I've always been a little afraid of dahlias.

The whole lifting and drying thing seemed fraught with danger of loss. I can't even remember what colour tulips I have planted most of the time, let alone where dahlia tubers might have got to.
My other problem has always been when the combination of big, blousy and dare I say it, yes I do, vulgar dahlia flowers are all together in a messy drift. I find it too much. no I hate it.
So when my mother gave me a pretty pink and delicate pom pom dahlia in a pot last summer my heart sort of sank as I thought it would end up dead in a few months.

So it was with surprise that I really started to love this little plant, it has a delicate colour and the small blooms were just perfect. It was even more of a surprise when I found how very very easy lifting the tubers and drying them can be.
So recently, while browsing through the Sarah Raven seed catalogue I was rather captivated by the dahlia section. Rather pretty combinations.

Maybe it is those gardeners that like to specialise in just one species that has turned me from dahlias, too much of a good thing can become massively overdone for me and I find it a little bit like the woman that has 30 cats (apologies to all those readers with 30 cats :-)). What seems to make any flower look good is the combination with other species that compliment it's form or colour and with that in mind I have been wondering for the first time if I should maybe try again with this flower that I have avoided.

maybe....

Inspiration for the week

After a week of talking about winter, delphiniums are today's inspiration.

Is it any wonder?

I have not had huge amounts of luck with delphiniums yet.

I planted some last year and as they come up the following season I am hoping for a display this year, if not quite as wonderful as this one then at least half decent. Last year I had a few from the year before but they were a bit ragged and soon fell over. I planted them a bit too near the sweet peas and these were a little attention seeking and got their tendrils onto the delphiniums and pulled them to the ground. Won't make that mistake again.

The wonderful blues and purples here is something everyone must want to experience in their garden, surely?

My own great British garden revival would be Delphiniums.

Finding the Colour

After my last post, bemoaning the garden in winter I thought that I would try and, well if not celebrate it, then at least look for the good stuff. Okay, so as I stood there wondering what to photograph there wasn't very much to show, but there was a bit of 'promise' here and there.

When the two small conifers I had in the front door pots finally succumbed and died I decided to do some winter pots. The holly in the left pot is female and the one in the right is male, so at least the female will always have red berries. If they ever get too big (or me too bored) I will replant them in the garden itself in the future. Lower down in the pot are a selection of pink tulips for Spring and something else (and although I wrack my brains, I can't for the life of me remember the other bulbs I put in, but I know it was something.)

On the left here is a camellia that my father gave me for Christmas, it is called a Preston Rose which seemed quite apt (as Preston is near here). A gorgeous deep pinky purple flower and there are loads of buds on it. On the right is my rhododendron - very small still, but gave me quite a good pink display last year. Rhododendrons aren't everyones favourite, but since I was a small boy and happened on an enormous bank of them in bloom I have never forgotten how captivated I was, so I had to have one, even if it is a small dwarf one.

These snowdrops don't look much right now, but they will do soon, always a pleasure to see them arrive.

Now these really don't look like anything much, but they will, oh yes, they will. The pots on the left all are packed full of cream tulips and are going to look wonderful en masse like that. The strange looking thing on the right is my tin bath, also packed full of tulips (pink? red? no idea, can't remember. It is like I forget immediately once I put them in, but will be a lovely lovely surprise when the time comes). I added some mulch and wrapped fleece around it because the tulips were already poking their heads through and we are still likely to get some bad frost/snow/end of the World weather yet so I was a bit concerned by their exuberance.

So nice things do exist out there, we just have to find it and celebrate it.

The Winter Gardens.

