Category Archives: garden

Happy New Year 2024

01/01/2024evergreens, gardenJackie

Well, what a year 2023 was with it’s very dry spring and roasting summer, to the very wet autumn and winter! The garden is ever so soggy right now with the amount of rain we have had over the last couple of months. There is moss everywhere, which I actually like but it is dangerously slippy when it is down the ramp and on the paving slabs. The mossy stones around the pond however look great, as do the mossy logs dotted around the garden. It is at this time of year that you can see all the weeds at the back wall so they are easier to remove. The plants in the pond itself looks a bit bedraggled and need some attention.

moss covered stones around small wild life pond — Moss covered stones

I haven’t been in the garden much at all during November and December and I miss pottering around checking on the progress of the plants. I didn’t find much in the way of fungi this year – was I just not out at the right time? I hate the cold and damp as it really gets into my bones and I just feel miserable spending all my time trying in vain to stay warm. Now that we have started a new year my hopes are up for a splendid spring. Even though we still have a couple of cold months to go I feel optimistic when I see all the spring bulbs beginning to grow. Some of the snowdrops are already in bud and the earlier narcissi have poked their shoots up.

There are a few flowers to be seen at this time of year: some on the witch-hazel (Hamamelis inter Diane), a few sporadic flowers on the Hebe pink paradise, a few tatty flowers on the Viburnum X Bodnantense Dawn in the raised bed. Some of the evergreen shrubs have flower buds waiting for their chance such as the Osmanthus burkwoodii and the Erica arborea ‘Estrella gold’. I do like having the evergreen structure in the garden to look at during the bleak winter months and a few of the ferns have quite a bright, yellowy- green colour which brightens the place up.

sporadic flowers on hebe pink paradise in january — Hebe pink paradise flowers in January

evergreen seelction of plants — Evergreen dark, bright, and purple.

I did spot one job that we will have to get to grips with as soon as the weather gets better and that is the harling on the right hand front corner of the patio. When the rain gets in behind it and that water then freezes, the harling cracks and gets pushed off.

Broken harling on patio wall — Broken harling on the patio wall.

From a rather cold and damp Edinburgh garden: Happy New Year!

What is flowering in June for the pollinators?

21/06/2023flowers, gardenJackie

Thanks to my wonderful physio Nicholas, I have been able to get back into the garden again to catch up on a lot of jobs. Harry has been helping me to dead-head and move a couple of things, but I have been able to do a lot more now, although I will have to be careful how I move the heavy pots on the patio. I haven’t taken many photographs so quite a few plants have gone over like the hebe, syringia, rhododendron, aqueilegias and weigela. They had been absolutely covered in bees, but now the deutzia and philadelphus are in full bloom along with the geraniums, foxgloves, cirsiums, clematis, catmint, centaura, candelabra primroses, heucheras, Lady’s mantle, and astrantias, which are great for the bees and other pollinators. The astrantia again have been a mixed bag where the slugs/snails are concerned. The white ones don’t even have a nibble whereas the dark red one (Astrantia major ‘Gill Richardson Group’) is almost entirely eaten. I am going to dig it up, put it in a pot on the patio and hope it survives.

In a corner of the stumpery where it gets a bit more sun than the rest of that area I have planted a few different plants to see which one likes it there the best. The erigeron was good there last year, the little red mossy saxifrage are ok, and the dark leaved geranium is now happier than it has been in the last couple of years. I am still undecided. The rogue foxglove will either come out once it has flowered or I will transplant it.

The seedlings from the golf course trees get absolutely everywhere in the garden and you really have to weed them out when they are tiny. I have to get right in amongst the plant to fish them out. Once the roots get hold when they are in the middle of the plant they are much harder to remove. The ferns especially are a nice moist spot for them to survive.

I am going to have to invest in some more plant supports for the bushy plants that hand over the edge of the path. I love how they soften the edge but it often means that I have to roll over them with my wheelchair to get past. I missed the boat again with the large Patty’s plum poppies and the keeled over in that very heavy rain we had just a day or so ago, and all the petals fell off. The roses have just started blooming now so I should get some pics very soon.

