Six on Saturday – My Gardening Week

Six on Saturday is a weekly meme originally hosted by The Propagator but now in the tender care of Jim at Garden Ruminations.

Once again the weather has not been ideal for gardening, the soil being either too wet or too cold. However today (Friday) the sun came out and I was able to take a few pictures.

One – One of the new shrubs I planted in the revamped front garden back in the autumn was Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘John Flanagan’. It’s not something I’ve grown before but the label tells me it should provide year round foliage and have scented flowers. Sounds good to me and it seems to be doing well so far.

Two – Another new addition to the front garden is Luma apiculata ‘Glanleam Gold’. Again it’s not something I’ve grown before but it promises aromatic foliage (although at the moment you’d have to crouch down to detect it), white flowers and colourful, non-edible fruits.

Three – Nearby I’ve planted Escallonia ‘Apple Blossom’ which I’ve grown successfully elsewhere in the garden. You may have detected a pattern here – well-behaved evergreen shrubs with either flowers or berries to provide year round interest.

Four – Continuing the theme is Photinia x fraseri ‘Red Robin’ which one of my neighbours tells me I’ve planted in the wrong place because it will grow too big. She’s probably right but I’d always intended to prune it to keep it small. I have another more compact variety in one of the raised beds.

Five – A grass of unknown variety as it was missing its label picked up in the sale section of my local garden centre. It seems to have withstood the recent cold weather which is promising.

Six – A Christmas gift from my husband, a copy of Frances Tophill’s latest book about wild flowers. I’m pretty rubbish at identifying them at the moment so hoping this will help. Even if it doesn’t it has beautiful illustrations.

Do check out the posts of other participants by following the links in the comments section of Jim’s post. If you fancy taking part yourself but don’t know where to start, here’s the participant’s guide.