Loving the Curves

Our Herbaceous border is about 3 years old now and has given us lots of colour all summer long every year. But it is all a bit straight and formal the border runs down one side of the garden and follows the straight line of the privet hedge. Normally we would get the string line out in March and re edge it perfectly straight but this year it was time for a change.

 We marked out the new shape that we wanted with canes moving them about several times until we got the right shape that we wanted. As its difficult to put the lawn back once you have dug it up we started one end and cut the whole of the edge using a Half Moon. Then with the use of my very old Turf iron i lifted all the turfs these won't be wasted they will be stacked to turn into loam.

Once we had cleared all the turf's we dug over the whole border digging in horse manure as we went. We also divided some of the perennials and moved them onto new parts of the border the small Asters and Geraniums needed to be moved to the front of the border.

Put up the canes for the sweet peas and the job was done a much curvier and not so straight border.

Things are beginning to grow

Well in the greenhouse they are with the never ending rain i have been spending a lot of time in the greenhouse recently. But it's only the last week that plants have really started to get growing the Fushia's cuttings i took last autumn have rooted well and filled there cells full of root so where in need of a potting up. 

 I potted them up into 9cm (3") pots in multipurpose compost with a bit of perlite added after potting up i pinched the tops out. these where put to good use as new cuttings. They are now happily sitting in the propagator with a little bottom heat to encourage them to root.

Geraniums where next on the list these where some plants we had growing in the garden last year at the end of the season i potted them up and have kept them in a heated greenhouse all winter. These have put on lots of growth so it meant lots of cuttings to be had I managed to get about 3-4 cuttings off each of the plants. I put these into individual cells so to lessen the root disturbance when they need to be potted on. 

You know spring is not long away when you start taking cuttings and sowing seeds there is many more cuttings and seeds to be taken and sown in the months ahead. lets hope we get a bit more sunshine to encourage them along.