Snowdrops...

A short lull in the arrival of plants for the garden ended with the arrival of some 'in the green' snowdrops, which have now been planted along the bank. The idea is that they (and the bluebells when they arrive) will come through the snow-in-summer when it gets established as ground cover on the bank. With luck there will be foxgloves , euphorbia and knautia in due course too. Maybe some vinca if the snow-in-summer doesn't provide dense enough ground cover to keep the grass at bay. I will be glad when the weather warms up a bit and working in the garden doesn't involve creating mud and freezing fingers! It's too cold to contemplate making the arbour yet, which is frustrating.

So far everything that has gone in is still alive, as far as one can tell given that some of it is dormant. The only casualty was the 'Red Baron' ornamental grass which looked pretty dead when it arrived through the post.

The fluffy little cinnamon-coloured cat from one of the neighbouring houses (we have dubbed her Peaches for some unknown reason) has become my companion when I am gardening - she hears I am there and comes crashing through the hedge to keep me company. Actually, she is quite a hindrance, as she wanders around silently and appears behind me just as I am stepping back off the bank, which is rather hazardous to both of us! Fortunately she isn't digging anything up, but I'm afraid she is an efficient hunter (of mice, anyway) and I am concerned for the safety of my growing bird population, especially if they have babies in the spring.

Must get on and prepare the raised beds, especially the top one which needs to be ready for when the asparagus arrives!

Trees and roses

After a couple of strenuous afternoons, definite progress has been made in the garden. The roses went into their handsome green pots, and are looking very healthy. I followed the David Austin instructions to the letter, so hopefully they will grow well - I am very much looking forward to the flowers, and Matthew is even managing to get vaguely enthusiastic about them!

This afternoon we planted the trees - very hard going as the ground in the right hand side of the garden is very heavy, alluvial clay - the left hand side is much more manageable, presumably because it used to be a veg patch and therefore has been dug more recently. After much digging we ended up with three fine holes, and planted the rowan, silver birch and quince. We also decided to use the hole for the silver birch for another purpose too - when our previous cat, Gus, died back in 2006, we were a little taken aback on collecting his ashes from the vet to discover that they were in a very fine wooden casket with a brass name plaque! We had intended to scatter his ashes, but when confronted with this very handsome casket we didn't know what to do with it - so we didn't do anything! It didn't seem quite right to bury him in the garden in Dorset when we were about to move away - anyway, the upshot was that we have been wondering what on earth to do with him ever since, including through two house moves - and now that we were planting trees it seemed like a good idea to bury his ashes while we were about it. All the more appropriate, of course, because of his love of climbing trees (although he wasn't very good at coming back down in a dignified manner!). So the lovely silver birch is now Gus' tree, which all seems very seemly and fitting.

The garden looks very different now that the trees are planted - even though they have been in position in their pots for a few days while I worked out where they needed to be. It will be lovely to see them developing - as I bought quite mature trees, in the case of the birch and quince anyway, we should see them getting to adulthood before we leave this house.

Yesterday's post brought the latest consignment of plants (snow-in-summer, Spindles, and some more ornamental grasses) which I will plant out tomorrow (back too sore today after digging holes for the trees!). They all look quite healthy, which is good. So far mail order has been quite successful!

More pics of garden early Feb 2010

Pics of garden early Feb 2010

She wheeled her wheelbarrow...

Well, that's most of the budget spent! Yesterday I went to Blackwood Garden Centre and bought some very large pots for the roses and the dwarf buddleia, and also ordered industrial quantities of topsoil, John Innes Nos 2 and 3, peat free compost, and bark chippings - they are all to be delivered some time next week. Many thanks to Tony for the generous discount! There was also a catalogue with a lovely pedestal sundial which Matthew and I both fancied - a possibility for later this year maybe, if I haven't entirely blown the budget...I then came home and stripped a whole lot of brambles from the back boundary, and cut back some of the suckers which have come up from the trees in the plot that we back onto - I decided not to cut them all down as they do provide some privacy in the summer, if and when a solid fence is put in I can re-think that. The grass is very poor along that boundary, because of the overhanging trees, so if the suckers do eventually go it is going to mean either digging a border or else re-turfing. In any event, that's a problem for another year! I also marked out where I think I want the trees, and have moved them into position in their pots so that I can see if they are in the 'right' places.