No, not Blackpool Winter Gardens, that's something completely different.
Whenever you see a section on gardens in winter in a book or a magazine the garden usually looks pretty stunning. So why is it that my own winter garden is a mixture of mud and gloom? If I go anywhere in my garden at the moment it is accompanied by the squelch squelch squelch sound of my mud encrusted wellies churning up my poor Winter strained lawn. Beds look forlorn and sad. When the snow comes it hides the bleakness and transforms it into something totally different of course, a Winter wonderland that never ceases to appeal to me (until I find I can't get my car out and it turns to slush of course, then the squelch will be accompanied by cursing). Perhaps it is never possible to have a garden that looks stunning in both Winter and Summer.
But there are good things to look out for. Already my snowdrops are poking their eager heads through the soil and one of my rambling roses seems to never lose its leaves. Maybe I will put in some hellebores to help next year, just maybe.
Most jobs in the garden at this time of year seem rather joyless too, digging, clearing away old crops and plants, in my case, picking cat poo out of borders, oh the joy. But then there is the excitement of browsing 2014 catalogues, picking seeds, planning where they will go, all done from the comfort of a warm sofa.
We look at the bare bones of a garden, Winter is the only time we can really see it. It is a time to take stock of the years successes (sweet peas, iris, shasta daisies) and faliures (tomatoes - in fact all veg let's blame the weather, delphiniums, lobelia, let's blame some terrible John Innes) and to plan how to rectify errors next time.
By January I am already looking forward to the promise of Spring but I would love to find a way to actually enjoy my Winter garden. The grass sure doesn't help but as my amount of grass gets smaller and smaller each year (as my borders get bigger and bigger) it won't always be such an eyesore. What I would really like, of course, is a man to come and lay paths for me, I have often thought of doing this myself and if my garden was a beautifully flat space I might attempt it, but I have an undulating, uneven garden, not conducive to easy path laying, not that I am complaining because the different levels are actually one of the things I do like about my garden. Makes it interesting.
So it seems that I need to just get some perennials that make for good Winter interest in.

So with all that in mind I leave you with a poem just to bring a bit of culture to this blog for once :-)

The Garden in Winter

By Lucy Maud Montgomery

Frosty-white and cold it lies 

Underneath the fretful skies; 

Snowflakes flutter where the red 

Banners of the poppies spread, 

And the drifts are wide and deep 

Where the lilies fell asleep. 

But the sunsets o'er it throw 

Flame-like splendor, lucent glow, 

And the moonshine makes it gleam 

Like a wonderland of dream, 

And the sharp winds all the day 

Pipe and whistle shrilly gay. 

Safe beneath the snowdrifts lie 

Rainbow buds of by-and-by; 

In the long, sweet days of spring 

Music of bluebells shall ring, 

And its faintly golden cup 

Many a primrose will hold up. 

Though the winds are keen and chill 

Roses' hearts are beating still, 

And the garden tranquilly 

Dreams of happy hours to be­

In the summer days of blue 

All its dreamings will come true. 

Lions Beware.

I was determined to get into the garden today, always planned to come rain or shine. Well it was rain, surprise, surprise but I made the job more appealing by taking out with me some essentials, in the way of

 a flask full of hot chocolate (laced with Bailey's Irish Cream - oh yeah, now we're talking!) Just what you need on a cold, wet, wintry, dull, dismal, dank, dire day.



First job was dealing with the lion sized kitty litter tray that is my vegetable raised bed. I cleared this out of all it's remnants last week and ever since then it is like a massive beacon going off to all the cats in the area - 'woohoo, someone has opened a massive cat toilet for us!'

Yes I'm talking about the likes of you!!:

Looking like butter woulnd't melt - My parent's evil cat, Diego

Last year I had the same problem and stood small rods of wood and stones in the bed to deter them, a bit unslightly but probably very uncomfortable on a cat's behind. This year I had a different (hopefully better) idea.

The added advantage being that it might kill off a few weeds in the process. Just look at that poor box ball above the bed - why is it losing it's leaves????? arghh

Next it was into the nice tidy greenhouse (it won't look as tidy as this again until next winter I think)

 to deal with some very late in the season jobs. Jobs I should have done a good while ago (slap my wrists).
I lifted some dahlias (too late, I know, I forgot them, but you never know they may survive) and hung them to dry for a few days. When they have dried a bit I will get all that wet soil off and bring them into the garage to continue drying off.

