I have been remiss for not writing as often as I should, but that is not to say the fleshly Garden65 has been neglected. This year's pottering seems to have paid off and now a sea of lushness laps at the backdoor.
I have been (oh dear, 'the passive voice'. But not sure what the remedy is so I'll carry on heedlessly ['heedlessly carry on'?] ) taking photos to show you this gorgeousness but they've remained unseen on the flashcard until this afternoon. So here comes a wave of observations ...
No. 1:
The other night I caught lovely Monty rounding off a Gardener's World programme with advice about buying plants. He held aloft a pot containing a huge spray of nodding leaves and told us to buy the most expensive plant we could afford. This would most likely be a healthy plant that would quickly settle down into its new home and romp away to give us years of pleasure. If you were extra lucky it may also be splittable, providing you with two plants for the price of one. Sound advice.
With Monty's silken words echoing in my mind I visited our nearest, somewhat dissolute, garden centre with £20 to spare and a gap of about 3 square metres to fill.
Unfortunately the plants that came nearest to Monty's luxuriant standards were between £8 and £12. Doing the maths this meant I couldn't afford the planting scheme (yes, I did have one) I had envisioned.
Saddened I began to trudge back to the car, and then caught sight of the poor bedraggled herb section (as opposed to the healthy herb section). These were around £1.59 to £1.99 each. Result!
I am trying to nurture a mini Piet Oudolf patch, which I wrote about last November, and I think these tall swishy herbs like fennel will give the same effect. I'm not sure how they will look in the winter, and I'm concerned about the final size of the two artichokes, but I'm happy enough. Of course, as Monty predicted there was only one struggling plant per pot, and they don't seem to have got over the shock of being planted yet, but we have to live within our means, don't we?
