After what feels like weeks of heavy rain and grey clouds we had a beautiful sunny Saturday today! I was able to take full advantage of it and get out into the garden to do some of the many jobs I’ve been neglecting.
I’d spotted that our local hardware shops had some polyanthus for sale and I’d been super keen to get some after my neighbour recommended them way back in Spring! She said they were really easy to care for and reliably came back each year. After a lovely pancake breakfast cooked for me by my fiancé (still weird!), I walked over to get a tray and saw they had wallflowers, and I couldn’t not get wallflowers right!
I also got a selection of bulbs which honestly took me flipping ages to decide on! They had quite a selection and as a complete novice it was overwhelming, it’s so hard to picture how things are going to look in 3-6 months time! I was starting to get conscious of how long I’d been standing at the display, at least 10 minutes I reckon… At least.
Anyway eventually I got a mix of crocus, daffodils, allium and tulips!
I planted the polyanthus and most of the wallflowers close to the house so we can look out and hopefully see some colour as everything else starts to die off over winter!
I did notice aphids on the fresh buds the camelia has started sprouting. Little buggers. I forgot to try to blast them off with the hose before I came in, but I squashed a few as I found them I did see some ants on the plant too so hopefully they’ll take care of them!
Then it was bulb time! Oh gosh it took me so long to figure out where to put them! I’m still figuring out what areas are full sun or part sun/shade in this garden, plus it is hard to imagine what will be there in Feb-May when many plants still taking up space will have died back. I did find a bulb planter thingy in the shed which made the actual planting of the bulbs really quick and easy, especially with the ground still wet from all the rain we’ve had.
I decided to put little sticks in to mark where I’ve put the bulbs because I will never remember and I know I’ll end up accidentally disturbing them!
Paralysing indecision aside, I did enjoy planting the bulbs! It made me feel like I was doing “proper gardening” somehow, I think because I’m really looking to the future instead of focusing on what looks good right now!
Really hope they sprout up! I’m particularly excited for the allium!
I also attacked the massive buddleia and cut it down by half. I looked up online and RHS said you can cut half the height in autumn and then in spring I can give it a really hard prune down. It looks pretty when it flowers by my god it just grows too fast and too big for where it is.
Anyway as often happens it got in my way, then I got.massivdlt distracted by cutting it back and before I knew it I had a massive pile of branches to then cut down and fit into our garden bin!
I also cut a few branches off the holly tree that were getting in my way. I really hate both holly trees we have, they don’t look right where they are, the roots get in the way of planting and they’re getting too tall. And I’m sick of stabbing my hand on the stupid spiky leaves. I think I’m going to try to kill them, which I do feel bad about but on the other hand… I can plant something better there!
That’ll be a future job.
My little robin friend showed up while I was out there today, I hadn’t seen him in months!
There is also a squirrel that frequents our garden and has been really fucking up the raised beds and the lawn! Holes everywhere! Little bastard has ripped whole plants up! I am really afraid he’s going to steal all my bulbs. I could see his beady little eyes watching what I was doing after he was surprised to see me.
I hadn’t planned to spend the entire day outside but I got a lot done, and I really enjoyed the weather! I pruned my lavender plants and did a lot of overdue weeding and deadheading in the pots and beds a couple of weekends ago so we are looking a lot tidier now and I’m feeling more on top of the garden again!
Your garden posts are always pieces which reaffirm how much I love your writing. Myself, I have no talent and/or desire to garden in any way, shape, or form. Much to the chagrin of my mom and aunt XD. Whenever they’d look at my home and suggest I weed, I say, “Listen, you know all those coffee table books you have with pictures of the forest in them? How you ‘ooo’ and ‘ahhhh’ over how beautiful the natural world is? Well WHO WEEDS THE FOREST?!? NO ONE. That’s my approach! If it grows, it stays.” All this is to say, I don’t care about any of this in my own life but I absolutely love your garden stories! I find myself rooting for you! I laugh out loud! And I’m excited by your progress! I’m already waiting for the stories of your killing the holly trees, too. Good luck! And if you can get me sooooo eagerly engaged in a topic I don’t think twice about in my own life, well clearly your writing is amazing and magnificent and I love it so much! So thank you for always brightening my day with your writing :).
Thanks Michael. That’s so lovely to hear you enjoy my garden posts! I mostly write them so I can remember what I’ve done, and what the garden used to look like before. I’ve come a long way!
Those holly trees are going to come down at some point…
And I will be reading along with their fall with the most EAGER ANTICIPATION.
That is a fun part of blogging, isn’t it? Our pieces become this record of our lives that we create and, because it’s something we write to be published online and because putting pictures in the post is easier than scrapbooking (at least as far as I’m concerned XD), the shape of the writing always feels different than journaling (again, at least it does for me). And HECK YES you’ve come a long way! GO YOU!!!