At home

Pin It

"I bet your own garden looks stunning" ... Yeah, right. It does, sometimes.

Let me get a few things straight. If you garden for a living sometimes the last thing on your mind is your own yard. Cobblers' children .... Your clients don't get you in to deadhead their roses and pick flowers for the house, well some do, but most want you to do the heavy pruning, turn the compost heap, dig up stumps, climb the ladder to prune the wisteria, well you get the drift.

It is often heavy work in all weathers and I get home dirty, tired and hungry. When leaving the site the job is not done. I need to unload the van, clean and tidy tools, log what I have done and take note of what I need to do next time.

Of course dinner does not prepare itself, children may expect an ear or a bath and bedtime story, so by the time I finally find time to tend my own garden, daylight may be a precious commodity. Truth be told, I find watering a complete bind but it is the one task that I make myself do virtually every day. About once a week I spend half an hour of quality time in my own garden and sow seeds, deadhead, prick out or weed, whatever is most pressing. The grass gets cut fortnightly including trimming the edges. College drilled that into me. If I am angry or upset, I have been known to turn the compost heap. In short, I keep the garden ticking over and sort of presentable, however far from a show garden.

Today gave me the chance to do a quick tour of my own little plot, check on the seedlings in a bit more detail and take some photos of a few little gems that I have not paid much attention to lately.

First up, seedlings:

Salad 'Niche' and Coriander 'Leisure'

The salad mixture is nearly ready for transplanting, the coriander will take at least another week.

Salad 'Merveille de 4 saisons' and Oriental Spinach 'Mikado'

Salad 'Merveille...' is living up to its name. Germination rates have been excellent again and I should be able to transplant these seedlings soon. The oriental spinach has not done quite so well, and I have re-sown the empty cells. A handful of spinach leaves in autumn is just not enough.

Basil 'Sweet Genovese'

Much better germination for the basil this time and I am keeping it in the growhouse to prevent slug damage.

Clematis 'Marie Boisselot'

Clematis 'Marie Boisselot' is enjoying a second flush, not nearly as impressive as the first though. The pure white flowers are as large as saucers and help to brighten a semi shaded area.

Pea 'Ambassador'

I have run out of space for my autumn peas, so they have to share a tiny half round bed with dahlias. The netting is reused from last year; I had stapled the netting to bamboo canes and at the end of the season I just clean it up, roll up and store until it is needed again for peas or sweet eas.

Rudbeckia fulgida deamii

I find rudbeckias useful for summer to autumn planting and they often feature in my borders; as long as there's sun and a bit of water now and then they are happy. My own stock plants are in a semi shady to shady spot, so when divided for clients they usually outperform the mother plant.

I forgot to take a picture of pepper 'Marconi Rossi' which I am growing for the first time this year. I can only squeeze two plants into the growhouse but both might give me half a dozen horn shaped peppers. Whether they will be harvested red or green is yet undecided, luckily this variety tastes good green, so I have nothing to lose.

No sign of life yet from the angelica seeds. They are supposed to germinate best fresh and of course mine have some from a packet.