/shells, I then saw another oyster catcher running from me but doing the broken wing routine, I’d heard some birds do this to lure you away from their nest but this was my first (and only) time I’d seen it, then I saw them just a few feet ahead of me, the eggs, if I had not paid attention to the birds I could have stepped on them,

last week when I came down I noticed this stone, doesn’t it make a nice little seat, it is at the top of the first steep bit of the hill as you leave the cove, I don’t know who moved it but thank you, it makes a nice resting place after (at my age) puffing up the hill,

the view back down the hill from the stone seat,

the view towards the butt of Lewis from the top of the track as it meets the single track road, far off in the distance (to far to see) is Iceland,

after I came home and had a wee smackeral or two I went into the garden, I was determined this year to get the area under the alders sorted out, I made a good start last year but didn’t get it finished and didn’t mulch what I had done so the weeds and overgrown plants marched on, when the alders are in leaf it is very difficult to see and get into this corner, I had got a lot of the weeding, mostly horrid grass removed in March but the rains of April had made more shoots appear, years ago I had planted a sedum and a small patch of michaelmas daisies, the sedum was now in the wrong place with the shade from the now growing tree and the daisies were taking over, in fact after digging them out I found they has climbed the bank! I’ve put news print and a thick mulch of pine needles now, I know there will be shoots so more work but the bulk is done and hopefully I will be able to consider planting it next winter, in front of the trees I can plant but it needed some way of layering the slope, it was going to need 2 pieces of split log so I had the idea to not put one on the other but too set the top one back a bit and plant primroses which have seeded themselves around between the logs, the photo shows the part done and the part not yet finished weeding and before logs, I plan a narrow path of access for maintenance in front, the other side of the path will be another story,

wishing all a nice weekend,

©Copyright 2013 Frances Caple. All rights reserved. Content created by Frances Caple for Island Threads.

wordless Wednesday

©Copyright 2013 Frances Caple. All rights reserved. Content created by Frances Caple for Island Threads.

end of month view, the daffodils

as our weather has been rain and wind I have not done much in the garden but the daffodils have started to bloom making April end in a flurry of yellow, before the daffodil photos a few other things, last Wednesday afternoon despite the wind as it was dry I did work in the garden as I wanted to get the red campion moved from the alder terrace bed, so there are now more red campion and foxgloves in the new birch garden,

as I wandered round taking photos of the daffs, I was very pleased to see both the Ligularias I bought 2 years ago were growing well,

and the hosta I planted last autumn is just starting to wake up,

last year the tulips were in flower in April this year they are still in bud,

the daffodils

please follow the link through to Helen’s blog to see more end of month views in other gardens,

©Copyright 2013 Frances Caple. All rights reserved. Content created by Frances Caple for Island Threads.

guilty pleasures

the influence of blog reading, Kate has recently posted some of her guilty pleasures and thinking about it mine is definitely plant buying, I keep telling myself not to buy more as I’m only throwing good money after bad, instead I should just make more of the plants I have that I know grow in my garden conditions, well ……….
Carolyn posted about primulas and I love most primies, so I started internet searching for P. sieboldii and ended up buying 2 …….. well and 8 other primies, must try more control over my clicking finger!

Cathy posted a few weeks ago about some plants from Morrisons, I didn’t know they sold plants but …….. I knew I was going to Inverness in a few weeks and there is a Morrisons near the town centre ………………… they just jumped into my basket ………… honest ….

packed for their journey to their new home,

home, I can’t get over the price, sooooo much cheaper than here and many online nurseries, though some are not very well labelled like the hellebore just says ‘hellebore, white’,

I was leaving on the bus home when I realised I had not taken any photos so I took a few on the bus but most were blurred,

then a couple at Ullapool,

 

©Copyright 2013 Frances Caple. All rights reserved. Content created by Frances Caple for Island Threads.

Foliage

when I saw all the wonderful foliage in Christina’s garden, I felt wistfully ‘there’s nothing in mine’ then this morning reading a few more foliage posts of people here in the UK I thought ‘hmm maybe there is something’ so with the wind blowing and the temperature so cold I finish up with freezing fingers, with camera in hand I braved the garden and did find a few things, more new growth than I had realised which is nice,

I thought I get down low and take the lovage from a different view point,

still no idea what sedum this is but it grows well here and quickly bulks back up when divided, behind are the strap like leaves of alliums,

Hmm! the foliage group that isn’t meant to be there, from the top, geranium given to me a few years ago and planted there quickly, I did move some last spring and really must make it more of a priority to move the rest as it is wasted here, dianthus, again a few years ago a clump was infested with horrid grass so I dug it up and replanted some putting the rest here to be moved later, the foreground is curtsey of mother nature, foxgloves and golden feverfew both self sown,

the damp meadow now I have finally got all last years debris cleared, I thought I’d include it because through winter with the perennials sleeping the pampas grass comes into it’s own, I love the way these have grown and have decided I want more to create a pampas grass hedge around 3 sides of the meadow,

grass of a different dimension, festuca glauca with Juniper Squamata Holger, holger has silver blue foliage most of the year but now the new growth is a creamy yellow, there are dark red sedums planted to the left and behind,

this is the first new growth of sedum black beauty, I laughed last night when I saw how big Christina’s sedums are and how small mine is, though it was only planted last year, it shows what a difference a very northerly latitude makes!

meet Willma on the left and Goldcrest on the right, MR and Mrs Cupressus macrocarpa, I found goldcrest online autumn 2011 when I was ordering a lot of bareroot plants and decided to try one, then last spring I saw willma in the shop in town, Goldcrest was plant last spring so has been there all winter and withstood the gales, willma was put in a larger pot and left outside all winter, she was finally planted 2-3 weeks ago, goldcrest as the name implies is a golden yellow colour, willma is lime green both go these lovely bronzes during winter, what I can’t share with you on the internet is the perfume and touch, the foliage is soft and feathery, very stroke able and smells of lemons, I find it truly divine and touch them every time I go by,

I know it is ordinary to most but I thought I couldn’t do a foliage post without at least once including the lodge pole pines, they are the dominant feature of the garden and the hardest working (apart form me that is ;o)
the copse (I’m not sure how many trees make a copse but it’s the only name I know for a small group of trees), the copse shelters many plants, offers shelter to many birds and probably hosts of other wee creatures, can be seen from almost all of the garden and was one reason I was interested in this property,

thanks to Christina and other foliage bloggers who made me get out there and take a hard and at times close look at my garden, to see more foliage posts please click through to Christina’s blog.

©Copyright 2013 Frances Caple. All rights reserved. Content created by Frances Caple for Island Threads.

art club

I though it was quite funny that I didn’t realise how big I’d made the mountains until I got home and looked at it from a distance ……….. ooophs! I enjoyed working on this so will probably do more next week, finally I feel I have found something to do at art club, the chinese painting was not me and the last 2 weeks I just did some sketching which I was not inspired by.

for those who may wish to know where the photo was taken I can’t remember the exact location but it was when I was driving home on mainland Scotland some where on the A82 south of Fort William.

©Copyright 2013 Frances Caple. All rights reserved. Content created by Frances Caple for Island Threads.