The Green Guru and The Potted Garden

I don’t know if anyone has found my other blog, The Green Guru. It’s more about my business projects and hints and tips, and less about me and my own garden exploits.

A young family friend is embarking on her first garden, which is steep (it’s in Bristol) and largely decked, so she has asked me for recommendations for creating a garden in containers. Well, it’s a huge topic, dependent on so many factors, most importantly personal taste, and not easy to cover in one text. So I’m using this blog to try to give her some ideas to get started, and to encourage them to create a garden that they all can enjoy.

If this would interest you, I’d love you to have a look! The link is on my page, The Green Guru, above.

I hope you like it!

What a Perfumed Paradise !

Yes

It’s been a while since I blogged, and it’s well overdue for a catch up.

No major changes have happened recently in the garden. It’s now becoming well established, with maintenance and tweaking the order of the day. Humdrum stuff really!

But at the height of summer, with everything blooming and smelling divine, I just had to share!

I love hydrangea “Annabelle ” at this time of year, just as the flower heads change from lime green to pure white.

And, as always, when June moves into July, we have the battle for perfume champion.

It’s always the roses…

…. versus the philadelphus.

Mind you, there are other contenders, too.

Jasmine….

….and our “borrowed” honeysuckle!

I’m afraid the jury’s still out!

Chloris http://thebloominggarden.wordpress.com/ has been asking which new scented plants, I’ve purchased in the meantime. Not so many, I’m afraid! I’m having to be more disciplined as space is becoming limited. I’ve bought Cistus purpurea to add to the Cottage border, to replace a failing rose, (which has now sprung back into life in a pot – typical!) and a Calycanthus “Venus” for the same reason! (But that’s for another time!)

Of course, there’s also the impulse buy from Malvern show, Rhaphiolepsis umbellata, which is still languishing in its pot, while I ponder where to put it. Must get this one right first time – it won’t tolerate being moved.

And my most recent purchase is – surprise, surprise – not scented! It was bought at the local carnival this weekend and was not an impulse buy. It was one that was premeditated for adding to my collection of blue glazed foliage pots, a dark leaved Phormium, to set off the other surrounding dark planting. (Sadly, with no label!)

I’ve also experimented with seasonal pots, using night scented phlox (easier than Zaluzianskya ovata!) as the main ingredient, which I’ve grown from seed. This is the first time in many years I’ve dabbled in this aspect of the garden. I’ve planted up two large pots and used them alongside complementary summer bedding.

The first is a large, metallic planter where I’ve picked up on the white flowers of the phlox backed with purple, and paired it with a scented Petunia (of course!), one whose perfume takes me back to summer holidays.

The other is in a brown and white glazed pot, where I chose a white begonia with the darkest, chocolate brown leaves I could find, to plant with the phlox, to match the planter.

The rest of the phlox plants I grew have been planted in a couple of containers on their own. As yet, the phlox is yet to flower, though it’s not far off. You can just see them starting to open in the brown pot.

Elsewhere in the garden, the Grass garden was really in need of an overhaul, due to some plants, including, I’m afraid to say, weeds, taking over. It’s now settling in and performing well.

So that’s a round up of our main developments!

And it’s good to be getting back into the swing again! So will see you again soon!

I Can Sing A Rainbow

 

I think now, at this time of year, is a good time to show you some of my grass collection, and some of the ways I use them in the garden. These photos are not current – they were taken earlier in the year, when I was tending to my pots, and this idea came to me then.

Scent is not my only love in the garden. I love the graceful movement that grasses give to a garden, with their wonderful light and airy texture, and their tactile qualities. So I have lots, and use them in many different ways.

I came up with the idea for my Rainbow pots, while admiring all the colour variations, you can get with grasses. Knowing there were many brightly coloured glazed pots available on the market, I thought, “Why not have a collection of cojloured grasses with complementary pots? They should look good lining the path against the wall, in the hot coloured Grass garden.” So here they are all in a row!

They don’t all actually sit in a row on our bench! They’re arranged in two groups either side.

This group are the hotter coloured pots….

GREEN – Miscanthus sinensis “Gold Bar”
YELLOW – Carex oshimensis “Evergold”
TERRACOTTA – Anemanthele lessoniana
RED – Imperata cylindrica rubra
BROWN – Uncinia rubra

….and the cooler pots.

PALE BLUE – Carex comans “Frosted Curls”
MID BLUE – Panicum virgatum “Heavy Metal”
DARK BLUE – Festuca glauca
BLACK – Ophiopogon planiscapus “Nigrescens” – which isn’t, in actual fact a grass, although it is frequently referred to as the black grass. It is a member of the lily family, also known as Lilyturf. But it has the same effect.

And so a collection of colourful grasses!

Having shown you Anemanthele in one of my pots, see what a difference some shade makes!

The Anemanthele on the left is so much more lush and green, growing in a pot in another, shadier part of the garden.

Another experiment I tried, which I think has worked extremely well for me, is using Hakonechloa macra to line a gravel path.

Here, it lines the gravel path adjacent to the garden wall, interspersed with boulders. Although it is a shade lover, it’s doing really well in this sunny position. I love the effect it creates here, en masse!

And to round up on a fun note –
– what better way to plant up an old, chimney pot?….

….or to skirt the base of an old, rusty water pump?….

….than our old faithful, Carex buchananii!