From the nursery garden to my small town garden, its all flowers

I often get asked if I have a garden at home and what its like. So now I have mainly finished the home garden I will share snippits of it here and there. It’s a fairly small town garden, much more sheltered than the nursery and compact. This has made me think carefully about which of my favourite plants I can have and where and how to plants them. I can also grow plants I cannot grow in the nursery gardens. My main aim was to make the garden as maintenance friendly as possible but interesting and full of my favourite plants, so after a day or week in the nursery I can easily keep it tidy and more importantly enjoy my time in the garden. The front garden was all grey slabs and gray gravel with some established shrubs along the boundery wall at the road end. The back garden was dominated by a half dead, 8 feet wide, 20 foot high leylandii hedge, a lawn, old greenhouse, slabs and a shed. We’ve done a lot of work over the 3 years we’ve lived there, which I will share here and there, to show a different garden from the nursery gardens but also my creation.

Millium effusum 'Aureum'

One of the most asked questions in the nursery is about dry shade and plants that will cope with those conditions, so here is a wee border outside the back door along the front of our beech hedge which runs down the west boundery of our back garden. I have planted a repeat along this six foot long border of Millium effusum ‘Aureum’, Epimedium rubrum, Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’ and Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’. As you can imagine it gets very dry but even through the recent very dry hot spell these plants have done brilliantly. I did have to keep them watered when I first planted them 3 years ago until they were established but then they were totally self sufficient, providing colour all year round in lovely contrasting yellows and blues brightening up a shady corner.

A lot of customers have been asking for more Clematis so we now have the following available:

Clematis florida Seiboldii - stunning, but needs a more sheltered position

Clematis montana 'Tetrarose'

Clematis 'Ville de Lyon' - deep red

Clematis montana 'Grandiflora'

Clematis alpina 'Blue Dancer' - lots of people asking for these type of clematis

Clematis 'Destiny'

Clematis tangutica

We've got more shrubs including Sambucus 'Black Lace', more Brunnera 'Jack Frost' and we also have more birch trees including 3 fabulous Betula jaquemontii, already a good size (10 feet) they would make an instant impact in your garden, especially if planted as a wee grove.

Open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm.

See you soon

Clematis 'Ville de Lyon'

Sambucus 'Black Lace'

Betula jaquemontii

Clematis seiboldii

Came home from work today to these fabulous beauties flowering in the garden. Its turned into a very pink and purple corner of the back garden border. Papaver orientalis Pizzazco Purple, Rosa 'Cardinal de Richeleux', Sambucus 'Black Lace' and Valeriana officinalis. Look at all thos flowers on the rose

Papaver orientale 'Pizzicato'

Rosa 'Cardinal Richeleux'

Another busy week here in the nursery and already a week into June, how is that possible? The weather has been varied to say the least but it’s a relief to be free of the pressure of keeping everything watered! An extra day in the nursery when David and I were in on Tuesday to turn our huge compost bins, great to get it done though as we were struggling to get more of our green wast on the top lol.

Isabel was back this week and it was great to have her company again and get some tasks out the way including sowing seeds, planting out annuals into the scented and herb gardens and moving the last of the plants out the borrowed farm tunnel over to the nursery. We are now completely in our own space which is fantastic and with two of our new tunnels we are becoming even more efficient with out time, finding plants, putting newly potted plants in the new tunnels and so much more without having to barrow everything back and forwards across the car park between the nursery and farm tunnels, its been a long tme coming but so happy to get the nursery to this stage.

After a week of garden tidying I got back into the stock beds working through K’s and I’s! Isabel is back at the shade stock beds and eventually we will meet in the middle somewhere lol. I’m almost finished working, re-potting, propagating and potting all the grasses that stay in the tunnel and putting them into new tunnel 2. There are lots of other wee jobs done inbetween all these, its non stop.

Fiona is working through last years cuttings, getting them potted and out into the new stock beds. Its always great to see our work from the previous year becoming sellable plants.

Finally thank you to one of our customers Diana for donating some new items to our vintage garden tool collection, along with these items we got another old sprayer and pots. We are planning exciting things with those for next year.

David has been working away behind the scenes making more paths and renovating the railway fence.

Thank you team Quercus for another successful week.

Its lovely that the garden is now at the stage I can cut a wee jug of flowers for the house. Most of the plants are not even planted 3 years but they are enjoying their new home and growing well. The smell is the house from the roses and clematis is fabulous <3 These are all from the back garden.

Adiantum aleuticum 'Imbricatum'
Clematis montana 'wilsonii'
Clematis 'Paul Farges'
Geranium sylvaticum 'Album'
Millium effusum 'Aureum'
Rosa 'Cardinal de Richeleux'
Rosa 'Constance Spry'
Viola cornuta 'Alba'

A wet weather day spent in Galasheils bathroom shopping, bathroom flooring shopping and trying not to fall out over both home with lots of catalogues. Of course being this neglected cowboyed house, nothing is straight forward but we will bring it back to what the house should be one room, one expensive job at a time. Tea was mince, tatties and peas made to my granny Peddies recipe. I'd share a photo but it was too good and always brings back memories of visiting her in Dunbar as a child

Tuesday was a day at home, turning my own compost heaps and planting out annuals in the front and back gardens, domestic chores then more bathroom decorating and re painting the porch roof after the roof repairs. Supervised by Maisie of course.

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