So the front garden: part 1.

This has taken up most of my time whenever it has been dry this spring. I last posted about it back in August last year, the post can be found here. At that point the right hand side was all levelled and the gravel was down.

At that point I optimistically ended that post with the sentence "Still lots to do, but it feels like the main bit is done". How wrong, but I'll come back to that.

The idea for the front is less spiky with a blue, white and silver theme. We will stick to this fairly rigorously with the one exception of the odd splash of orange. So stop reading now if you offended by flowers.

In November a sunny afternoon was spent planting around 300 bulbs into the gravel. It should have been a simple task, but having taken care when laying the gravel there were two layers of weed membrane under it. Each location a bulb was to be planted required moving the gravel, cutting a hole, digging out the hole, refilling with better compost and then moving gravel back.  Very repetitive and sadly the garden looked no different at all after all the work.  The bulbs were selected to give flowers from beginning of March until roughly the end of July.

Come spring and things started to show, the crocuses were first. Very pretty but the planting didn't really work.

The blue crocus were next. They were slightly more blue that this photo.

The irises worked better in the gravel.

They looked good with the rocks.

What is it they say about best laid plans. Either the mild winter, or being their first year but instead of flowering over an extended period everything decided to flower at the same time.  The tulips:

Then the anemones as well, which are now finished but shouldn't have even started yet.  I can't complain though as they gave quite a display.

Sadly the only think that did not come up the size expected was the eremurus. The three rocks in in the above photo at to stop me walking on the tiny little plant. It is going to be a few years until that one flowers.

While this lot were flowering away, we got started on the other side. It seems that while succulents go to sleep over the winter lots of local plants do not and come spring the left hand side of the garden had to be sprayed, dug and levelled once again. I've lost count of the number of times I have dug this garden, succulent gardening is a lot less work.

Finally we were able to set out the beds.

More gravel and laying out the first set of plants.

More digging as lots of manure is dug in. Finally some plants can actually be planted.

I was beginning to find out how big the garden was, the number of plants was racking up, it was good when there were plants available form the back.  Remember the yucca dug up from the back (you can see the post here). They turned out to be two plants not a twin head.  Splitting them was easy once all the soil was shaken off and in the new bed they look much bigger.

As the dog will not be loose in the front we are able to plant I few plants I wouldn't risk in the back, like juniperus squamata 'Blue Star'

It feels like the central bed is coming together. It will be a few years before the plants fill out, no doubt a few plants will be moved during that time.

The other two beds are filling up very slowly. Not only does it take time to find interesting plants that flower at different times, and fit the colour scheme, but it is expensive and is having to be spred out. The garden doesn't looks great yet, it is a bit disjointed. As more plants are repeated in various different locations the garden as a whole will hopefully pull together. Time will tell if it will work, not being succulents is all a bit of an adventure for me.

Then finally this weekend I got to start adding the succulents and alpines to the gravel sections. They are going in slowly and I'll do separate post on that once I have finished it. In the mean time here is a taster as we can't have a post with so few succulents.

It felt a lot more within my comfort zone working in the gravel section. I'm going to try out a few different ideas there is not enough space for in the back. Assuming the rain stops, I'll get to finish this and can post the results.

So a very different post to normal, but hopefully the work will be worth it. Maybe this time it really is safe to say the worst is over, at least in terms of the physical stuff, lots of plant finding still to come.

No space is wasted.

One of the things I love about plants in the rockeries is the way they grow to fill any available space.  Given space they just offset until they are overflowing.

The echeveria elegans stream turned into a raging torrent.

Echeverias seem to do that, not knowing when the space is full, bursting out of the available space.

The alpines are more subtle, a stealth attack.

Once they have a foot hold, tumbling over to continue their take over.

Others sneaking along in a slow advance, sending out the next line of troops to get another foot hold.

The agaves just occupy the space.

Whatever the tactics, these cramped spaces have produced some of my favourite plants in the rockery.

Could it finally be here?

This weeks has finally started to feel like the winter is behind us and it is safe to start putting some of the pots outside. Our winters lately have been so strange I have lost track if this is early or late, just need to keep an eye on those surprise late frosts.

Many of the agaves have pups, some have gone a little mad, this agave lophantha variegata pot is full of pups one of which has decided to grow in a very strange way.

I seem to remember that it is the tri or quad colour form, which is slightly nicer than the usual variegated ones. Some re-potting due I think.

The two largest planters are full echeveria agavoides forms, this one has red edge and ebony plus romeo and sirius.

The ebony is darkening up nicely, while those in the ebony bowl have some way to go.  The biggest is now my biggest echeveria.

They are probably going to have to be split, the mis-labelled one which is actually red edge can be moved at the same time. I may put my seed grown sport into a pot on its own, leaving only 3 plants in that pot.

The vertical planting is starting to fill up, the agave glow family are all together this year.

They may just be ok in those pots for one more year.

Ultimately the bamboo and other shade plants will fill this section and the posts will go back to be purely architectural, but for now they make idea places to display more of the succulents.