I am disappointed with a couple of plants that I bought for the pond a couple of years ago. The dwarf bulrushes died, and the variegated yellow flag Iris not only didn’t flower last year but it failed to flower this year too, and is not variegated. It looks like it might be the tall yellow flag iris which will be too vigorous for our pond. Grrrrr!

this iris should have been the smaller variegated yellow iris

I do love sitting on the patio relaxing with a cuppa but I tend to just see all the things that I need to get on with. U have hardly done anything in the front garden so it is a monument to weeds and the yellow irises are now past their best. I had been rethinking the front garden and have not come up with any ideas yet. I was going to take up a few more slabs but that was when I had a garden help and they were going to help keep the weeds under control. I may just take up all the slabs and just have keep the border but add a couple of drought tolerant plants. I just don’t know – something to think about while I sit on the patio in the sunshine.

Mid April in the garden

24/04/2023gardenJackie Elwin

Strange weather again, one minute we are basking in warm sunshine, the next we are down to freezing. I have been trying to harden off some cuttings but don’t really want to put them out in this icy wind just in case they get a shock so they are staying undercover for a few days until it warms a little. Of course I just ordered the vine weevil nematodes the other day, but now I will have to keep them in the fridge until we have had a spell of rain and it warms a bit. You can’t apply them to dry soil as they need moisture to move around in the soil and find the weevil grub. Most of the narcissi did well this year, except the Segovia and Ice wing. Only 3 Segovia came up and two of those had their flowers eaten before they opened (exactly the same as last year). No Ice wing came up at all. The good news is that the narcissi Actaea poeticus did really well. Last year most of them were eaten by snails or slugs either before they flowered or once they flowered. They look great beside the berberis as the colours of the eye of the narcicci are almost the same as the berberis flowers. The tulips Mystic Van Eijk are still looking good as are the Erythroniums. The cherry blossom have just gone over now and will soon be blown away in the wind. It is too cold for me outside so I will concentrate on my indoor plants this week.

view of the garden from the patio April 2023

View from the patio April 2023

Stumpery bed April 2023

Stumpery April 2023

Raised bed April 2023

orangey yellow Berberis alonside Narcissi Actaea Poeticus

Berberis and Narcissi Actaea Poeticus

March 2022 on a cold but sunny Edinburgh day.

30/03/2022flowers, garden, wildlifeJackie Elwin

We have had some wet, windy, gloriously sunny and warm days in March, but are now back to very chilly weather and it is trying to snow/hail/sleat in between sunny spells. No wonder the frogs left it a little later this year to spawn. In 2019 and 2020 the first spawn in our pond was spotted in February (in 2020 it was as early as the 5th) but this year the first spawn was on the 18th March. We can now count about 7 clumps of spawn which means there are at least 7 female frogs around the pond. We haven’t seen any newt spawn yet.

Frog spawn 18/03/22

Some areas of the garden are looking better than others right now. The stumpery is looking fine as some the spring bulbs are coming through such as the narcissi and chinadoxa, some of the primroses, anemones, pulmonaria, hellebores, vinca and erythroniums are in flower now. Although some of the narcissi have gone over, there are others still to come out. Some of the tulips are just ready to open. A couple of shrubs that have scented flowers: the mahonia out the front, and the lonicera fragrantisima and osmanthus burkwoodii out the back are flowering well. There have been quite a few bees and butterflies out in the warmer days taking advantage of these flowers.

I found this dark edged bee fly ( Bombylius major) sitting on a tulip leaf as it was watching a wasp very closely. I have just read about it, and have found out that the bee fly will follow wasps and single bees to their nest, they will then gather some sandy soil with their feet, and flick this, along with their eggs, near the entrance to the wasp/bee nest. The larva will attach itself to a wasp/bee and it will be taken into the nest where it will then find a wasp/bee larva to feed on. After which it will turn into a pupa, hatch and fly away undetected.

