How to work on really, really claggy soil...

 

Here's a border I planted recently:

Nothing special about that, you say?

What you can't see from this photo is that the soil is absolutely sodden, and “claggy” is the only suitable word I can use to describe it, even though I'm not from Yorkshire, or wherever that word comes from...

In fact, it's worse than it looks, because this was a border which sloped down towards the shingled area, and had desperately poor soil, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone, and bring in a large amount of topsoil which had just been generated by removing a lawn, elsewhere in the garden....

 

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My Hellebores are being drowned!

 We've been talking about Hellebores quite a lot - well, it's that time of year! - and I had a question from Linda the other day (“Hi, Linda!”) about her Helleborus orientalis, Oriental Hellebores:

 

She's lost nearly half of them, due to a thoughtless and unheeding neighbour whose gutter is leaking over her garden, turning her Hellebore bed into a quagmire.

The neighbour won't fix the gutter: and there is nowhere else for the Hellebores to move to, so what is Linda to do with them?

The short-term solution is going to be........

 

 

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The Strange Case of the Spinach on the Compost Heap

A  little while ago, I wrote about the Bucket of Shame, to do with opening up a new - or rather, an old! - compost pen, and I mentioned putting the tired old spinach plants onto the active - ie new! - compost pen.

Well, I out-clevered myself there, because when I returned to that garden, a week later, I found that the spinach was actively growing.... in the compost pens.

Just look at all those tender, blanched new leaves!!  Of course, they thought that they'd been “planted” in some heavenly, warm, moist, new location .....

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Compost - the Bucket of Shame

 I love opening a compost pen: such excitement!

We've been dutifully filling the pens in sequence, and at long last, it's time to open up the “oldest” one, pen number 3.

It's been left to rot down for months, getting quietly on with the job of recycling the garden's waste, via the dear little brandlings (those skinny red worms that you find in an active compost pen) who eat up everything and poop it out - yes, folks, home-made compost is basically......

 

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Hellebore Gold Collection: plants to avoid

 I don't usually do “plant reviews” as such, but back in April 2021 I posted an article entitled "Gold Collection" Hellebores: are they worth the money?  

I pointed out that these plants, gorgeous though they are, do not seem to thrive in our gardens, so they don't represent good value for money. In my opinion, they are not fully hardy - which is ludicrous for a garden plant in the UK! - and I am firmly convinced.....

 

 

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