 Then repotted some digitalis that I had growing from seed all last year and have survived surprisingly well despite complete and utter neglect, yes, can you believe it, me, the ultimate in an organised gardener neglecting something! Well anything that battles against all odds and still survives deserves a little bit of attention, even if it comes rather late in the day.

Finally I came back indoors (mainly because my hot chocolate was finished) and stared lovingly at some of the seeds that arrived yesterday.

And very happy I was too.

Carrot

I dealt with the raised bed yesterday, clearing it out and preparing it for this new season. In it I found my entire carrot crop for 2013:

Impressive eh?

Not what you may call a roaring success but, you know what, the one mouthful it gave me was delicious and I will try harder next year. It may be tiny but it is so beautifully formed that it makes me want to try again this year.
In a nutshell, I planted my carrots as an afterthought too late in the season and they got rather swamped by the purple sprouting broccoli who stole all of their light, so I gave them up for dead. But here was one fighter.

Top 5 garden mistakes

As I am using the winter to prepare for the next growing season I have been reflecting on the errors I made over the last couple of years and want to avoid this year. These are what I think are my top five mistakes (only four of which I made). In other news I have put my name on a waiting list for an allotment. It will be a very long wait, no doubt.

1. Over exuberance (Planting too early) - I am almost doing this again and it comes from a keenness to get started. Last year I started planing my seeds so early that they were chomping at the bit to get outside and in danger of becoming leggy or dying because of the cold Spring we had here. Of course this is because looking out on the grey wintry garden we are all looking forward to Spring coming and sowing seeds makes us believe it is that one step nearer. If you live in a colder part of the country (like I do) I have decided it is worth waiting for the second month option mentioned on the back of the seed packet (rather than the first day of the first month :-)).
2. Growing too much - Beginning a garden is a bit like going to an all you can eat buffet (when you are greedy like me), you want to grow everything, regardless of how much room you have. Last year I wanted to grow some lobelia and it came in a packet of 1500 seeds and, yes, I planted the lot! I have since learned (hopefully) that you don't actually have to plant all the seeds in a packet in one go. Good quality seeds have a really good germination rate so it is worth planting what you need with just a few spare. Also be realistic about what you can fit in your garden. I grew so many varieties last year that lots of plants ended up in the compost which is a shame and I was overwhelmed with volume and didn't manage to look after a lot of them properly.
3. Only grow what you want to eat - Starting a veg garden it is easy to get carried away with the idea of growing a whole section of something unusual but ask yourself if you will eat it all. It sounds obvious but often we end up growing things because we can rather than because we like it. Choose your veg based on whether you eat it regulary, if you really love it and if it is expensive to buy in the shops. Then cut it down to how many you have space for and time to look after. If space is no object then by all means try something new and interesting but most of us don't have this luxury.
4. Improve your soil - I have spoken to people near where I live who have said 'oh the soil is terrible around here, nothing will grow'. Well I think I have proved them wrong, but I have spent a lot of time and (yes) money on the soil to improve it's condition. You can't just chuck seeds in some dirt and expect them to grow well. They may grow but the majority will be poor specimens. The comparison would be you living on a diet of only chocolate and crisps. You wouldn't die (well you would in time) but you would hardly be healthy. Plants need good nutrition themselves to perform to their best. Once I have dug out a new bed I add lots of garden compost to it and well rotted manure. And I don't just do it once. Every year I have added new compost and/or manure to the existing beds too. I have used mulch to lay on the surface too. This year I have my first load of home made garden compost too which will all go back in the ground. The results have been terrific.
5. Poor spacing - This is something I am still learning with seedlings. So often when a seedling is being transferred to the garden we look at how tiny it is and how vast the space it is being placed is and thing it can go too close to the next one, without thinking about how big it becomes. I love beds that are absolutely full to busting, but not at the expense of the plant. The spacing guide on the back of the seed packet is there to help, not as a sort of party-pooper. I am very guilty of this and I promise to be better this year, honest.

Well I hope these are useful to any would be or novice gardeners. I still have loads and loads to learn, after all, I have only been at this 2 years, many people with a life time of experience will still say they are learning. That is the joy of gardening.