The Keepers and the Weepers

The work in overhauling the garden has been continuing, and I'm incredibly happy with how everything looks now. I've been very ruthless and many spots are now plantless, but I think it will be worth it come next year.

Plenty of plants have been given the heave ho, including an extraordinary amount of Sedums and Hardy Geraniums. I think these were plants that I realised I could propagate very easily, and over the years I got just a little carried away with them. No tiny garden needs 15 of the same Sedums, especially ones that were flopping all over the place! As for the Hardy Geraniums, well, as much as I love them, I had one variety that was in about 5 different places, gets huge leaves during the summer and swamps everything else in its path, the flowers are beautiful though so I've kept one, but, after an awful lot of back breaking digging, got rid of the others.  I swear if a clump any larger than my fist came up I let out an almighty cheer, the roots were tough and I have a feeling I didn't get to them all so I'll have to keep a watch on the areas to ensure they don't come back. I do have plenty of smaller growing Hardy Geraniums dotted around which are a bit more manageable.

I've kept a few of the Sedums at the back where they look their best, and for now, I'm leaving one in front of the shed and this one along the border.

They'll be going as soon as I have something to replace them with though. Next year, I'll be giving the remaining Sedums the Chelsea Chop again, but I'll reduce them by half this time, as cutting down by a third didn't work. Another good reason to clear out many of these plants was the enormous amount of snails and slugs they were hiding. Nearly every leaf had one or the other on it, and plenty down at the base of the plant too. I have definitely seen an overall reduction of them in the garden now there aren't as many places for them to hide!

The woodland area and front of shed border have had a tidy up, but most of the work has taken place at the far end of the garden which had started to resemble a mini jungle. Plants were crowding each other out, there were straggly Crocosmias all over and things weren't looking that great. These are the befores.

And the afters. Much better I think. 

I've moved a lot of plants from other parts of the garden, and added in some new ones, including the gorgeous Shasta Daisies, Echinacea Pow Wow, Cherry Brandy Rudbeckias and Chrysanthemums, these are the definite keepers, they have added so much colour to the borders and I can't wait to see how they look next year when they've had a chance to grow. There are lots of other Spring flowering plants dotted in, and some spaces ready for bulbs and plants I'm growing on.

And, you may or may not have noticed that the blog has had a bit of a name change. I'm now Blooms 'n' Spades rather than Spoons 'n' Spades! It's something I've been meaning to do for a while to reflect the fact I no longer grow food for eating. I like it, hope you do too :-) .

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In Bloom for August

There has been so much upheaval in the garden over the last few weeks, I'm surprised there is anything blooming in there at all. But despite the fact I have moved plants in the middle of summer, on some of the hottest days, nothing seems to have suffered, and the plants seem quite happy in their new spots. Just goes to show you can throw that gardening rulebook out of the window sometimes...and I frequently do, lol!!

Giant Dahlia Orange has been blooming in my front garden for a couple of months now and still has plenty of new buds appearing. I'm not sure why it's called 'orange' when the flowers are yellow, but oh well, it's still a stunner. Not much snail/slug damage on this one either.

'Lucky' is my newest Rose in the garden. It's such a pretty pink colour and smells amazing! I'm looking forward to the plant maturing so I can enjoy more blooms, there have just been a few this month.

Rose Arthur Bell has just started blooming for the third time this year, and considering I moved it just a few weeks ago, is quite surprising me with it's beautiful yellow flowers and soft perfume again.

Rose Deep Secret is in one of the raised beds in my front garden, and I make sure I sniff a bloom every time I'm going in or coming out. I've taken a few cuttings of this one as it's a complete beauty and more of a deeper red than pink that my photo shows.

The Primulas are still going strong in the woodland area, delighting the butterflies.

And they're very fond of the Buddleia too. This is Magenta Buzz, a compact variety that I have in a large pot near the shed and is looking its best at the moment.

Hydrangea Love is still looking great with lots of blooms, although many have started to turn brown in the last day or two due to the deluge of rain we've had. Thanks Bertha :-/ .

The Begonias have just started reaching full bloom. This gorgeous rogue red/orange one is looking a little odd, as all my others are pastel coloured, but the bloom is so much bigger. Maybe it was a sign and I should plump for this colour next year.

