In the back garden at home over the past week. The colour keeps going and I'm really pleased with how the garden is coming together. This week we brought my chimney pots home form the nursery where they've been stored for the past few years, they are going to spruce up our parking area at the back of the house, and its great to have them home.
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| Primula florindae Red form |
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| Rosa 'Cardinal de Richeleux' |
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| Geranium sylvaticum 'Album' |
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| Clematis 'Paul Farges' |
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| Another colourful salad bowl for tea |
A few highlights from the nursery
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| Campanula lactiflora 'Pritchards Variety' |
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| Digitalis ciliata and Ligularia dentata 'Desdemona' |
I usually spend from 8.30am to 10am in the polytunnels, weeding, propagating plants and sorting out all our stock that lives in there. This is usually when I listen to podcasts and sometimes in winter when I'm working away before the nursery opens in March. I listen to a wide range of subjects but mainly history (my other great passion) and of course garden podcasts. I have three garden podcasts that I listen to and you can find them all on which ever podcast platform you use:
Scotland Grows podcast is a must and not just because I've been on it :D Its great to hear about Scottish gardens, gardeners and growing conditions and MT has brought together a great breadth of interviewees over the past few series from all area of Scottish Horticulture.
Gardens Illustrated Magazine also do a podcast which interviews some of the greats of British horticulture and gardens. Through the podcast each guest is asked what would feature in their dream garden, their journey and career and all sorts of other tangents too.
Then of course there is BBC Radio 4 Gardeners Question Time because you can never know everything about a subject and I always learn something from every episode I listen too.
So that's my go to gardening podcasts, I'm always looking for new podcasts to listen to, so what are your favs when you're battling the weeds, watering or just relaxing?
Scotland Grows podcast is a must and not just because I've been on it :D Its great to hear about Scottish gardens, gardeners and growing conditions and MT has brought together a great breadth of interviewees over the past few series from all area of Scottish Horticulture.
Gardens Illustrated Magazine also do a podcast which interviews some of the greats of British horticulture and gardens. Through the podcast each guest is asked what would feature in their dream garden, their journey and career and all sorts of other tangents too.
Then of course there is BBC Radio 4 Gardeners Question Time because you can never know everything about a subject and I always learn something from every episode I listen too.
So that's my go to gardening podcasts, I'm always looking for new podcasts to listen to, so what are your favs when you're battling the weeds, watering or just relaxing?
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A pair of bookends in the front garden  |
There's a definite yellow, lime green and purple theme going on in the sales area this month, love it. Summer alliums are looking fab, like mini fireworks they can help fill gaps in the border at this time of year. I am love loving those Hydrangea 'Annabelle' next to the Buddleia 'Lochinch', that creamy green and silver purple just works so well.
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| Hydrangea 'Annabelle' |
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| Allium Carinatum pulchellum white |
Behind the scenes - Great excitement in the nursery today, the great annual stock bed tidy is finished, Hooray!
This huge job usually takes me from the beginning of March to mid September but I got Isabel starting at one end and me at the other this year. We’ve finished 2 months earlier which leaves plenty time to get all the propagation 
done for next years plants AND all the jobs we never get around to AND starting to think about building new polytunnels! This huge job involves weeding, cleaning the stockbeds, top-dressing and feeding all the plants, labelling, potting new plants and slotting them in and making the whole area a great place to shop from for all our customers. Yes our plants are spoiled but it also means we are selling good quality plants for often challenging conditions. The feedback we constantly get from customers who come back to buy more and enthuse about how well our plants have done in their gardens is testimony to all our hard work. Its also a great way for Isabel to keep learning all the plants, their names and what they require and I am hugely appreciative of all the work she has put in to getting this job done on all the weathers 
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- Lots of finishing off some of the big nursery tasks this week. Isabel finished off the annual stock bed tidy which is amazing. This huge job usually takes me from the beginning of March to mid September but I got Isabel starting at one end and me at the other this year. We’ve finished 2 months earlier which leaves plenty time to get on with lots of other jobs.
- Fiona has worked hard every Saturday and finished potting all the pots of seedlings that were sown in spring, she’s also finished potting all the cuttings done last year so the tunnel is full of thousands of great plants for this year and next. Now we can start the major propagation for this year.
- I’ve been doing lots of potting, working through all the plants that haven’t gone into the stock beds, potting and sorting them and enjoying the sweet peas which we grew from our own seed this year.
- We’ve been busy keeping the sales area filled, chatted to lots of lovely customers and a busy afternoon down at the garden railway on Sunday. Lots of kids big and small enjoying watching the trains running. Thanks as always to David (and Dan when he’s there) for creating and running the railway for everyone to enjoy.
- We’ve been donated new pieces of farm equipment to display in the nursery. Used for sowing seeds, we are looking forward to siting it in the gardens soon.
Finally for this week huge congratulations to Isabel for passing her RBGE (Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh) Certificate in Practical Horticulture with distinction. We are very proud of her and to have helped in a small way to give her lots of experience in the nursery.
- Fiona has worked hard every Saturday and finished potting all the pots of seedlings that were sown in spring, she’s also finished potting all the cuttings done last year so the tunnel is full of thousands of great plants for this year and next. Now we can start the major propagation for this year.
- I’ve been doing lots of potting, working through all the plants that haven’t gone into the stock beds, potting and sorting them and enjoying the sweet peas which we grew from our own seed this year.
- We’ve been busy keeping the sales area filled, chatted to lots of lovely customers and a busy afternoon down at the garden railway on Sunday. Lots of kids big and small enjoying watching the trains running. Thanks as always to David (and Dan when he’s there) for creating and running the railway for everyone to enjoy.
- We’ve been donated new pieces of farm equipment to display in the nursery. Used for sowing seeds, we are looking forward to siting it in the gardens soon.
Finally for this week huge congratulations to Isabel for passing her RBGE (Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh) Certificate in Practical Horticulture with distinction. We are very proud of her and to have helped in a small way to give her lots of experience in the nursery.
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| Lots of propagation and potting |
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| New farm machinery |
I enjoyed my two days off last week, spent at home, enjoying our wee place. Lots of time spent in the garden cutting back the ivy on the front wall along side the pavement so folks can get past, tidying up the shrubs in the front garden as they are getting a bit top heavy but keeping the height for privacy. Some weeding then the grass cut in the back garden, climbing roses tied in, the pots on the patio moved around to give everything a bit more space, some more weeding there. Ball throwing for Maisie (very important) and catmint fix for Poppy cat who has become an expert at stealthly sneaking out the door. Bits and pieces done in doors and finally some painting on the front of the house. We’d hoped to have all the wood work and window sills prepped and painted before now, but the weather has not been on our side at all this summer. David got the cast iron down pipe painted and I got the wood panel under the lounge done yesterday, so progress at last
A garden consultation in Biggar this morning for a customer and a walk along the old railway line which we used to do regularly but not much since we moved east.
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| Newly painted down pipe |
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| A walk along the old railway line at Biggar |
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