#SixOnSaturday Brave New Normal Day?

Immersing myself largely in the garden and allotment, I'm more or less ignoring the 'gradual easing of lockdown', I'm not going anywhere, unless there's a temptingly close NGS garden to visit tomorrow. This week, I'm appreciating the fact that I have visited lots of plant fairs and been inspired by lots of other gardens when I look at the number of different plants I have accumulated, or is it collected?
I am giving special thanks this week to Rosy Hardy whose book '25 Years of Chelsea' I have just read. You can buy it online by looking here, I originally bought it when I last visited Hardy's Nursery last September, thinking there seemed to be lots of colour photos, however there's a lot more in there than photos of plants. She has changed the way I look at plants in the garden, I've realised how important it is not just to keep plants healthy and grow what you like to look at, but their setting is also very important. Accidentally some of my settings for plants really work as regards colour, height and leaf shape of plants, others like Crocosmia Lucifer and Salvia Cerro Potosi scream 'Noooooooooo' at each other. The Crocosmia will have to be positioned elsewhere.
A few of my choices this week have reflected my fortunate placings of plants together like The Echinacea 'White Swan' I bought last year from an NGS open garden in Kent, looking just like this. I didn't think I could ever manage to get Echinacea to flower in my garden, they always seem to have been lost to slugs, this one was positioned where the new greenhouse footings were to be laid, so I lifted it into a pot, then put it in the greenhouse until it was about to flower before planting it out alongside some 'Naughty Marietta' grown from seed:
 For my second choice, I've got Burkheya purpurea, a great favourite, they can be seen en masse at RHS Wisley South African Meadow as seen on page 70 of the latest copy of The Garden magazine, they are easy to grow from saved seed, and have an amazing arrangement of flowers down the stem.
Next is a frilly Shasta daisy, looking good against contrasting blue Campanula and red/pink Penstemon in the background:
For my fourth floral choice, I selected this Dierama with a slight blush on the petals and against another clump of blue Campanula looks good. There are some Evening Primrose in the background, they look alright I think.
I am so pleased with the cucumbers growing in my newly installed greenhouse that I have to include them. I was given 2 plants by a friend, so don't yet know the variety, I usually grow outdoor small ones called Diva which have struggled this year. Just look at these 4 cucumbers:
The gooseberries and blackcurrants have been fabulous this year. These are mostly grown on the allotment because they do take up a lot of space, but I included this photo of blackcurrants because they are on a self seeded plant growing on the patio which is laden with fruit.
And here's the collage:
All that's left is to thank The Propagator for having this idea, and direct you to his blog which I'll now read along with lots of other enthusiastic gardeners' choices. I love the seed sowing The Propagator does.



Comments

  1. The frilly Shasta daisy made me smile! Is it a big one? I have the very short one 'Angel," and sent the tall one to a corner of the yard! They took over the beds.

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  2. It's lovely, it hasn't spread much, but I'll watch out for the take over bid. It's about 1 metre tall.

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  3. lovely, snap on the berkhaya, i have that one. the flowers are nice, i wish it wasn't so angry in the spike department!

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