Unexpected evergreens for pretty pots, DIY washing up liquid and Half term hell!
Hello friends!
Half term is almost over and I survived (just!) Not going to lie. I find it really, really difficult...AND I have help! As you can see I just about managed to get outside, but other important things (like exercise, and being able to stare out of the window) were forfeited - and that's not great for stress levels! Anyhow, below you'll find my favourite unexpected permanent plantings for pots, and also lots of you asked for the recipe I used to make the home-made washing up liquid so I've linked to it below, and whether you're out in the garden or out on the town, I wish you all a joyful, peaceful weekend x
Monday: Half term is a truly monstrous beast. Half term is where sane people go to die. Half term was invented to send us all mad. I tried to get outside and I failed. No gardening.
Tuesday: The foxes have been at my tree pits yet again, digging away at the roots of my new babies and causing all sorts of havoc all over my lawn. We suffer badly from urban foxes here in London, and for most of the year we deal with them using a squirter-spray thing that detects movement and squirts a jet of water. In the winter though, I don't like using them because hoses and taps can freeze and disconnect, and then you get floods, so I prefer to keep the taps off when it's cold. All this to say that I am spurred on to order some plants to fill the tree pit, and remove the temptation for digging and defication that bare earth seems to offer. I plump for Stipa tenuissima - a pretty wafty thing which I will mix with bulbs and some astrantia. I also order this hedgehog house, because I NEED hedgehogs in my garden. I click 'buy' and my 'gardening' is done for the day.
Wednesday: I manage to get to my local nursery (who also do extremely good hot chocolate) and I impulse-buy three little pots of muehlenbeckia complexa - (maidenhair vine) - It is native to New Zealand and evergreen down to -5, so good for all but the coldest of gardens. If it loses its leaves in a cold spell it usually replaces them pretty soon. It scrambles messily and charmingly about everywhere and can become a nuisance so I put it in my urn as a permanent planting (see below).
Thursday: Yesterday I bought three tiny ivy plants for my children, in the vain hope that I might teach them to look after a plant somehow. I have this idea that I'll put them in their rooms, and they can water them. This hope is very much marred by the knowledge that compost in a child's room is never a good idea. Hey ho, but I re-pot them anyway, into larger pots - because that's what I do whenever I buy a new thing, and I have left them outside for now.
Friday: My stipa have arrived! I am a broken woman with half term, but I plonk the kids in front of a screen and rush outside to plant them in the dark. It is mild outside, and the scent of the daphne and sarcococca make this the loveliest five minutes I have spent for a good long while. All the happy feelings, amidst all the 'bad mother' guilt, but I guess we have to do what we have to do to stay sane.
Unexpected evergreens for pretty pots
I've grown to value one-plant, evergreen containers over all others, not only for their beauty but also for their low-maintenance qualities. These three are hard to beat. There is a feeling of grandeur when pots are simply filled with green, and the illusion that you know what you are doing, because of the understated calm of the thing. By unexpected, I simply mean 'not a shrub' and specifically 'not box'.
1. Helleborus.
I've been in love with hellebores ever since I started gardening, and that was when I had no garden, so they had to go in containers. It never occurred to me not to put them in. Use John Innes no 2 and add leaf mould every year and they'll be happy as clams. The lovely thing about hellebores in pots is that you can raise them up and consequently actually see the flowers close up without getting your knees muddy.
2. Muehlenbeckia complexa.
Inspired by the brilliant Thomas Bloom, who recently made a gorgeous living wreath from bun moss and Muehlenbeckia, I planted up an urn with this on Wednesday. It's an absolute nightmare if it takes hold in the garden but perfectly manageable in a pot. And it is SO pretty too.
3. Ferns.
Any ever-green fern is simply GORGEOUS in a pot. Imagine ferns in pots flanking seating, or a door, or lining a path - you simply can't get any grander or lovelier. John Innes No 2 and annual leaf-mould is needed here to keep things ticketyboo. I used to have lots of ferns in large pots on my balcony. They are very easy to care for and I'm not sure why I don't have any in my garden (as you can see this pic is from Pinterest) - it's something I'm going to remedy soon.
Washing up liquid recipe
You lot asked for the recipe I used for my home-made washing up liquid (or 'dish soap' as they call it in USA). I got it here, but I had rose-scented Castille soap so I didn't add any essential oil as it smells lovely anyway. I might add a bit of grapefruit though, when I can find it. This soap is actually great. It doesn't do what normal washing up liquid does - it doesn't lather up like a bonkers bubble bath, and it isn't slippery like a bucket of slime, and it isn't bright green or bright pink...in short, it isn't anything like what we are used to, or what we have become accustomed to as being 'normal'. I think we need to get used to a new normal - one where we have soap that isn't unctuous or neon, but that does the job well and doesn't harm our precious earth. Let me know what you think.xx
All the good things, as always
xx Laetitia
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