End of December round up

Posted Mon 31 December 2018 in garden

Overview

The end of my second year in the garden.

Last year was quite unusual in that there was snow and frozen ground, enough to kill off the tender plants. This year there has been barely a frost, and all the tender plant are still alive - past their best of course but still hanging on.

New plants

I bought a few plants that were on sale and planted them in the new section reclaimed from the lawn.

Astrantia major 'April love'
Leucanthemum × superbum 'Real neat'
Stokesia laevis 'Blue star'

New shoots

There are a few daffodils showing, for some reason one of the group always appears much earlier than the rest. Also signs of snowdrops. There is also one or two crocuses and a few of the Ipheion.

What's flowering during the month?

I'm going to stop giving lists of what is flowering during the month, but there was quite a lot still in flower, especially at the beginning of the month. The Helenium was particularly surprising to me for lasting so late.

Reflections and looking ahead

Although the garden is small, I imagined creating a space where you can get the feeling of walking through plants along a winding path, seeing different views from different parts of the garden.

Well I've made the first part of the path, it is roughly where the right edge of the lawn was, but makes a curve carving out a larger area in the sunny corner. There are plants on both side of it and I was in the process of removing even more lawn when it got too wet to continue.

I've also placed a bench at the bottom part of the garden which catches the morning and early afternoon sun. This gives a different view of the garden.

While digging up the lawn I've become aware of just how compressed the ground is. So I am going to dig up more areas, especially towards the back, digging down as far as I can with a chisel pick/mattock.

I'm also going to use more fertilizer for the next year or two. No doubt that a good soil doesn't need much, I don't really have a good soil and it is going to take a few years to make it better.

The next thing to do is the back border. This gets a fair amount of sun too and so I will extend it and put a path through it. I haven't quite decided where exactly this is going to go and I might have to move quite a few plants to get it as I would like.

Oh, and I'll probably get a new plant or two.

Posted by Steve