My Garden Jewel Heist


Ever picked up a plant at your village hall fete? Celebrate them with me by choosing my book - click this link 

The time of year for taking cuttings has passed its peak. This year I have, as always, taken cuttings of my existing plants. Those that have proved to be well at home in my conditions are worth having their future there ensured, and the stock increased. The most propagated plant that I have is a Nemesia Wisley Vanilla. 

Of course it's always worth trying to take cuttings of other plants that have not yet been tried in the garden. And the best place to look for these is in the gardens of neighbouring houses. If it thrives for them then it should thrive for you. 

For a couple of years now, I have had my eye on next door's dogwood. I only ever noticed it in the autumn, when it sends out a ruby glow beneath my bedroom window. It is only in recent years that it has grown taller than the fence and I have had the benefit. So this year, as those livid branches dropped their leaves and leaned over the fence onto my patch, I got my secateurs out. I don't  know if the cuttings will take yet, but if they do, in a year or two I will have my own autumn jewel. 


This will sit well with that other gem of late autumn colour, the sedum. I have a garden full of this garnet coloured succulent - and I didn't pay a penny for any of that either. I first found it dumped in a side road in Nottinghamshire.  Someone was obviously heartily sick of it and had dumped the entire garden's worth. It looked attractive so I took a bit. And each year since it has been divided and spread around the back garden for much needed cheer at this time of year. Who ever chucked it out was a philistine, but I won't complain.  

Gardening is so much more fun when it is done for free. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fantastical Foxgloves

Image
Beautiful yet deadly, ornamental but useful. The Foxglove has certainly got a lot going for it.     It has a mysterious and enigmatic aura – perhaps this is because of the associations with witchcraft and fairies, or perhaps it is because it is commonly known to be deadly. All parts of the plant are poisonous and can kill if ingested.   The Latin name for the plant is Digitalis Purpurea – which literally translated means purple fingers. In folklore, it has many other names including Fairy Fingers, Ladies Thimbles, Rabbit Flowers, Throatwort , Dead Mans Bells, Witches Gloves and Goblin Gloves. There are several stories behind the most common name of Foxglove. The most plausible explanation is that it derives from the old name Folks Glove (the folk part being a way of alluding to fairies) while other stories attribute it to the legend that the fairies gave the flowers to foxes to use as gloves to muffle the tracking of their prey.    The association with witches stems from the fact that
Read more

My Life in Lavender

Image
  Lavender has always been an important plant in my life. It’s probably no coincidence that my favourite colours are purple and green. There was a beautiful lavender bush in my grandparents’ garden and when she taught me how to sew, the first project that Nan worked on with me was to make lavender bags from bits of old fabric. I’ve continued to sew and make lavender bags every year – now using my own crop. I have planted bushes all around my garden and some might say I’ve become a little bit obsessed with it. It is a wonderful plant. Not only does it have the power to calm and heal us, it is a source of food for important pollinators. I went out into the front garden one day in early August when the sun was out and I counted twelve bees on a single bush. And when the bees have had their fill, it’s my turn to use those purple flowers for my own purposes. Around mid-August I begin to harvest the flowers and then trim back the foliage to keep it neat for the winter. The flower stalks are
Read more

Friendly, Fragrant, Mint

Image
  If you grow your own new potatoes, then you must grow your own mint to go with them! This is possibly the easiest herb to grow – too easy at times. The first thing any mint grower will say to you is “don’t plant it directly into the ground, because you’ll be plague d by it forever!” Once it is established it will spread as far as it can, and come back strong every year – even if you think you’ve pulled it all out! I ha ve some in a planter next to my back door, and one day last summer I noticed that it was growing out of a gap in the wood. It is an ama zingly tenacious plant. Officially it likes its roots in shade and its leaves in sun, but if you ask me you can grow it anywhere, it just doesn’t care.       I have ignored professional advice and put a bit directly into the ground. It was an awkward corner in double shade, where nothing would grow and it looked barren and boring all year round. I had an inkling that mint and wild strawberries might like to battle it out, so I
Read more