And today I braved B&Q in Caerphilly (which was mercifully deserted as everyone was watching the rugby at Twickenham!) and bought a nice little border spade which is manageably small and light for me (I can't lift a full size spade, on account of the dodgy shoulder, let alone acually dig with it!) and a wheelbarrow (which will be needed when the topsoil etc is delivered as it will all need to be trundled down the path beside the house to the veg plot at the back).

The spade has now been inaugurated as I promptly went and planted the dogwoods which have been sat in temporary pots on the patio. The soil is pretty heavy and sticky - I think Matthew is not going to enjoy digging the holes for the trees:( and my shoulder is protesting somewhat. I am ever more convinced that raised beds are the way forward!

Trees!!!

My trees have arrived! A slightly bemused-looking young man delivered them this afternoon. Matthew took them round to the patio, and I set to with scissors to liberate them from the industrial quantities of bubblewrap and parcel tape in which they had been mummified for the journey. Result - one rowan about 3 ft tall, one quince about 6 ft tall, and a very substantial silver birch about 7 or 8 ft tall (pretty bark, although it won't be properly white for a couple of years yet). If it stops raining long enough, we will plant them at the weekend.

I am ridiculously pleased about these trees - I have never actually planted one before, and it's so exciting!

Finally, some decisions...

After much indecision, and picking the brains of various kind and patient people in nurseries and garden centres across the UK, I have finally ordered both my roses and my trees. Pixie will be pleased to read that I have after all managed to source a silver birch which is not too big! Betula jacquemontii 'Snow Queen' has amazingly white bark and only grows to about 7 metres, apparently, which should fit nicely in our garden. A native variety would have been nice, but just not viable in the space available, so this is definitely better than nothing. Thanks to John Ridgewell (Independent Green Space Adviser) of Wattsville for putting me wise to the properties of Betula jacquemontii! In the end I ordered my trees (a quince and a rowan as well) from Lodge Farm Plants in Warwickshire, they do lots of native species and wildflowers, and really know their stuff – and they have no minimum orders and reasonable delivery costs, which made all the difference compared to the one I thought about in Devon. Hopefully my trees should be here by the end of the week!

I have also made a decision about roses, and have ordered three from David Austin Roses – again, great help from the ever-patient Ann Hilse. They should be here some time in Feb or March, which should just about give me time to drag Matthew down to the garden centre and choose a pair of pots for them. Crocus Rose, Munstead Wood, and also climbing Generous Gardener (for the arbour, when we get round to building it) should look good. And more importantly, smell good...

The lure of the plant catalogues proved too much for me again this week and I ordered some more from J Parkers – some ‘Snow in summer’ to blanket the bank, and some Euonymous alatus (a kind of spindle which produces strange corky twists in winter, and amazing autumn colour) to plant along the back between the arbour and the corner which will eventually have the pondlet in it. There were special readers’ offers in two gardening magazines this month, as a result of which I have ordered some ‘free’ (i.e. pay for postage) snowdrops ‘in the green’, and a couple of dozen British bluebells, and also two buddleia bushes which are a dwarf variety which bloom heavily (butterflies and bees!) but can be grown in 40cm pots. Blackwood Garden Centre has lots of BOGOF offers on large pots at the moment. At this rate there won’t be room to sit on the patio for all the pot plants!

I have calculated the amount of topsoil, John Innes No 2 and manure which I shall need for the raised beds, and have entered negotiations with the garden centre – including delivery, I shall see quite a lot of change out of £150, which as set up costs isn’t too horrendous. But I think that, once I have bought a border spade, a wheelbarrow and a hand hoe, I really ought to stop buying things, as the budget is pretty much all gone! I got stacks of plastic pots, planters and seed trays through Freecycle from a local firm who recycle plastics, so that has not cost me a penny.
Meanwhile, it has stopped freezing, and although the forecast is for rain this is preferable to trying to dig holes for the trees in frozen ground!

I really hope we get a decent summer this year, so that we can enjoy the garden now that we finally have a nice one...