Clotted Cream Jasmine brings back memories of scones, strawberry jam and clotted cream teas in Cornwall

Hello there!

Being a big fan of scones, strawberry jam and clotted cream teas on holidays in Cornwall as a child  I couldn't resist this lovely climber.

I planted it last year and its doing really well. It has rich cream coloured flowers which are really special and a heavenly scent.  It flowers all summer, likes full sun and a sheltered site though its reasonably hardy. It can grow up to 16 feet tall and is a really posh looking plant!

In my garden its climbing up an iron arch I found in a skip and the idea is that it heads up the arch and into the almond tree above in a few years.

You can buy it from the Sarah Raven website.

Its also known as Devon Cream Jasmine in case you are having difficulty finding it.

Do look out for it.

Caroline
x


To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

choosing plants for a North Facing Shady Patio / courtyard

Anemone Honorine Jobert 

Available from Claire Austin Hardy Plants

https://www.claireaustin-hardyplants.co.uk/products/anemone-x-hybrida-honorine-jobert

Hi.


We currently have a paved area surrounded on two sides by walls and on one side by a glass conservatory. It gets some sun in the summer but in the winter its in deep shade.  The paved area is dark and prone to algae and moss. Currently it is a gloomy place apart from in summer when it provides much appreciated shade.

I wanted to make it a more positive space and give it a cottagey feel like the rest of the garden. So I've been doing my homework!

I'm planning to take up some of the paving and replace it with gravel which will look lighter and also allow plants to self seed which I like. I won't be putting a membrane under the gravel. I may live to regret this!

I'll also put in plenty of pots which will I'll allow to spread seed.

I am also going to expand an existing border and make space to plant a climbing rose.

I've noticed that light yellow looks spectacular in this area so my plant list, which has taken me loads of time to do- includes whites, creams and yellows.

Anemone Honorine Jobert
Lemon Zest Marigold
Lysimachia Numulari
Hellebore Niger
Rose Alberic Barbier or Lady of the lake (the latter has some pink but I just love it)
Columbine Nivea or Chrysantha
Narcissus Minnow
Welsh Poppy
Anenome Lipsiensis
Japanese Shield Fern.

As I've just spent loads on making a wildflower lawn this remains a wish list for the moment. Probably not for long though knowing my addiction to buying plants!

Can't wait

Love caroline




To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

Poppy Garden - a painting by Karen Mathison Schmidt

• 
  

Ever since I bought a  lovely floral/garden print by Rachel Vollerthun I've been on the look out for more garden prints I can put up at home. Bringing the pleasure of flowers indoors. Cottage garden or flower paintings can be a little twee I feel but this one is not. It reminds me of the Californian poppies in my front garden in the height of summer.

This one is called Poppy Garden by Karen Mathison Schmidt, an artist in Louisiana.
Garden and prints can be bought from e-bay. Link below.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/KMSchmidt-16x12-LTD-Ed-PRINT-fauve-impressionist-POPPY-GARDEN-red-yellow-POPPIES/162513968094?hash=item25d6965bde:g:iHAAAOSwxu5ZFj5G












To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

My Experience of Giving Gardening Lessons To My Baby Sister!

Hi there

I have a sister 16 years younger than me - she was a bit of a surprise for my parents! She has been saying she wants to learn to garden but for ages has not been able to get what she needs from books.

In the past I used to write and deliver courses on computer skills so I asked her what she needed to learn and I set about writing half an hour  lessons for her.

There is some key knowledge she needs and also she needs to gain confidence by doing. So I wrote a list of things to cover and some ideas of how to learn them by doing short easy projects.

For example growing a geranium she can learn about feeding, watering, planting, choosing a plant for a particular situation, deadheading and also taking cuttings and some basic design principles such as grouping identical plants for maximum effect.

So far we've had lessons on parts of a plant and what they do, needs of a plant and how they have adapted for various situations, the general principles of pruning and how to find out how to prune specific plants.

Each week there is a short task to do and we chat about how it went.

Each lesson is written on a template - in the first column is the topic title. In the second is the points to cover - for each I try to involve her by getting her to brainstorm the answers rather than me just telling her things. The third column is for more advanced useful information relating to each point to add interest.

