Well, in the last couple of months since I wrote a garden update, as you may have guessed, not a lot has changed. This is partly due to me being on holiday, being under the weather and being lazy.
(Hey, when it’s sunny in Scotland you make the most of it. Gin and tonic anyone?)
Succulents
Yes, I’m well and truly on this bandwagon now, despite being a little late to the party. A few weeks back I acquired some outdoor succulents from B&Q and I created this arraignment and felt like a gardener for once in my life.
I bought a multipack of succulents for around £7, with one big one for just under £3. I potted them up in normal multipurpose compost as I didn’t have any special succulent/cacti compost to hand. I reckon they would flourish in a finer, grittier compost but I just mixed some gravel into mine and the plants seem to be coping well enough.
Also, my efforts in propagating succulents for wedding favours seem to be going well. I think the trick with propagating succulents is to just let the leaves get on with it. I’m also growing cacti from seed, which I am too excited about.
Fruit and veg
So, you may recall my enthusiasm for seed-sowing in the last garden update, and you would think that enthusiasm was sustained as I’ve watched the wee seedlings grow. But instead, it has just been replaced by an oppressive anxiety. Do the plants have enough water? Enough light? Should I be talking to them? I jest.
My gherkins and courgettes are doing well, though they are still small. I have only two tomato plants, and I must confess, only one is truly mine. The other was gifted to me by a colleague at work, who had actually grown the plant from a seed in the office. I bunged my own plant, the ‘Hundreds and Thousands’ variety into the small greenhouse in an effort to perk the plant up and protect it from ~everything~. I call this gardening technique the ‘stab in the dark’ method. Results vary.
Can you tell I haven’t taken to growing veg like a fish to water? Sigh. As I said at netball the other week when I volunteered to be wing defence (seriously the worst position): “Only through experience can I learn.”
Houseplants
Honestly, I think I have just gotten a bit ahead of myself. Remember the Tradescantia Zebrina cuttings I took in April? Well, (to no one’s surprise, except my own) they successfully rooted. I have also successfully propagated ivy in the same fashion. Those victories have gone to my head and now I’ve taken all sorts of cuttings with the hope of new baby plants.
All I did with the Transcendia was cut the end of a stem off (about 2-3 inches worth), remove any superfluous leaves and stick the cutting in some multipurpose compost. I covered my cuttings and voila, about a month and a half later they were ready to be potted on.
Recent additions to my houseplant army include a Pilea Peperomioides (courtesy of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh), and a lovely Senecio Rowleyanus (String of Pearls) plant which brings me joy.
The patio
In my last garden update, I mentioned that I had finally come up with a design for my garden. Well, part of this design includes a corner patio at the end of my garden where the sun lingers the longest. I am more than proud to say that I have already cleared a large area of weeds and rubble for this, though I do need to dig down another couple of inches. I will be writing a series of blog posts on this specifically – promise!
Apart from that, there has just been a lot of rearranging and replanting. At this time of year I just relish the ability to potter around weeding and watering my plants while getting a bit of a tan.
In the next couple of months I hope to do some more work on the patio area so it’s all levelled off and we can get cracking with the slabs. I also just want to grow a damn gherkin to pickle.
What have you been working on?