The great writer

A new job! Unpaid as usual. To write a monthly article on gardening for a free magazine.

Tricky.....what to write about each month.

Here's my favourite so far.....

Winding down for winter

As the mornings get colder and the dark nights draw in, it's tempting to close the curtains and forget about the garden. After all there isn't much happening out there right now – is there?

Well, yes there is. So button up your coat, pull on your wellies and let's take a look. I don't want to scare you but there is still plenty of work to do before you can curl up in that comfy chair with a warming cuppa.

At this time of year the garden tends to look a bit soggy and worn out. The leaves are falling in large clumps and the plants seemed weighed down with the wet and cold. You can help give it all a pick-me-up by clearing away leaves from the lawn and borders and cutting back any perennials that have finished flowering. Add this to your compost heap and give the whole thing a shuffle to get some air into the layers.

Have a look at your shrubs and trees as well. Are there any bits that are dead or diseased? Cut them out now before the damage gets any worse.

If the weather is very wet then it's best to keep off your lawn all together. But take advantage of any sunny days to give the grass a light trim over the top and tidy up the edges.

Then take a step back and look round the garden. Are you happy with it? Try taking some photos from different angles – low down or out of a window. You'll be amazed at how different your garden can look from another point of view. And with the borders freshly tidied and you should be able to see if there are any gaps that need filling.

If you do have any gaps then think about filling them with bulbs. There are plenty to choose from now in the garden centres. I like to go for the random approach of throwing the bulbs into the border and planting them wherever they land. This way you will get a more natural effect. But if your garden is more formal then regimented groups of solider-like tulips or daffodils always look effective.

Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to be given some wonderful Dahlias. But now that frosts are imminent it is time to think about how to store them for winter. At Anglesey Abbey (www.nationaltrust.org.uk/angleseyabbey/ ), where they have a stunning display of dahlias each year, they are always planted outside in their pots. At this time of year it is easy enough to dig up the pot, clean off the outside and remove any weeds. The foliage is cut right back to soil level, then the pot is kept, on its side, in a frost-free greenhouse until the new shoots begin to emerge in spring. They will need to be checked over regularly for signs of damp or insect damage.

Elsewhere in my garden, progress has been slow. I have drawn up a design and begun to think about the plants I want to grow. But I'm having to balance the long list of desirable plants with limited space and not so favourable growing conditions. Back in the summer I discovered that my main border sets like concrete in the sun and only desert plants seem to enjoy themselves.

I experimented by planting out my Echeveria, Aeoniums and Agave plants that usually live in the house. They had a great time basking in the sun. But I lost a delicious double purple Hellebore and a rich velvety leaved Saxifrage because I didn't think about the soil conditions enough. Lesson learnt I am studying Beth Chatto's garden (www.bethchatto.co.uk) to learn more about planting in hot and dry conditions. The new colour scheme will be silvers and blues and will include Hebe pinguifolia 'Pagei', Festuca glauca, Agapanthus (blue and white varieties), Helianthemum 'The Bride' plus one of my favourite plants Convolvulus cneorum with its silky silver leaves and large white flowers.

One part of the garden I have managed to complete is a border for my daughter – Little Mushroom. She choose some plants from around the garden which she helped to dig up and replant in her space. If it had pink flowers then she had to have it. So her border consists of a hardy geranium, a lupin and some Heuchera. She also planted some broad bean seeds. Pleased with her effort she then decided to accessorise by adding a gnome, a pink plastic pot (empty) and a fake – but scarily real looking – plastic hand. Sadly it's the pinkness of the plants that offends me more than the ornaments!

Happy Gardening

I'm still here

It's been nearly a year and so much has changed.

Well, not really. The garden is still the same but there is a grand plan.

More plants have been bought and randomly planted anywhere until the grand plan becomes reality.

And someone actually wanted Betty to design their garden for them. That was fun. Trying to remember how to measure a garden, what to photograph, what questions she should ask.

Then Betty had to find the boxes that the pens, scale rule and compasses where packed away in. The pens no longer worked and there was no tracing paper. So off to Ely to buy some more pens and paper.

Skip a few months, the garden is finished, the clients are happy and Betty says "Never again".

Then a friend asked for help with her garden.......

Preparing for the worst

In 4 days time Betty's garden is going to be over run by about 37 children average age 5 years old.

Should she
a) accept whatever happens, after all she did offer to have the party at her house (foolish woman!)
b) dig up her prized plants and hide them in pots until the danger has passed
or
c) put barbed wire around the borders and have the shotgun ready?