Bombylius major (dark edged bee fly)

I will need to put the pot of Iris Katharine’s gold in a better place for next year. It is one of the earliest flowering plants in the garden and I had the pot under the garden bench just to protect it from some of the heavy rain. By the time I remembered it was there it was almost finished flowering.

Iris Katharine’s gold

There are lots of jobs still to do: over the wall is now rather overgown and needs a good sorting out. The vinca major is now acting like a climber and is growing up the fence and smothering the hydrangea petiolaris. It actually looks ok but it needs cutting back. There are ferns and lots of few-flowered-leek popping up everywhere so they will need to come out. The ivy needs to be kept in check. I am going to be quite ruthless now and any plant not earning it’s keep must go. I have started getting rid of some of the plain brunnera in the stumpery. It does look ok when it is in flower but it is rather plain and I wish I had planted the Jack frost version instead. I had let a few hellebore seedlings grow a few years ago but I don’t actually like the colour of the flower so it has gone now to another home. I don’t bin these but they go to other peoples gardens, or the local park takes any plants that would do well in the park. I also put them in the plant sale at the Duddingston Kirk Garden Club plant sale (which this year will be held on Saturday 30 April 10:30 – 12:00).

CVinca major growing up and over hydrange petiolaris

Overgrown vinca major all over hydrangea petiolaris

Here is the view from the patio. You can just see in the background one of the large ash trees has had a huge bough snap off during the strong winds. The entire tree is pretty dead and I think most of the ash trees in that golf course are going to have to come out. That is good news for us as we may get more sunshine into the garden. What with all the shade from the trees and all the recent rain, the ‘sunny’ border hasn’t been able to dry off very well. I have lost the nepeta again this year which were in the ‘sunny’ border. I will just hae to keep taking cuttings each year.

View from the patio

This is how the stumpery is looking right now. I love the dappled shade in this woodland area, and spring and early summer is the best time of year here before the tree canopy develops allowing less sunshine to get through. The whole garden will soon have plenty of colour.

Stumpery in March 2022

Autumn colour

11/11/2021fungi, garden, plantsJackie Elwin

Let’s start off with the weather again! October had lots of rain, and so has the beginning of November. I have had to move a lot of the cuttings, that were on the patio table, indoors to the conservatory as they were water-logged and had no chance of getting drier. Other plants are sheltering under the table and under the bench (with a cover over the bench seat).

The Japanese anemones are still looking good, and so is the salvia Amastad. A couple of the hellebores are doing well while other hellebores are struggling to get going. The cyclamen flowers are over but their foliage looks amazing and creates a lovely patterned carpet along the garage border.

purple salvia amistad, pink rowan berries

Salvia Amistad and Rowan Pink pagoda

Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum Garnet’ is putting on a fabulous show by changing it’s deep purpley/green foliage into bright red before losing it all. I tried to get a photo from inside the dome of the small tree.

Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum Garnet’

The view from the top of the ramp shows the continuation of the red theme in autumn, going from the persicaria amplex ‘Blackfield’ down to the acer then across to the deep pink berries of the rowan. If I had taken the photo from inside the conservatory I may have also got the indoor red cyclamen and a few of the red weigela ‘Bristol Ruby’ flowers too.

dark red colours in the garden flowers and foliage

view from the top of the ramp

The earth-star fungi apparently pops up anywhere in the garden. It starts off looking like a bulb that someone has forgotten to plant, then it opens up to form a star shape with a little puffy ball in the centre. When it rains, the rain drops are heavy enough to dent the ball sending the spores out to start the cycle again. This looks like the collared earth star Geastrum triplex.