We are both really enjoying the experience. I find she is thinking of many ideas for herself and is now able to cope with reading up and using key gardening books such as Geoff Hamilton's practical gardening course and also RHS pocket guide to pruning.

She is saying that I am filling in essential gaps in her knowledge.

I already have 10 lessons written up and could easily do many at higher levels.

There is so much to learn with gardening, it never stops, but it is such a pleasure to give someone the confidence to learn for themselves!

Take care
Caroline

xxx

The picture above is by Karen Mathison Schmidt and is called Garden of Grace. Prints are available in her ebay store.

http://karenmathisonschmidtgallery.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/garden-of-grace-impressionist-painting.html











To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

Blackcurrant leaf tea - delicious and free from my garden

Hi there

A while ago I bought a blackcurrant bush - Big Ben - Since then I've made a couple more bushes for free by taking a stem and putting in the ground in autumn and just leaving until its rooted.

I was browsing the web for infusions/teas and found that blackcurrant leaf tea is recommended

I put a few leaves in a teapot and steeped for 10 to 15 minutes and served with sugar in a posh white cup. It helps the flavour - honest!

It is really delicious  and smells gorgeous - all the flavour of blackcurrants with no acidity. Perhaps my favourite ever free tea from my garden.

I use the mature leaves (the young ones don't have much taste) but not from late summer onwards as they lose their flavour again. I pick a few from each stem - usually near the top of the stems. The leaves freeze well and make just as good tea so you can treat yourself throughout the winter .

Hope you try it

Caroline
x


To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

Lavender tea, (from my garden) with homemade scones butter and lavender honey - and "Sunshine on Leith" - HEAVEN

Hi

Thanks for dropping by .

I love to make teas from things that grow in my garden - Lavender tea is one of my favourite. It freezes well. I have a lot of lavender in my garden so lots of free tea for me!

The young leaves or young flowers make the best tea - a few sprigs in a tea pot and let it steep for 10 to 15 minutes. Then pour into a nice broad cup so that you can best smell the tea. A white china cup is nicest - it needs sugar or best of all honey in it I find.

My lovely husband gave me some lavender honey for Christmas. It is really delicious. Its from Littleover apiary.

Lavender Honey Link to buy

I often make scones - some butter, self raising flour, sugar and milk - flatten gently then bake on 180 degrees fan oven. I measure it by eye I'm afraid. 

I laid a tray with all these goodies and put on Sunshine on Leith  - a wonderful feel good film. The ending sequence makes you smile from ear to ear - its based on the music of the proclaimers and the song for the final sequence is - if I could walk 500 miles... I expect you know it.

Below is a link to the final scene - my favourite!

Link to final scene of Sunshine on Leith

Anyway - my tea tray plus that film made for a lovely treat.

Love
Caroline
x


To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

My idea for training my new rose

Ghislaine De Feligonde Rambling Rose

My Mum bought me this lovely new rose for my birthday last year it has clusters of these beautiful little flowers.

I don't know where my mum bought it from - there is no nursery name on the label but I did see on the internet that David Austen Roses sell it. Link below if you want to treat yourself.

https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/ghislaine-de-feligonde

Its done very well in the gravel area near the spring seat - its grown one stem around 6 foot long in 7 months and quite a few other stems that are only around 2 foot long.

I've put lengths of wire on the fence I want it to ramble up but most of the new shoots aren't long enough to reach the wires I want to tie them to.

I knew that you are meant to choose about 6 strong stems and fan them out when training a climbing rose so I tied lengths of garden twine to the base of the rose and tied them onto the wires to form a fan. I was then able to use more twine to tie 6 of the strongest shoots to the twine fan so that they will grow in the direction I want them to.

Any weaker shoots I pruned back to an outward facing bud at different heights to give some flowering growth at different levels of the plant including near the base.

The prunings I cut into sections to see if I can grow this rose from cuttings. Its a long shot. I cut above a leaf joint, as the books suggest and then just below a leaf joint at the base of each cutting. I've buried them up to half their length and in groups of three at various points along the fence. Its not cost me anything to try though I doubt I'll have much luck.

