Parks & Gardens in London, Suffolk, & abroad
Here we are in the City Garden at the end of February and I have been totally silent for quite a while! I have, however, been busy with several other activities – a short IT course, a few tailoring lessons, and a photography exhibition. I have told myself it isn’t gardening weather but just recently I have managed an hour or two and so here I am with my Six on Saturday!
The tidying up is going slowly and so I thought today should be more about enjoyment – isn’t that what this is about? So, my Six on Saturday in The Fortnight Garden is indulgent!
Cold, wet, windy, grey – thoroughly miserable and definitely not a day to be outside, which is a pity because there is plenty to do. After some weeks away the garden is looking good, but untidy! I am going to share my quinces and more from the Fortnight Garden this week.
What a resourceful man The Propagator is! Somehow we see new plants in his garden every week! By comparison I offer some further growth this week, only three new plants, and some jam.
This week Six on Saturday includes two grasses, two plants grown for their leaves, and hydrangeas in tubs. My garden is quite small and so quite a few pots are necessary, in sunny spots, in empty corners, in the Fernery, and just as ‘overflow’ from the rest of the garden. So here we are again, a week later and at the start of a warm and sunny day – BUT – the sun has turned round and is heading south again – too soon!
I have planted Carex ‘Evergold’ in one of the small, square beds set into the gravel and I think flowers would be interesting standing up above the grass. This is the ‘hot colours’ part of the garden and so I think quite a dramatic combination could work well: Astrantia, Sanguisorba, or a purple Sedum.
I have planted low-growing grasses in small, square beds and think they will need some taller, wavy flowers planted amongst them. But which flowers? I have combined Luzula Nivea and Carex ‘Frosted Curls’ and I think blue flowers would look good standing above the grasses, and perhaps the cornflowers are best as this is a cottage garden.
The grasses in the front garden are starting to flower and if the weather holds they should be absolutely wonderful during October – it is hard to believe that winter is just round the corner.
Calamagrostis Brachytricha is flowering abundantly – soft, feathery, pinkish flower heads which are quite ethereal. And I like the combination with the echinacea seed pods. The flowers will stand through the winter and then I will cut down hard in the spring.
Miscanthus Sinensis ‘Kleine Silberspinne’ is thicker and more luscious than ever before and the dark pinky-brown flower heads are just starting to rise above the leaves. The clumps are now in their fifth year and properly established. I will cut down in the early spring.
Stipa Gigantea has done well again, but the bergenias are starting to crowd the plant and I need to remove a few.
And the newly planted Carex Testacea which I have combined with Heuchera ‘Crême Brûlée and a purple sedum.
Luzula Nivea looks interesting.
Carex ‘Frosted Curls’ should also be fun!
I am finding it hard to leave the garden to grow, but I feel it needs to settle down without me interfering this year.
There were some wonderful grasses in flower: Carex Elata ‘Aurea’, Molinia, Stipa Calamagrostis, Pennisetum ‘Villosum’ (I think), and many others.
