What have you done in the garden today? Part 2

[ThreeRingCircus]

A continuation of the last thread.

I'm on holiday in St Andrews at the moment. Enjoying the University displays too.

But Newby Hall is so worth it. The Comptons who made it and own it are actually proper gardeners/plantmen - very grand but also horticulturally brilliant. The one who made the garden, which is spectacular, was an instigator and chair of NCCPG (now Plant Heritage) for years and was instrumental in the conservation of many garden plants which would have sunk without trace. His son Robin Compton is a plant hunter (and Professor of botany at Reading for years I think?). This Compton was an expert in South American salvias and discovered and collected many from the wild. This kick started the craze for them and led to hybridising resulting in the ubiquitous 'Hotlips', 'Amistead', 'Royal Bumble' and on and on and on.
Newby has influenced me more than any other garden - hence my twin herbaceous borders 80 yards long and 18 feet deep and that's each border. A complete rip-off from Newby. Also a dedicated Autumn Garden to showcase those salvias and tender plants.
Only Hidcote rates more highly in my view - I think it's amazing.
The house is wonderful but the garden alone is a day of oohing and aahing. I think it's cheaper if you just go to the garden without the house - much as I love Adam and Grand Tour sculpture galleries I just do the garden.

It's a fiver to get into mine. Obviously I should put my prices up🤔

I adore Hidcote...but then anything Arts & Crafts Movement my vote (I so miss our last house with its amazing 70' wisteria growing across the Arts & Crafts veranda 😪) - just wish it wasn't so far away.

It's been wet and windy here (and not terribly warm either) for the past few days so apart from the odd spot of weeding between downpours, I've not ventured outside much.

This morning dawned dry and a little sunnier so I took a wander round the garden to inspect stuff. The roses are pretty much over so those four intersecting beds look a bit rubbish, although in the newly made over 'front' garden the 'ladies' (of the Lake and Shalott) in pots are doing well. These never went in the ground because we knew we planned to sell the house in the next few months and as they were gifts from family we want to take them with us.

Elsewhere we have lost one clump of Vernonia Gigantea and the Ligularias have been munched. However, despite the mystery sheep's best efforts the bed of Persicaria taurus is looking ok and there are a few flowers opening on the Kirengeshomas after all, plus the hosta border is still unscathed, so it's not as bad as I feared (see attached pics).

I'm planning an auricula theatre for the walled courtyard which may not happen if we decide to market sooner rather than later (depends on progress elsewhere ie, inside), but it's nice to dream! If we don't do it here it will be a project for the next house as we've a lovely original Art Nouveau washstand base I want to use as a stand for it.

Nice kirengeshoma@LibertyLily. Mine aren't quite out yet. I've just made a big planter from a table base. I'm really pleased with it. I needed a centrepiece for a small garden which is mostly hostas, trillium, ferns and oddments like cypripedium and pleione. So all green and not that eye-catching. It's now been rechristened The Dolphin Garden. I'll post a pic. I do love a bit of repurposing.
Hostas are great at this time of year. Sometimes you look at a plant with new eyes and think 'Hmmn. Not bad...not bad at all.'

@Bideshi Ah that's great to hear about Newby Hall gardens being amazing! We might go after all. But it definitely sounds like you need to up your own prices!!!

Gah! Just as I resolve to stop buying plants, you convince me that I really, really need a kirengeshoma!

I’m a big fan of the Arts and Crafts movement. When I started this garden, I tried to follow William Morris’s philosophy of formal shapes and loose, informal planting inside them and chose plants which feature in his designs. Standen is one of my favourite NT properties.

I do like moths too and try to grow for them as much as possible! They're a much maligned species that a lot of people don't care for them (in terms of increasing light pollution). It pains me to not being able to grow evening primrose, but do have scented plants for them.

New (but old) dolphin pot. Hostas in the rose garden. Impatiens tinctoria from Uganda which has lovely long spurs and is hardy here.

Oh rats! Not enough bandwidth. I'll try again later - Iffy internet here in the hills.

