A gardening long weekend

The weather co-operated, and I had 4 days off, in a row, to spend shopping and gardening.

From a week ago, I had perennials to put in the large raised bed, and annual salvia for the front, to contrast with the mini roses. It was finally cool enough to put them in, and not have them immediately roasted by the hot sun. Then, on Saturday, off to the garden centre for mulch (I like pine mulch, I am not a huge fan of the red cedar, I think it contrasts too much with my variety of plantings). Also a bunch of annuals (which were on sale by now) for the small raised bed. Sunday was a planting/weeding/mulching/irritating day. And Monday, although hot again, was more of the same.

The large raised bed is done now, all planted, all irritaged with the IV drip system (which seems to work, at least the bag is empty a couple of hours after I fill it). And mulched. We lost a lot from this bed last summer, I am hoping with a combination of drought resistant plants, and the mulching and watering, they will thrive.





The smaller raised bed is filled in with annuals. I'll plan more perennials next summer. I put in some tall zinnias, a lovely Dahlia with dark burgundy leaves, some improbably brilliant chenille plants (hot pink, bright yellow and coral), and some ground cover that is also bright fuschia and coral. I watered, and mulched, and they lasted for 2 days and counting. Not a lot to see here, except if you look closely you can see the purple and golden yellow chenille flowers. But it's all green, and that's an improvement.



The front looks a lot more tame, since I took out the huge nepeta. And despite the heat, things are flowering. I think the rainbarrel is a huge success. And today I added 6 more drippers, meaning 6 more plants are being watered. You can see a lot more variety of colours of foliage, as well as the flowers that are starting.



I replaced the nepeta with Obedient Plants. They seem to be behaving well.



The fairy roses are stunning. They are shrub roses, and just grow in a great tumble of pink flowers, in clusters. We have one on each side of the front step.



The front bed looks much better with salvia, and with the sedum growing large, and providing a light green backdrop to the roses. And the mini roses are blooming like mad. They must like drought.




And here is my lovely bergamot, which is finally flowering after years of pretending.