And speaking of rogues, my Clematis Freda suddenly produced two new blooms, just two, right at the top where I just about spotted them on the shed roof.

Petunias, Nicotiana, Trailing Geraniums and Nemesia are giving a lovely display in my raised beds.

                          

And Shasta Daisies and Rudbeckia are settling into their new home after I revamped this area.

The Anemones are looking really pretty, although the foliage has suffered a bit with the hot weather we've had.

A mention has to go to the Solanum, which blooms practically non stop in the garden, and is still going, although not as prolifically as earlier in the year. I love its delicate little flowers and it's such a fantastically fast growing climber. It has smothered a good part of the ugly concrete wall in just a couple of years and is now mingling with the apple tree.

And speaking of apples, just 7 on my tree this year, a measly 7. There were 8, but something got to that one. Oh well, enough for one with my lunch for a week I suppose. Hopefully a better yield next year.

And remember I said at the start of the post there were no casualties from my big garden move around. Well, that's because even the Salix Willow that rather looked like it had given up the ghost in THIS POST has started growing again. I gave the old branches a good crop and staked the tree to help support the roots and voila! it started sprouting new branches. I may have lost the old ones, but it's a fast growing tree anyway so the new ones should replace them in a year or two. I can wait!

That's some of what's blooming and growing in the garden just now. I've still a lot more work to do out there, including putting out some lovely new plants and I'll hopefully be sorted enough to share my progress on that next time.

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Working on the Wildlife Ponds.

The hard work has been continuing in the garden since my last post, and I am now seriously ready to put my feet up for a while...or until the Autumn//Winter bedding plants and bulbs arrive anyway.  I tackled the wildlife ponds, some of which had become very overgrown, and ended up completely rearranging this area at the back of the garden.

I'm not sure the frogs were impressed, they were definitely giving me the evil eye at one point and this gang of three looked set to pounce!

I'm happy to say they've settled back in nicely after the changes and I counted eight in there this morning. Not bad for a pond made from a plant pot!  Anyway, onto the plants. Once I'd spent a couple of hours clearing the area, I reset the slates around the pond and added a Lythrum Salicaria to the back of the area. I'd not come across this plant before, but its purple spires are very pretty and it enjoys moist soil so should be right at home here.

I left the Campanula and Carex in place, as well as Hedgy the Hog, who is looking a little worse for wear now but has been in the garden for years and I can't bear to part with him. He looks rather good once the Campanula starts to grow over him and you just see his face peeking out.

I've been a huge Heuchera fan since I started adding them to my garden a couple of years ago, and there were a few that were not being shown off very well so I moved those to the pond area and added a new one too. This is Strawberry Swirl, and it has the prettiest dainty pink flowers and ruffled leaves.

Ginger Peach is nestled among Key Lime Pie, with some Ajuga Black Scallop at the back to break things up.

Heucherella Sweet Tea has been hidden under a mound of other plants for a while, but is starting to look better now I've moved it. Heuchera Paris next to it only has one leaf as I've ravaged it for cuttings, which are coming along nicely in the coldframe. I'm sure it will bounce back soon.

And Lime Marmalade is the last and such a gorgeous green. It really brightens up the area.

There will be splashes of colour with various bulbs and bedding plants going in soon, although I'm really happy with it just now.

The other two wildlife pond areas just needed a bit of tidying up. The Carex and Hardy Geranium had really taken over in the woodland ponds, so I dug up quite a lot of it which was no mean feat I can tell you. The roots for both might be fairly shallow, but they're thick and really take some digging, if I fell on my backside once I fell a dozen times, it's lucky I'm shielded from all the neighbours there! There's not much to see in these ponds at the moment other than frogs, as the pond plants such as Marsh Marigold and Bog Iris are really the stars of the show and have now finished flowering for the year. At least you can see the water though.

The front of border wildlife pond  (there is water in there somewhere!) has been quite spectacular with masses of  Pickerel Hyacinths during July which are just starting to die off now. I didn't have to do too much here except trim back the Lamium and dig up some Hardy Geranium that had spread too far. I also rearranged this whole border in front of the shed, hence the many bare spaces. They won't stay bare for long though!

I hope you enjoyed the little ponds update. I'm off for a lemongrass latte and a rest now :-) .

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