Saturday has come around again ridiculously quickly, meaning it is time for another contribution to Jim's weekly meme at Garden Ruminations; also coming round quickly is a new month, with an end-of-month post noticeably lacking...hey ho!
With the modified rose garden largely complete for the time being (if I can resist moving the other roses before autumn or winter, that is), work on other less than satisfactory elements of the garden has begun. The Golfer kindly constructed some strips of trellis which I spent numerous hours painting, and they have been erected above existing panels behind Rosa 'Gertrude Jekyll' (above) and at the back of the Coop Corner (below). These are our neighbour's fences and were no more than 4 feet (120cm) high, so even this small strip makes an impact, not only improving the proportions of the fence, but providing a background for Gertrude and 'The Generous Gardener' to sprawl against, preferable to flopping over the existing fence and into next door's garden. A small but worthwhile improvement...
As well as the new trellis subtly enclosing the latter part of the garden, the absence of Clematis armandii against the fences here is particularly noticeable since I cut it out and ditched it a few weeks ago. Returning to this corner today, I planned to dig out the roots - not an easy job, but I managed to remove most of them. At the same time, on a whim, I decided to ditch the oversized and gangly' (as I described it when my plans to remove the clematis were announced) Pittosporum 'GoldStar' too. I shall miss its foliage for adding to vases, but it never endeared itself in the way that P 'Tom Thumb did, largely because of its gangly limbs. Its removal has opened up an even wider strip at the back of the Coop Corner and will allow greater flexibility for overhauling the border, which has suffered from the inconsiderate behaviour of these two thugs for too long.
On a whim, today I also ditched pots of nerines from the Coop. Rarely flowering and doing so minimally when they did, they have been suffering from mealy bugs this year too, as have my clivia, and I decided they are not worth the space they occupy. I could have tried growing them outside instead, but don't really have a suitably sun-baked location. The clivia, having been grown from seed, I shall persist with, although the bugs have so far proved intractable.
Another whim that might lead to further ditching occurred to me today, the way whims do: is there any merit in the damson tree (in the foreground below), squashed in next to the elderly apples? It is not a good location for it and it has not cropped well - and I have less use for damsons these days than I might have done in my pudding and jam-eating days. It would allow more light into the area if it was cut down, but it is nowhere near a done deal yet.
It is not all about removal this week, as there are lots of things to celebrate, like this stunning rudbeckia R Cappucino, which is new to me this year. Grown from seed, I suspect it could overwinter but in practice is best treated as an annual - I shall certainly grow it again as the blooms are stunning in their hugeness - all of 6" across! I have never seen coffee this colour though...
To finish, I spent some time chasing bees around various echinops blooms, trying to capture one in action, with little success. Many of us have commented on the reduced number of bees and butterflies this year, but we can usually rely on echinops to coax them into our gardens. Bees were in evidence today, and the odd butterfly, but the echinops were not quite the bee banquet they usually are.
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