Six on Saturday 13-10-2018

The unseasonably warm weather continues, some overnight lows beating average day time temperature for the time of year. The tail end of a storm is due to hit on Sunday here, bringing heavy rain for the day. I’ll be pleased to see some rain, but would prefer it happened overnight – I’ve got stuff to do! Anyway, time for Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. You choose, could be anything – a flower, foliage, a tool, a project, a success, a failure, a weed, a pest, anything at all. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week…

1 – Garlic. I grew garlic for the first time this year and recently bought some more seed cloves to plant up for next year’s crop. I am enjoying having a supply of bulbs in storage. Last year I ordered too many bulbs for sowing and ended up growing some in bags. Most uncharacteristically, this year I have ordered too few. I sowed (or planted?) those the other day. I was going to buy some more when I was reminded that I could just plant some of my stored garlic. These three good-size bulbs have been pressed into service as seed stock for next years bulbs. I should get 6 or 7 cloves from each one, so these three should become around 20 bulbs next year. If you haven’t grown garlic before, it’s well worth a try – just plonk them in the ground around October, then leave till end of June, July time.

2 – Thalictrum x ‘Black stockings’. I grew these meadow rue from seed this year, just a few. The plants have not done much this year, just settling in. The foliage is lush though. I sometimes think it is aquilegia, then remember. Next year they should put on more growth and I should have slender near-black stems of up to 2m, topped by sprays of lavender purple flowers. For now, I wait, gardening is a long game.

3 – Dahlia ‘Otto’s Thrill’. This is Otto’s second toot of the Six on Saturday trumpet. I am left with a limited array of dahlias this year after the double whammy of winter storage failures and difficult growing conditions. So I’ll celebrate the few I have.

4 – Rudbeckia, reddun. A survivor of two winters, this plant has been moved a couple of times. It sulked a little, but is now flowering quite gamely. It is lower than it should be, but hopefully it will settle in and start behaving itself next year. If it survives.

5 – Viola ‘Heartthrob’. A recent pity bench purchase. I note it has been lightly nibbled by something. It does flower, apparently, but I bought it for the foliage. It is a good ground cover plant, apparently, but I think I will put in one of the planters, let it take care of the lower storey of the resident climbers.

6 – Aster ‘Little Carlow’. I featured this a few weeks ago, just two flowers in the picture. That was nice enough, but doesn’t nearly do this clump justice. Here it is again then, in all it’s floriferous glory. I think I will divide this group next spring.

So, those are my Six, what are yours? If you’d like to join in, please do, just publish your post, tweet your tweet, insta your gram, whatever, then pop a link to it below in the comments. If you also mention my blog in yours, that will be fab. For more details you can read the brief participant guide.

Have a great gardening weekend, I have plenty to do after being away most of last weekend. Don’t forget to check back in during the day as more links get added.

I’ll be back next week with another #SixOnSaturday.