Purple Haze

It was a day of two halves again.The morning and early afternoon was spent up at the allotment.I got picked up by Cat (who brought us some Pink Lemonade to drink at the plot).I got home and found my hanging basket brackets that I ordered online have arrived.They slip on to the concrete fence posts and use the weight of the basket to secure the brackets brake pad.I found them originally at the RHS Tatton Park flower show 2011.Our winter flowering Viola has finally bloomed.This is such a delicate flower about the size of a five pence piece.It is deepy Purple,dark, and sultry.The nine raised beds have been constructed up at the allotment.The leeks are on the edge of the soil where the Potatoes will go next week.It was a swelteringly hot day.Im still sunburnt on my shoulders from the sun yesterday.I wore sunblock but not enough apparently.You can cook an egg on my shoulders.
I am going to see Mum tomorrow in Cheltenham.I will take the laptop so I should still be in contact.I hope the weather is as nice as the past two days.
There is one raised bed kit left over,but I do not know where to put it yet.I dug up the last of the Parsnips today,along with Leeks,and Purple Sprouting Broccoli.Two Broccoli plants remain untill next week.The Rhubarb is growing away nicely at the bottom of the photo.I now need to plan what is growing in what raised bed,and will make a series of paths to cover the soil between the raised beds.The majority of the plots Spring clean has been done.Now for the start of the growing season.

Candlelight Post

I had a day off to relax and take a few photos.The first picture is our water lily bloom almost opening.It has grown a dozen leaves and this is the first flower bud which has pleased me a lot.I did not know if it would flower this year in the pond.The frogs love the water Lily's to sit on,or underneath them.I wander if this plant will die back in the winter or does it need lifting and drying out until the spring?I love the many colours of the Violas.They have such vibrant colours and patterns.They were the plug plants that Cat ordered.Each flower has unique face and is a little work of art. This lovely royal blue Lobelia self seeded from Fishponds drive in one of the long planters.There are a few plants but I love the colours.Blue stands out really well as a flower colour,especially in fading light.These pretty weeds are growing by the greenhouse concrete base.They are such a cheery yellow colour.The Hoverflys love them.I love the colours in this photo.The Rose Harlow Carr,hanging basket, and the salmon coloured Gladiolus in the barrel planter.This is a view from the backdoor looking up the garden path.The August sunshine makes the colours stand out against the green.I love the Globe Thistles.They float above the dark green foliage and attract pollinators into the garden.I'm pleased how much they have grown on this year.The last photo shows the Aster duchess.This is the first flower that has bloomed.There are maybe two dozen plants that I have grown from seeds that my Mum sent me for Xmas before.They will be in a variety of pastel shades.I love the yellow centre with the swirling spiral.
I have just been writing this post by candlelight as the electricity got switched off along our road.Happily power has now been restored.
I am back to work tomorrow.It rained earlier on and I was tired from my two long days at work.The delights of the garden and watching the birds always helps me recharge my batteries ready for another shift at the hospital.
I hope to get to the plot on Wednesday or Thursday to see whats been growing.

Violet Viola

This is the Viola that has regrown after it died back during a hot spell. The Plant looked dried out and dead. With a little watering and TLC it has grown on and flowered. I love the Iris like markings in the centre petal.
I have been watching The Landscape Man on the Channel Four On Demand player.
Mathew Wilson (the ex curator of Harlow Carr) follows six couples who have landscaped their big gardens. They are all gardens on a Victorian scale.
I look at our much more modest garden and am still thinking what to plant where, and where all the structures need to go. Such as the Greenhouse, Waterbutts, and Compost Bins.
The weather is cooling down now, and the birds have started to return to the garden in numbers. Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Gold Finches, Magpies, Collared Doves, House Sparrows, and a Robin. I must remember to stock up with Bird food for the cold coming winter, and to replenish the water in the bird bath and bowls.
Our garden is still very much a work in progress.

Sunday Viola

This is the second generation of Viola Cornuta I grew from seed. The Hampson bought plants flowered and made seed pods. I collected some and sowed them in a plastic box. They grew and have flowered again.
I like the difference in the flowers. The genetics have developed many variations of the purple and yellow flowers.
They are individually like water colours. The colours seem to blend and form new colours on every flower.
It is known that if you grow plants from seeds they will invariably be different from the parent plants. I think Aquilegias show this trait admirably.
I like the excitement of seeing what new colours you can grow on seed collected plants.
I hope you are all enjoying your sunday.I will be asleep for most of mine...