Earth star fungi (Geastrum triplex)

I am attempting to plant the awkward area at the far corner behind the garage. The ivy was a mess there so now there is a Hydrangea anomala petiolaris in it’s place, and in front of that, a Farfugium
japonicum ‘wavy gravy’. In amongst them Debs planted some yellow erythronium that she brought round. We also spotted some pink flowered persicaria that had popped up beside the deep red one, so we removed that and planted it next to the periwinkle. That should all fill that corner nicely.

corner with tatty old ivy

corner with farfugium and climbing hydrangea

I will finish with a gloriously coloured, fallen leaf from the witch hazel, Hamamelis
inter Diane.

colourful leaf from Hamamelis inter Diane

Hamamelis inter Diane leaf

And, back to being cold again…

04/05/2019birds, fungi, garden, wildlifeJackie Elwin

oh this fickle weather. You just never know when you can put the thermals away.
I spotted the common morels again this year but a metre or so over from where they last appeared. It is always lovely to see fungi in the garden. I often go around the garden looking for slugs and it is a great opportunity to find unexpected things popping up in the garden. I noticed also that the ragged robin hasn’t appeared yet so I don’t know if it has died, along with the blue poppies and the bronze fennel.
While I was on the patio I spotted a pigeon, just sitting having a wee soak in the pond, he then started splashing about having a real bath. I took a pic from upstairs of some of the back garden. I am finding it more difficult as the years go by to push over the grass, especially when it has been raining, so we will be getting more slabbing put down in June sometime. I don’t want to have a lot of slabbing but it will make gardening easier and a lot less messy. At the moment, every time I come in from the garden, I have to get a stiff scrubbing brush on my wheelchair tyres, and also an old towel, to get most of the dirt from my tyre treads before going into the house proper. The new slabs won’t prevent me getting pigeon poo in my tyre treads though, and it can be very tricky trying to dodge them. The grass is also very uneven and some of the slabs we put down years ago have actually sunk as they were only put down onto sand.

Morchella esculenta (common morel)

Pigeon in the pond

May 2019

Dreaming of summer….

03/04/2019gardenJackie Elwin

on this – yet another dreich, Scottish day. Here is one of my favourite photos taken from the patio. It was a lovely warm sunny day in August 2005 and it was all looking splendid. Lush foliage of greens, purples, and reds. Smelling the scent from the roses wafting by, and watching the birds going about their day. Sadly the ivy got too heavy for the arches so they had to get chopped back. The photinia Red robin died, and the weeping tree got waterlogged and also died. The flowering currant got the chop, as did the cotinus. The clematis just disappeared! I had 3 different colours at the side wall but they gradually just went over to next door. I can’t even find their original plant stems. So today I will close my eyes and pretend I am back in summer 2005 enjoying the warmth and the garden as it used to be.

August 2005

Feeling blue…

09/06/2018flowers, garden, plants, raised bed, stumperyJackie Elwin

what a week! Suffice to say we have had the builders here for a few days and the less said the better!! Scaffolders grrrrrrrr!!
I don’t have that much in the way of blue in the garden but I may add a few more blues over the next few years. The brunneras are still going strong, as are the veronicas, but the forget-me-nots are looking a bit straggly so I have been pulling some of them out. They will have self seeded and will pop up all over the place next year. My mecanopsis Willie Duncan and Susan’s Reward are doing fine now. The slugs really went for them when they were first planted last year (or was that 2 years ago?) but they are now looking good. I moved the blue iris (Jane Phillips) from the middle bed to a sunnier spot last year, having only had them a year, and although they appear much happier the slugs got them too! The centauria blue is flowering away but it looks like something has sat in the middle of it, it is just not able to hold it’s own weight. (the white one got eaten by the pigeons!!). The pale blue aquilegia is still flowering away. My proper blue bells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) that I have in little pots didn’t flower again this year so that has been 2 years now with no flowers. There are a few blooms on the blue geranium but maybe I should thin it out a little as it is spreading just a bit too much and is coming up through other plants now. I had to cut back the Jacob’s ladder as it was being used as a slug nursery and was being completely decimated. That was right next to the fennel (which was also decimated by slugs) so, now that I have dealt with the slugs they might get a chance to grow. This time last year the fennel was over a meter high! There has hardly been any rain over the last 6 or 7 weeks and I have had to keep on top of the watering which takes ages. And the poor pond too needs topping up, and with no rain water about, I have to spray tap water into it. The tadpoles don’t seam to mind. Anyway the garden on the whole is looking ok and the wee sparrows and tits have started to fledge so there is a lot of cheerful chirping about.