Helen's Garden Renovation Project

We have had some lovely sunshine for the Olympics, but now it looks like we’re back to the usual unsettled pattern. I managed to mow the lawns before this morning’s shower, and that was good enough for now.

Not only is Alice Hoffman still not dead, but is just getting started with some prolific flowering.

Fuchsia Alice Hoffman

Not such good news about my water butts. The repair that I made last year has not worked permanently on either of them. The repair lasted only a month or so on the butt nearest the living room. The butt nearest the kitchen has only just started leaking again, so the repair lasted for nearly a year. I am going to try repairing them again using the sealant that I have that is specially made for ponds, as it is supposed to carry on sticking even when permanently underwater. I bought the sealant in the spring but the weather has not allowed me to use it yet. The expiry date is April next year.

Here is another picture of my Giant Oriental Lilies because I still can’t believe I have managed to grow something so beautiful.

Giant Oriental Lilies (mixed)

We had a dry day today, and I spent over three hours in the garden. I first wanted to collect some photographic evidence of my plants’ willingness to forgive me for digging them up and moving them.

This is what my Discovery apple tree is doing at the moment:

Discovery apple

It won’t be long before this apple is ripe. Charles Ross is also producing fruit:

Charles Ross apple

And my hibiscus, which I grew from seed, is just starting to flower.

Hibiscus in flower

And how upset was the buddleia about being dug up not just once, but twice, because I put it in the wrong place at first? Not very, I would say.

Buddleia Black Knight

So that just shows it is possible to transplant trees and shrubs in the winter and have them flower and fruit next spring, as long as you make sure you do it when there will be record rainfall in the spring and summer of the following year. And, actually, I think the plants all look better than they did before I moved them. Possibly this is partly because of all the rain we’ve had, but I think it’s also because they are now in a much more open, sunnier position than they were, and are feeling all the better for it.

I was thinking about getting started with laying some foundation for the stepping stones behind the apple trees, but the wisteria had gone wisterical and I had to break up the long-standing feud between it and the burglar alarm box and the drainpipe. And the jasmine was getting too jazzy, so I had to trim that, and also next door’s monster golden conifer, and my monster Pelts Blue conifer too, so that the euonymus next to it has a sporting chance. And then there were all the weeds in the drive, and I had to carry on scrubbing the paving slabs to prevent them getting dangerously slippery with green slime. And the Upright Milfoil is distributing loose stems across the pond, obviously as an attempt at domination, so I planted some of them in the basket that used to belong to the Hottonia Palustris before it got eaten. And somehow all the morning went and it was too hot by then to do anything strenuous. This is why I never get any development work done in the summer.