2nd OCTOBER 2025

 

Although I have not finished work on the pond area yet I had to turn my attention to the 'allotment' beds today.  

On the way there I carried a few succulents into the greenhouse which is already starting to look quite full.  I still have some daliahs and begonias from two more village planters to put in there over winter and I haven't sown any sweetpeas yet but I'm sure we will manage!

We refer to this area as the 'allotment' but it is given over to flowers.

Originally I dug out four beds intending to rotate veg and cut flowers.  That idea only lasted about 3 seasons because the veg were always a disaster.  I could grow potatoes and nothing else.  Even when I bought ready grown veg plug plants and spent hours putting chicken wire fences round the the beds it still failed to produce decent crops.  So I now grow flowers.

I love bearded iris. 

Many years ago I dragged my husband all the way from Nottingham to Seagate Nursery in Spalding as they specialise in Irises. Our eldest son had just qualified to fly fast jets in the royal navy so I had to buy 'Top Gun' ...

Unfortunately that one was left behind when we moved to Yorkshire but the ones I brought with us thrived and I have bought more since so I was able to separate the clumps and form two iris beds like this one.  The bare middle section had a sweetpea obelisk until a few weeks ago.

My other favourite plant is the peony rose.  These plants were purchased locally this year but I have some in the main garden that my mother gave me at least 15 years ago.  That is one of the things I love about gardening ... as I wander round I remember friends and family because their plants are growing in my garden.

I bought a couple of plants from The Peony Farmer when she was just starting out a long time ago.  The Gardener's World team filmed her peony fields quite recently and it looks a sight to behold now!

Click the link to see what I mean!

This whole bed was filled with roses until I decided we needed a fruit cage so I could grow rasperies and strawberries.  The canes have been cut back now.

The other roses have been transplanted to different parts of the garden but this one was far too big to shift.  I should do something with those rosehips ... but I know I won't.

The final two beds have lupins in one and a pear tree in the other side ...

... but this was the weed filled area I knew I had to work on today.  I needed to rescue it before it became a real problem patch. I have made that mistake before.  You can concentrate on getting one area just so while another place is being over run with creeping buttercups and the problem then takes weeks to sort out! 

Today I turned the wet soil over quite easily and picked out the weeds then covered it over for winter.

I want daliahs in one part next year ... not sure what to plant in the other part but I do have a number of seed packets from Higgeldy Garden: I have always had great results from his seeds so it may be a productive cut flower patch next year.

We had filled this whole bed with tulips a couple of years ago and it was lovely.

However last year there were large gaps so I let the leaves die back then dug up all the bulbs.  

I have just scattered them round the rest of the garden which means we are in for a surprise as I have no idea what colours will grow next to each other!

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