Its likely they will produce leaves and look as though they are doing well for a few months at least but I will only know if I've been successful once they actually start growing upwards. I'll let you know how I get on.

Happy Gardening - even if the weather is far from ideal
Caroline
x




To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

A garden romance inspite of my mistake

HI there.

As you know I've cut back a lot of Ivy from the fences around my garden in the past few days to make way for other climbers. I have left patches of Ivy as I know birds like to nest there and also possibly roost over the winter.

While I was doing this a couple of days ago out fell a little nest - it was very soft and the moss woven into still green so I felt guilty. Although this is the middle of January and birds shouldn't be nesting one of my garden birds hadn't looked at their calendar!

Shortly after this I was sitting inside with a well earned cup of earl grey redbush (my favourite) when I saw Mr and Mrs Robin scavenging for nesting material and carrying it off to a patch of Ivy I had left.  I felt a little more cheery. Their beaks were stuffed with stuff on each trip - they obviously meant business and were feeling in the mood!

Today Mr Robin was plainly building up his stamina as he was only a couple of feet from me when I I was working in the garden and he was gobbling up wriggly creatures I'd disturbed my moving a rotten log.

Our swing seat is near the Ivy where they are nesting - I will be looking out for the little ones later in the year.

If you like the photo above it came from the website of a charity called Little Foxes Wildlife Rescue. Please do drop by and perhaps make a donation. Link is below.

http://www.littlefoxes.org.uk/

Happy gardening

Caroline






To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

Pots of geraniums for your windowsill - very cheap or free and very easy to grow.

Painting by Susan Savad of Three Pots of Geranium on a Windowsill. Prints available see below.

Hi.

In a previous blog about bringing the garden into my home I showed a picture of an abstract painting of a garden by Rachel Vollerthun which I've just bought and love. Inspired by this I've been searching on the internet for other flower or garden paintings I might also love. I did find this one today.

I found this lovely painting on Fine Art America where they have many sized prints available for as little as £21. Link below.

Fine art america - link to painting of geraniums

One of the reasons I love it is that I've always had geraniums (aka Pelargoniums) on my windowsills in rows of terracotta pots.

They suit my frugal nature  - they an be bought for next to nothing, they are very difficult to kill and survive neglect. They flower most of the year. You will need to take off blooms that are dying by gently pulling off the plant.

You can also make loads more for free. In late summer (or most times of year to be honest) use a sharp knife to cut off the top 8 inches of a new stem. Gently pull off all the leaves apart from two or three small ones at the top. Then bury the stem in a pot of John Innes no 2 compost to about half its depth. No need to use rooting hormone.

I usually use a larger terracotta pot (very cheap) about 8 to 10 inches in diameter and put 3 or 4 such cuttings spaced out in the one pot. I then put in a well lit place but out of direct sunlight which is above 10 degrees C. Water one a week, there is no need to overwater as they store water in their stems.  Within a month or so they will start growing as they will have rooted. 

As they start growing every time a stem gets to about 10 inches tall - cut off the top 2 inches of each stem. This encourages branches to be made and a more well rounded plant with more flowers.

As well as filling your windowsill they make great gifts. They are also a great way to begin to learn gardening - skills learned will be watering, taking cuttings, pinching off tips to encourage branching.

There are loads and loads of varieties to buy. I like allwoods.com where I've bought some before for as little as £3.50 each. They sell traditional geraniums with all colours, ones with variegated leaves and beautifully scented geraniums. Below is a link to their website.

Allwoods Geraniums/Pelargoniums website

To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

Zentangle Garden

With proverb!

Zentangle can be so relaxing to do - better than drugs I reckon.

I used to meditate for many years which was good but I find it so much easier and better for my anxiety to do something rather than do tricks with my mind. Zentangle was a real find!

Its cheap too - a very fine ink pen costs only around £2.50 - and any scraps of reasonably absorbent paper. Lots of patterns online - particularly on Pinterest to copy too.

