One Productive Gardening Day

Published on by Catherine

Monday was a day of gardening from morning until late afternoon with my husband doing all the heavy work (as usual) while I potted on seedlings in the greenhouse and supervised (not as easy as it sounds!) the removal or lifting and dividing of plants. In general, the borders were tidied up, weeds removed and the grass was cut and edged. Pots of summer bedding were emptied and made ready to receive winter and spring-flowering bulbs. That one productive day cheered me up and I felt we’d achieved a lot, though a quick glance at my list in the evening reminded me that there was so much more to deal with. But that’s gardening, isn’t it, it never ends.

I also managed to find time to take a few photographs and I’m glad I did because by Tuesday the rain was thundering down and it’s been wet every day since then, including today where we have an amber alert for rain.

Six on Saturday

Coreopsis grandiflora ‘Early Sunrise’ perhaps isn’t the most sophisticated of plants, but its bright and cheery flowers are welcome at this time of the year when many others are fading. The biggest problem I have is finding a place for them because they flower over such a long period that their strong colour often doesn’t look great with other plants that come and go during their flowering cycle. I have it in a fairly indiscreet spot, in front of a hydrangea that has deep purple and green leaves in autumn. That works well, but not so in summer when the hydrangea flowers. Mostly I’m the only one who sees it as it’s on the greenhouse path – that’s my domain – and I don’t mind the colour clashes. 😁

Coreopsis ‘Early Sunrise’

Aster ‘White Ladies’ isn’t as strong a plant as the purple ‘Patricia Ballard’ and will be cut back once it dies down and moved to a different area in the garden.

Aster ‘White Ladies’
Aster ‘White Ladies’ with A. ‘Patricia Ballard’ in the background.

Rudbeckia ‘Marmalade’ is now fading and has been lifted from one of the borders. This last clump, in a different border, was planted later than the others and still looks fairly fresh, or they did last Monday which has been the only dry day this week. The spaces where plants have been lifted recently are making way for tulip bulbs next month. Peeking in at the bottom of the photo is (I think) feverfew, that’s been seeding itself around the garden for years. It’s taller than it looks in the image due to the level of the border. I pull feverfew out if they’re in a spot where I don’t want them to be, otherwise, I leave them alone.

Rudbeckia ‘Marmalade’ with feverfew.

Cotoneaster horizontalis. Little jewels of colour. In May it’s covered in tiny flowers and much loved by bees. Next month the leaves will turn bright orange-red which is a gorgeous sight, and I love seeing it when it’s covered in frost.

Cotoneaster horizontalis

Bacopa White has surprised me this year. It’s a regular in the garden, grown as an annual, but it’s looking so good that I’m loath to take it out! I can’t remember if I put two or three plants in the planter (there’s one at the other side) but I’m amazed at the size they’ve grown this year.

Bacopa White

New Seeds. I mentioned the weather, as I often do, but on Tuesday the rain was particularly fierce and the garden wasn’t the place to be. I couldn’t even walk the short distance to the greenhouse. So I settled down to try out the new features in Adobe Photoshop. I played around with the new AI features for a bit and then the postman came and popped some recently ordered seed packets through the door.

I’ve been admiring Graeme’s gorgeous Strawflowers for a while so I ordered ‘Salmon Rose’ and ‘White’ Helichrysum seeds plus a few packets of Cosmos. I thought I’d like to show them to you. One thing then led to another. My usual ‘props’ that I like to use for seed packet photos were in the greenhouse, and I wasn’t getting drenched for a photo, so I put the packets on my desk, took a photo, downloaded a background stock image from Adobe Stock (a good resource when you’re stuck!) and made the not-very-sophisticated composite image above. It was just for fun and kept me amused and it stopped me from having to tackle mundane tasks around the house! It’s also supplied me with the final photo for this week’s Six. Win, win! 😁

Photoshop fun. Background image courtesy of SewcreamStudio

The lovely wildflower arrangement on linen is the stock image, but if I can work some magic and turn those seeds into glorious flowers the stars of the show next year will be grown from the contents of those five seed packets along with the others in my seed box!

Six on Saturday update. It’s becoming more difficult to find undamaged plants to use for Six on Saturday without being repetitive and the weather is becoming challenging. I’ve decided to take a Winter break, but I’ll continue to blog on anything else of interest around the garden and take a look back at photos that didn’t make it into the weekly Six over the past couple of years.

I’ll keep up with your blogs as much as I can and rejoin Six early next year when new life starts to resurface from the winter soil.

Jim of Garden Ruminations will, of course, continue the meme and you can follow all that’s happening on gardens worldwide and meet with really nice people. Pop over and see what they’re all growing!

Have a great weekend! x

31 thoughts on “One Productive Gardening Day”

  1. This yellow coreopsis flower is very pretty. You will see that I’m also presenting some this week but yours is a double variety and is really very cute.
    Good winter break. I still have a few things in the garden to show for the next few weeks and I’ll see if I do like you…

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    1. I prefer the coreopsis in your garden, Fred. The single flowers with the wine/burgundy centre would be easier to colour-match into a garden. Whatever you decide, I’m sure you’ll keep on posting – it’s nice to be able to see the variety of plants in your garden.

