My Gardening View #19

It’s been a while since I shared my gardening view with you and there have been some exciting developments and a disaster.

The view from my potting shed has changed a lot since the summer. The tomatoes have gone after a bumper year, and I’m starting to clear the rest of the vegetable beds.

So far, so normal but can you spot the biggest change in the picture above? My new greenhouse has been installed!

I’m so excited to start using this properly.

It’s still fairly empty bar a stand of seedlings – winter lettuce, broad beans, and spinach that’s just germinated. I’ve also put a pot of mint in there to see if it will keep going over winter, and potted up a tub with garlic.

The base has not been paved or covered in gravel like the small greenhouse as I’m thinking about growing directly into the soil, if the bindweed doesn’t prove too troublesome. Weed-suppressing membrane has been put down so that we don’t spend the winter weeding the greenhouse!

The passion flower was a casualty of the change.

It did mean taking out my beloved passion flower though – a piece given to me by my dad. Luckily, it had rooted in a few places over the years and we were able to dig up several plants. A couple have gone on trellis that screens the compost bins and the rest have been potted up for insurance.

The disaster was discovering that honey fungus had spread from the drive into the main garden. We’d had to fell a tree a while ago because of it and I’d hoped we’d managed to stop the fungus spreading.

So, I was dismayed to see it under a laurel hedge just the other side of the gates. The laurel wasn’t anything special but did disguise the fence and hide the plastic compost bins.

Now we’ve got to decide what to do with the space.

The hedge has now been removed and I’m contemplating some sort of underground barrier to help prevent any spread of the honey fungus.

There’s nothing quite like a good compost bin.

Only true gardeners will understand my joy at the picture above. The old wooden compost bins that were in a state of collapse have gone and my OH has built these. The wooden slats – made from gravel boards – slot in and can be easily removed.

We dug out quite a lot of usable compost in the process, which has gone onto the vegetable beds. I’m now starting to fill up the bays again.

Cutting back overgrown things created a new planting space.

Some of that compost went into a new bed that’s been created. Well, reclaimed might be a better description. The rosemary and sage had got far too big and I’d been meaning to cut them back for some time.

The job has finally been done and there was suddenly space that needed replanting. The stakes are marking where bulbs have gone in and I’ve added some purchases from Exedra Nursery along with divisions from elsewhere in the garden.

This penstemon from Green JJam Nurseries was a Malvern Autumn Show purchase and it’s already started flowering.

Further along, Salvia ‘Nachtvlinder’ is an absolute joy. I’ve added several new salvias this year as they seem to do so well on my sandy soil and I like the fact they flower so far into the autumn.

*Dahlia* ‘Karma Ying Yang’ still going strong.

Not that we’re having a normal autumn. By now my dahlias should have been hit by frost, lifted and tucked up in the potting shed for the winter. So far, we’ve had only two light frosts and there’s little sign of really cold weather any time soon. I have cleaned and tidy the potting shed ready for their arrival though and think I’m going to go ahead and just dig them up.

Along with the dahlias, cosmos, tithonia and a host of other summer flowers are still going strong.

The birds have yet to strip the cotoneaster of berries.

Meanwhile, the berries are the best for years with the cotoneaster, pyrantha and even the holly covered. Hopefully, it’s just a result of the summer stress and not the country saying of a cold winter in store.

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