Paeonies, Poppies and Roses

These three plants have been the stars of the show for the last couple of weeks. I've been blown away by my Sarah Bernhardt Paeony this year as not only have the blooms been huge, there are also so many of them, 20 flowering together, and buds still waiting to open! It's been a bit of a nightmare to stake though, and I really must find a better solution than canes next year. One of the branches of the apple tree is doing a good job at holding a couple of the blooms up though.

And this was Paeony Shirley Temple. Only one flower, as it was newly planted into the area in front of the shed this year. I can't wait to see more of the gorgeous ruffled white blooms next year.

I still have one more paeony waiting to flower, only one bud to bloom again as it's another newly planted variety, but it looks like it will be a stunner!

As happy as I was to see my coral coloured Poppies, I was even happier to see these wonderful pink ones appear.

Not so happy to see two of these orange one though. They were a bit too bright for my liking, and, along with the red poppy, have been transplanted into a pot and moved to the front garden. I'll be saving the seeds from the pink ones to sow on next year.

The roses in my garden are all new additions this year.  I have to confess that I've never been a huge fan of roses before. They'd never be my first choice for a bouquet of flowers, and I guess that transferred into my choice of plants for the garden when I started it. Having seen some wonderful examples in the last few years though, especially at garden shows and from other bloggers, I decided to add some this year, and I'm so pleased I did. In fact, I think I may have been bitten by the rose bug, as I find myself looking for space now so I can add more.

This is my favourite rose so far, Arthur Bell Golden Bouquet, which has the most amazing fragrance and superb sunshine yellow flowers that repeat through to winter. It's in the sunniest part of the garden and seems to have settled in nicely.

This is a rambling Rose from David Austin called Malvern Hills. It's lightly scented, repeat flowering and said to be very disease resistant. I'm training this up a trellis to mingle with the clematis growing behind up the shed.

Rose Summertime is also flowering beautifully, even though it's just been moved. I originally planted it next to my bamboo in the shady area, and although it was growing really well, the hardy geranium, fern and bamboo were crowding it out. No point having a pretty rose if you can't see it, right? It's now growing next to the fence in front of the shed area and will, hopefully, blend with the other Clematis and mirror the Malvern Hills Rose.

I'm on the lookout for some pink roses now, and am saving my pennies for my next garden show visit. If you know any good varieties I should look out for, please let me know.

I've lost track of the names for the Hardy Geraniums I have, but they are fantastic for adding colour to the garden in summer, and they flower for so long. The only downfall is that they can sometimes get out of hand, but a good chop back sees them grow rapidly again and re-flower later in summer. I have dark pink, light pink and purple ones.

Rock Rose Cistus Sunset is another gorgeous pink brightening up the end of the garden, along with Ostrowskianum, the teeny Alliums.

The fruit and vegetable side of the garden is also doing well. I've been making salads for lunch with the Lettuce Leaves, Radishes and Spring Onions, and have had bunches of Spinach and Baby Chard added to dinners. The Tomatoes and Kale are coming along well, and the Courgettes and Cucumbers are growing quickly. There's also been lots of Rhubarb and masses of Strawberries, just in time for Wimbledon :-) 

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My Fruit and Vegetable Container Garden

Originally, I had the notion of a traditional cottage garden for my patch, with flowers, fruits and vegetables all mingling happily with each other. I tried it, I didn't like it...it just didn't work. I was either treading on a dainty flower in my effort to dig up a heap of potatoes, or stabbing my eye on a cane trying to reach over plants to grab a runner bean.  I ended up resenting the vegetables for taking up so much space. But, there really is nothing like raising your own food to eat, so a few years ago, I decided to start growing in pots on my patio. To my surprise, it was a huge success, and it's now something I do every year and really look forward to.

I've found that there really is nothing you can not grow in a pot, and it's a huge advantage to be able to hop out of the kitchen onto my patio and cut a few leaves for a salad, or pick some beans to accompany dinner.  There's no secret to container growing either, I use basic potting compost in the pots, sprinkle on some seeds or pot on a pre-grown plant and wait for them to grow. 

