The lovely hot, sunny weather weather has continued and as I write this we've had 3 weeks without rain, which for Scotland is a rare thing indeed. It has been lovely and we have managed to keep on top of the watering in the nursery, the good weather certainly brings out the customers and it has been a pleasure to see people wandering around enjoying the nursery and gardens and giving us very enthusiastic feed back.
Rubus 'Benenden' in the stream garden
Work continues in the tunnel, potting cuttings and seedlings and clearing out the untidy corner to make room for this years propagation and moving those plants over to the nursery to be sorted out. I'm also bringing over lots of annuals and veg seedlings for selling. I'm not able to spend too long in the tunnel in the morning as it gets hot pretty quickly and uncomfortable for working in.
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| Rodgersia in the big border on the track |
In the nursery I am continuing slowly with the spring clean which is now becoming the summer clean of the stock beds. We've been really busy with customers so my time is taken up with them which is great, but work such as the stock beds slows down. When Elaine one of my volunteers was in on Thursday she did a lot of cuttings of herbs to bulk up stock levels and some weeding in the borders in the stock bed area. I've been planting sweet peas in the scented garden and runner beans in the wildlife garden. I've swapped the spring flowering pots filed with bulbs and spring bedding for summer flowering interest plants. It's freshened up the sales area. I have been doing lots of potting and propagating and getting plants in to the tidied stock beds.
I’ve planted Runner bean variety ‘Scarlet Emperor’ in the bee border in the wildlife garden. It is a 1906 variety popular for its flavour and bright red flowers. It provides forage for pollinators and pollen and nectar for a variety of Bumblebees. Refreshingly trouble-free and rewarding, the bees enjoy and use the flowers, I get to use the beans.
On Friday I did one of our pop up garden shop at the community cafe in Tarbrax. As always it was good to catch up with people I know, do some advertising for the nursery and sell some plants.
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| Our pop up shop at Tarbrax |
Have you watched Chelsea on the TV last week, what was your favourite garden or plants? I was pleased to see alot of plants we sell appear in gardens.
Our Chelsea Choice for 2018 is wild flowers.
Have you been watching the RHS - Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show on TV this week? It's always interesting to see what's new, trending, and looking good. One theme I've picked up on is the use of wild flowers and native plants in a few of the gardens. This is great for a natural look and of course for our insects and pollinators. If you have visited the nursery in summer you'll have seen our beautiful wild flower bankings. We also have a range of wild flowers for sale in the nursery to inspire you to create your own wild space to encourage bugs and beasties.
Its all about the blossom this week, and against those glorious blue skies they look stunning. Personally I think the blossom is bigger and more floriferous this year, or is that just because we are desperate to see colour after that winter? What ever the reason the blossom on the apple trees planted in the stock beds and on the plants for sale are beautiful and plentiful, we're hoping for lots of fruit come autumn too. It's a great time to buy a tree as you can see the blossom, especially on the ornamental cherrys which are all coming into flower in the sales area. Prunus 'Amanagawa' is perfect for a small garden with it's very upright growth habit, so you can have cherry blossom in a small space.
The weekend was amazing again with lots of warmth and sunshine. We're loving the weather here in the nursery, all the plants and gardens look great against that blue sky. It was lovely to see lots of new customers and some of our regulars too.This is my favourite part of the gardens in the nursery at the moment. It's also one of the first areas we landscaped and planted when we bought the nursery 3 years ago. I always think it takes about 3 years for a planting scheme to really come together and the stream garden is doing that exactly three years on. I love the way the big foliage is coming together over the water and my colour schemes are merging just as I hoped they would.
At home my plants are growing and flowering quickly with me watering frantically. The dandelions are growing madly and are so tall. Has anyone else noticed this? Below are some of my plants looking good in the garden at home.
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| Paeonia |
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| Acer 'Bloodgood' |
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| Brunnera macrophylla |
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| Chaerophyllum hirsutum var roseum |
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Chaerophyllum hirsutum var roseum
and Geranium 'Mayflower' |
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| Ranunculus aconitifolius 'Flore Pleno' |
Having waited in all morning for the engineeer to fix the brand new tumble drier (damaged in transit it turns out) we fancied an easy local afternoon out and Dawyck was the place to go. A lovely lunch in the cafe then a relaxing afternoon enjoying the azaleas, Rhodos, bluebells and so much more at Dawyck. After coffee and cake we headed to Peebles to the bank and then took Bracken for a walk along the river. Home via Whitmuir to collect Dan after his kitchen shift. Enjoying the evening sun as it looks like its the last for a while ( no rain forecast tho, need rain at night pls and sun during the day lol. You can read about our trip to Dawyck in another blog soon.
Another week has quickly crept up on us with more amazing weather and a very busy nursery. Work wise in the nursery its more of the same. Potting in the tunnel getting all those seedlings and cuttings potted up. Tidying the stock beds and potting up last years propagated plants and putting in the spaces in the stock beds. Weeding the nursery gardens keeping on top of those pesky weeds and of course watering everywhere everyday. The gardens are really coming into their own now with so much colour and all my planting schemes are really coming together.
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Allium fistulosum, the welsh onion,
in the herb garden |
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| Cherry blossom in the sales area |
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| Young toad in the tunnel |
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| Doing cuttings in the tunnel |
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| Rain! The first for 3 weeks, not very often we say that in Scotland |
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| Milly thinks my carved bowl makes a good bed! |
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| There's lots of colour in the sales area |
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| The stream garden is looking particularly good at the moment |
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| The stream garden |
On our day off we headed to the borders and Smailholm tower which we've passed a few times but never visited until now. We had great views from the tower, climbing up to the top floor where you can go out onto the roof area. We investigated the mill pond where there was great expanses of horsetail and then headed to The Mainstreet trading company for a lovely lunch. It's a great place to visit with it's book shop, deli and homeware shop. On the way home we stopped off at Leaderfoot viaduct to take some photos and enjoy more of this great weather.
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| Smailholm tower |
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| Looking to the Eildon hills from the top of the tower |
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| The green roof on the tower |
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| Room with a view |
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| The equisetum in the mill pond at Smailholm Tower |
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| Bracken raring to go |
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| A spinach and feta quiche at The Mainstream trading company |
Views around the Leaderfoot Viaduct
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| Pink hawthorn |
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| My wedding boots made an outing this week |
I hope you are enjoying this lovely weather and are keeping busy in the garden.
See you soon.
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