This week I am deep in the battle against the pesky weeds in time for our first Charity day this coming Sunday. Today I got the stream garden, bottom terrace and railway garden done and the herb garden started. Erin also got a good amount of the top terrace borders done. We are now in that transition between spring and early summer with softer colours and lots of foliage colour. I was also writing a list of garden jobs needing done as I worked around the gardens. The work is never done and the list never completed, it just gets added to at the bottom.
Still weeding, today was the woodland garden (where do those weeds come from) at least it was more sheltered from the rain. Thank fully it cleared up for weeding the herb garden in the afternoon. That wind was something else, not what we need when the plants are in full growth.
Friday Feature plants - Like them or loathe them small conifers have a part to play in providing evergreen, colourful interest in the garden. They might give you throwback 70's nightmares or you might love them and have a collection in containers, rockeries and borders. I will admit I do like a nice pine, yew or a Cryptomeria. Most of the conifers we stock remain small to medium in size over 10 years and we do have a few that will make impressive trees over time. Use them in containers as all year interest with bedding or perennials planted around them, or in borders again to provide year round interest, as a focal point twinned with another on either side of an entrance to a path or steps.
The larger growing conifers we have such as the Taxodium or Cryptomeria make great focal points in a larger garden.
You can see them all in our sales area when you visit and we're happy to help with advice.
We're open Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm
See you soon 
There’s nothing like
holiday shopping abroad, especially when you are there with your car….. though
I might have taken it to extremes at times like when we brought a three graces
fountain home from a holiday in northern France, luckily it was in 3 pieces and
along with three kids and all our luggage, I don’t know how we didn’t get
pulled over at customs the car was sitting so low! Several years later we had a
holiday in Belgium and I spotted exactly the fountain I wanted for a part of the
garden, luckily it also came in 3 pieces, and why not so much cheaper over
there. Again, 3 kids, luggage but this one wasn’t so heavy. When we left our
last home in 2014 I took this Belgian fountain with us, Sadly I had to leave
the French one behind, there’s only so far you can stretch David’s patience.
Ffw 11 year and this
fountain has been stored at one rental house then moved to the nursery when we
moved to another rental, where it lay amongst the weeds awaiting a new moment
of glory. I was determined to incorporate it into our new garden here and had
several thoughts about where it could go. Finally when I knew I was going to
get a greenhouse I decided the perfect place was in what we now call the
fountain courtyard between the potting shed and greenhouse :D I built a low bed
with stone for it and planted some Epimedium on either side which will cope
with the shade there, add in my old acer and some other pots and its perfect. I
am so happy to see it safely installed and working again with a solar pump and
adding sound and movement to the garden in its wee corner.
In my last garden
In its new home
Food, local and home grown. Lunch from the Fat The Fat Batard Bakery just off the high street in Peebles, great food as always and supporting a fellow local indi business. Second lots of rhubarb into a crumble with custard, fav. We visited Greener Peebles to give advise on putting up bat boxes when we were off on Tuesday, came away with some lovely fresh rocket which made the base for a salad for tea that night. Cous cous flavoured with winter savoury and thyme from the garden, chives for garnish and my own lemons squeezed over for some zing. David made some fab pizza tarts during the week, very moreish and just what was needed after another manic day.
The gardens were tidied, the sales area filled up and looking fab with all those lovely early summer colours ready for our charity day in support of Breast Cancer Now and Scotland's Gardens Scheme with support form Scotland's Gardens Scheme Peeblesshire & Tweeddale.
There was a lots happening in the area - Dawyck Botanic Garden had their friends of Dawyck plant sale, Stobo Japanese water garden were open too and Whitmuir had their monthly craft fair.
My Wisteria is flowering for the third time in it's 30 odd year life, there are at least 30 flowers. Looking fab at home in our back garden.
I'd like to say a big thanks to everyone who visited and helped to raise money for our charity and those supported by Scotlands Garden Scheme.
Huge thanks to David, Fiona, Dan and Betty for all their help.
To our many new customers over the past few weeks and since we opened for this year in March, thank you for finding us, visiting and we look forward to seeing you again. To our regulars and those that have visited over the years, thank you for your continued support.
I'm off for take away, wine and a much needed day off then back to the stock bed tidying and potting and propagation to create all the new plants for next year to.
Photo is of Callistemon pallidus, to be found in the exotic plant display beyond the shade tunnel.
We have a few rhododendrons left in 2 litre pots, were £14.95, now reduced to £10.00 in the following varieties:
Rhododendron yak. 'Caroline Albrook'
Rhododendron williamsianum
Rhododendron 'Christmas Cheer'
The big nursery jobs never seem so bad when team work gets them done (I am thinking about saving up for a mini digger tho once we've got all the tunnels up, getting too old and sore for this nonsense 
) We had a delivery expected today so decided it was an excellent opportunity to do this big job while we were waiting, its long overdue. Big thanks to David and Maisie (???) for all the help getting our compost bins turned over. A twice yearly job this gives us lots of compost for new borders and refreshing existing ones. Another of our big recycling ticks, this is where all our old compost and green waste goes and then is turned every 6 months, then the third bin is used on the gardens (at which point its a year old) There were hundreds of brandling worms and a couple of toads lol and a small ridiculous dog
#rural #countrylife #countryliving #cottagelife #antiquecottagescenes #interiors #scottishborders #independantretailer #smallbusiness #localbusiness #independantplantnursery #uniqueplantnursery #hardyscottishplants #scottishgarden #gardeningontheedge #scottishborders
If you to see what's new and looking good at the nursery like our Facebook
Follow us on Instagram @quirkybirdgardener and Quercus Garden Plants
|
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment