It is relentlessly wet here. I did get some weeding done last weekend, but that was about it. This weekend it is the winter solstice, the tipping point on the way to spring. I already see daffodils poking their noses through, along with some alliums and crocuses. No sign of snowdrops yet. There’s still a couple of months of winter, of course, but I will be tapping my feet impatiently to sow seeds once Christmas is out of the way. While I wait, it is time for Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything – a flower, a beastie, a plan, a job completed, a design, seeds, anything at all. Join in!
Here are my Six for this week.
1 – Overwintering tubers. In here are the ‘Ken Aslet’ tubers from last week (left), plus two colocasia rhizomes (right). They are just in damp sand, should be enough to keep them safe. The colocasia tubers had been left on the potting bench and had been attacked by mould of some kind. I brushed them off, sprayed with some fungicide and interred them in the sand. I’m hoping that will sort it out, but am not confident.
2 – Big pile o’ manure. After an initial flush of compost enthusiasm last year, where I made enough for all my mulching requirements, I have been a lazy git heap-wise this year. I may have overcompensated. On this pallet is over 2000 litres of rotted, organic horse manure. Over the holidays I plan to give a nice thick mulch to all my borders plus the veg beds. This is a luxury way of introducing lots of lovely organic matter to the garden. It was a bit pricy, but not extortionate and I will see the benefit of it in the spring as everything gets turbocharged.
3 – Foxgloves seeds. I mentioned seeds above, they are never far from my mind. I’m looking forward to growing these. D. mertonensis, the strawberry foxglove, is a perennial cross between D. Lutea and D. Grandiflora. It will be happy in any aspect and is short compared to the biennial varieties, getting to perhaps 75cm. The flowers are a pretty pink with a dark interior. The seeds come true, despite being a hybrid. The D. purpurea ‘sugar plum’ are an improved version of ‘pam’s choice’ (for which, incidentally, I also have seeds…). The flowers are a pinker pink, more closely packed and get to about 120cm, 4′ tall. I have got out of synch with my foxglove sowings, so I don’t think I will have many flowers next year, probably I will have to wait until 2021 for that.
4 – Achillea ‘new vintage violet’. No evidence of violet, vintage or otherwise, just now. I bought this plant in a slight panic at the state of this bit of border. It was distinctly underwhelming. It might very well still be next year, we shall see. This yarrow is now putting out new growth at the base, always an encouraging sign.
5 – Primrose (or primula? I can never tell). I only went to buy a Christmas Tree. What? It happens. These were half price, decent plants. I don’t much like primrose, I think the leaves are ugly, but at this price and in these colours, I was happy to take them home. Or, some might say, I just couldn’t help myself. Now I just need to plant them…
6 – Sedum of some sort. I do vaguely recall planting this years ago. It is some kind of creeping sedum, I think. It minds its own business in the shade under the big hypericum shrub in the front garden. It doesn’t do much, to be honest, and every year I start weeding it out before remembering what it is.
Those are my Six, what are yours? If you’d like to join in, just publish your post and pop a link to it in the comments below. If you also mention my blog in yours that would be totes amazeballs. For more details you can read the brief participant guide.
Will you get any gardening done this weekend? I will muck about a bit, but probably not terribly productively. Don’t forget to check back in as more links get added during the day.
I’ll be back next weekend for the last #SixOnSaturday of the decade!
Well done for going to get the Christmas tree..shocking that you were not able to resist buying yourself an extra present so close to the big day!!!!! Best wishes and thanks for this great weekly get together. A Christmas Present that lasts all year.
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Belated Merry Christmas Jon to you and your family.
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You too Paul, have a relaxing boxing day
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Forgot to leave my link on Saturday. Mind on other things! Here it is. A quieter day for me to day so I hope to read some posts. https://wp.me/p97pee-ug
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I see you have a heap too, Jon! Mine are here: https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2019/12/21/six-on-saturday-heaps-to-do/
Thanks for hosting
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Well, as usual The Propagator has been industrious! I have instead been wandering about the parks of Lewisham, which is considerably less hard work than gardening! I hope you enjoy the sights https://enthusiasticgardener.com/2019/12/21/six-parks-in-lewisham/
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It’s been horrendously wet here too this week – I’m squelching around in the garden! Good luck with spreading all that muck..
Here are my six:
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That is one impressive pile! The only piles I have are leaves I’m still raking and spreading. I’ll be celebrating the new year when seeds for 2020 finally show up in the stores. In the meantime, I have to be content with birdwatching: https://stoneyknob.wordpress.com/2019/12/21/sos-hangin-out/ Merry Christmas!
