This week… has been hard work, that’s for sure! Working long hours and coming home in the darkness means that the weekends contain some of the most sacred gardening time – reserved for all the important jobs…or, in my case – doing loads of things on a whim! I’ve been looking at piles of bulbs in the shed, needing, wanting and pleading for time to get them in, and I managed to get that pile in the ground this weekend.
But, I also got very carried away too. One of my plans was to create a new little border, at the end of the lawn for a new patch to grow in. Which I did do, but I also ended up getting a big trigger happy with the spade and chopping into the lawn more than I’d planned. Our existing long border was always so very narrow so I bit the bullet and gave it another foot or so of depth, which means I need to get my thinking hat on for ‘front of the border’ plants…
Elsewhere, my garlic is romping ahead and poking its way out through the netting I’ve put to stop the cats pooing in the raised bed! We’re all told it all the time, that home grown tastes best but it seriously is true – the potatoes and garlic that we had earlier this year were phenomenal. Its still one of the proudest garden moments I’ve ever had – eating our potatoes with cold butter and making our own garlic bread. There really is nothing like it…
I’ve mentioned over the last few weeks (and earlier in this post too) about the dark days and nights and the importance for finding light in those times. And for me, Heather is one of those glimmers of light that gets me through to spring. This one was here when we moved in but I’ve loved it ever since. Green all through the year and then awash with tiny pink flowers all through winter, fantastic for the late bees that are hovering around in the colder months..
And finally, a surprising bit of colour right now is coming from the last remaining flowers on a lobelia that I kind of half-heartedly lobbed (pun intended!) into a hanging basket during summer. I’d never been much of a fan until I looked at this one properly and I was struck by how similar the flowers are to some Savlias, which you’ll already know that I adore. I have a sneaky feeling that there will be more Lobelia in our garden next year…
In podcast news the latest episode is now live and this is one for the gardeners that just never have enough time!!
…as I talk to the author of The Five Minute Garden, Laetitia Maklouf!
Laetitia’s latest book aims to cut down, those sometimes daunting tasks – into five minute jobs here and there. Something I know we could all do with help with at the moment. Its tough to get out there sometimes but by giving ourselves small manageable ‘jobs’ each time we do, we end up getting through more than we think.
I hope this week’s blog has inspired you to get creative and dig out a new border…
See you again next week
viewfromthepottingbench.com 