The City Garden in late May is finally starting to take shape. It has been a tough time for the garden over the past two years but it is time to start talking about it again. And I am going to do this post for Six on Saturday, my first post in nearly two years!
Hydrangeas
I grow hydrangeas in tall rubbish bins. It doesn’t sound very nice but the bins allow a decent depth of soil which seems to retain the moisture. There are five of these! And I have found a spot in the garden where they seem to flourish and so I am planting more. Annabelle seems fairly happy in a shady spot and I am going to plant some cuttings and hope to have another patch.
The garden is very difficult, with a lot of shade and one or two dry corners, hence the use of rubbish bins which can be placed in the sun!
Libertia Grandiflora
One year I left the dead flowerheads on the Libertias. The next spring I noticed a host of seedlings! There were perhaps as many as two dozen! They are evergreen plants, resilient and for one month in the year the flowers are graceful and delicate. So I am going to plant more. I potted up the seedlings and now have some well-established plants which I hope will flower next year.
I am going to plant clumps against the back wall which I am replanting after cutting down two shrubs and the clematis.
Very small geraniums
I think these are a variety of geranium macrorrhizum. They propagate easily and are just gorgeous.
Species geraniums
A few years ago a kind lady in Tower Hamlets gave me one or two cuttings and look at them now! These guys are TOUGH. I am planting them on the new Pavement Garden – more about that another time.
Blowsy geraniums
The geraniums were left out because there is no greenhouse. Sometimes they make it through the winter, and sometimes not. I cut down the deep carmine geraniums; the other left alone and they have all rewarded me generously.
Green Lewisham
The City Garden has been neglected mainly because of a book. The last two years have been tough and I found an escape by exploring the green spaces in Lewisham in south east London. I tried to understand their history, I wrote about them and I photographed. Eventually I included 90 sites in the book which will be published through Amazon and others on 7 July this year. It was a huge undertaking!
And those are my Six on Saturday.