Last weekend I mainly battled bindweed and got the front garden under a semblance of control. This weekend (after a short 25 mile jog) I shall be battling bindweed (it’s a forever war) and watering pots and containers as it has been such a dry spring so far. I might also topple off the seed-sowing wagon and sow some cosmos. To distract you from my weakness of will, it’s time for Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything, you decide!

Here are my Six for this week.

1 – More roses. Last week I was struck by a brainwave. I was looking at the three big wooden planters on my patio, thinking what can I put in there after the bulbs are done. I know, a rose! There’s not enough height on the patio side for a climber, but I figure I can train a shrub rose as a short climber and cover the 3′ of trellis with fragrant blooms. I need to wait for the bulb foliage to die back, so for now I’ve plonked them in as they came, tied up, in a bucket of garden compost.

They are all David Austin roses: ‘Dame Judy Dench’, ‘Harlow Carr’ and ‘Gabriel Oak’. If I’m feeling adventurous I might stuff a patio clematis in with each one for good measure.

2 – Tulip ‘Hermitage’. A fave from the last couple of years, I was unable to resist coming back for more. Allegedly they are quite perennial. I meant to plant last year’s in the ground after they flowered, never got around to it, and I expect the same will happen again.

3 – Daffodil ‘Winston Churchill’. A multi-stemmed double, these are quite frou frou, not what you might expect from something named after a wartime PM. They are fragrant too, although I forgot to sniff test them.

4 – Tulip ‘Pretty Princess’. My daughter had an annoying audio book of the same name, which had an even more annoyingly catchy theme tune which I can still sing along to. It hasn’t put me off buying these tulips, and not for the first time either.

5 – Narcissi ‘Pheasant’s Eye’. A nice, neat late daff.

6 – Begonia [Bergenia! It’s a bergenia….], name lost to recorded history. This begonia is still gamely trying to grow despite being trampled on every year during the pruning and training of the rose which grows behind it. I don’t think it has ever flowered, so this is a turn up for the books.

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 splendid. For more details you can read the brief participant’s guide.

Enjoy your garden!

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