Caroline
x



To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

Problem solved - Evergreens to cover a problem fence frugally

Hi

My garden is wider than it is long. It also has a horrendous 6 foot high wooden fence all the way round it. Disguising it is an ongoing problem in the winter particularly at the back of the garden where I can't use shrubs as the back fence only has a shallow border in front of it which, as its the sunniest place in our N facing garden is needed for roses! There are also too many climbers on it to paint it.

I have a clematis Montana on it and although its covered a lot of fence as it loses its leaves in winter.

I have also had various Ivy's which can look really nice but  they invade the border below where I like to grow things!I swear they wait until I'm not looking then grows another 4 foot in either direction tangling up with other climbers and smothering plants in my borders.

Last year I've put in a lot of lovely climbing roses which are so far only a couple of feet high but should take off in 2018. So my job over the last few days has been to trim back climbers I want less of such as the Montana and Ivy to make space for the roses and to put in more wires for their support and begin to train them on the wire.

I've also put in some Boston Ivy - Parthenocissus Tricuspidata Veitchii - which has amazing red leaves in autumn that look particularly spectacular when wet. It only went in last year but has shoots up to 3 foot high so I'm hopeful for 2018.

All this - and still ugly bare patches in winter. Wish I could have a lovely brick wall!

So being a frugal gardener  - how can I solve the problem.

I'vealready put in some self seeded cotoneaster Horizontalis I found in another part of the garden - but they are tiny at the moment. I shall have a hunt around for other suitable seedlings.

I've also pinched some cuttings of a white buddleia last week and have popped them in a pot. I am hoping I can put some of these into the borders in front of the fence as they can be semi evergreen.

I have a Lonicera Nitida which is continually breeding babies nearby - this would be evergreen and would cover a bit of the fence if I can keep it back narrow enough so it doesn't take up much of the border - I shall dig one of the babies up at the weekend  - it would be a good time to transplant it. 

I also have a mature Trachelospermum Jasminoides in the front garden. I've had it about 15 years - its evergreen but has some red colour in the leaves in autumn and winter which is nice. It also has strongly scented white flower in summer. Its easy to keep under control.  According to the RHS website propagation is by layering or semihardwood cuttings. I think I'll try both! Another job for the weekend.


Will this year be the one where my fence looks nice in winter? Wish me luck!



Take care
Caroline
xx






To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

My most favourite rose of all time

Dear Reader

This stunning rose is Lady Emma Hamilton. It is the best rose ever I think!


https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/lady-emma-hamilton

I bought mine from David Austin Roses - link above.

I bought it last year and have fallen in love with it. I've a lot of lovely roses, some with fantastic scents in my garden but this is the most beautiful and has the best scent of all. It is named after the mistress of Lord Nelson!

It is the most gorgeous blend of colours. I usually go for things like blush pink roses, lavender, catmint, and generally pastel shades in my garden - this is an unusual choice for me but it looks stunning with the colours I already have.

It leaves are a wonderful colour - you can just make them out in the picture, I'm not sure how to describe the colour but there is dark green, red and bronze in there!

The scent is just wonderful its like marmalade and citrus. I picked a bloom and put it on the dash of my car just as we were heading off carpacking  in the wilds of the NW coast of Scotland. For a week I could bury my nose in it and enjoy the scent which lasted, unchanged for at least a week.

Its repeat flowering, its leaves are still on the plant and its mid January. It has good disease resistance and certainly has been looking healthy in my garden. It has won an award of garden merit from the Royal Horticultural Society. It also won 1st Prize for its fragrance in the Prix International at the Nantes trials in France. I think it richly deserves these awards and I hope it got to go to the ceremonies and had a good tea afterwards.

I do hope you try it out in your garden

Caroline
x



To learn more about me please visit
https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/


"
Key words - rose scent "cottage gardens" best perfect "English rose" "david Austin" "recommended rose"

free plants found in first gardening session of the year!

Free plants - Ivy Leaved Toadflax and Golden Marjoram

Good morning

Yesterday morning the weather was brilliant so I headed out for my first gardening session of 2018.

In the sunny border in my front garden which is surrounded by a brick wall and slightly raised I spent time clearing away dead leaves, twigs and cut back the dead growth from plants like Aquilegia and Feverfew. I cut back my Nepeta (cat mint) which is now looking a bit straggly and was cheered to find new growth waiting for spring, I'd only planted it last summer so it was reassuring to see its doing fine.