Violas And Chelsea

Viola Molly Sanderson growing in the pot. They are waiting for the new border to be planted.
I have been watching the RHS Chelsea flower show coverage on the BBC.
Its as English as Wimbledon, cricket, queues, drinking tea, and Strawberrys and Cream.
The show gardens, city and urban gardens, and floral displays are the work of a year or two years of design, and being executed perfectly.
Average gardeners walk around taking it all in, and hopefully bringing some ideas back to their own gardens. We really are a nation of gardeners.
Back in the new garden Cat helped me plant our runner beans today in two large pots with wig wams of canes for the plants to grow up.
The Peas are now in the second raised border, as they were outgrowing the drainpipes they were grown in.
I'm back to work tomorrow, so no gardening for two days. The rain has been falling for days now, even today. The water butts are catching some of it.
The greenhouse plants are continuing to grow beautifully. My plastic covered greenhouse is a plant nursery. The future border plants and veg plants are all started off there, before being moved outside.
I will write more about Chelsea when im off, about what I liked.

Black Magic

The first photo is of Hils Black Violas. These look like pagan witches with the fires burning in the middle. I cannot remember what they are called but I do love them. I got on my knees to photograph this low flowering annual. The purple satin colour shimmers between the darker petals.

Two boxes of mud? Thats what it looks like but these are Hils brand new raised beds. Her friend came up to put them together and I went yesterday to help her fill them. They are fourty square feet and a foot high! It took lots of maneuvoring a wheelbarrow laden with manure then digging behind the beds to fill it. I also got to do some more sedentary work like planting a row of Broadbeans for her! I took some spoils away with me. Some guttering pipes that will be used to sow seeds tonight at Cats, and some Raspberry canes rescued from the jungle behind the allotments.
Like Aztec gold these canes were buried beneath a jungle of plants. Brambles, Nettles, and Dock weeds.The previous owners had left the plots years ago and the wild nature has taken over.
There are panes of windows, canes, broken pots. Archeology in Walton.
I hope the Raspberry Canes will root in the new garden...

After filling the beds and digging up lost Raspberrys we went back to prick out seedlings ready for the Walton plant stall in six weeks. We potted around six hundred plants. The greenhouses are groaning under all the seed trays and pots!
I went back to my own allotment today which has run slightly wild. I built a raised Strawberry bed and transplanted the six plants into it. I dug over three large beds and planted the Potatoes.
Two varieties Sharpes Express, and Maris Piper. My body ran out of energy today however after three hours. I need to go back during this week to finish digging the beds over ready for planting.
The Onion sets and Isle of Wight Garlic came back with me.I will ask Cat to help me plant them this week..

Viola Cornuta

I have finished another long day and have lots of days off in a row!
I have been splitting my time between my house and the house im moving into soon.
I have a large new garden, and many grand ideas.
The house needs packing up and the plants digging up to move to the new one.
I need a laptop to be able to blog from the new house as it does not have computer access for my old pc!
The Viola Cornuta is now planted in the new border.I hope to start blogging daily once I have set up the laptop for my camera!
The sun is shining more, and it is lighter for longer..here comes the spring!

Colours From The Garden

This morning the sun was shining. Here are the few plants that are in flower at the moment. To start with the darkening coloured Queen Of The Night Tulip. I love their burgundy to black colour, beautiful cup shape, and the scent inside the cup is like Belgian chocolate, a rich, earthy smell which appeals to me, and to bee's.

Rescued from the empty houses garden next door. I jumped over my fence to reclaim these beautys, purple Violas with lilac, black, and yellow faces. They were growing on in the loose stones. They have been repotted to save them, and I will try to collect some seeds at the end of the summer to grow masses of them next year!

The Copper orange coloured Broom.The flowers are really that colour, but not quite fully open. They have a light sweet scent if you sniff the flowers. The Brooms sit on either side of the Hydrangea.

The white flowered Broom with masses of white flowers up and down the stems.These plants can grow very large and unwieldy over time. My two are baby plants so wont need trimming back for years. I love the flying V shape the plant has displayed.
There is so much more planted, but I need to be patient. I bought twelve Burgundy flowered Salvia's today, and sowed some seeds for Corn Flowers and California Poppies. The gardeners world Carol Klein sowed some at Berryfields. I thought I must try that, the Blues and Oranges completely contrasting.Watch this blog if they grow on.