Six on Saturday 13-07-2019

Whilst not as debilitating as last summer, rain has been sparse, so watering is a daily necessity. I still haven’t got around to revamping the irrigation system, a job put off now until after the summer. This weekend I am restricted to one day of gardening as we are off to a festival all day on Sunday, an annual event now for a number of years. It’s often the case that there is cricket of some sort the same day, this year is no exception. I hope they have improved their mobile phone reception. Anyhow time for Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything. A flower, an interesting or important plant, a beastie, a job completed, a plan, anything at all. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week.

1 – Helenium ‘short and sassy’. Honestly, who thinks up the names for these plants? Still, they are flowering their socks off. I bought a couple of plants at the end of season sale then divided them, resulting in six or seven plants. As the name implies, they are short, no more than knee height, and, er, sassy. I am pleased that they are not a plain yellow, plenty of other colours in there too.

2 – Rose ‘Claire Austin’. I bought this as a bare root last year. It is planted in one of the containers down the side alley. A David Austin rose, I gather this is named after his daughter. The fragrance is good, but you do need to get close to appreciate it. The flowers are prone to balling when wet but there are lot of them, considering the plant is still getting established. I hope I will be getting even more out of Claire in the coming years.

3 – Lupin, pinkypurple. I grew a bunch of lupins from seed this year (thanks Fred), not really expecting flowers until next year. My low expectations have been exceeded! I like these two tone flowers, I should collect some seeds.

4 – Tagetes x ‘cinnabar’. These are from seeds collected last year which were from plants grown from seed acquired in the HPS seed scheme. As I recall these have come mostly true, although I think there are more flowers with the orange tone on the left this year. I think the pukka cinnabar is closer to the one on the right. They are a jolly addition to the border, and the seeds are fun to collect too. I shall be growing again next year.

5 – Calendula ‘nova’. I always seem to grow very leggy calendula plants, they are untidy on planting out, but do eventually get more robust. These are in a pot by the front door, where they are rather gaily welcoming visitors, oblivious to the clash of colours with the nearby pelargoniums.

6 – New garden gate. For years and years our old garden gate has not shut properly and squeaked like a squeaky thing despite being oiled. In anything over a mild breeze it would swing about, squeaking and banging, no doubt annoying the neighbours. I recently got around to replacing the gate. It opens and closes, both minimum requirements for a gate I’d say. It certainly looks a lot neater than the previous incumbent, and is, I trust, less annoying. For any smart alecs out there, yes, I know, it should be hung the other way around, the diagonals are intended to spread the load on the hinges. Never mind…

Those are my Six for this week, what are yours? Share! If you’d like to join in, just publish your post and pop a link to it here in the comments. If you also mention my blog in yours that would be fab. If you would like more details you can read the participant guide here.

Have a super gardening weekend, don’t forget to check in during the day as more links get added.

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