Making the Best of It... (Was 'Blog from an Untidy Garden')

[angie]

Tony nice to see more of your garden .

Angie

[Lesley Cox]

The Calochortus are lovely, but aren't they all? I can confirm the thuggery of Trop. ciliatum. I bought mine - as T. azureum! - and it had never left me no matter how much I dig it out. Even Roundup is only partially helpful. Pretty flowers but small and too much foliage in comparison.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Do you get away with Calochortus in the open garden Tony?

Exactly my thoughts

Love the "meadow" Tony - it really looks natural.
Your Aethionema very much resembles the A. schistosum I grow Tony !
(needs trimming just as well !)

[Ragged Robin]

Lovely to see your wild meadow Tony, so pretty and full of interest....your Campanula cochlearifolia, white and blue are gorgeous too!

[tonyg]

Thanks for the kind comments.
Luc, the aethionema came as AGS seed, I cannot say for sure what name ir should have.  A. cordifolium or A grandiflorum were the two which I thought closest to the plant I grow.  I'll take a look at A schistosum and see if it matches.
David - Calochortus under glass.  I did have one of the small 'hanging lantern' types in a sand bed for several years but recent disturbance in the bed has 'lost' it!  I will try more outside eventually, some of the ones I grow increase quite well.

[David Nicholson]

David - Calochortus under glass.  I did have one of the small 'hanging lantern' types in a sand bed for several years but recent disturbance in the bed has 'lost' it!  I will try more outside eventually, some of the ones I grow increase quite well.

Good to see yours doing well Tony, Luc and I have both had a terrible Calochortus season, see Calochortus thread.

[tonyg]

After a bit of a break due to holidays and work/family commitments the blog picks up where it left off with a picture of Campanula cochlearifolia.  Now spreading quite widely under the slate top dressing the two seedlings from 2009 are flowering again amongst the seed heads from earlier this summer.
Not far away a long established group of Cyclamen coum are well into leaf after a cool and wet spell in the last month.
Last autumn I planted some spare bulbs in a newly developed raised area, top dressing with slate.  The aforementioned campanula and other small alpines were interplanted and all have grown well in 2010.  This year I have extended the 'renewal of the front garden by extending the planting.  The pics below summarise the process.  I will show you some of the results in due course.
In the opposite corner to the 2009 slate bed there is an old planting of bulbs, the area featured as 'meadow' planting in the summer.  Many years ago I brought back some seed of a big verbascum from Andorra.  The resulting generations continue to survive my low maintenace weeding  and one such has made a magnificent rosette of furry foliage during the summer, swamping its neighbours but I liked the look of it!  Now in full flower I feel justified in leaving it to flourish

[angie]

Tony nice to have you back. That's some amount of Cyclamen coum you have growing there.
I was thinking of lifting a small patch of grass which is hard to cut but wasn't sure what to do I thought about gravel but I do like the look of your slate. My husband is always doing slating work and I have seen the pile of slate chipping left I was thinking if I threw that in the cement mixer to take of the sharp edges off it could work.
Love your Verbascum    looking forward to seeing more.

Angie

[tonyg]

Thanks Angie!  Actually that is only some of the cyclamen ... I planted 20+ young plants out about 12 years ago and they have seeded into a clump about 3feet across with outliers across the rest of the garden  It likes the sunny places rather than the half shade that I first tried it in.

[angie]

Tony funny you saying that about your cyclamen in full sun. I put mine in shade( a small patch ) but after a visit to Roma's and seeing all her swaths of cyclamen basking in full sun I realised mine were in the wrong place.
Yours must be a wonderful sight when they are all in flower.

Angie

[tonyg]

Yes, a sunny spot definitely best.
I have planted lots of Cyclamen hederifolium in the back garden over the years, often in places that have become overgrown  Here is an example, before and after a tidy up.
Cyclamen graecum needs a warmer summer rest than is possible outside here but thrives under glass - even a time ravaged old greenhouse.  This is due for demolition sometime next year, its in totally the worng place since our 2009 extension.  Sadly it is steel, cemented into the ground so we cannot pick it up and move it (as we did with a 12x8 aluminium one 14 years ago.)  Don't know how I am going to deal with the Cyclamen graecum, current thoughts are inserting large rocks in the obvious gaps between plants and placing a temporary cover over the plants in summer.
Tha last two shots are Cyclamen graecum forms in the 12x8 greenhouse where I have too many of them!

[angie]

Too many, never. I can't wait to mine bulk up . My garden is really like a cottage garden ( just a jungle of plant )  but since joining the SRGC I have been finding spaces to put all these little treasures.

I think you have a good idea there with the rocks, that is some neglected Cyclamen the markings on the leaf is wonderful.

Years ago when I started gardening our friends who win the title of best back garden in Aberdeen used to always change there garden and I could never understand why but now that I am a gardener I am the same  I move things about and dig lots out to give me more space for my alpine plants .I wonder if you are ever happy with what you have.

We are away to do a extension to the house and I am already worrying about my plants, sometimes I think I shouldn't as we have to move two large Acers and then the problem is where to put them. There isn't one space in my garden. This is mainly caused by my addiction. I hold my hands up I am a plantaholic ( not sure if that's the right spelling ) but you will now what I mean.

 Thanks for showing your Cyclamen 

Angie

[tonyg]

The activity which has taken up most of my gardening time this month has, of course, been repotting the bulbs.  I seem to use a veritable mountain of compost each year (see pic below , mixed in my wheelbarrow.  The current recipe is roughly 60% John Innes no2 (loam based), 40% sharp gritty sand.  Add 3 litres of perlite and a teacup of bonemeal per 25 litres of JI2 and mix well.  
There are an awful lot of pots, although I am planting more out as the years go by.  At the start the pots look so untidy with dried foliage from last seasons growth, but when its all done   ..... pictures to follow when it is!
I am well aware of the polarised view of forumists re: Cats.  Our Timmy eliminates enough potential crocus eaters for me to be tolerant of his choice of places to snooze.  However this does not extend into the growing season so I have to find somewhere else for him to sleep.  Much to my surprise he liked my idea .... but yesterday next doors ginger cat had found it a good place to rest so I may have to install another!
First repot to flower (10 days ago) was Cochicum montanum - a narrow petalled form collected as seed near Gavarnie when Ruth (who is going to go to bed soon !!!!!!!) was just 1 year old (she's now an insomniac thirteen year old)  

[Lesley Cox]

Compost mountain? I thought that was Mont Blanc! and I agree with Angie there can NEVER be too many of Cyc graecum, anywhere.

[Ragged Robin]

Tony, it's great to follow your activities in your garden and I'm most impressed with your compost mix!  The way you describe the process it sounds like a happy medium for your bulbs to bake in and rise with plenty of moisture too    Your C.montanum Gavarnie are fabulous - where are they from?   I love the watchful eye of your lucky black cat in purpose built bed