Bit of a bind..

In the beginning, the first job in the garden was to clear the bed at the bottom.

This is what it looked like in the middle of May..



Since then, the geraniums have grown, I've added stakes for the passionflower to grow on, I've added dianthus, lupin, fuchsia, iris bulbs, petunias, it was looking beautiful a few weeks ago. Now, the bindweed is back..

It loves the stake that I put in for the passionflower..



It's making great friends with the dianthus..



And it's treated me to one little flower..



I didn't know what it was until yesterday, and now I've realised, I know that I have my work cut out for me! I've been advised to remove all my lovely new plants and let the ground lay fallow for a year, covering it with plastic. After some research I see that even that doesn't work, and almost nothing works for bindweed.

I made the mistake, during my weeding, of yanking up the shoots and adding them to the compost heap. Now my compost heap is a heap of perfectly happy bindweed, it can regenerate from the smallest bit of root. My poor garden!

But who said gardening was easy?!

Two weeks later..

The roses have gone over now, this picture was taken before I dead-headed them. You might just be able to make out some pink flowers on tall stems growing in front of them. A result of clever planting perhaps - as one goes over, the other starts to bloom?

Talking of roses, I'm a bit disapointed that the 'Gypsy Boy' rose that we were given as a wedding present from work hasn't flowered - hopefully it will next year.

My first job in the garden this year was to attack the budlea, which had taken over. Now it's grown back almost to the same size as it was before - and is in beautiful flower, and I'm grateful for it, because it's just so pretty with the butterflies fluttering around it in the sunshine!



Our neighbour's garden is giving us some real goodies this year, just look at this crazy honeysuckle! It's just coming into flower and it smells amazing!



I've replaced the plant in the crate with something different, which I can't remember the name of just now, but it's really unusual I think. Although most of the flowers have gone since Sunday, because they were 'rained' off - can't complain about the rain though, this was the 'lawn' (aka weed patch) on Sunday - very thirsty!



Lastly, very exciting, the first bulbs that I planted in the garden this year were summer anenomes, inspired by the anenome blanda that I saw at The Courts in the spring.. and at last they have started to flower.. and well worth the wait!



Mrs White :-)x

Sunshine in the South West

I took oodles of pictures after a day working in the garden at the end of May, but I didn't post them! But I have to share some pics that I took yesterday. The roses are looking fantastic at the moment, I was told today because it has been so dry, although because of that the flowers aren't lasting long, it's lucky there are lots of them!

New geraniums that I got from the Flea Market.


My lavender has lots of flowers, and the petunias are looking so pretty, I must take some pictures of the other pots that are full of them!


The neighbours garden is taking over.. but it looks lovely!


The view from my garden chair as I relaxed with a magazine and a coffee on a sunny sunday afternoon.. ahh... :-)


Problems too of course, but so far I am very happy with the garden this year! We have some new furniture, some teak chairs which are gorgeous. The main problem is the moles! We have molehills all over the weed patch aka the lawn, all around my busy lizzies in the budlia border, and now they have started to uproot my plants! I had some baby lupins which I planted a few weeks ago, but when I went to water them yesterday, one was completely uprooted and on it's side in the border :-( The same has happened with my quince. My pieris has died, as have the gladioli bulbs (not very impressed with that, they cost £10!) and one of my cape fushias are on the way out.

Apart from that, I think it's looking quite beautiful! I got some of those shake and rake seeds for the border right at the bottom of the garden, so we'll see if anything arrives!

Back sooner next time!

Mrs White x

Garden Hub South West

I do love Mr B's garden club idea. I am very new to it, so it will be great to have a record of what I'm trying out this year!

Our garden in Bath was a bit of a jungle a few weeks ago. Here is the garden today. It has transformed alot in the past few weeks, having the borders completely dug over and some brand new planting. I have lots to learn!



Trying to clear some of the mess..



I was really pleased that these aubritia came back this year, but they didn't last very long at all. I'm wondering if they need to be moved from their 'super shabby' pots!



I've recently potted up the lavender, and the pierus has been moved from it's pot into a bed, but is also looking quite unhappy right now. It was suggested it needed some food, so I might need to try that!



Bedding plants waiting to go in. At the moment they're out all day, getting a little water, and we move them into the bathroom at night so they won't shiver away!



I've planted some summer bulbs in these containers, so hopefully before too long something will grow!





Here is the big new bed at the bottom of the garden, which was until recently covered in weeds..
I've planted two types of geranium (one from the courts garden and the other purchased on honeymoon), a passion flower (from morrisons), the pierus from the pot (originally from a car boot sale), a heather which survived a whole year in a pot, and some bluebells (from another car boot sale). They have only been there a few days but have perked up a little from when I put them in.



I have loved all the primroses that have been everywhere recently, so I bought some 'clumps' from a plant stall in Bradford on Avon and planted them down the right of the garden, in what I shall now call the 'Budlia Bed' - as the budlia was the biggest thing to deal with - it's not recommended to leave these for two years! Hopefully the primroses will be happy there and will flower next spring.



And finally, an erysimum bause mauve (I'm sure that's not spelt correctly, but you know what I mean!) I love this, they seem to flower quite early. It really stands out amongst the other early flowers, the rosemary and forget me nots, as these are both blue. I bought two more today from the courts garden, a different type, which I still need to plant. I was told they look good planted in groups of three. This is on the left hand side of the garden, in what I will call the 'rosemary bed', as it has rather alot of rosemary in it! I actually had to tie some back to make space for some different plants! There is also a quince shrub in this bed, that I got from Morissons, their £1.50 shrubs look good, so I hope they like being in the garden!



Until next time!

Mrs White :-)