The Potting Bench Diaries – 20th September 2023

Oh bloody hell, well it’s firmly Autumn now isn’t it!? Cold, wet, rain…wind! BUT, I’m not letting that get me down and I hope you aren’t either?

To me, this is the best time to think ahead and reflect on what might not make it back for round two next year. In our garden, everything is pretty much still in bloom so I’m in a real period of reflection and I’m casting my eye over the whole landscape to see what doesn’t fit and things that I personally didn’t end up liking all that much. Making notes, executive decisions and giving some solid thought to the garden in 2024. That said, I still haven’t ordered any more bulbs – except for the few hundreds alliums I ordered at Hampton Court!

I’ve said above that everything is now in bloom, and that includes the very final dahlia – better late than never! Dahlia ‘Dark Butterfly’ is finally here and I’m rather happy with how it’s come out. What do you think? I can’t imagine it’s everyone’s cup of tea but it adds some lighter tones to the dahlia selection this year, when most of my others are reds, pinks and richer tones.

Speaking of richer tones, I just had to share one of my favourite tomatoes from this year with you, Ozark Sunrise. This is another one from tomato pro, Niall Radford – over on Instagram. This isn’t an advert in the slightest, just me wanting to share an excellent tomato seed seller that I think you’ll love as much as I have. Niall has opened my eyes to a whole world of tomatoes that I never knew existed! Do check out his website for some rather interesting varieties!

I’ve also got a superb herb recommendation for you this week, with the sublimely scented, Lemon Verbena. If you’ve not graced your nostrils with this then you need to get a whiff as soon as you can. The only way I can describe it, is like a very sweet…lemon drop type sweet, but with more of a natural smell! And the taste is wonderful too! My favourite thing to do with Lemon Verbena, is popping a good handful of sprigs in some cold water and letting it ‘brew’ in the fridge overnight for a cool and refreshing tasting water. Give it a go! I got mine from the wonderful Pepperpot Herbs!

And also – I missed the blog last week so also missed the chance to share that I’d been at the RHS Wisley Flower Show, the week before last. What a breathtaking garden it is and it’s left a huge impression on me and leaves me with tonnes of inspiration. The talks I gave were all around garden DIY, something you all know that I love! Thank you to those of you that were there to see the talk, it was a packed house for both!

And finally, a brand new episode of the podcast is here and this week I’m joined by climate change expert, Kim Stoddart.

If Kim doesn’t know it, then it’s not worth knowing and this is a conversation that will truly open your eyes. We’ve all seen and felt the impact of the tumultuous weather over recent times (and longer ago too!) and this made really think about how I’ll garden moving forward. You can listen now by clicking here.

As I write this, I’m on the way back from a very special day at someone’s house and garden..and I’ll share more about that, next week!

Have a great week and I’ll see you next week for more