I enjoyed my race last weekend, a 50km jaunt along the Ridgeway path. Although I was carrying a bit of an achilles injury, I seem to have become someone that can knock out a 50k of a morning without fuss. As suspected, I didn’t get an awful lot of gardening done afterwards, my afternoon being mainly sofa-bound. This weekend’s gardening will also be curtailed, we are off to a music festival on Sunday, annual outing for us for 7 or 8 years now. Last year’s was cancelled cos Covid, so we’re looking forward to spending the afternoon and evening sunning ourselves in our deck chairs, all day picnic on the go. Oh and there will be some music too. Anyhow, time for Six on Saturday. What’s that, I hear you say? Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything, a flower, a pest, wildlife, a job to do, a project, anything at all. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week.

1 – Penstemon ‘Plum Jerkum’. One of a dozen different penstemon I bought last year as teeny plugs. Several did not survive my neglect but some did, including plummy j here. I have got around to planting it out, it is sitting in some newly available ground in the border I dug for my new malus tree. Good value, penstemons, if they can be nursed through the winter. Lots of flowers, and of increasing importance to me, the slugs and snails are not particularly interested. I usually leave them unpruned over winter, usually enough to protect the crown from frost, cutting them back only when spring arrives and the worst of the weather is past.

2 – Potentilla fruticosa. An SoS regular, I’ve had this shrub for years. I only pruned it a few weeks ago, having forgotten to do it at the normal time. It looked quite sad with lots of straggly brown growth. I gave it the roughest of haircuts, just with the secateurs, but it seems to have responded well with plenty of pale yellow flowers. I’m fond of the glowing centres. No fragrance to speak of, sadly, but it’s a good do-er and will flower all summer.

3 – Hypericum ‘Magical Universe’. Another shrub, also evergreen, it doesn’t flower as long as the potentilla but does bear glistening red fruit. It roots rather easily from cuttings, I have a couple in the front garden as well now that have grown very nicely.

4 – Geranium, obviously, no idea which, answers on a postcard. This could be a bought plant, or it could be one I’ve grown from plant society seeds. It’s a bit of a sprawler, but the flowers are rather lovely, and certainly not shy and retiring.

5 – Lychnis coranaria. Your basic magenta model, which self seeds prolifically if one is not on the case with the deadheading. I rarely am, so I have a lot of them! They seedlings are rather easy to spot, to be composted or potted on and palmed off on the unsuspecting, or just left to grow. A short lived plant, they need replacing every few years anyway. I wouldn’t be without it, which is a good thing, I’m never likely to get rid of it entirely.

6 – Geranium ‘Pink Delight’. Acquired as a small plant a couple of years ago under the HPS conservation scheme, this one is established and growing nicely now. Living up to its billing, it is both pink and delightful. I do like a hardy geranium. I haven’t met one yet that I didn’t like at least a little bit.

Those are my Six, what are yours? If you’d like to have a go, 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 triffic. For more details you can read the brief participant guide.

We are forecast lovely weather this weekend, possibly even on the too hot side of hot, too hot for much gardening, anyway. If I do nothing else, I must wrestle with bindweed, and I must set up the watering system. If I also mow and edge the lawn, and sort out plants that will need hand watering while we’re away, then I’ll be happy. Oh, and the roses need a feed and a good deadheading. Er, and the virginia creeper needs taming. I could go on, and on, and on. It’s never ending.

I hope you have a restful and productive gardening weekend, don’t forget to pop back later as more links get added during the day.

Stay safe, I’ll be back next weekend for another #SixOnSaturday.