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    1. Thank you. There’s still a lot of colour in the garden, but a lot of weather damage too. After this weekend’s rain, I’m not sure much colour will be left anywhere! Bacopa is a great plant. I’ve tried to overwinter it in the greenhouse but that failed. Easier to buy some fresh and healthy plug plants each year.

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  4. I always take a winter break, but this year it’s started earlier. Although I still like to read other SOSers posts I haven’t the energy to blog, though I am still taking the odd photo around the garden. I like your Coreopsis, yellow for me is spring, but I am beginning to appreciate its cheerfulness throughout the year. I am aiming to create an annual bed next year and those strawflowers do look rather tempting. I must see whether they enjoy rather wet condition first. Enjoy the break, but I hope you will post the odd photo. And thanks Catherine for all your kind words. They mean a lot to me.

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    1. I’ll sow a few seeds in a week or so, then more next year. They’ll be grown in containers and kept in the greenhouse or cold frame through the winter. They might even stay in pots in the greenhouse if spring or summer is cold & wet (they don’t like wet conditions). I’d like to have enough to cut, dry and use in the house but I’ll test some in the garden if there are enough. Maybe that’s wishful thinking!

      Take your time, Jude. You still have a lot to get through. You’ll know when it’s time to blog. I hope you’ll be able to immerse yourself in planning out the new annual border, buying seeds, ordering plug plants or deciding what’s being moved from an existing border to the new one. Will be thinking about you. x

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  5. Well you’ve finished 2023 on a grand Six. The white Aster looks lovely and that last clump of Rudbeckia ‘Marmalade’ is a beauty. I’m very impressed by that photoshopping – I assumed it was real. Enjoy your winter break and I look forward to seeing your garden again next year (including the strawflowers!)

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    1. Thanks Graeme, it’s just two images combined, and, I have to admit, not particularly successfully – I can see the faults. But it filled the empty spot! I’m hoping for a lot of strawflowers! Wishful thinking?

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  6. Magnificent photos 🙂💛🌼 Coreopsis also does well in my garden and I have been spreading it around the place. There are no colour clashes in nature! That aster is delicious. Good luck with your seeds and your break.

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    1. Thank you, Helen. I’m torn between taking the Bacopa out now to tidy up the planter and leaving it to do its own thing. I suspect by next week it will be gone. 😐

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  8. Enjoy your break Catherine, and pottering around the garden. Your Aster White Ladies is looking at its very best, and white works so well with the low light. I am putting that on my list to source next spring.

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    1. Thank you, Noelle. The dreadful rain we had over the weekend did unrepairable damage to Aster ‘White Ladies’ and the purple. My husband partly cut them back this morning, but they’ll have to be taken back to the ground, a bit earlier than usual.

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  9. Monday sounds like it was a most productive day indeed for you Catherine. I have cotoneaster horizontalis too from a plant passed on to me from my parent’s garden many moons ago. It provides much interest during the year and as you suggest the bees love it. Lilac bacopa here this year which has been a good doer in pots along with calibrochoa which I had never grown before. I will seek both out again next spring 😂 I do hope that the adverse weather conditions didn’t cause you any grief.

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    1. I haven’t tried a lilac Bacopa, Anna. That will have to be added to my list for next year! My sister uses calibrochoa in her pots every year and they are always lovely. Rain over the weekend was horrendous – we’re used to torrential here, but this was something else. No flooding in our area so we got off light, others countrywide, were not so fortunate. However, the garden is waterlogged and needs a good few rain-free days to help dry it out.

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  10. Aren’t those productive garden days the best? Your plants/flowers/photos are dreamy, as always. We had a couple of Cotoneaster shrubs in the past, but they sadly perished. I don’t know if it was old age, climate shiftings, or other shrubs overtaking them. They are beautiful plants, as your photo demonstrates. 🙂

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    1. Thank you, Beth. I can’t get rid of our Cotoneasters – I’ve cut them right back and even dug up one of the plants only find that they have such a will to stay on in the garden that they quickly grew back. 🤔

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  11. So many pretty flowers! Your mentioning Bacopa sent me down a nomenclature rabbit hole, because I’ve only heard that name used for aquatic plants that keep in my fish tanks! Turns out they’re different species, unfortunately, because it would have been fun to have a species that could be both submerged and in the garden.

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    1. I haven’t heard of Bacopa as an aquatic plant. With the rain we’ve had this year, I think the garden variety has coped fairly well with near-underwater experiences. 😁 Sorry for the late response, Angela!

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  13. You’ve reminded me that what I thought was Bidens is actually Bacopa. It’s looking really well.
    This early October post shows how much colour is lost by late November. Even the light levels when taking a photo is so much diminished.
    I too took an extended winter blogging break this time last year. It’s a good idea; when you return, you’ll be fresh and rarin to go!

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    1. I’m glad you managed to identify your plant, Paraig. There’s so little to show at this time of the year (though I have a few new posts waiting in the wings) that I’d rather wait, like you, for winter to pass before scrounging around for photo subjects.

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