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I think I agree with you on the primrose leaves. They remind me of crinoline petticoats somehow, and there never seems to be enough flowers to balance the mass of leaves. Still, at half price, why on earth not? Here’s my Six for this week https://greengirlgardener.com/2019/12/21/six-on-saturday-21st-december/ Merry Christmas and I’ll say Happy New Year too in case I don’t get time to check in next Saturday.
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I love foxgloves! Have you tried ‘John Innes Tetra’? A gorgeous little beauty that comes true from seed.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
My Six are at https://thepleasuregardener.blog/
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No six from me this week. The weather has just been too wet to get out in the garden. But I wanted to check in and wish you all a Merry Christmas.
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Hello all. Not too wet up here but just dark, dark, dark. Yet we have finally made it to the shortest day and I am convinced that it is all going to get brighter from here on! That is an impressive pallet of manure. I suppose the benefit of having it packaged like that is you can move it around and spread it over time rather than having a vast tractor load pile like the one that I ‘won’ last year. It took me weeks to get rid of!
Many thanks to you for all your time and effort in hosting this meme – it is very much appreciated by all of us. I would like to wish you and everyone who visits this site a very Merry Christmas and look forward to a happy gardening new year!
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Hi Keith, Merry Christmas to you too!
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The ground was crunchy this morning when I went out to see what was happening in the garden. https://doesthisfontmakemelookfat.com/2019/12/21/six-on-saturday-baby-its-cold-outside-december-21-2019/
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I’ll read and comment on the sixes later but meanwhile, here is mine
https://gardenersfridayforum.blogspot.com/2019/12/six-on-sasturday.html
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I was not very whelmed by Achillea when I had them, though they can get out of hand. I have just cleared my bagged manure from last year. I am looking forward to seeing your Foxgloves, that is new to me. Here is my post – Merry Christmas. http://theshrubqueen.com/2019/12/21/six-on-saturday-gifts-from-the-garden/
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I look forward to seeing those foxgloves too. I appear to have several in my raised beds this year, all wild ones of course, but that’s OK. I’m beginning to understand the benefits of growing native plants here. The only gardening I have managed this week was cutting back my pellies indoors! I do have the odd dash outside to see what damage has been caused by the latest storm! Here’s my last six (well one really) https://wp.me/p79zFr-2xR and roll on spring when I might regain my enthusiasm for gardening!
Season’s greetings Prop. Have a good one 🎅🎄🥳
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I was going to go outside, but it’s raining again now. Sigh.
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Bucketing it down again here and another leak discovered…
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Good morning, it’s been a while since my first contribution earlier in the year, but I thought I’d join in again and swell the ranks at this time of year. It’s always good to have plenty to read about gardens over Christmas …
Were your primroses taken from a covered / indoor section of the garden centre ? We’ve dozens of them in the borders here, but none yet with open flowers.
https://eaglesfeartoperch.blogspot.com/2019/12/in-bleak-midwinter-six-on-saturday.html
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No they were outside in the clearance section!
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I had never seen a pallet of compressed manure until now …. I’m rather used to seeing it in a pile of poop at the feet of horses next door… Nevertheless with all that, you will have wonderful plants next year!
Here is my link: https://fredgardenerblog.wordpress.com/2019/12/21/six-on-saturday-21-12-19/
PS: Will think of you because tonight for me it is .. Star wars!
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Ah brilliant! We are all going in to London on Monday to see it on the biggest screen in the UK! May the force be with you.
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😀 it will be 3D for us. And I won’t spoil…
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Good luck with the 3D! (I don’t like it, a gimmick I think.)
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I always think primrose leaves are a more well behaved version of the foxglove leaf, so much smalerl of course. I look forward to seeing those foxgloves. I have forgotten to sow my lutea seeds 😦 so like you will probably be missing out on a year. Happy Christmas to everyone. I will be back again in the New Year – when your enthusiasm for all things seedy will no doubt inspire me again.
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You might get theblutea tonflower first year as I think they are perennial, pretty sure mine did this year. Quite small.
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Yes, I was trying to remember if the perennial ones flowered in the first year.
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PS. For anonymous, read grannysgarden, please!
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I planted two perennial Foxgloves last year and they were gorgeous but interested to see how they make it through the Winter.
I’ve been hosting Festive Table Centrepiece Workshops this month and foraging the garden for evergreens to work into the displays. Evergreen plants and branches are used in lots of decorations at this time of year in our homes so my six this week focuses on evergreens in the garden which you can chop to decorate your door, mantle or table!
