Just when you think you can sit back, relax and enjoy the fruits of your labour in the garden, you realise something's not quite right. Something is jarring on the eye. For me, it was this whole area in front of the shed. You can see how it looked when I first planted it up HERE, neat, tidy and full of promise. This is how it looks now after a week of cutting back, digging and re-planting.
The main change was removal of the Salix Willow you can see in the photos below taken last week and during Spring. I really love these trees, but this one had started crowding out everything with its dense canopy and it just had to go.
It didn't like being moved much, and is now in a bit of a sorry state. I'm hoping it will recover though, as I want to keep it in this pot and have it on the patio. Fingers crossed!
And these are the new additions to the area. In place of the willow, I now have an obelisk for height. I've planted a clematis up one side named Corona which is meant to be perfect for growing up pillars and trellis, and a beautiful rose to the right called 'Lucky', which has just started flowering and smells delicious. It's a bush rose not a climber, but I couldn't resist it. I may add another Clematis next year but want to see how this one gets on first.
Asiatic Lily Gold and Oriental Lily Maru are adding a pop of colour in the border. So far free from the dreaded Lily Beetles that desecrated my fritillaries in spring, but I'm keeping my beady eyes on them!
Verbena Bonariensis is growing up against the shed along with Clematis Montana Freda which has romped away here and flowered beautifully in spring. The butterflies love the Verbena, although this first one got caught by a yellow spider crab that was laying in wait.
Alstroemeria and Coreopsis are mingling happily, and Lobelia is filling out its patch nicely.
Pickerel Hyacinths are just starting to flower in the wildlife pond, and the Lamiums are getting ready for their second flush of flowers.
I'm hoping Hydrangea Macrophylla Sheila will bring a bit of colour to the far left corner where I removed a large fern that wasn't very happy. It's a bit small at the moment, but should fill out quite quickly.
I've planted up some other things in this area, but they're mostly cuttings from other parts of the garden or very small plants, so there isn't much to see of them, but I'm really looking forward to this patch filling out with a bit more colour and interest as the year progresses. I'd like to say I stopped here, sat back with a cool drink and sunbathed during this glorious weather, but, no, I went and tackled a couple of other spots I wasn't in love with. More on that next time!
I also took my willow out which, was the same as yours,as you say, eventually they take up too much room. I didn't try to keep mine though, the top bit which is a maze of branches was put at the back of the border for little creatures to hide in, they feel quite safe in there. You have so many beautiful flowers in your border, it is going to be wonderful!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely idea Pauline. I'm all for helping the wildlife so if it doesn't recover I'll try and find a way of incorporating the top somewhere.
DeleteOh dear that poor salix willow does look sorry for itself - hope it survives. I have one planted in a container which hopefully will stop it growing too large. The rest of the area looks lovely - so many plants in flower - beautiful.
ReplyDeleteYes, in hindsight Elaine I should have put this one in a container too. It's not like I don't know how dense they get as I have another one at the back of the garden!
DeleteI always feel a little sad when I have to take out a tree but sometimes it is necessary.
ReplyDeleteI hope the Kilmarnock willow makes it. I think autumn may have been better when it had lost its leaves but sometimes these things are not convenient are they???
You are flowers are lovely......sunbathing what is that, I have never met a gardener yet than finds time to sunbathe :)
Keep my fingers crossed for your willow...........
Yes, I usually would wait for autumn when the weather is cooler, but you know, it was really bugging me, lol! True about gardeners and sunbathing...one day maybe :-) .
DeleteBeautiful flowers! I like how you use Photoshop to edit the pictures.Especially the pictures with butterflies are lovely!
ReplyDeleteHope the tree you moved is Ok.I do these operations only in fall, when the plants are preparing to cold season.
I'd usually wait for autumn too Nadezda, when the weather is more suitable, but I was feeling really impatient this time. Hopefully it will recover for next year! I really enjoy editing my photos, but it is time consuming, so I usually just add my watermark and leave it at that.
DeleteYou are certainly not short on colour. What a feast!
ReplyDeleteHaving moved a Kilmarnock Willow in full leave before, not quite such hot weather though, just keep watering. I'm considering getting rid of mine, not quite made up my mind yet.
I'll make sure to keep it well watered Angie.
DeleteHello Paula girl !
ReplyDeleteI am the same way .. I can not sit back and enjoy the garden .. my mind is always working out a different "plan" to make it look better ... I don't wait until Fall for transplanting .. I have to dig in right away before I forget what I needed to do. I seem to do everything back wards for some reason. My Buzz Ivory buddleia is a smaller size so it would suit your garden wonderfully I think !!
