Planting for the future
MOTS had this wonderful idea of having a tree in the back garden for the wee fella, especially as we had a "weed" that had been growing courtesy of next door's Rowan tree [see this post]. Eventually, after some soul-searching, we thought there was no way we'd look after the sapling properly, not even after re-potting and watching it grow at a fantastic rate of knots. So it headed south, to a place where it would be looked after by a couple with a lot of time on their hands. Yes, Grandma and Grandad have the tree.
I knew it was in a better place, but I still craved to have something for him.
When it comes to the garden I'm more of a digger than a dibber, more hammer than honeysuckle. I'd had a project in mind for a while, to build a raised bed where once stood three phygelia that had to go once infested by some nasty bug. The spot had to be filled, it blocked the view down the path from a corner seat in the bottom of the garden.
I can't recall now when that part of the project was completed. It was too late for any summer planting, especially as the voluminous space contained within it was not going to be filled with a couple of 99p grow bags from Klondyke*. * Other garden centres may be available. Oh my, that is going to take some serious amount of compost. The structure is some nicely faced tongue & groove slotted together, fixed at the corners, and stood on a gravel trench. And currently empty of compost.
The general idea with this is that we get the wee fell doing a spot of gardening in the spring time. Being 500mm off the ground it's a perfect height for him to work in, and a perfect height to block the unwanted view. Job well done, even if I do say so myself. Apart from it being empty, but we'll gloss over that minor issue until March. Then panic because I haven't filled it over winter.
We also had a couple of spaces in front of the climbing roses that only ever grow weeds, there's nothing that can go in there really, and with a need for some extra spring bulbs we decided on some tulips. A pack of 30 bulbs would fill the gap quite nicely.
Our garden? Nahh...So there on a crisp autumn afternoon (November 15th) I removed some plugs, MOTS added some compost to the bottom and the wee fella dropped a bulb in each hole which I raked over to refill. When they start popping up next spring it will be a truly family effort that brought those tulips to be. Either that or it'll not be 100% my fault if they don't come up at all. For once!
Comments
The half-Scottish, half Geordie Iain Rowan tree flourished since moving to a more tropical climate.
It's lost its leaves but hey it is deciduous.
We're looking forward to the new foliage in the Spring.
Good luck with the tulips and raised bed. And nice to see that the wee lad is being introduced to horticulture.
Just a word - in gardening, mistakes are sometimes made. Like me chopping the fat buds off some new agapanthus, mistaking them for seed heads. My secateurs were immediately impounded!
Posted by: Snoopy | December 3, 2008 12:01 PM
And I can safely say the tulips have not been a complete disaster! They are sprouting quite nicely. I haven't counted 30 shoots, but those that are there are variable in size, but all look strong. I hope the ones that don't come up are soon replaced when the bulbs start to split and fill the gaps. Anyway, still early days, but good strong shoots already!
Posted by: Lee | February 19, 2009 10:20 PM
Update: More than 30 shoots! Some battered and bruised bulbs I thought wouldn't come to anything have burst through. That's all 30 through, some of which are doubles! Fantastic family results!
Posted by: Lee | March 16, 2009 8:29 PM