Sunday 6 February 2011

Spring tidy-up

What a lovely blustery day it was today- and 10 Degrees Centigrade where we are.
Perfect weather for some early gardening.
I spent the afternoon tidying the flowerbeds.This is what I started with.
Pretty much full of old dead annuals.I have heard this is good to leave this on during winter as protection.So that is why I did it.The fact that I was too busy blogging in October was neither here nor there, hahaha.
Anyway it was nice to get it cleared .
I am so looking forward to the Mr Fothergill's seed catalogue.I plan to grow a different annual that I have never grown before , so that should be fun.This is something Vita Sachville-West recommended, and I could not agree more. It makes it just so exciting.
Last year I grew Nicotiana Sylvestris, and also sunflowers for the first time ,and it was fantastic.
 The Nicotiana Sylvestris is the flower in the right top corner.Absolutely amazing.I always think it's just fantastic , when you hold a couple of seeds in your hands, and a few months later, when you have planted the seeds, you look at a plant almost man-high.
You can see the obelisks in the picture at the top.They're wicker and not that weather-resistant.
Last year we went to the open day at Chisenbury Priory - a really inspiring and fabulous garden.Only open one day a year, for charity, but I would recommend it to anyone if you are ever in the area.The description of the garden is pretty accurate :
" Medieval Priory with Queen Anne face and early C17 rear (not open) in middle of 5-acre garden on chalk. Mature garden with fine trees within clump and flint walls, herbaceous borders, shrubs, roses. Moisture-loving plants along mill leat, carp pond, orchard and wild garden, many unusual plants. Front borders redesigned in 2009 by Tom Stuart-Smith"
He did a pretty good job there, and the statues and urns are fabulous.

They had some pretty good obelisks there.
I quite liked this one- they had them dotted all over the place.What do they care, I guess a dozen more or less makes no difference to them.I suppose you could say they had quite a decent budget.

I spoke to the lucky lady who owned the garden and asked where she got hold of the obelisks, and she said vaguely " O, I just got them off the internet somewhere".She was lovely by the way.
So I did a bit of hunting around and found what I was looking for right here.
It was going to be my birthday present - for - last year AND this year, haha.
So I am counting on this one, instead of the wicker ones.
Well, what are you planning for this year ? Have you already worked your way through the seed-catalogues ?? Or sown your first annual's yet ??
I look foward to all your comments.

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Maud and Millie




If you want to keep up with Maud and Millie's latest adventures, you can read all about it here.






4 comments:

Sarah @ Modern Country Style said...

I was out this afternoon for the first time this year. It was so mild. I planted out some new roses I bought in the week. All very exciting!!

I tried Nicotiana last year....with NO success!! I'll have to try, try again!

Your garden pictures look so lovely. They make me LONG for summer days. Aaah!!

I'm having a Garden linky party on Wednesday. If you fancy linking up then it'd be lovely to see you.

Sarahx

Sarahx

Mariette VandenMunckhof-Vedder said...

Dearest Bea,

Thanks for your vist and comments!
Well, we never have much annuals as our garden is HUGE with about 1,5 hectare. Better planting perennials and trying to keep the maintenance a little bit down. But weeds do grow where we don't want them; no choice there!
You did quite some work today. But on a mild day like that, why NOT?!

Lots of love,

Mariette

Fishtail Cottage said...

I too need to do a "garden clean up" - ugh. i'm not looking forward to that....but i am looking forward to seein my garden ready for spring! i've been waiting for it to get just a little bit warmer out there! Please come link up to Cottage Flora Thursday's this week! xoxo

Anonymous said...

I hope you are enjoying 2011 so far.
Don't forget to stop by our blog to see the window display project.
Happy February,
E&J