Category: Six On Saturday

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

Cold and sunny I can deal with but cold and overcast is not an appealing prospect when it comes to getting out in the garden. There are jobs that need doing – weeding, raking up leaves from the lawn, spreading mulch – that require more motivation than I’m feeling at the present time. However, there are also tulips to plant and it’s time to start thinking about ordering seed potatoes.

One, Two & Three – I took the opportunity of a brief sunny interval on Friday to plant up an area where the shrubs that form our front hedge are quite sparse. It gets dappled shade but can get quite dry so I dug in lots of compost and added a layer of mulch. I chose three plants I hope will cope with the conditions and act as ground cover: Polypodium vulgare, Lamium orvala (with a pink flower) and Geranium phaeum ‘Album’.

Four – There are only a few plants still flowering in our south-facing front garden including Verbena bonariensis, Aster × frikartii ‘Mönch’ and also this Salvia ‘Rio Grande’ adorned (if you look closely) with a few raindrops from a passing shower. I love the colour so have taken cuttings.

Five – Talking of colour, the autumn-hued leaves on our cherry tree, Prunus avium ‘Stella’, which fruited surprisingly well this year.

Six – Apologies to Erigeron karvinskianus for forgetting that it is also still flowering in one of the raised beds in our front garden.

It’s going to get harder every week from hereon, isn’t it?

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.

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

I managed to get the final 60 daffodil bulbs planted this week. That’s 240 in all consisting of various varieties that should flower at different times starting in January/February. Well, that’s the plan anyway. Some were planted in clumps others were just tossed over an area and planted where they fell. Any other spare time has been taken up with removing weeds which are still appearing at an unbelievable rate. I also potted up some self-seeded violas. There were plenty to choose from although I’m not sure the mother plant has survived.

My six are divided between summer plants still producing flower and autumn ones just starting to do their thing.

One – Geranium nodosum flowering in the shade of the hedge in our front garden. The plants were looking distinctly unhappy until the recent rain even though they’re supposed to tolerate dry shade.

Two – Viburnum tinus bearing its flowers and berries. I purchased it in a 9cm pot because it’s planted alongside other mature shrubs in the hedge mentioned above and I wouldn’t have been able to get a bigger plant in the ground given all the roots. It seems quite happy.

Three – The new potting shed is fully operational and the first hardy annuals I sowed have started to appear. These trays contain two varieties of Centaurea cyanus – ‘Blue Ball’ and ‘Black Ball’.

Four – Late to the party is Dahlia ‘Bayou’. It’s a plant I’d given up on although it obviously had other ideas.

Five – Autumnal colour on a leaf of Bergenia cordifolia.

Six – Nemesia ‘Nesia Inca’ still flowering its little heart out.

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.