Holly Flops and Beheaded Sunflowers

Week 29 - Saturday, 12th July 2008

Got stuck into the garden after finishing off the oven. Its kind of funny how you get this lovely sanctimonious feeling in the pit of your stomach when you have managed to do something that you have been putting off for months done!

I also gave the kitchen a good once over and hopefully got rid of that irritating little spider who insists on spinning webs in the corners of the kitchen window. I know that I love nature but the little blighter gives away the fact that I have not dusted so he really is not playing the game.

I managed to get some lovely strong 6 inch bamboo canes and got all the Holly Flops standing straight-ish and tied to within an inch of their lives. A couple of them have started looking a bit scraggly but I do not have the heart to cut them down yet. Planted out the Echinacea into the flower border where the Dicentra is starting to die down. I will also need to cut her back but am holding off until the last minute. Hopefully by then the Echincea will be giving a show that will ensure that I do not miss her. I cannot believe that from that small little pot I bought at Kingston Lacey at the first garden show I went to she has now become this huge shrub that dominates the bed from early Spring until mid Summer. She was my first plant I ever bought in the UK!

Wollygog – the black Sunflower that Byron has been nursing since tiny, which he planted himself has unfortunately lost his head in the last wind storm we had. The flower is already formed so I might still be able to save some seed from him so that Byron can try again next year. Sunnyboy, the yellow sunflower - is still standing strong and tall and hopefully will live to flower. They have both topped 6 foot and counting.

I finally managed to get the lavender plants which I grew from seed this spring out into the front garden beds. I really want to try and get these two long beds to be almost all perennial and low maintenance. I already have geraniums, grandmother’s bonnet and Flemish poppies who all self seed themselves and come up every year. Also planted out the last of the poppy seeds that I received from the CGS seed swap and despite them germinating late hope they might give us a show for late Summer and self seed for next year.