It is good to have the plants outside again, there are still a lot to go, and I am going to have to find a new spot for the bigger pots as I want to plant the section they occupied last year. That issue can wait, for the time being I'll concentrate on slowly hardening the plants off and trying to avoid burning any.

How amazing is this.

Visiting a friends garden, Crete Lodge exotic garden, at the end of last year, Mel pointed out these. It seems if you leave aloe striatula seed pods for a year this is what you end up with.

 I am going to have to try this.

Back after winter break, with updates on the succulent rockeries

As usual I lost interest in plants over winter and had even less interest in computers. Come spring my interest re-emerges as the plants start to wake up. So for the last few weeks I have been busy out in the garden and thought it was time to start posting again. 

It has been the busiest start to a year since the building work, most of it working on the front garden to change it from this:

In to something that resembles a garden. More on that next time.

I figured for my first post of the year I should focus on how the succulent rockeries are doing. We had the mildest and wettest winter on record.  Given last years problem with the fungus attacking the agaves and yuccas, I was concerned this would not be good. In fact with two very minor exceptions the plants show no sign of fungus damage. You can imagine how relieved I am.

The cycad rockery looked as good as well.

Everything has really grown over the last year and this has caused a few problem areas. The first can be seen in the photo above. That yucca was tiny when planted and while I know it would grow, I didn't expect it to grow so quickly.  Here it was this time last year.

So they have now outgrown the space and it wont be long until they cause even more problems.  It seemed sensible remove them now, especially as I wanted a yucca or two for the front garden. So out they came.

Look at how much the echeveria elegans have grown.  To think they were single plants when planted, should be a great sight when they all flower.

So what to plant to fill that space.  Something with structure but nothing that is going to grow and obscure the rest of the plants or grow out into the path again. Step up problem area number 2.

The aloe polyphylla is looking amazing, not only has started to properly spiral, but it has grown big.  I guess last years feeding program really did work.  Despite not being protected there is not a single bit of damage. The problem is that it's now starting to impinge on the echeveria agavoides red edge. These have also grown and really no longer fit the space.

They look great between the stones and I was torn about moving them, but the new pups are forming under the rocks and it is only going to get more cramped.  Plus taking them out at this time of year will mean they have the whole summer to get settled and it will be better longer term.  So out they came, and a short move over to the cycad rockery.

For a while I thought they looked too small and would get lost, but they can now be seen and have space to grow even more.

It has really grown on me in the days since planting it up.

So two problems down, a few more to go.  Next up the clash between the new smaller yucca rostrata and the kniphofia.

This was easy, the kniphofia caulescens was pulled out and again conveniently fitted perfectly into the front garden. There just happened to be the perfect plant sitting waiting to be planted, ironically it was going in the front but really deserved to go somewhere it could be enjoyed. It is a large (by UK standards) agave ovatifolia.

No doubt it will grow, and given we sit on that wall may have to be corked when we have friends around. But it looks perfect there.

Given it is only the start of May I am pleased how good everything is looking.

I still can't get over the aloe polyphylla, how did it get that big without me noticing.

There are still a few areas to sort. I need to remove the camassia leichtlinii, it is too messy and doesn't work in front of the agave filifera. Finally we are considering painting the wall a different colour.  Having see a friends garden where they have purple wall, I am tempted by that. The plants will show up better and it will bring a splash of colour into the garden. 

That last one still needs to be signed off but hopefully I will get permission. Either way the garden should take big leaps forward this year.

Finally may have some time

Between holidays, work trips and trips to Yorkshire to visit in-laws, there has not been much time to garden let alone post here.  I will have to catch up on what has been going on, especially the trips.  Without doubt the best was a trip to Crete Lodge Exotic Garden in Norfolk.  Here is a teaser.

Expect Dalmatians, statues, and lots and lots of succulents.

Return to the dasy

You'll have to forgive the lack of posts, another trip to Tanzania for work.  The problem of going away for two weeks is that the other projects build up, so you get back to a desk piled up and then have to slog through everything.

Thankfully the garden looks after itself and is looking great.  The joys of succulent rockeries requiring no maintenance. 

The dasylirion serratifolium flower is now in the cherry tree, but at least it has stopped growing.

The flowers are starting to open and very disappointing.  I would have put more effort into the flowers and less in the stalk. 

The bees however seem to disagree.  The whole stalk buzzes and everywhere you look there are bees. It doesn't seem to smell too strongly and the colour is not super bright, but something is working for them.

Many of them have leg sacks full of pollen.

The garden is full of bees, they are on every succulent that is flowering.

The other plant they are loving is the euphorbia

All these bees are a good thing, and promising for the future. I found at the last house,  that once the bees found a plant they would return in force the following years.  Sadly they will be disappointed to find the Dasy not flowering next year.

The irony of all these bees, is that the only plants go no where near are the flowering plants I bought especially for them! It just goes to show, even the bees think that succulents are the way forward.