I am rethinking the City Garden. Time has passed, it has been neglected over the last three years, and now I also have a damaged lower back and have to be much more careful. Gardening time is more limited but I still want an ‘oasis’ where I can sit and enjoy a cup of coffee, or better still, a glass of wine!
Dry Shade
The bed along the flint wall is mainly in the shade and was planted with Japanese anemones. They are doing ok, although not quite flourishing anymore. So we have dug in compost and bonemeal and I plan to water in some kind of plant food. A tree has come down in the neighbouring garden so there should be a little more light, and there has been a lot of rain this year too.
The bergenias along the edge of the border have to be replaced and cuttings are potted up; the forget-me-nots just need feeding, I think, although I am going to retrieve some plants from The Fortnight Garden and pot them up, just in case; and I have planted some geranium macrorrhizum in the gaps.
I would like to encourage more ferns in the flint wall and I am going to spray the wall with a very diluted yoghurt mixture.
A sunny border
On the opposite side of the garden I have a patch of dry sun and next to it dry shade under a damson tree. This is a very difficult garden! I have made a mistake here and planted gardeners garters – phalaris arundinacea. They have come out, some potted, and others planted in a diffcult corner of The Pavement Garden.
I want to keep the miscanthus, I have planted a clematis for height, the aquilegias are spreading, the lysimachia (dark-leaved) are happy, and the Viburnum plicatum is starting to take.
And that is the start. Rethinking the city garden is going to take time and effort and I have to be careful. At least I can still do something!