let there be light

I went out to do the first of the garden tasks and started by sawing off 3 stalks of the Rosa glauca a couple of inches above soil level. What a difference that made! These 3 stalks with their branches all leaned over to the Berberis completely shading the corner where Road and Drive beds meet. I realised that I would not need to move the phlox at all now I had let light into that corner. Although I do need to go back in and finish cleaning it up.

What a butterfly I am when it comes to gardening, flitting from one bit of weeding to another, from one bed to another, definately not working methodically along one strip of garden until it is clear of weeds, twigs and self-seeders. Mostly I have been prising out baby dandelions, grass, what I think may be aquiligea, self-sown dog daisies and tree seedlings of various species, nothing very big but the surface needs some raking to collect up spruce sheddings and break up moss.

The thymes and small plants along the path are being invaded by clover and grass, so I weeded there. The Rosa ‘Starry Night’ is one of the roses with black spot but it has new leaves and a couple of buds after a month or so of looking ratty. I have been thinking for some time that I may have planted it a bit deep as it looks more like several bushes rather than one, in addition it seemed to sit in a bit of a bowl which is near the drip line from the roof and thus turns into a puddle when we get a lot of rain. Landscape roses tend to have lots of soil-level sprouts. So I decided to lift it by gently sliding my fork underneath the main root area and adding more earth in the space I created. I had cleaned the area and the bush of black-spotted and dead leaves before lifting it and dug some cornmeal in with the additional soil. I don’t think the root system was damaged and hopefully it will solve the puddle problem.

I got the earth I needed to put under R. Starry Night from the potato pot. I thought that perhaps there were some potatos and took out two rather straggly plants. Not a tuber came out with the trowels full of soil. I thought of my German friends, an artist and his family who, during the war when they were desperately short of food, planted much of their stoney hillside garden with potatoes. When they came to dig up the harvest they found no more than the number of potatoes they had planted, a disaster M told me sadly. Well it wouldn’t be a disaster if I had no potatoes but then I groped around in the bottom of the pot and lo, three good-sized potatoes. I was very pleased. And more than half the pot is still unexplored!

The cherry tomato leaves are turning yellow and the tomatoes are ripening fast. I think I will go and pick whatever is ripe, as well as the zucc.s and my smart stripey purple and white eggplants as the weather is to be cool and wet for the rest of the week. The garden is very wet as it is.

Photos: These are the plants from DPWR’s garden that I wrote about yesterday – the wonderful red poppies with dew on them and the rubeckia, both of which I hope to grow next year in my garden but DPWR says that she doesn’t know how I am going to squeeze them in!