Pay day!

One day a week Betty helps out at a small garden centre. She doesn't get paid but does it because she loves plants and loves talking to people about them.

But the manager there is not a plant person - not even a person person and Betty feels rather undervalued.

But there is one person who appreciates her - the other staff member she works with. And yesterday he showed Betty some plants he had put aside for her. Ok, so they were a bit dead looking and were being written off. But with a touch of tlc they should be back to life and will look fabulous next year.

Hurrah for free plants!

Free Plants

What's better than plants? Free plants of course. Reluctantly Betty went to work yesterday. She was very tired after staying up late (10pm) to listen to the little Mushroom perform in a singing concert.

What at fantastic night. She is such the proud mother now. Little Mushroom is not fazed at all by it all - just a bit tired.

So at work - which isn't really work - just helping out with a bit of gardening in a big garden. Anyway, the work was in the herbaceous border - Betty's favourite place. The plan was to remove some clumps that had got too big. And what was going to happen to the clumps that were too big?

Nothing!! Free to a good home. So Betty took a bag full of.......well she's not sure. There was definitely perennial sunflowers and probably some Aconitum and some other stuff that she thinks is Achillea but not the usual one. And she took some poppies although the chances of them surviving are nil.

Good stuff! Home they came, they were planted and the hosepipe dragged round. And it didn't reach!

What idiot decided to put the outside tap at the furthest point from the garden?? So watering can out and plants drowned. Fingers crossed. Betty is happy.

And very angry because the job she didn't want, she didn't get. Ok, but they never told her they didn't want her. Never again will she shop there. All their talk of customer service and they didn't think that she might be a customer and their attitude to her reflects badly on them.

A Diversion into frustration

Apart from looking at her new garden and wishing it was bigger, Betty does little else with her time. The Little Mushroom is at school now and while this frees up more time for shopping and socialising, something is missing.

In an attempt to plug the gap, Betty applied for a job. Bit of a stretch to see how she manage to actually do the job and the school run and avoid the required weekend work. But it had been a long time since she had a job, so Betty thought she would apply and see what happened.

She got an interview. Great! A little bit of preparation and she was relaxed and ready. She knew she probably wouldn't be able to take the job but there was the hope that they would offer her something that might fit into her busy schedule.

That was 13 days ago and Betty hasn't heard anything. So she is sulking. And annoyed and frustrated. Ok, so she wasn't what they were looking for but it is rude not to say so.

The interview seemed to go well. Nothing too tricky. She was a bit unprepared and wouldn't have been too surprised if they had said "Sorry, you're not our type."

But instead they said - the next stage would be an interview with the chief, would that be ok?
Betty thought no but said yes.
Then they took her phone numbers - land and mobile - and said they were interviewing other people and would be in touch.

At least that's what Betty remembers being said. But she certainly left with the impression that she would hear from them again.

Now she has a dilemma. She doesn't really want the job so she can't chase it. And to chase it would appear desperate anyway. So she sits and looks at her boring garden and tries to remember exactly what the nice man said.

List 1 - part a - shrubs I have

Having made her list of lists, Betty starting writing the first one. It was a list of all the shrubs that she already had in the garden.

The garden was only about 3 years old. So the previous owners were responsible for the existing plants. Not a bad collection she thought, if a little boring.

Spiraea 'GoldFlame' - nice shrub but why did they have to plant so many
Philadelphus coronarius 'Aureus' - lovely
Euonymus 'Silver Queen' - ok to fill space and to give evergreen interested. Needs controlling as is it taking over it's space.
Viburnum tinus - excellent shrub but infested with Viburnum beetle, so may have to go.
Mahonia 'Winter Sun' - great structural shrub.
Choisya 'Sundance' - not sure about this. And there are at least 2 of them.
Elaeagnus 'Maculata' - good for evergreen backdrop, but bit boring.
Salix 'Contorta' - interesting but ultimately will get too big.
Rosemary - ok
Pyracantha - being trained as wall shrubs. Can probably live with them
Photinia 'Red Robin' - nice but there's two of them, one has to go.
Hydrangea microphylla 'Rose Pink' - let's see what it does.
Pieris 'Mountain Fire' - wrong, wrong, wrong, needs acid soil.
Cistus 'Jessabel' - mmmm nice shrub but the soil is a bit heavy for it.
Escallonia 'Apple Blossom'


That's a lot of big shrubs for a small garden, thought Betty. And I haven't considered the ones I brought. Needs a good clear out. But could Betty ruthlessly cull the shrubs she didn't need or would she try to save them all?