End Times
Just as the garden has gathered strength, it's time to pack it all away again. The plants don't know what's about to hit them, whether the weather or me with a shovel. I can't say I mind though, as I don't sit back and enjoy it. That isn't what it's for. It's not a relaxing place, not in the usual sense of the word. There's always turmoil. I want that to be apparent. If there is a drawback to this time of year, it's that I only properly notice how large the plants have grown once i've stuck a fork and shovel under them and manhandled them out of the earth, into the wheelbarrow, ready to pot them up for winter hibernation.
Two last views of the front garden -
Last night I hauled a good few things out - the monsteras, bananas and colocasia. Not enough large pots! Maybe next year they would have more impact grouped together in stands, rather than drifted one into the other. I'm glad I stuck purely to green and white rather than letting it become a dog's dinner. Mind you, the poppies were worth a go. You forget so quickly what was there before. I'm sure i'd have become bored with it if i'd had only foliage in there all season long, from May to October.
Canna and dahlia flowers -
I wonder if i'll change my mind about these things for next year and have even less time for flowers.It's a long winter in which to change my mind. They seem more and more like a self-conscious nod to Christopher Lloyd. Inspirational as his gardening has been for me, there comes a time for everything to change.
The poison garden-
One contains ricin, the other scopolamine. Now, I haven't and wouldn't put together a collection of poisonous plants just for the sake of it, because I have two young children, it's too literary an idea to work (you wouldn't know to look at such a thing that it contains poisonous or mind-altering plants) and the design of the thing would come a poor second to the plants in it. I grow exotics primarily because of the visual impact they have, not for their chemical content. Simply, they are plants with charisma, but they also have backstories and cultural baggage which I find fascinating.
The dry garden-
The dry garden is a large raised bed plonked down in the middle of what was the lawn. The soil is mixed with plenty of grit and sand to help drainage. My garden soil, if left unadulterated, is a hopeless medium for growing plants that don't get on with having wet roots all the time, hence the dry garden. I've two ideas for it. One is a warped take on bedding plants, with the strict colour theme and compact, low growing planting that you always find in council bedding, but using only succulents and grasses. The other is just to set plant against plant in a fight for earth and light. Really I ought to discard one but daren't because it would mean disregarding so much that didn't fit in.
Two last views of the front garden -
Last night I hauled a good few things out - the monsteras, bananas and colocasia. Not enough large pots! Maybe next year they would have more impact grouped together in stands, rather than drifted one into the other. I'm glad I stuck purely to green and white rather than letting it become a dog's dinner. Mind you, the poppies were worth a go. You forget so quickly what was there before. I'm sure i'd have become bored with it if i'd had only foliage in there all season long, from May to October.
Canna and dahlia flowers -
I wonder if i'll change my mind about these things for next year and have even less time for flowers.It's a long winter in which to change my mind. They seem more and more like a self-conscious nod to Christopher Lloyd. Inspirational as his gardening has been for me, there comes a time for everything to change.
The poison garden-
One contains ricin, the other scopolamine. Now, I haven't and wouldn't put together a collection of poisonous plants just for the sake of it, because I have two young children, it's too literary an idea to work (you wouldn't know to look at such a thing that it contains poisonous or mind-altering plants) and the design of the thing would come a poor second to the plants in it. I grow exotics primarily because of the visual impact they have, not for their chemical content. Simply, they are plants with charisma, but they also have backstories and cultural baggage which I find fascinating.
The dry garden-
The dry garden is a large raised bed plonked down in the middle of what was the lawn. The soil is mixed with plenty of grit and sand to help drainage. My garden soil, if left unadulterated, is a hopeless medium for growing plants that don't get on with having wet roots all the time, hence the dry garden. I've two ideas for it. One is a warped take on bedding plants, with the strict colour theme and compact, low growing planting that you always find in council bedding, but using only succulents and grasses. The other is just to set plant against plant in a fight for earth and light. Really I ought to discard one but daren't because it would mean disregarding so much that didn't fit in.