Potting on, pinching out and PANIC
Hello Friends!
A rather quick one this week, as everything seems to have caught up with me rather and I'm in packing hell as we go away tomorrow
Monday
It's Chelsea Press Day. That means I get to see all the luscious gardens and plants, and talk to all the brilliant designers, but most of all it means I get to see all my garden writing friends who spend their days behind their computer screens, talking about gardens, whilst dreaming of actually being IN a garden. I am blown away by the show this year. The gardens are bursting with take-home ideas which I'll be slowly blogging about over the coming weeks. Needless to say, no actual gardening went on today.
Tuesday
I finally managed to take five minutes to pot on the other pot of alpine strawberries which have rapidly been outgrowing their nursery pot. I'm loathe to let even a single one of these precious things fall by the wayside as I plan to edge every single one of my flowerbeds with them.
Call me a one-trick pony if you like. This pony has excellent (and insatiable) taste in soft fruit. The first alpine strawberry fruits from the batch I sowed last year are ripening up right now. They are fatter and juicier than they were last year, and oh my ACTUAL god, but there are MILLIONS of them. I am in heaven.
Wednesday
The dahlias which I planted all those weeks ago have been steadily putting on good growth. I had originally intended to put them all in one large pot, but time has run away from me, and anyway I used my last large pot to plant more gladiolus callianthus in, so that idea goes flying out the window and I simply plonk the plastic pots into suitably sized terracotta ones, so that they can go and live on the terrace without causing offence.
I pinch out the tips too, to encourage a bushier plant and more flowers. This is very easy to do with a thumbnail and it feels all horticultural and KNOWLEDGEABLE.
Thursday
Rising panic because we are going away on Saturday, together with the knowledge that half term for my youngest begins TOMORROW makes me dash out and start putting all the little seedlings into large shallow trays on two tables in preparation for our departure.
I don't normally like small plants to sit in water, but it's the only way to avoid death if you're going away and have nobody coming to water for you. See below for my tips on going on holiday and what to do with the plants.
Friday
Bonkers crazy day, which included a trip to the Genius bar with my three year old (not something I would normally do) and becoming increasingly anxious with the mental load of packing, and being annoyed that the weather forecast for where we are going is REALLY NOT GOOD. I get back from the Westfield a pretty broken woman and we all know what can fix that particular malady. I put the toddler in front of the telly and mow for my sanity.
Mowing is a jolly good mood leveller; you have to pay just enough attention to things but not TOO much. You can listen to something interesting while you do it. Also, THAT SMELL. I really love the short/long thing I've got going on in the garden. It reduces my mowing time by two thirds, which means the whole thing takes, yes, you've guessed it, FIVE MINUTES.
How to leave your garden – a guide for reluctant holiday-makers
Everyone knows that an English summer is the most perfect thing in the whole wide world, but holidays are approaching, and, well, someone has to go on them. Established gardens will survive perfectly well without you, but anything in pots will need a little forward planning to get them through your holidays.
If you’ve persuaded someone to be the guardian of your Eden, train them up with a degree of nonchalance so as not to put them off. The job should be as easy and quick as possible, so it’s a good idea to group all containers as close together as possible, and as near as possible to a source of water. I use large plastic trays filled with water, into which I amass all the small pots; even if everything is neglected, then osmosis will do its nifty work, at least until the water in the tray runs out. If there is no human available, then I would heartily recommend a drip-feed irrigation kit with a timer, such as Hozelock’s automatic watering kits (from £22 at www.easywatering.co.uk). These are excellent for small groups of containers, or flower beds that are still establishing themselves and not as befuddling as you might think to set up, especially now that everything is explained by kind people who put videos up on YouTube. Bon voyage!
Have a glorious weekend friends, and a beautiful half term. There won't be a newsletter next week, but there will be a few insta pics and stories from southern Spain, (in the rain).
Love to you all, and all the good things, always
x Laetitia
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