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They should be fine I’d say.
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I have a new tablet which WordPress doesn’t like! I don’t think I have sent my link already – well I have but it’s disappeared. Happy Christmas.
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I just wish Achillea would stand up straighter. I grew ‘Rose Queen’ (I think) and loved the flower heads but it was floppy. Looking forward to seeing the Foxgloves. Happy Christmas.
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Hmm ok, I will have to think about support, from the sound of it.
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Floppy achillea is the bane of my life, yet still I persist. I have summer wine and a white sitting in pots of a bit of move around. Hoping that sunnier position might encourage them to be more upstanding!
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Relentlessly wet here too and more on the way today. No gardening done for ages, except cutting down the spent nerines. I also have some rotted manure waiting to be spread. but I have to finish clearing the pesky ancient roses out first. The bed is three quarters empty and dug over, but its rained too much to go anywhere near soil. No pictures from me til things clear up a bit. Happy Christmas to you!
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You too June, I hear it will dry out by christmas eve.
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Hopefully the rain’ll stop so you can make manure inroads. Your plants are gonna love you, to be sure. Your foxglove rotation plans are a good reminder to get my own rotation started. Love the primula/primrose plants you bought. Funny how one plant that lots of other folk love, can strike us as ugly. If we didn’t have differing taste in plants, we wouldn’t have so much diversity. Hope your achillea struts its stuff next year. https://lorahughes.blogspot.com/2019/12/twas-weekend-before-christmas.html
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Sunny atm…
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Your bags of manure remind me of a Jeff Goldblum line in Jurassic Park! I’ve never had much luck with Achillea, they always end up straggly and patchy which is a pity as I really like them. Right, I’m off to google strawberry foxglove… https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2019/12/21/six-on-saturday-21-december-2019/
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I hope they are not evidence of cuboid dinosaurs.
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My foxgloves are tiny at the moment. Went for some of the mountain varieties where the flowers aim up. See how they go.
This week looking at my front garden now the summer hostas have shrivelled away. https://30daysofwildparenting.wordpress.com/2019/12/21/six-on-saturday-21-12-19-the-front-garden-in-winter/
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I have some perennial foxgloves which I hope will flower again next year.
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I should try the perennial types rather than going through the hassle of planning for biennial succession. Either end up trampling self seeders or digging up.
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The perennial ones are all small tho, cant beat the biennial for size.
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Many of my self seeders are currently short so won’t make much difference so long as I add a few biennial ones amongst.
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Morning Prop! I can feel the frustration in this post, you are itching to get going. At least you have got your training to keep you out of too much trouble. The compost looks lush, your garden will be very happy. I bought Achillea ‘Violet Queen’ once and it was definitely cerise pink, hope yours turns out to be a true violet as it sounds lovely. Here are mine, happy solstice to you x https://offtheedgegardening.com/2019/12/21/a-solstice-six-on-saturday/
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I think it will be cerese too. Judging by the label. More anticipation than frustration, I think. By mid january I’ll be frustrated…
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You paid money for poo?!?! You know that horses sort of give it away for free . . . right? I mean, they have no use for it.
Are calocasia tubers dug so that they do not rot, or so that they do not freeze? I have never seen one before. Ours went into the ground as a potted specimen, and never came out again. I don’t know what it does overwinter because it is underground where I can not see it. I know it must be up to something.
Anyway, there is a link to my six above.
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They rot in the wet over winter, need lifting here. I have collected horse manure in the last, but couldn’t be bothered this time!
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I was told that they would rot on a creek bank that stays damp through winter, but everything is damp through winter. I wanted to plant them on the creek bank so they would not dry out during the summer. Instead, I planted them in a more refined garden, but now they need watering. They may not rot here because they don’t have much time to do so. They only recently defoliated, and will begin regenerating new foliage pretty soon. Some foliage gets frosted, but they just make more. I suppose I will never see a tuber unless I dig them up to divide them later, or they just work their way to the surface.
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I hope that when the Digitalis I grew this year flower next that I shan’t be feeling shortchanged because your improved version is putting them to shame. I sowed them in timely fashion then had potted plants under my feet for months before there was space to plant them. Is it OK to be envious of a pile of poo? https://wp.me/p6bCCa-26F
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It’s more than ok. It’s expected.
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Look forward to seeing the foxgloves when it is your season for them. Here are my six. Merry Christmas!
https://basia329.wordpress.com/2019/12/21/six-on-saturday-21-12-19/
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Merry Christmas to you too!
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