As is usual July is a bit of a damp squib after glorious April and May, you can tell it's the summer holidays. The weeds are loving it though, I swear they grow over night. Progress is being made in the shade stock beds, tidying and lots of re-potting and propagation. The gardens are moving into mid summer, with a lull in colour after the blast of lupins. The nursery gardens however are looking better this week after their tidy up.
It continues to be a busy week, can't complain, my customers are lovely and lots of new ones too!
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| Lychnis 'White Robin' |
Veg in a small space. I was watering our vertical veg planter today and things are coming on nicely. Peas to pick and the baby carrots are almost ready.:) Its a great way of showing you don't need a huge veg garden to grow some fresh, healthy food, straight from garden to plate. The biggest thing is keeping the plants well watered as veg grow quickly they need plenty water in a small container. You could also re-purpose an old china sink or window boxes, in fact anything can become a container for veg! Even if you only have a patio or balcony there is always space for veg. The last photos are the veg garden in my last garden, it was a huge space which led onto an orchard with apples and bush fruit, cane fruit and strawberries. We ate fresh veg and fruit all year round from this garden. I still miss it.
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| Stormy skies as I left the nursery on Thursday evening |
I've been planting trees. Now I know what I am going to do with the last area of the lower terrace I want to get the larger structural plants in and established. I have chosen some of my favourite trees, and I'm hoping that they will do ok tucked into the most sheltered area of the nursery. I have planted Aesculus parviflora, Stewartia pseudocamellia, Liquidambar styraciflua and Parrotia persica 'Vanessa'
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| Some of our own compost to put in the planting holes |
Papaver somnifera is looking good in the nursery gardens this week. I let them come up where ever they have seeded and then pull out the ones that are too close to other plants or not where I want them. I've scattered seed in the new part of the stream garden to fill in gaps until the plants I've put in fill out more. It's a good use of annuals to fill in spaces in borders until the plants you want there have matured and grown.
Ever wanted to know what the term root-bound means 
This is a pot of Carex 'Ice Dance' I brought in from home to sort out. But all is not lost.
The first thing to do is cut off the bulk of the root ball. This might seem brutal but those roots are not going to be much use, so it's better to get rid and this will also encourage the plants to grow new fresh roots. The easiest way to do with this is with an old bread knife (one of the best tools you can have on your potting bench). You can also use a saw if it's really tough 🔪
Next job is to divide the plant, again with the bread knife and some elbow power 💪 Depending on what you are doing with the plant will depend on how many bits you want to get out of it. Er on the side of caution and don't go too small with the pieces. They will need a decent amount of root to recover. I wanted one piece to go back in the ceramic pot for the garden and the rest were to be potted for stock in the nursery.
I always start by cutting the plant in half and then each half in half again and so on until I have the size and number of pieces I want. I managed to 21 plants out of this 12 inch wide plant! 🌱
Looking good in the nursery gardens this week
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| The bug hotel |
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| Sedum roof on the bug hotel |
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| Primula florindai with Geranium and Persicaria |
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| Flowers of Sempervivium |
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| Verbascum thapsus |
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| Thalictrum 'Elin' |
There's only so much sitting in front of a lap top I can take so the doglet and I took ourselves off to explore further up the forestry track opposite the house. We found another pond, a look out tower, club mosses, orchids and the current felling area. A good 5 mile round trip with some good uphill bits to stretch the old legs.
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| View towards Lee Pen |
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| Look out tower? |
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| Club mosses |
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| Time for a drink |
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| Stormy clouds on the horizon |
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| Orchids |
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| Heading back down hill |
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| Lots of foxgloves on the forestry track |
Tuesday and a day off together. After catching up on some bits and pieces at home we headed off for a picnic and walk around Lindean Loch near Selkirk. There were plenty wild flowers, orchids and wild swimmers in the loch. It's a lovely easy 2km walk round the loch with views south to the border. We headed back through Galashiels to post parcels and do some actual shopping!
Title quote - Hanna Rion
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