Six on Saturday 01-12-2018

Just a few weeks till the days start to get longer again! In the meantime it is dingy, damp and dark. Still plenty of gardening going on here though, no rest for the wicked. Time for Six on Saturday! Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything – a flower, a weed, foliage, a success, a failure, anything at all. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week.

1 – Raspberry canes – I like a raspberry. I have been without them for two years. I dug up some old canes and planted new ones in a sunnier spot. I put the mockers on those by mulching them liberally with spent mushroom compost. They no likey. I tried to take evasive action last year by digging out the soil and replacing with compost. No dice. So I start again with new canes. I intend to build a raised bed for them and give them some nice new compost to grow in. This better result in abundance or I shall be berry disappointed.

2 – Bay tree. I need to take steps here too. There were three plants, all cuttings provided by grannysgarden of this here parish. I had in mind a sort of spiral arrangement and a standard up top, lollypop style. There are now two, stems arranged in what could loosely be described as spiralish. All to the good but as you can see in the picture the pesky plants are throwing up loads of new growth from the bottom. I need to prune it all off. On the plus side, I can trim the leaves off and dry them for use in the kitchen. The lollypop on the top is a more of a dropped, partly melted ice cream. Perhaps I’ll save that for a future mid-winter Six.

3 – Mooooorrre Plaaaants! I have been waiting for these to turn up for a while. I ordered bulbs this year from Parker’s Wholesale, they sent me a lush catalogue. They also supply young hardy perennials at very reasonable prices, so long as you want at least 5 or 10 of each. I dived straight in and over-ordered in spectacular fashion. Not pictured here is another box of bareroot plants. I will be a busy boy on Sunday, they all need potting up. What’s that you say? Where on earth will you put them? That’s right, in the earth. Somewhere.

4 – Cyclamen coum. Flowers came and went, frankly rather anonymous. I prefer the leaves.

5 – Leaning tower of Pittosporum. This pittosporum is a big shrub now, but leans out at an angle of about 45 degrees. I’m not sure why, a bit top heavy perhaps. I see an opportunity, however. A lot of nice vertical growth is emerging from low down on the leaning trunk. I am tempted to remove the bulk of the shrub, leaving this new growth to form a more vertical replacement. You can see the angle of the trunk in the bottom left of the photo. You can also see a very defunct football – a rare sign of other stakeholders in this garden. How very dare they.

6 – Parthenocissus henryana. I bought this Virginia creeper expecting it to cover an unsightly patch of uneven render on the front wall of the house. Of course the plant has other ideas, it is busy covering the wall, everywhere except for the uneven patch. Typical. At some point I will shin up a ladder to adjust its attitude. It is just on the turn colour wise.

Those are my Six, what are yours? If you’d like to take part, just publish your post and pop a link to it below in the comments. If you also mention my blog in yours that would be lovely. For more details and other ways to take part, please see the brief participant guide.

Have a fabulous gardening weekend, I shall be away with the good lady non-gardener her indoors. I will try hard not to begrudge the time away from the garden. Don’t forget to check back in during the day as more links are added.

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