Making Changes

Six on Saturday is a weekly garden diary hosted by The Propagator.  For links to garden updates from all over the world, check his comment section & the Twitter hashtag #SixOnSaturday.

Summer is definitely over.  For the first time in 4 years, I'll have a 2nd year in the same garden.  Time to look at what did & didn't work, then plan for changes.

Before we start, this    =>  =>  =>  =>  => 
isn't a photo to show off our untidy lawn nor even the not-so-shady border after it's been raided of plants.

Someone besides myself has learned a thing or two living here.  Can you spot her?

No?  Well, let's do this thang & come back to that later.



1.  Getting rid of plants.

This week I've been lifting plants that either hadn't been separated by previous tenants, had multiplied outrageously over the summer, or simply didn't work for me.

I really hate killing healthy plants, so enter Freecycle, stage left.


2.  Phlomis.

Gardeners from Freecycle (or further afield) have their own surplus plants &, more often than not, come bearing gifts.  The woman who brought this clump of phlomis (between the 2 covered angelica who've not been off the S&S menu all summer) even picked out the spot where she thought it would look best.

I've also been given hardy geranium, cyclamen, wild garlic & red hot pokers.  The buddleia, I kindly declined.


3.  Fuchsia hedge.

Next to the phlomis is a pink & white fuchsia hedge that had a coupla elder saplings growing in the middle of it.  After digging the saplings out, I stuck verbena bonariensis in their place, the idea being the verbena is enough of a thug to compete with the fuchsia.  Tune in next summer to see what happens.

I deepened the bed in front of the hedge, then added achillea The Pearl & various bulbs.  All work has been thoroughly inspected by Mr BigNoseDog.

Not sure it passes muster with himself.


4.  Anemone seed heads.

Perpendicular to the hedge border, the anemone are still blooming, but the seed heads are coming along nicely.

If you look in the window, you can see a DoodleGhost doing her best to keep an eye on me.  (Her nose is just above the sprig of seed heads & her eye to the left of the middle flower.)  Mr Big Nose Dog pootles around the front garden while I work, but Mlle DoodleFace cannot be trusted off lead in any area without a 6' fence, bless her.


5.  Replanting baskets.

These were indoor linen baskets for a dozen or so years, used by various felines as cat scratchers.  This year, I down-cycled them into herb planters for near the kitchen door where Mizzy BunnyButt still makes use of them.

Turns out we didn't much use the herbs & edible flowers planted there, so I've put in the oregano Amethyst Falls (below left) & the New Zealand fuchsia (below right), while leaving behind a few edible dianthus.

The mater was a volunteer & has 2 not-quite-ripe fruit on it.  Nature'll soon take her course with that one.


6.  Tulips.

With all the recent moves, putting in bulbs wasn't overly practical, but that didn't stop me from daydreaming about Sarah Raven tulips.  This year, I finally am able to plant some in boxes that'll hang off one section of wall.

I'm not sure why they haven't come up, yet.  It's been 3 days.

And that's my Six.

The answer to my initial question lurks behind the square planter on the footpath.

Mizzy BunnyButt, worst bird hunter ever, has decided that hiding from the birds might be a better tactic than crouching in the grass.

It hasn't improved her hunting skills, much to my relief, but she has her dreams.

Thanks for stopping by!