A morning in the garden

Monday, 22 May 2006

I spent the morning in the garden weeding – whilst the golfer was out doing what golfers do!

I was lovely being on my hands and knees and seeing what little plants had come through. And sitting on the raised beds weeding is so easy – and not many weeds but plants in the wrong places which had to be dug up.

Here are some photos of the area that I was working in.

A large proportion of my plants int my garden have a 'story' of memory attached to them.

Here are Alfies Alliums - little and large - dark and light.

Six years ago when my husband had a spell in hospital, in the next bed was a real character called Alf - or Alfie as I called him. We became friends with him after he left hospital. He had had a very colourful life and I loved hearing all his 'tales'.

He used to have a plant stall, and when he was in hospital recovering from a heart attack he was well enough to manage to sell me some alliums - and they are a wonderful reminder of him.

He used to be a heavy drinker and smoker and not eat healthy food, so he had to completely change his lifestyle which was pretty hard - but he did it. He used to always have a matchstick in his mouth to replace the roll ups he used to smoke.

In his garden he had an old gypsy caravan - it was wonderful. We used to visit him when he was back home and I bought lots of plants and shrubs off him. Sadly he passed a couple of years later - as it transpired he had terminal illness. So I am really glad that when I look around the garden, I have nice memories of him and the stories he used to tell.


This corner always makes me think of Neopolitan ice cream for some reason - the combinations of the white snow is summer and the pretty pink flowers and the frothy sea of forget me nots!

In early spring the flowers mainly seem to be blue and yellow and now in the early summer the pinks and purples come into flower.


My first summer clematis opened today in the sunshine. I do have Montanas out in flower too in the front garden - both the pink and white varieties.

My first delphinium this year to bloom - in the raised bed. It was supposed to be 'Black Night' but as you can see it is clearly blue!

I managed to do a few hours in the garden and it was a real treat. I had a horrendous weed to dig out of 'Maxine's Garden'. I think it must have come from the bird seed. It was so bad that I think I will have to completely do her bed again. It had fibrous roots that got under and among all the plants and went down deep. I got under to coping stoned on the back of the wall behind her garden and they are now loose. There is still more of it in the flower bed behind. It looked like a tall dainty plant with leaves that looked a bit like a native geranium leaf, and the flowers were tiny dainty yellow ones. I must try and look it up to see what it is!

I have a number of gravel paths so spent ages hoeing and pulling the weeds out of those too.

After lunch and a rest, I re-potted 35 tomatoe plants - Alicante and Yellow Pear. I also potted up some Asters too - which should make a nice display.

This evening I dried four trays of seedless white grapes and two trays of red, yellow and green peppers - and they smell lovely.

Everything I have dried so far has been a great success and it is so nice to be able to have dried peppers, onions, mushrooms etc to had to use in cooking. I am looking forward to drying lots more things over the summer.