#23 - Random Seed Casting in the Hebe Garden

This post should be avoided if you are a traditionalist, or of a nervous disposition.  I highly recommend that you do you, and take no notice of the madcap things that I do like the following.  There is no guarantee that it will work, but I like to live on the edge.

I have so many packets of seeds, and not enough time, or indeed places to sow them all that I decided to take a different approach and view in that it was kinder to give them a chance of life if I simply broad cast the seed and see what Mother Gaia gifted me.

So to the Hebe Garden (it is the bed top right of the garden in which I planted a Hebe hedge hence the name)  I trotted with my folder and threw out the contents of the following packets.

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Larkspur (Delphinim Consolida) 'Cannes White' - Hardy Annual - Seeds from Plants of Distinction - Cutting flower but attractive to slugs though; makes good confetti when the flowers are dried - Sow in January/April and August/September (clearly, I am ignoring that!)

Pot Marigold (Calendula Officinalis) 'Calexis Mixed) - Hardy Annual - Plants of Distinction NB: link and photo are for 'Galaxy Mixed' as their code for my packet 1219B is no longer available on their website, so this is just to give you .. and me if they germinate ... a helping hand and guide to what to expect. Sow May/September likely to flower in May/October.  Fantastic for infusing in oil to make lotions and potions.

Antirrhinum 'Potomac Ivory White F1' - Half-hardy Annual - Plants of Distinction - Sow February/May - ignoring that and hoping for an Indian Summer - should usually be ready I think about 10 weeks after sowing for platting out.

Larkspur (Delphinium Elatum) 'Double Stars' - Plants of Distinction - Likely to be a slug magnet and dries well for confetti. - Hardy Perennial - Sow January/April, August/September flowering May to September.

Lupin (Lupinus Polyphyullus) 'Summer Carnival' - Plants of Distinction - I would love this to pay off, if not just for these beauties. - Perennial - Sow January/June and August/September. Flowers June to August.  If you do this properly, you would transplant in the garden when the pots are full of root.

As an aside, my 'Russell Mixed lupins sewn earlier in the year are doing very well.  Actually, so well that I have given some away to my darling mother-in-law and also to one of my lovely neighbours.  I am desperate to get the bed dug over by the new side fence - my son is hopefully going to fill in the post holes for me at the weekend to save me some heavy work).  My neighbour came over to pick up her Lupins as said she loved my garden.  Although, I am not sure if she had already hit the sherry bottle because there is to my eye so much wrong with it, with way too many areas yet to do, weed, blah blah blah.   Bless her for saying it, it gave me a boost.

Some seedlings labelled up Shasta Daisy were slung in the white butler sink late last summer after the temporary greenhouse was shaken up in a storm and the seedlings landed in a heap.  They have long been on my radar to move, but it only just dawned on Hebe Garden also.  Managed to finally get my potatoes in - will post about that struggle separately, and helped my son pot up his Torbay Palm (Cordyline Australis) that he rescued (with the permission of the garden owner of course) from a garden he was working on.

Ohh and just because I have zero to sub-zero control, I also have a purchase, and other things on my radar that are proving difficult to forget from the nursery trip yesterday.

Let's take a break there peeps, I threw more down, but will cover those in a further post, and then try to keep you updated as we do along.  I think if any of the Larkspur come through and I get to them before the slugs, I might dig them up and place in pots to keep an eye of them.

#16 - A good day of work

 … and the new gate and fencing at the side rear has been done ...

It’s a difficult area  to work with as the bank is a lot steeper than it looks and has a camber  A huge rambling rose had to be cut back hard to install the Reed fence panel, which left a gaping hole in the boundary fence and hedge too, so a short term solution is the Reed screen, by the time it’s worn out the Laurel will be much bigger.  It looks distressingly small in this picture, but is in fact larger than it appears. I am rubbish at photography!

We have been debating a triangular trellis atop the fence panel, doubt will no doubt kick the idea back and forth for some time until the right solution is found.  

There is still plenty of work to do, like painting it all, which begun this afternoon when there was not a cloud in the sky, but has been halted by patches of spitting rain. Isn’t it always the way?

An unknown animal has already damaged the corner of the Reed, and so we have had to come up with a solution to stop it from creating a bigger hole … honestly, it could have just gone around and behind the screening rather than create a somewhat cartoonish hole in it.  We clearly need to have a chat.

This morning a few plants hopped in the car from the Nursery at Horam, some for this area, vegetables for some of the raised beds and  a nice tray of container plants for outside the front door,  it more on that over the next few updates, one in particular is really exciting.

For the rest of the week it is more weeding elsewhere in the garden and ground preparation in this area before the planting  can begin.

Hugs

Kay

PS:  Supplier of fencing, posts and gate was Tate Fencing and installation was down by eldest kid and my darling Husband.  The kid despatched a good amount of old tree roots, and the most god awful grass in vast numbers that just spreads everywhere,  I am not going to dignify it with a botanical name, as it most definitely does not deserve one.

#9 - Rosemary surface cleaner

Time to make another batch of surface cleaner, although this time I’m using my own Rosemary sprigs rather than sprigs from the supermarket.

The original receipt came from the Back to Blighty YouTube Channel.  If you are interested in knitting, spinning, weaving, with a sprinkle of gardening, roller blading and Morris Dancing thrown in, then Becky is your girl.

You just throw the sprigs in a jar (I add a slice of lemon too), and top up to the rim with white vinegar.  Shake every day for a month, then take out the greenery and fruit and pop in a spray bottle to use as surface cleaner, that is eco friendly with no nasty chemicals for the smallest amount of effort.

I’m also going to research whether it would be safe/beneficial to add a drop of tea tree, and will report back on that.

Hugs

Kay xx