Sweet pea sowing, salvia cuttings 101 and the best orange and pink tulips!
Hello friends!
here's what I've been getting up to this week
Monday
I finally finish the mulching of my huge flower bed (having tried unsuccessfully to get it done over the weekend) Everything looks utterly gorgeous and I basically just want to lie down on it and go to sleep, but instead I plant another anemone, and remove a box ball that has been well and truly got by the caterpillar moth. Although I have several box plants in my garden and I successfully keep the caterpillar at bay using Topbuxus Xentari, I'm growing less and less ardent about keeping them. This is entirely down to laziness, but it also has a fair amount to do with having what you might call 'healthy boundaries' with the garden; cards on the table, I find it hard to watch box being destroyed by this moth, knowing that it has no natural predators in this country, and is here as the result of carelessness. I find it hard to watch in the same way as I find nature tv hard to watch. Going into my garden and finding those caterpillars, or the papery white, frass-covered results of their munching is not good for my soul. In fact it turns the garden into the direct opposite of itself. I feel sad, stressed and panicked, and I have to bring myself back to the eternal question of what a garden is for. It's supposed to help me feel calm, happy, at peace. So I think one by one, the box is going to have to go, because the burden of keeping it caterpillar free is for me (a five minute gardener) one that I am unwilling to shoulder. Replacements are manifold, but I will most probably use sarcococca. No, it's not the same, but I'm willing to sacrifice quite a bit for the glory of that scent on a chilly winter day, oh, and PEACE OF MIND.
Tuesday
I order bulbs (yes, that's totally still gardening!) I had thought that I wouldn't bother with bulbs this year....just leave it to chance and see what comes up from last year...but having mulched my back flowerbed it feels mad not to...there is so much glorious dark space, and it's so deliciously soft too. I want to try something different this year, having stuck to pale colours in the borders previously, and I put out a call on Instagram for suggestions in the pink/orange arena. Here is what came back (and a huge thank you to everyone who messaged me with suggestions; i had the BEST couple of hours)
TULIPA:
Doll's Minuet
Brownie
Blumex Favourite
Apricot Foxx
Belle Epoque
Dordogne
Apricot Parrot
In the end I plump for Apricot Parrot, and another one called Charade (for no other reason than that it was on offer, and I also needed lots of alliums which always cost a bomb. Anyway friends, I end up spending rather more than I should have (wince-makingly more) which I justify (as always) with the fact that I am still wearing clothes from twenty years ago, and look, with bulbs, THERE IS ONE RULE:
Make your bulb order, and then triple it.
As with most things in gardening, generosity is key, so don't think you can get away with playing small - best not to bother at all.
Wednesday
I spend a glorious hour in a tiny, very long garden in Notting Hill, whose owner is about to renovate but wants some outside advice before she presses play with the people she's hired to do the job. The house is an astonishing one, converted from a garage sandwiched between two lovely townhouses in the seventies, it's like walking into a tardis and finding my childhood - I remember houses like these - some of my friends lived in them. They were open plan, carpeted wall to wall, and had riserless stairs. This one is particularly brilliant, not only for its location, but also the fact that so much has been fitted into such a tiny space. The architect dug down to create a kitchen and downstairs loo, and there, at the other end, are the doors and big windows that look out onto the garden...exactly what we all want today, only forty years ago. The garden is overgrown and shaded by a huge tree which she needs to lift. Otherwise it is full of beautiful plants that need lots of love and care and attention. All except the aucuba...the aucuba can frankly do one. YUCK - WHY do people plant it? WHY?
No gardening
Thursday
I finally get around to taking cuttings of my salvia (which, MAY I SAY, has been the TALK of my tiny little niche of town!) I've even had people knocking on the door to ask what it is. I only planted it to cover the ground while my baby sarcococca were taking root, but they're long forgotten now, beneath the proud azure spires that are lighting up everyone's lives. I'm afraid the sarcococca are not long for this world - my monster salvia have obliterated them and THAT'S OKAY.
Here is how I take a cutting. It's not how everyone takes a cutting...it's how I take a cutting. There are lots of other ways.
First, get your stuff ready (you need a sharp, clean knife, a clean board, a pot full of free-draining compost, and a plastic bag to put your cuttings into.
Take your cuttings from NON-FLOWERING SHOOTS. This is a challenge for me on these plants, but they can be found! cut them as long as you want but as a general rule they need two or three sets of leaves on them. Put them in the bag and then lay them on a clean board ready for slicing thus:
The aim is to end up with bare stem and just two leaves at the top. Here's what I did with the above cutting:
...and then I cut a bit of the stem off at the bottom:
...and then I removed a part of one of the leaves at the top like this (in order to stop too much moisture evaporating):
Do you see? You want a clean stem, about 10cm long, and two leaves at the top that aren't too big.
Here's another one...this time I didn't have to cut any leaves:
...and another one:
I hope that gives you some idea of what you're after. And I also hope it shows that each cutting is different, and that intuition plays a part.
After you've done each bit of surgery, make some space with a knife between the side of the pot and the compost, levering the compost away from the side, and carefully place your cutting in, very nearly up to its first leaves, taking care not to damage the tip or stem in any way. Put several cuttings around the side of the pot because if you were a cutting, you'd like friends, wouldn't you.
Seriously though, they seem to enjoy being in a group. Then put them somewhere warm like your kitchen and fashion some kind of 'lid' either by placing them in a cold frame or a clear plastic storage container with lid, or you could use a clear plastic bag and an elastic band. This 'lid' will keep the air moist and prevent it from evaporating from the leaves, allowing the cutting to put down roots. Once you see growth, you can start hardening them off, but I will be overwintering mine in a cold frame, keeping them frost-free over the winter months.
Friday
I remember to sow the sweet peas that have been soaking overnight. I also remember to prop up my phone and switch it on, AND put the process on IGTV which you can watch if you go to my instagram feed here. The reason to sow now is twofold: first, you'll get earlier, stronger, bigger beefier sweet peas, grown INDIVIDUALLY (so you won't be messing about trying to untangle their roots and shoots when the time comes to plant out) and secondly, you'll massively reduce the metal load of Spring sowing....just me? Anyone else? Okay I'll shut up.
Then I go and march with the children who are behaving like all the adults in power OUGHT to be. I am astounded and moved and so heartened that this movement is picking up pace. Hundreds of thousands of us, feeling sad and mad and hopeful that change can be made swiftly. Achy throat. Perhaps, we can all come together and create change. Just perhaps.
All the good things as always
x Laetitia
PS you might have missed:
How to deal with box caterpillar
How to remove couch grass