I might have to water as well @Lizzie27. The rain missed us today.. let's see if we get anything Thursday. If not, a good soaking with the hose on Saturday. Everything's so dry..
Filled pots ready to pot on my marrow, cucumber, and Morning Glory seedlings. I have put the filled pots in the conservatory to warm up before moving the seedlings, am waiting for this cold snap to pass before moving them into their new pots. There are new shoots on my Snail Vine and my Dregea sinensis, planted together in a large container in the conservatory. I wasn't sure if they would overwinter as they are both tender climbers.
Didn't have to do any watering in the end because we got a (very brief) inch of snow Friday morning! Some more rain expected this week. Milder nights in the forecast so I was able to make some space in the greenhouse, moving some hardy plants into the cold frame and some others from the cold frame to outside.
Big weeding weekend, went around most of my borders - they're suddenly appearing everywhere! Cow parsley and Arum maculatum the biggest offenders.. nightmare to remove with their deep roots.
Also sowed some scabiosa and pricked out & potted up some cowslips and some more rudbeckia, pruned a cotoneaster, chilean potato tree and a holly standard, planted out 3 clematis montana, cut back last year's leaves from my geums and ferns, and removed dead material from my pond plants (cold!).
Had to cave in an trim leaves from my really old sword ferns today. Amount of damage accumulated was more than halt the plant, so it was time. I know, they will grow back, but every time I trim them it feel like I leave a festering wound in a heart of our garden heh ...
I'd love to learn how to grow ferns. That fern lady's garden on GW was so pretty. Any recommendations for a first time ferner?
I dug out a square metre, two ft deep and planted a trio ofroses today into what was lawn. Going to tackle the area around that and make a bed for some other plantings around jt.
A good fern to start with is dryopteris erythrosora, the 'autumn fern'. It's readily available. The unfurling fronds are a beautiful pinky-bronze, and then mature to green and hold their structure really well through the winter. Dryopteris are more tolerant of sun than most other species. All ferns appreciate moist, well drained soil and lots of leaf mould. Some prefer it wetter, the ostrich fern for example.
The one on Lena_vs_Deer's photo grows well, and is reliably evergreen. I always cut the fronds off each spring too as the old ones detract from the beauty of the unfurling new growth.
Martin Rickard has written some good books about ferns, you could look out for those.
I have a lot of different varieties, and find them fascinating.
Here's a favourite, which the lady on GW mentioned.
Dryopteris Wallichiana.
You may get hooked! There is a thread on the forum about ferns, but the title escapes me, someone may remember it.
Dryopteris erythrosora unfurling. There are some lovely colours in ferns, silver grey with burgundy stripes in the Japanese ones, athyrium nipponicum, and varying shades of green. I don't grow the more common native ones, simply because they are all around me in the countryside. Do try some if you can provide the conditions.
Ferns are another thing I kill. My ground is just too dry. I once found a fern in a pot my mother must have given me when we moved into our house, stuffed in the tiny gap between fence and shed, five years on and really happy. Now actually interested in gardening (about three years ago) I thought I'd put in the ground to "flourish" in my woodland-y section of the garden. It promptly died, I felt awfully guilty, it had been so happy in its tiny dark gap.
I've got another one that occasionally pops up, unfurls one or two fronds and then quickly changes its mind. Just the wrong conditions.
My mother's garden is far damper with heavy clay and they flourish for her, they're bigger than my five year old.
I didn't get much done, potted on some sweet peas, and moved some cosmos seedlings under a growlight (sewed them a tad early, I guess, they looked like they could go leggy without some intervention.)
I'm visiting an allotment tomorrow and will hopefully be getting a plot, so I'm excited for that!
Posts
There are new shoots on my Snail Vine and my Dregea sinensis, planted together in a large container in the conservatory. I wasn't sure if they would overwinter as they are both tender climbers.
Big weeding weekend, went around most of my borders - they're suddenly appearing everywhere! Cow parsley and Arum maculatum the biggest offenders.. nightmare to remove with their deep roots.
Also sowed some scabiosa and pricked out & potted up some cowslips and some more rudbeckia, pruned a cotoneaster, chilean potato tree and a holly standard, planted out 3 clematis montana, cut back last year's leaves from my geums and ferns, and removed dead material from my pond plants (cold!).
New fronds can't unfurl soon enough
It's readily available. The unfurling fronds are a beautiful pinky-bronze, and then mature to green and hold their structure really well through the winter.
Dryopteris are more tolerant of sun than most other species. All ferns appreciate moist, well drained soil and lots of leaf mould. Some prefer it wetter, the ostrich fern for example.
The one on Lena_vs_Deer's photo grows well, and is reliably evergreen. I always cut the fronds off each spring too as the old ones detract from the beauty of the unfurling new growth.
Martin Rickard has written some good books about ferns, you could look out for those.
I have a lot of different varieties, and find them fascinating.
Here's a favourite, which the lady on GW mentioned.
Dryopteris Wallichiana.
You may get hooked! There is a thread on the forum about ferns, but the title escapes me, someone may remember it.
There are some lovely colours in ferns, silver grey with burgundy stripes in the Japanese ones, athyrium nipponicum, and varying shades of green.
I don't grow the more common native ones, simply because they are all around me in the countryside.
Do try some if you can provide the conditions.
I've got another one that occasionally pops up, unfurls one or two fronds and then quickly changes its mind. Just the wrong conditions.
My mother's garden is far damper with heavy clay and they flourish for her, they're bigger than my five year old.
I didn't get much done, potted on some sweet peas, and moved some cosmos seedlings under a growlight (sewed them a tad early, I guess, they looked like they could go leggy without some intervention.)
I'm visiting an allotment tomorrow and will hopefully be getting a plot, so I'm excited for that!