Plans for next year

The weather has been a lot drier in August compared with July. My gladioli and sweetpea are coming out now - as seen in the pictures


I've been trying to plan what i want to do next year. I'd like something else amongst the grasses. I did put some seeds for wild flowers in there, but i think i put them in too late as the grasses had already grown quite a bit. I'll definitely put some spring bulbs in but it would be nice if it was a bit more interesting throughout the summer as well. it would look good with some taller flowers like poppies (papaver orientale (red) or meconopsis grandis (blue) is like what I mean. Also Helenium a red flower that flowers in Autumn would be good). In Gardeners' world this month there is a scheme with grasses and some bulbs - purple sensation. Maybe i could try introducing those when i plant the spring bulbs plus add some new grasses next spring. Actually i could put gladioli there. Or (from book):
watsonia borbonica (summer flowering pink 1 - 1.5 m)
Allium Stipitatum (summer purple-pink 1 - 1.5m)
(or any other allium)


As for the back of the garden i really need to fill that out. I could add a couple more shrubs but what I'd really like are lots and lots of wild looking flowers - like foxgloves, penstemons delphiniums and phlox

looking in my book these might be nice as well:

• symphytum x uplandicum - flower late spring / early summer pink/blue/purple
• sidalcea 'oberon' - summer pink flowers
• veronica gentianoides - small summer white flower

I also like all the flowers that look like big daisies. None of the ones I've planted before ever work though. The heads fall off about a week after i buy them and then no new flowers grow. I really do need to test my soil and get things that work well. Also work out if it is well drained or not. I'm not sure what I've previously bought and there are so many different types in my plant book that all look pretty much the same to me.

I have ordered some bulbs today. I'm going to put snowdrops and bluebells at the back and lots of daffs/narcissus in the other beds, including in the grasses and along the edge of the lawn

I def need to manure and stuff this winter and make all the beds and plants happy. The other thing I'm not sure of is what to leave in the ground and what I'll have to take out. the fast growing tobacco plant for eg - is that a perennial or an annual - there is one in each section of my book.


I've had loads of slugs and snails this year. Next year i need to get copper rings. the other things I'd like to do are:
- grow herbs
- grow tomoatos
- make a private bit of the garden
- get a proper hammock
- have a water feature
- make some cuttings from the hidden fushia
- get a mini greenhouse and grow some seedlings and cuttings that way

We've had rain this week - look how the garden grows!

I'm going to have to work out how to thin the stock seedlings out soon. I put a whole packet in one row as i didn't realise how many seeds there were. I think its about 750! It says thin them out when they are ready - but i don't know when that is. My dad said when they are an inch or two and they have really grown this week.

I really like these pink flowers. They must have been in the bed before i moved here. They've never really come up this much before but i cleared a lot of ivy out of this bed the first year and lots of bind weed last year and earlier this year so hopefully that is why they are growing so well.

The gladioli bulbs are growing as well. I think the ones i put in a line will look a bit silly. My mum has now told me about growing them in clumps. I'll do that next year! The ones near the clementis should look better.

The plants i planted last weekend look OK. They are meant to be a in a sheltered spot and i thought they were. However, as the back fence has been cleared by the park gardener a wind comes wiping across the park and into that back bed so they've been rather blown about this week. I hope they will be OK.

I need to plant more at the back bed. I ordered some seeds about three weeks ago to go there but they still have not arrived. I also need to get the fence mended so I probably should do that before I plant more.

1st may

The sunny bed I'm creating

At the front is Lobelia. There is then stock seed. I poured the whole packet in by accident so I will have to work out how and when to thin these out at some point. There are then some Gladioli bulbs. I didn't realise at the time it is best to put them in clumps so they are in a row and might look a bit funny. Live and learn. At the back, there is a bush in the middle. It is really pretty but I think I have killed it by pruning it to much at the wrong time. So I'll see if that grows again! Then too either side are sweetpeas. I made little wig wams - but they won't be big enough. I'll need to get some bigger sticks soon. I planted all this bed in April, the week of 16th April I think.