Perks & Quirks

 

 

Hope you’re all strapped in thrill seekers because it’s pedal to the metal for another all action white knuckle ride around the USG-Plot.
 

A distinct 'quirk' of this garden at first sight was the very oddly configured shingle strip which runs the full width along the back fence.

 

 

Initially we devoted much cerebral activity to attempting to understand the purpose of this.

Fence maintenance?  No as you could quite easily access the fence from the grass. 

 

Drainage?  Not a lot of point in draining somewhere that supported no plant life. 

 

Decorative?  Could this be it?  A deeply sensory and beautiful 40' strip of gravel.

 

Answers on a postcard guys, or leave a comment or Tweet The Professor at:   @ProfFurbody.

 

I developed an actual pathological hatred of this hideous nonsense, so the initial knee jerk reaction was to dump all the eyesore stones and revert this area to a flower bed. 

 

 

 

Quite a daunting prospect shifting a couple of tons of cobbles in a hatchback. 

 

 

And ............. shift to where exactly?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So after a quick re-think and taking our own advice (as discussed in an earlier post).  It's cheaper and makes sense to try and make your existing space work for you and with this in mind we ran the flower bed along in front of the gravel.  The area behind can now be used for growing our veggies in pots, which is working out well as this is the area in the most prolonged sunshine. 

It keeps all the pots away from the patio.  As in previous years they've all been jumbled up too near the house. 

It also means they can be moved around as required for space and light and also to use other pots filled with some later flowering varieties to jazz up behind any bare areas as the herbaceous plants (in front) begin to go over.  

 

 

The herbaceous bed is quickly growing up to conceal the pots behind.

 

 

JUNE 

 

 

 

Doesn't take long

 

JULY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These dinner plate poppies rather considerately self seeded. 

Always nice to get some serendipitous self seeding skyfall plants for free; but more surprising in this case is as to where’d they come from? 

 

 

 

 

Because we dug this bed out from what was turf, so they couldn’t already have been lying dormant in the soil as it’s rare to see 4’ poppies appearing in peoples’ lawns so somehow the seeds had to have conveniently arrived in exactly the right place at exactly the right moment.

 

Howzat!!!

 

 

 

Meanwhile, elsewhere some plants give you good bang for your buck. 

 

These Busy Lizzies for instance are a whole lot busier than you might expect; flowering two distinctly different colours on the same plant.  Thought at first that this was due to transplanting and the soil variation from pot to bed had altered the Ph, therefore, the change in petal colour,

but no, two months on and still hard at it.  

And mimulus, not wanting to be out done, getting in on the act.

 

 

Have you seen these 'Million Bells' this year?  Flowering 3 colours on the same plant.

Two colours on the Calendula

 

 

 

And oranges and lemons on the Eschscholzia

 

Even fiendish red!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Too much???

Soz

But you were warned there'd be excitement

Let's slow this down to a gallop then

With some nice relaxing shots to lower your heart rate



NATURE AAaarrhhhhhhh

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK

JUST CHECKING

ALL THAT RELAXING NATURE HADN'T GOT YOU DOZING OFF