Gardening and dogs

You may remember that I am helping my friend Debbie create a dog friendly garden.  She has very sensibly decided to concentrate on one area at a time as her garden is a little large to think about all at once.  An added benefit is that the costs are also spread. 

Here are the latest photos from Debbie after she planted all the plants she recently bought.  The area certainly is starting to look like a garden :). 

Note that she is still restricting canine access to the area using sheep fencing while the plants establish.  This may not be necessary if you are only planting a couple of plants, but with a brand new bed like this, it makes sense to let the plants establish a little before she trains the dogs that the bed is her area not theirs.

Hi Finuala

I had no idea how many plants we arrived home with last week, I thought about 50, but they are all planted (and counted) now and it was 66!!!!

I just have a Morello cherry left to plant that I am going to try and fan train on the fence.

Sep 2009

Mar 2009

The daffodils are finally out :).  I love them, despite the fact that I normally don’t like yellow in my garden.  Somehow daffodils are so cheerful.  They bring so much promise with them.

Years ago, I used to see daffs as the first flowers of spring.  Now I know better and have been enjoying cyclamen and hellebores for weeks, but still the daffodils hold a special place in my heart. 

Initially I planted the usual ones that you buy in florists, but I got so disheartened when they got blown over by strong winds (or maybe dogs), that I decided to move to the minature ones.   They may be small, but they are so robust and delicate at the same time.

I should have had more daffs this year.  I bought a load of bulbs last autumn, but the weather was so wet and the winter came so late that I never got round to planting them.  What a waste :(.  I am tempted to plant some bulbs now.  I know it is not the right time of year, but I can actually see where they need to be planted now.  It will be interesting to see if any of them actually come up next year.

Have you ever thought about fan pruning a hydrangea?

Fan pruned Hydrangea

Some years ago, I worked for a few months at a company that had a number of small buildings and between the walls of the buildings and the paths, they had some narrow beds.  There I first saw a fan pruned hydrangea.  I was fascinated by it.  It was winter / spring when I was there and so I never saw the plant in flower, but I felt that the structure of the plant gave it interest throughout the year.

When I came to plant my garden, I realised that we had created exactly the same situation in the pond garden and decided that I wanted my own fan pruned hydrangea.  The garden designer thought I was absolutely mad as he had never seen this done.  I didn’t want a big and blousy mop headed plant as that would have been out of place in the pond garden.  Instead I went for a pale lilac lacecap called Silver Slipper which has fitted into the location beautifully.

So, a few years on and I now have my own version of a fan pruned hydrangea.  What do you think of it?