I’ll try that again🤨

Nope. Give up. I’ll try tomorrow-grrr

This is the type of garden that I'd like to visit; it's got so much there with various gardens to view. At only £18, not the suggested £30. Sadly, I don't drive, so the 35 minute walk from the bus stop might be a tad too far for me to walk. Has anyone been before and noticed whether the walk is feasible? Not on a dangerous road with only a grass verge to walk on. I made a few mistakes like that in the past visiting NT properties.

@Nachtvlinder It's right off the beaten track as far as I remember. Not walkable I wouldn't think, unfortunately. I'm going to have to go again next spring because I noticed the other day that they have the National Collection of flowering dogwoods.

Today DH fed his tree ferns with liquid seaweed, so I nabbed it and drenched all my newly planted roses (and a few others that looked as if they needed a tonic.) Then hoed in the area called 'Mary's Garden'which is a small cottage garden and in some of the woodland which is looking very hairy and unkempt and not terribly interesting. It's got a couple of hundred meconopsis planted there so it's really showy in May/June but not great from then onwards.

Let Joy Be Unconfined the garden club who were due on Sunday have postponed because the weather forecast looks desperate. I don't have to do cakes or organise indoor teas. I feel liberated. Maybe the weather will have perked up by the following Sunday when we have a charity opening. The jet stream has to shift sometime, presumably.

Are evening primroses tricky? We grew a few completely by accident last year - absolutely no idea where they came from - and the goldfinches went mad for the seeds. I was hoping they'd come back this year but it looks like the finches cleaned them out.

To my shame I'm in North Yorks and haven't visited Newby Hall - I must get better at going to places! But if anyone is after a cheaper-but-lovely trip out in the area, may I suggest Jacksons' Wold Garden? It's in the Yellow Book but they are opening on various days over the summer, and I thought it was really beautiful. Plus the drive itself is very pretty.

I've done nothing in my garden today, but we had a lovely delivery of plants in the nursery where I work, including some I didn't know previously. There was a delicious-looking espalier plum 'Shiro' and some Ostrya Carpinifolia, and I've ripped my hands to shreds on a rambling rose called 'Bobbie James,' which I know is too big for my garden, but which I am coveting.

I am currently weeding out evening primroses! I think they are one of those things that mind about soil. If it's heavy they don't like it; if it's sandy, they romp away and are a definite weed.

Thanks - ours is mainly silty/loamy. Not too heavy but the climate and slope means it tends to.the soggy end. The bit where they grew last year is on a mound, so better drained than most - I'll try them there again for next year.

my dolphin pot

Hostas and impatiens tinctoria

RHS magazine is quite good. And there’s the cheap seed offer.

If you’re in the north of England I would have thought repeat visits to Harlow Carr and Bridgewater were worth it. We’re near enough Harlow Carr to drop in for the bird hide and lunch at Betty’s, which we wouldn’t do if we had to pay for entry.

Constant rain Ystd so couldn't get out, the garden is looking very lush though especially compared to last year!!

Need to mow the lawn today and have bought some stones to put around the bottom of the garden to tidy it up a bit.

I've ripped my hands to shreds on a rambling rose called 'Bobbie James,' which I know is too big for my garden, but which I am coveting. I’ve got that! It’s a stunner. This summer there was white blossom, dense (no leaves visible) the whole length of the garage roof

@Bideshi Love the dolphin pot! And those impatiens are beautiful. I've never seen those before.

Just read this fun fact about the impatiens 😀

Touch-me-not, or Jewelweed, are common names for family of herbaceous plants (Balsaminaceae) of which Impatiens is the principal genus. The genus name derives from the fact that a ripe seed capsule, when touched, explodes violently, projecting seed some distance.

The pot is gorgeous. The impatiens reminds me a bit too much of Himalayan balsam ... I really must get back to doing some volunteering so I can stomp around a nature reserve brandishing an implement rather like a cutlass yelling (ok, thinking loudly) "die, alien scum" . pretty plant, bees like it but just too darned much of it.