rear two garden eighty eight miles asunder is mainly a blessing , but sometimes a whammy . The task becomes tricky if we require to take a vacation , spend more meter in one piazza than the other , or if we strike a ironic , besotted or airy tour , which is all too often . Each scenario comes with its own unique challenge , for the most part produce my being in the wrong place at the incorrect time .
Having just have a damp , steamy hebdomad , both gardens have go absolutely ballistic . The plant think all their Christmases have come at once . In London peas have collapse through their supporting collapsible shelter of netting and are adhere onto anything their tender tendrils can wind around , including next door ’s overgrown buddleia . We are enjoy cock-a-hoop crops of “ Oregon Sugar Pod ” , a crisp mangetout variety which is delicious served raw in a salad , and more established “ Early Onward ” , both from row just 4 ft long .
Herbs , from sage and chives to oregano and thyme , are developing into duncish , lush clump crying out to be plume , but the purple sprouting and broccoli is proving a mistake : the flora are far too handsome for our small raised bed and are smothering everything else . They will be yanked out untimely in favour of oriental salad leaves , which are far more compact and useful in the kitchen . Meanwhile I am proud of to note four or five fruits develop on each of our freshly planted espalier apple trees . I have continued to water these generously , even in the rain , to ensure they develop a unassailable root system in their first twelvemonth .
It ’s a wonder that I have any hostas leave given I ’m collecting forty or more snail every metre I venture out into the garden . However diligent one is during a showery enchantment some damage in inevitable . The leathery exit tumefy to generous proportions and look howling if they rest unhurt . Any gaps that stay in either garden at the offset of the month have disappeared in all , leaving me with the usual syndicate of industrial plant that did n’t quite make it into the ground before the music check . Now they will probably languish in their lot until next spring . The greenery along our high back wall , which consists ofKerria japonicaandPhyllostachys nigrawith honeysuckle andVitis coignetiaerampaging through them , is wholly out of control and needs attention before the whole boundary becomes as coloured and impenetrable as the Belgian Congo . From the pond I am murder two release of weed every workweek just to keep a diminished area clear for the fish to show up .
Looking at our London garden objectively , which is virtually unacceptable when I am responsible for maintain it , I ’d say it looks the best it ever has done , although I am far from subject matter with it . There is too much jumble and not enough storage infinite for tool and pots , but it is showing some hope after three of four years of renew effort .
The Watch House , on the other hand , is not at its finest in June . The chief reasonableness is that all the evergreens shed their previous leaf in unison during the former summertime . The deluge of yellowing leafage is unrelenting . I have spend the majority of the last four weekends gathering up bags and bag of debris dropped byTrachelospermum jasminoidesandPhillyrea latifoliaand still it stay fresh coming . I have even depart to dream about it . As well as looking unsightly , the decaying foliation create binding for troublesome capsid bugs , so I am antipathetic to pass on it laying about .
broccoli bounty
Meanwhile the garden is rammed with refugee plant life from Polegate Cottage , where our building work have reached a pivotal point . The “ new ” theater is a case , in the bombed - out Beirut - dash , with enormous jagged gob in its outside that will finally be fill up with Gallic doors and window . I am dependably informed that next calendar week textile will set out going back in to interchange 100 years of lath and plaster , nylon carpet , muff wiring and pine facing that have arrive out . It ’s an exciting here and now , but now I really have to start decide what I require and where .
While I did leave a few plants to fend for themselves outside the nursery , the bulk are camping out at The Watch House , imply I ca n’t move an inch without endure on a flowerpot or snapping a shoot off something precious . And – dear , oh beloved – I am going to Great Dixter on Monday and get London on Thursday , so what are the chance of me ending the calendar week with the same issue of plants I start with ?
A few things that are lifting my spirits in Broadstairs . This year I ’ve filled the planter that sit down on our outdoor kitchen shelves with a novel begonia holler B.boliviensis“Bossa Nova White ” . This F1 cross , which can be grown from seed ( although mine were bought in ) , has white flowers elegantly flushed with coral pink , so I have interplanted with them with a new diascia called D. “ My Darling Peach ” and they appear delicious together . Nearby I am growing likewise colouredTibouchina urvilleana“Variegata ” , which has unbelievable silver and green marbleised foliage butt with neon garden pink . Now that ’s what I call variegation .
London vegetable verdure
In window box I have combined B. “ Bossa Nova Rose ” with silverDichondra argentea“Silver Falls ” andGeranium“Decora Pink ” grown from cuttings I took at the closing of 2015 . It ’s the first year I have bothered with windowpane boxes and I hope I do n’t live to regret the surplus lacrimation they will create .
Aeonium“Zwartkop”,Calceolaria intergrifolia“Kentish Hero ” andArthropodium cirratum“Matapouri Bay ”
Calceolaria integrifolia“Kentish Hero ” , purchased from D’Arcy and Everest at last year ’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show , overwintered brilliantly in my cold greenhouse and has been flowering its drogue off since April . As a group of flowering plants , slipperwort seem to have completely decrease off the microwave radar , but this one ’s a cracker , especially when combined with regal flower and foliage . It has n’t minded the rain either .
Poolside hostas
Another young plant last year wasArthropodium cirratum“Matapouri Bay ” , the Rienga lily . This has flourished in a pot and is loving the balmy weather . It ’s a fertile seeder so I have a pot full of little seedlings in the greenhouse waiting to be pricked out .
Having been very persevering in filch out the crown of my dahlias to get bushy plants I have sacrificed the other flowers . Nevertheless D. “ Totally Tangerine ” has forged ahead and is the first of about a dozen varieties to blossom this year .
Not all plants are enjoying the wet – nemesias , diascias and some calibrachoa are starting to rot at the base , get them to wilt and then die . The flower ofRosa banksiae“Lutea ” morph from yolk - yellow pompoms to matted balls of mould in days thanks to the moist gentle wind and my osteospermums are brood . Nevertheless the rain is giving most plant a skilful outset in lifetime and they ’ll grow bigger and flower better thanks to unconstipated lacrimation .
“The Cube” forms our stylish temporary entrance at Polegate Cottage
I badly demand the garden at Polegate Cottage back to make some blank and start getting thing in order of magnitude for our NGS opening on August 20th and 21st , but surmise the building might go to the telegram . If it does , I am hoping visitant will be apprehension and tolerant of the berth , two states of brain that I am trying to cultivate myself under the circumstances ! Tending two garden has never been more challenging or more rewarding – there ’s just no prison term to do anything else .
Wishing you all a fun and productive weekend in your gardens . What ’s growing well for you at the minute ? Are you have sex or loathing all this rainwater ? permit me know !
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Categories : Annuals , Container horticulture , Flowers , Foliage , London , Our Coastal Garden , Photography , plant
Posted by The Frustrated Gardener
Aeonium“Poldark” andRhodochiton atrosanguineumby the kitchen sink
Begonia“Bossa Nova White” andDiascia“My Darling Peach” make perfect planter companions
Tibouchina urvilleana“Variegata” has stunningly marbled foliage
Aeonium“Zwartkop”,Calceolaria intergrifolia“Kentish Hero” andArthropodium cirratum“Matapouri Bay”
Arthropodium cirratum“Matapouri Bay” hails from New Zealand and is hardy in milder parts of the UK
Dahlia“Totally Tangerine” is a free-flowering dahlia that bees will love
Aeonium“Zwartkop” andCalceolaria integrifolia“Kentish Hero”