As I tidied up I found a few seedlings of an Cymbalaria Muralis (Ivy Leaved Toadflax)  an old cottage garden flower.  Last year I had put a mass of them on a tub and they looked lovely. So I put the seedlings by the edge of the wall at the front of the border, grouped together. They should look nice spilling over the low wall in the summer.

I also cut back  a golden marjoram which I have had for many years and is a large clump which had become straggly, again underneath was a mass of young leaves. I love it as it gives a lovely splash of colour to the border all year round. Once it was cut back  around the edge I found a couple of little baby golden marjoram plants that have grown out from the main plant. I dug them up and put them either side of the path to the front door so they spill over the path a little. They should look nice with the welsh poppies, daffodils and yellow aquilegia I have in that area.

Happy freebie hunting

Caroline
x

In praise of catmint - stunning combined with herbs and roses.

Good morning

Hope you slept well.

I've always resisted buying catmint - I imagined it smelled bad and had visions of it encouraging cats to roll all over my garden.

How wrong I was. I bought some last year for the first time and this year I'm going to take lots and lots of cuttings and dot it around my cottage garden. It flowered right up to mid December and now in early January it still has good foliage to add winter interest to my cottage garden border. The multitude of cats I imagined were no where to be seen and the smell whilst not the best if you squash the leaves and stick your nose into it, from any other perspective is non existent.

The leaves are a delicate grey green which go so well with herbs like rosemary, thyme, purple sage and lavender. Catmint looks wonderful with most  delicately coloured roses such as those from David Austin but particularly with delicate blush roses like Penelope. I have the above combination of flowers in my cottage garden border at the front of my house.

Key to the picture above:

Top Left is rose Penelope (from David Austin Roses). Top right is Catmint – Nepeta Racemosa Walkers Low (from Perry Hill Nurseries). Bottom left is Purple Sage  and Thyme and bottom right is Lavender Munstead (widely available)

Please note I'm not connected with any plant sellers mentioned.

Key words: Cottage Garden Gardening Plant combinations Rose Catmint Sage Thyme Lavender Beautiful pastel Herbs Scent easy to grow

An Asperger's New Year's Eve and my gardening New Year's resolution!

Hi again

Isn't the above photo just beautiful!

Being an antisocial and tired Asperger's person new year will be spent going to bed at my normal time of 9 pm, lights off at 10 and putting in ear plugs so we don't get woken up by fireworks!

I particularly don't like what I refer to as "the bongs" - the chimes of bells bringing in the new year.  I feel they say "Bong - that's another year of your life gone", Bong - you're another year older, Bong - doom, Bong... Bong"....   Bah Humbug eh! 

I rarely make a new year,s resolution either but this year I have and intend to stick to it. Here's how it came about:

For most of my gardening life I've prided myself on not spending more than £50 or so every year on my garden. My borders tended to look really good as I had big groups of each type of plant. I did this either by dividing, taking cuttings or spreading seeds from plants I already had.

But since I've started my gardening business, under the excuse that I'm learning about new plants I've been indulging myself with many' many new plants for my own garden. I've spent a lot! I'm not going to reveal how much. The effect in some of my borders is consequentially,  a bit "dotty". Just individual plants on their own all mixed together. Rather like the photo below which I confess is nothing like my garden but is just to make a point.



For the best visual effect multiple identical plants need to be planted together in clusters. So the colour of the flowers or the effects of the foliage is seen to its best advantage. Like the photo below (again not one of my borders - though I wish it was!)

As I've been doing lots of studying this winter I've also realised that I only use one or two propagation techniques on a narrow range of plants. So my resolution is to try different techniques of propagation on a wider range of plants in my garden (armed with my copy of "Geoff Hamilton's Practical Gardening Course") and cluster the plants I grow  for a better effect.

"Propagate not buy". Hopefully I will save a bit of money too!

I'll let you know how I get on.

Take care and happy new year.

Lots of love
Caroline
xxx



Keywords: Cottage Garden Design Asperger's ASD Autism Colour Propagate Save Money Frugal