Two weeks in a row – I’m on a roll! Here I am for another week of Six On Saturday, where a lovely community of gardeners, abley led by our host Jim, share six things from their garden this week. Please head over to Jim’s blog to see what he’s been up to this week. It’s also where you will find links from all the other people taking part.
I confessed in last week’s blog to really not liking roses very much. Well they have shamed me this week into putting on a display that even my rose dead heart couldn’t ignore so I thought I’d start with that. I’ll be clear, I still really don’t like them (and have discovered that they are really hard to photograph) but the change in just a matter of days astonished me. I have no recent experience with roses so I don’t know if they’re a short lived flowering thing or not, but they’ve certainly put their all into the display this week!
I make no secret of my love of lupins. I have nurtured and divided several plants from a tiny specimen I got during 2020. Covid was the catalyst for this blog and my garden as the saviour of my mental health during a time when I was really struggling with furlough and being on the critically endangered list (aka clinically vulnerable because I have asthma). So lupins really symoblise that resilience for me. They are a little bit temperamental and they need constant attention during hot weather (I wonder why I identify with them so much ha ha!!). But despite this they come back stronger every year, they don’t always flower and I’ve only had one spike this year. But they come back to fight another day. This year has been another difficult year, losing my job at the end of last year, starting a new business in the last few months and here I am, right back out there with the lupins. Oh and I got photobombed by a bee!
I’ve had this fatsia since 2020 too and it’s been a bit unhappy since we moved house. I noticed it was losing a lot of its lower leaves at the same time as shedding several larger lower leaves. I think maybe it’s just a bit too warm up on the patio for it so I repotted it this week and have moved it to a spot where it will get plenty of morning sun but they in shade during the hottest part of the day and it’s starting to look better already.
I’ve planted a few dahlia tubers this week, probably a bit late so I bought some pretty little ones already in flower. Plenty of buds still to come.
The broad beans are coming along nicely.
I think this next one is hypericum (St John’s Wort). There are several examples of it around the garden but this is the first to flower. It is also growing out of a lot of cracks in the paving all around the side of the house which is completely in shade all day so it will clearly grow anywhere!! The flowers are stunning!!
So that’s my six for this week. Come and join us for Six On Saturday.
The Garrett Garden 