A couple of things I have discovered though, is the importance of the container you plant in. You have to use a pot large enough to accommodate the fruit or vegetable, and then some. There's really no point growing in a tiny pot or one that's just about big enough, as the roots of the plant become stunted and you end up watering all the time! Trial and error means I have a preference for plastic pots too. Terracotta looks lovely, but it dries out the soil so quickly and the pots are always breaking in frosty weather, even those that claim they won't! I do feed my pots as well, usually once a fortnight, with a general purpose tomato fertiliser.

Several of the vegetables that I'd grown from seed were ready for their second potting on. I usually wait until I see a few roots poking from the bottom of the pot before I do this, these had more than a few, proving the actual garden has had me very occupied over the last couple of weeks.

Cucumbers are coming along nicely, and when they get potted on the next time, they'll be transferred to the sunnier side of my patio, with some trellis fixed behind the pot for them to scramble on.

Tomatoes will also join the sunny side in a week or two. Because there will be some sun...won't there? 

Lettuce, Mixed Salad and Rocket will stay on the shady side, as it's cooler and helps prevent them from running to seed. They are romping away at the moment, and I've been thinning out the seedlings, as well as sowing new batches so there will always be some ready to eat throughout summer.

I also succession sow French Beans and Radishes, both vegetables I adore and can eat by the bucket load! I'll be adding a third set of pots next week for these. The first set should be ready in a couple of weeks.

Spring Onions are 'springing' along. I usually leave one pot to flower, so I can enjoy the little petals scattered over salads, and the others get snipped on a regular basis. The wooden box at the back has Sage, Thyme and Chives in.

I picked the first few stalks of Rhubarb today, ready to be roasted tomorrow morning and served with some natural yoghurt and a drizzle of honey for breakfast.

The Strawberries in the raised beds on the patio have started to flower, and I've started to drool over the thought of freshly picked fruit for my pudding!

I snaffled this Blackberry runner from my Mums garden the last time I was digging there. I don't really need blackberries in the garden as the nature reserves where I live are full of them in summer, but this is a thornless variety, so I thought it might save my poor arms from being scratched to pieces, and provide enough fruit to add to the breakfast bowl every now and then. 

Of course, there are still one or two edible things in the actual garden. The Apple Tree for one.

And the raspberries, that have a patch of their own in the far right corner. I'm happy to leave them there and just dig up the runners when they get out of hand. They produced an enormous amount of fruit last year!

There are still lots of vegetables in the coldframe, and even more in my spare room, waiting for the right time to go outside, but here's a list of what is out there so far: 

• Beetroot
• Rocket
• Mixed Salad Leaves
• Tomatoes
• Courgettes
• Cucumbers
• Rhubarb
• Asparagus Peas
• French Beans
• Garlic Chives
• Radishes
• Carrots
• Spinach
• Kale
• Swiss Chard
• Butternut Squash
• Strawberries
• Blackberries
• Raspberries
• Apples

I'm hoping for a good bounty this year!

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I'm a sucker for a strawberry!

I really am! I love them so much, I've ended up with 6 large beds full that edge my patio. Up until this spring, they were wonderfully healthy and provided me with masses of beautiful fresh tasting fruit.

 I noticed this year that a few of the beds didn't look that great (the above one is doing well though). I thought the terrible winter may have had something to do with it, and ordered some new varieties to fill in the gaps. I have Elegance, that produces enormous tasty strawberries in June and July, Florence, a prolific cropper from the end of June to the end of July and Finesse, an everbearer with exceptional flavour, cropping from July to October.

After forking over one bed to add the new varieties, I soon discovered that the culprit may not have been the weather at all, but the rather devastating larvae of the Vine Weevil!

These beasties nibble away on the thin roots of plants and the outer tissue of thicker roots, eventually killing the plant. I picked out as many of them as I could and put them on the table for the birds, but seriously, there were so many I got fed up after a while. Fingers crossed they don't do any damage to my my new plants!

Not content with the strawberries in my beds, I also have some in the ground, and have just popped these wild strawberries, Fragaria vesca Alexandra, into my basket stand. I'm hoping the little alpine strawberries I'm growing from seed will be able to join these in a month or two.

If my other beds don't pick up soon, there may be even more varieties joining them in the next month or so.

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