The new grapevines I ordered (from Victoriana Nursery Gardens) arrived last week. The planters for them should arrive this week…. I want the vines to grow over the arbour, and we’ve chosen a pair of wooden planters that can be fixed to the arbour, so that the whole lot can be moved together should the need ever arise. The vines are going to be long-term residents of the garden, after all. It won’t be too long before I can enjoy cooking with vine leaves, although a decent crop of seedless dessert grapes might take a little longer.
Over the weekend I decided that the shallot bed had got a little too weedy – and pulled out the biggest Fat Hen I’d ever seen. I had to use a garden fork to lift the root out, but then I needed it to lift some of the shallots anyway. By the time I’d done that, I’d overheated – the shallots have been left higgledy piggledy to dry out a bit in the sun; the bed awaits a fresh dose of compost and will then be replanted with the flower sprouts for the winter.
Speaking of weeds, I do get some interesting ones in this garden! Last year Tree Spinach and Strawberry Spinach (both Chenopods) sprung up by themselves – welcome plants that do that tend to get called ‘volunteers’. I planted this year’s Strawberry Spinach, but the Tree Spinach is still coming up by itself. The leaf miners get the better of it, though (they are rife, no doubt because this seems to be a Fat Hen hotspot). This year I have strawberry weeds in the garlic bed – probably alpine strawberries, although I can’t tell for sure until they fruit. They can stay put for the time being, anyway.
Elsewhere in the garden…
…the skirret is reaching for the skies…
…the fuchsia berries are in flower…
…there are two agretti plants worth mentioning…
…the
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