This is day two of a long weekend for me. I started it off with a mooch around the garden, finding six things to share with you. Remember to join the rest of the sixers over at Jim’s
- Construction – The purpose of the long weekend is to finish off the ‘finishing off’ tasks in the house and garden. The main garden job is to lay slabs to the front and side of the greenhouse and then move in the water butts. I’m aiming for level level rather than allotment levels, wish me luck!
2. Clematis ‘Hyde Hall’ This is its first full year in the garden and its making good growth from the base. I’m encouraging it to grow through a rather boring pittisporum; the idea is the shrub will appear to be flowering!
3. Narcissi ‘Thalia’ New to the sarcophagus, it is as pretty as you all say. I wish she would like her chin a little.
4. Clematis armandii ‘Apple Blossom’ A mid-week therapy trip to the garden centre found me leaving clutching this. There is a huge shrub of it covering a neighbour’s garden fence, so I have every confidence she will settle in nicely and do a great job of covering this patch of fence.
5. Hydrangea cutting I took this as a cutting about three years ago and its thriving. I think this is ‘Glam Rock’. This spot gets the morning sun but by mid-afternoon in summer it’s in shade, I’m hopeful that will prove to be a winning combination. The pyrethrum in the background was putting on lots of new growth, which has been chomped down by the slimy hordes – need to start evening slug patrols!
6. Apple tree – Fiesta I’ve been really disappointed with the trees ordered from nurseries, the quality seems poor compared to previous orders, albeit that was more than 5 years ago. This is on M27 rootstock, so it shouldn’t reach more than about 8ft.
That’s my six, now I really must go and apply myself to the slab-laying.
Enjoy your weekend.
Allotment Life 
A pretty Clematis, I’m adding more of them to my own patch this year.
Thanks Rosie. Every garden needs at least one clematis 😊
Good for you to have level water butts! Mine are not perfectly level and they both fill from the same downspout. On is a tiny bit higher than the other so the lower one fills and over flows and the higher one languishes unless I disconnect the lower one. Stupid fluid dynamics! The cinderblocks are not the same dimensions, I should be able to fix that this spring and then things will be easier. Nice growth where you are! Still in a holding pattern here.
Now that’s a problem I hadn’t considered might exist with linked water butts I’ll pay extra attention when I get to that corner! What’s the weather like where you live?
Snow, rain. just above freezing, so the daffodils are still holding. They will all pop at once the second the warmth returns, but we need the water, Overnight drops below freezing. I don’t usually put the barrels up until some time in April to protect the valve and the barrel itself. I am such a nerd that I save rain water for my houseplants. The water here is really hard and I don’t want hard water crusting up my planters.
The clematis is lovely, I hope it settles in well. Good luck with the slab-laying!
Thanks Helen
I did some hydrangea cuttings today. Limelight. 20 percent success last year. I hope to do much better this year.
Good luck. There is something very satisfying about propagating new plants. I find the challenge is getting the balance between the number of plants I need versus the number doing really well😳