Went to King's yesterday and considered the magnolia, even though it is 30% off it is still pricy. They have shrubby star magnolias, a variety called 'Brixton Belle' and some more expensive hybrids. The evergreen one 'Little Gem' is the cheapest, but I don't want evergreen.
I did the rounds and bought two bags of hyacinth bulbs, there were the only two left, all the popular purply blue ones were gone so I was left with white and cream. I buried them in clumps of three in the rock garden.
David L Culp had put his tulips amongst the gravel in his drive and I thought, yes I should just put them in the rocky gravel they don't really need their heads in soil they are bulbs after all, it is only their roots that need the moisture. Because my other ones were kind of rotting in the trough, had bloomed early and the flowers did not look that great.
I bought another lily that is kind of pinky white colour to put in with my passionfruit.
Then I bought two punnets of delphiniums, one dwarf and one giant. I put these in my back borders. As they are ranunculae, hopefully they will do as well as the creeping buttercups there which are of the same family.
I watched more of Alan Titchmarsh's Garden Secrets DVD. I looked at Victorian gardens, where display and ferns were all the rage, as was exotic gardens, then up to the 20th century with the famed Sissinghurst castle garden in Kent. This was a garden that is romantic in style and one in which the garden is an outdoor room, decorated with foliage and flowers. This is a garden for living in. I saw the famous white garden...especially enchanting at night. I do have a night garden of sorts now in my fenced off patio area. Here, I've put a glow in the dark pot stickers and butterflies, a solar lantern that comes on at dusk, and masses of night scented stock and sweet alyssum. I am hoping to see my jasmine bloom one day. I sit in this garden on my ceramic stool and gaze at my wall of foliage, the fuchsias hanging down, the orchids climbing up, the impatiens peeking in the corner, the nodding pansies, the sweet peas growing bushy each day, the passionfruit vine trailing toward the light.
Bromeliads are resting in the nooks of tree branches. Hibiscus suns herself against the north face of the fence. My little alcove, named 'Nurture'.
I try to think of my outdoor area as a series of rooms, one leading toward the next. Some areas are designated corridors, some have nothing but lawn. I've started doing 'corner' gardening. I start one corner, then as that fills up with plants I go on to the next. When I look at this corner, I arrange the plants like an artist would compose a picture. There are lots of corners in my garden, and so far I'm in the process of doing about nine of them. I find this way, there's a bit more dimension to my gardening than trying to fill a long flat border.
I think I will take some photos today, and if the computer is working, put them up to show you.
