6 weeks in

So my Garden on a Roll has been in approximately 6 weeks now, and things are extremely good. Contrary to my expectations nothing has died, and many are growing fiercely, including the Lavatera, Monarda (now the cats have stopped digging it up) and the Lychnis (now the slugs have stopped eating it). A couple, like the Agapanthus and Potentilla, are doing OK and are growing, albeit at a slower and less spectacular rate. The only real disappointment is the Aster. As avid readers will know this was almost eaten to death when I planted it, and I was placing a home made cloche over it every night. Now it seems to have recovered but doesn't seem to be much bigger than when I first got it.

Then...

 And now!

You can just see where the paper roll is poking through. But this doesn't bother me in the slightest as it's keeping the bed largely free of weeds. Result!

That's more than can be said for my second bed, planted up 2 weeks ago. Everything there is getting established so there's nothing much to report on, except for the poor Jasmine, which has sitting doing nothing, and this morning was snapped in half. Oh well, what can you expect for a £1.50 plant from Morrisons?

 I'm still keeping the three Delphiniums I bought in pots, having been sufficiently unnerved by the warnings of other gardeners to not risk planting them out just yet. Maybe in a week or two they (or rather I) will be ready. Think i'll prepare some cloches and slug pubs in preparation.

Speaking of which next week is Chelsea Flower Show week - and i'm going!

Garden on a Roll: Planting! (Part 2)

After a restorative cup of tea and large slice of cake we prepared ourselves to tackle the next stage – the planting! Having bashed down the soil to flatten it out a bit, we unrolled the planting guide paper roll and carefully slid it onto the bed, taking care to cut slots in the back to fit around the roses in situ. We then cut the holes indicated on the roll for the plants, and dug out small pockets underneath each one, putting in a good slosh of water as we did so. We then placed each plant in its hole to get an idea of how it would look - some minor rearrangement was then made by me at the back, deciding that one plant would look better further along the back.

Having argued debated the best way of wetting the plants root bowl we finally settled on a good dunk in a bucket of water then popping each one into place. A final layer of topsoil went down to cover the roll and we were finally done, save for some final patting down and checking that all the plants were nicely settled in their new homes.

As the clock stuck 5pm we were finally able to stand back, exhausted, and admire our handywork. The process took four hours in total and involved some serious physical labour on our part. However the thrill of finally getting some proper plants into our garden made it all worth it!

So what are all these lovely new plants I have to play with? Stay tuned for the next post to find out!

Garden on a Roll: Planting! (Part 1)

So last Friday I rushed home from work eager to see if Mother Nature had left a little something for me, and sure enough, my new garden was sat waiting on the doorstep!

Not sure how long the box had been sitting there, but it was now 7.30pm on a warm spring day so it was vital I got the plants out for a good drink before the light faded. The box itself wasn’t terribly heavy, but large and awkward, so I dragged it through the house and unpacked quickly. Inside were a series of instructions, gloves, tools, a thick paper roll, and the plants themselves, all in numbered pots, and slotted in carefully to avoid damage on the journey – and in remarkably good nick given the journey they’d been on! 

The next morning I sat down and reviewed the instructions, which came on both in a DVD and in print. Planting part did not sound too onerous, but the instructions stressed that good soil preparation was the key to giving the plants the best start in life. Hmmm. My flowerbed soil had not been looked after for years, so my plan for tipping a few bags of topsoil over it and hoping for the best suddenly did not seem enough. I googled the best methods for soil improvement and came across something called double digging, which basically involved removing the flowerbed topsoil, forking over the subsoil a bit, adding a layer of compost, then turning the topsoil back onto it. This can only be done in small trenched sections at a time, so takes up a shedload of time and looked backbreaking, but if we wanted a great garden then we needed to put in the groundwork. Literally!

So the work began and we soon got into our rhythm: husband digging up the topsoil before I jumped into the trench to remove stones/weed roots/bits of plastic, fork over the subsoil, then tip in a chunk of compost, before jumping back out to allow husband to replace the topsoil and move to the next trench. The sun beat down as we toiled our way along the bed, slowed down by a number of obstacles including the foundation of fence posts, and having to dig around the rose bushes being left in situ. Once or twice I tugged at roots which I then realized might be linked to the roses, and quickly covered them back over hoping that I’d done no damage (time will tell on this). After 2 hours we finally reached the end of the flower bed and were fit for collapse, but the job was only half done!...To be continued....