Veg Plotting

It's taken me a long time to appreciate pelargoniums. I have a childhood memory of them overwintering in a corridor at my primary school and hating the overpowering smell of their brown, shrivelled stems in that narrow space. Those were zonal pelargoniums, and since then I've slowly started to appreciate the scented leaf varieties. You can read more about the different types here . Georgie included a lovely lemony scented variety in my final Flowers for Mum last year and I took a few cuttings so I could grow something new in her memory. They looked so weak and feeble over winter I almost gave up and consigned them to the compost heap, but as you can see one survived and it's filled out its given pot admirably over the summer. Now I knew from my schooldays I was going to have to give my plant some drastic treatment soon, and I'm glad I saw a tweet from Fibrex Nurseries a couple of days ago to remind everyone it's time to bring their plants in as the weather has coo...

I had a marvellous hour with Eli on Saturday at her Wiltshire Ceramics Studio in Foxham where we had a play with rolled clay and cutting out shapes then adding coloured glaze ready for firing. Eli took on the studio the weekend just before Lockdown began (timing!) and she was only able to start offering taster sessions like the one on Saturday recently. As you can see we masked up for the occasion, everything was sparkling clean in the studio, and I was offered fresh clay to work with. She also supplies clean aprons, but I was pleased I'd taken my own as it'll save her some work afterwards.  Eli hails from the States and her bubbly personality is full of enthusiasm for her craft. She encouraged me to try all aspects of the process, from cutting the clay to work with from the large block, bashing it down with a large rolling pin before using the the large roller to produce the final flattened piece of clay. I then transferred it to a board, gently smoothed it out with a scraper...

Monty Don in Phoenix, Arizona; Lotusland, California; and Monty in Central Park, New York. © Derry Moore.  What is an American Garden? asks Monty Don in the introduction to this lavish volume. The images above give us a clue to his unsurprising conclusion: America is simply too vast. The varied landscapes, climate, and people are too mind bogglingly wide to provide a definitive answer.  Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC. © Derry Moore That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to find out and I'm pleased Monty Don did in both his TV series in January, and now in the follow-up book published earlier this week. I was due to visit America again for the latest Garden Bloggers' Fling , but of course Covid-19 put those plans on hold. It's great to do that from my armchair instead, especially as one of the gardens featured - The Lurie in Chicago - is one I was due to visit on my way to Wisconsin. Another garden - Dumbarton Oaks - was closed when I visited Washington DC in 2017, so I...

I was holding a hope for Malvern's autumn show going ahead this weekend, but sadly the current situation meant it wasn't to be. However the fab team at the Three Counties Showground came up trumps with their Plant and Garden Fair earlier this month instead. Lots of the nurseries I'd planned to visit were there... and plants were indeed purchased, but the highlight of the day were the talks which took centre stage. I confess flower arranging hasn't really been my thing up to now - I'm more of a plonk and put sort of gal - but Georgie Newbery previously, and now Jonathan Moseley are helping me see there are possibilities in this line. As Jonathan explained in his talk, picking flowers encourages them to bloom more, thus dispelling the notion mine are better off in the garden instead of displayed in the vase. Jonathan shared plenty of ideas for autumnal arrangements. Simple yet effective jam jar style posies were much in evidence albeit framed and hung on display, or e...

"It's National Bulb Planting Week," announced cheerful BBC weather forecaster Sarah Lucas at Wisley this morning. I haven't managed to find out more about it since I came online, but I'm glad to add my own contribution today courtesy of Taylors bulbs and the HTA 's #MillionPlantingMoments campaign. Here I am this morning deciding where to plant my allium bulbs. This variety and colour's new to me and I hope it'll do as well for me as its purple cousins have served so reliably - you may remember I showed you my terrace bed stuffed with spring blooms in last month's Blooms Day . I've cleared out most of the bottom border and I'm slowly replanting this area as and when final bramble culling allows (it's proving to be persistent). I've decided to plant my bulbs amongst the pictured clump of Persicaria to provide some spring interest to this area. The other alliums have taught me they need to be placed amongst robust and/or later emer...

  I confess it's third time lucky for my Salvia 'Royal Bumble' here at VP Gardens . Its predecessors have not survived the winter in two previous years and I thought this one had gone the same way. I was delighted to see some tiny signs of new growth when I cut it back in May and now it's beginning to take possession of its allotted spot. I'd be lying if I said its combination with its cotoneaster neighbour was by design, but now you come to mention it, I do like how the flowers of one and the berries of the other echo each other. As you can see, the flowers are similar to those of Salvia 'Hot Lips'  which I have in the terrace bed on the other side of the central steps. Unlike its cousin, the rich red flowers of 'Royal Bumble' stay a constant colour, and both are loved by bees (sadly not hummingbirds, we need to go across the pond for that). Both are listed as being semi hardy here in the UK and I'm pondering why 'Hot Lips' has surviv...

Garden visits have been thin on the ground this year, so it was wonderful to have the opportunity this week to catch up with Charles Dowding at his (relatively) new property in Somerset and chat to him about his latest book. Rest assured that Covid guidance was adhered to and I found myself in a select group of bloggers, podcasters and garden writers for my visit, and not the 900-odd visitors who crowd into Homeacres for one of Charles's open days in normal years! Regular readers may remember I visited Charles at his previous property - Lower Farm - in 2012 for my VPs VIPs  interview and 52 Week Salad Challenge strands. Then it was February and the start of the sowing season; what a difference a September visit makes with Charles's abundant produce and flowers positively glowing with good health everywhere. I needed no second invitation to munch on the tomatoes in the polytunnel; they were delicious. Homeacres is a smaller property of around a quarter of an acre. Here the in...

I thoroughly broke my plant buying duck at the weekend with a trip to the public plant sale at West Kington Nurseries . This usually happens in late April and early September, but this year's events meant both were combined into one sale spread over the longer Bank Holiday weekend instead. Like so many places these days there was lots of hand gel in evidence and sprays available to ensure safe wheelbarrow handling before I headed off to view the goodies on offer. Facemasks were the order of the day in the glasshouses and polytunnels, but thankfully not for coffee and cake time whilst I sorted out my plan of attack for the day. I was pretty good and stuck mainly to my list, though a rather nice Eupatorium* 'Chocolate' also leapt into my barrow, as well as a Hydrangea paniculata 'Diamant Rouge' and Actaea 'Hillside Black Beauty'.  I was pleased to find the foxglove 'Glory of Roundway' and aster 'Little Carlow' as both originate from nearby D...