Joy : )
PS ... the scent is heavenly too !
Then that sounds like the plant for me Joy! I think I know just where I'd put it too :-) .
DeleteYour willow is beautiful, though looking a little sorry for itself at the moment so I do hope it survives. Such a lot of colour you've got in your garden, some truly wonderful plants.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jo, fingers crossed hey!
DeleteA most enjoyable post and lots of lovely colourful photos.
ReplyDeleteIt's been far too hot to do all that, so well done for doing what you did. I hope that the Salix Willow survives. Flighty xx
Thanks Flighty, it has been hot hasn't it. Probably not the best time to be gardening, but I just can't seem to stop myself!
DeleteAhhhh, I hope your willow grows back, fingers crossed eh? You do have some lovely plants at the moment, especially the lillies, what fab colours! Lovely to see the butterflies too. Good for you cracking on in this heat, I'm melting and am trying to find a cool spec to breath in.xxx
ReplyDeleteI know, dare I say it's been too hot at some points, and that comes from a sun worshipper!
DeleteHi Paula. SO true--when you've determined that something isn't right it has to go--sooner rather than later, it seems. I really enjoyed looking back at your linked post as well as I, too, enjoy garden "before and afters".
ReplyDeleteThanks Emily. We're so impatient aren't we , lol!
DeleteWell Paula I must say I understand completely about the willow--this waiting to move things is sometimes more than a gardener can be expected to endure. I like your intensely planted garden and cheers for the Verbena bonariensis, one of my new favorites too. They say it will self-sow but I plan to collect seeds again just in case. I love the "Pickerel hyacinths" name, new to me. Recalls the children's books about Miss Pickerell.
ReplyDeleteYes, they do say that about Verbena don't they Linnie, but it hasn't spread so far in my garden. You wait, I'll probably have an explosion of them next year now!
DeleteAt the moment most areas of our garden is in renovation mode. We started with one thing that lead to another then another then ...
ReplyDeleteAlways Sue, lol!
DeleteI hope your salix willow recovers and does well in the pot. A garden is ever changing! Even when we think things are perfect, plants step to of line and do their own thing and then we have to readjust. One project leads to another and another…that's gardening! I love verbena. It has been a reliable, easy care plant, but a fellow blogger told me he would never have it because it is invasive. I have had mine for years, and so far that has not been true for me. Best wishes for yours and your other plants. Everything is looking very pretty!
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm hearing this about Verbena a lot too Deb, but so far so good, it's confined itself to the back of my garden and the butterflies just love it. I'm thinking it would be quite easy to pull up if it popped up in the wrong place, but hopefully I won't need to find out!
DeleteFirst time on your site Paula, and your garden looks really full of colour. Unfortunately in my shady garden plants like the Verbena don't do well, I have grown them but they never self-seed or perform. When I was a teenager the old lady next door told me that it didn't matter what time of the year you move things as long as you gave them plenty of TLC afterwards, having just moved a big rambler and a couple of shrubs I hope she was right!
ReplyDeleteI hope she was right too Rick, lol! Fingers crossed for all of our plants :-) .
DeleteIt looks beautiful! Hopefully, your willow will recover. It always feels good to solve a problem in the garden and redesign an area. LOVE that lobelia! So pretty. :o)
ReplyDeleteI love that Lobelia too Tammy, I've added it to my long wish list for plants to buy more of next year.
DeleteYou have lots of lovely colour in your garden. I would have moved the willow too, it would take up too much room. I love your lilies and what gorgeous butterfly shots. Is that a Comma? It looks like it. I rescued a Comma from a spider's web yesterday. The wings looked a bit tattered but it flew away.
ReplyDeleteHello Chloris. Yes the top photos are of Commas, and the bottom photo is of a Gatekeeper, both very pretty.
DeleteI hope your willow recovers, but this is a bad time of year to be transplanting it. Although on the other hand I've also heard it said that the best time to transplant something is when YOU have the time to do it. I change beds around every year, but usually in the spring or fall. There's always something that needs tweaking. Your lilies are gorgeous I have quite a few too, and I love them. I used to live in another part of the U.S., where the lily beetles were everywhere. Now I'm all the way across the continent, and there are no lily beetles here (yet).
ReplyDeleteOh, fingers crossed it stays that way for you Alison, those beetles ate all my fritillaries in the Spring, I hardly had a stalk left! Thankfully, they seem to have left these lilies alone...so far!
DeleteYour blog and garden are so beautiful! Great picture of the crab spider, even though I feel a little sad for the poor butterfly.
ReplyDelete