This morning, on a whim, I decided to count my potted plants. Now I say ‘potted’ because many years ago I mentioned that I had a lot of ‘pot plants’ and an American friend thought I was very liberal, openly growing pot plants. LMAO. No, these are potted plants. Anyway, at last count I had around 40 pots, this morning the number has reached a dizzying 73! This number will grow a little over the weekend because I planted some flower and herb seeds, and these now need thinning. It’s getting out of hand.

Admittedly the pots vary widely in size from a pot that’s only 4 inches in diameter for seedlings or individual parsley plants that I grew from seed, to one that’s over 2 feet in diameter that houses a Japanese Azalea that’s older than my son. Last year it was looking very sad, had a lot of dead wood, and even a wild rose growing through it. I attacked and evicted the wild rose with the secateurs, carefully trimmed all the dead wood from the Azalea, and gave the plant a good talking to. I also pointed out a backup plant that was eyeing it’s nice big pot and mentioned that if it didn’t flower well next year, then it was going into the compost bin, or at best, a smaller pot. This year it’s done me proud with lots of pretty flowers, and even a load of new growth. Yes, I talk to my plants…

My youngest sister has ‘threatened’ to give me some flowers I was admiring in her garden, so I think I’d better return the favour and give her some of my plants. An exchange if you like. A few years ago she gave me some raspberry cuttings, and currant cuttings. All are thriving well; as are my own cuttings of a tayberry my friend had given me a cutting of. Does that make sense?

I think I have what’s called a cottage garden. I have 3 small beds in the back garden. They’re only a foot deep, by a foot wide, and about 6 feet long. No use at all for anything big, but flowers, iris bulbs, and some herbs seem happy enough. I have the pots too which house a selection of shrubs, fruit trees and fruit bushes, bulbs, and flowers; all very informal. The pots are mixed shapes, sizes, and colours, and I like it that way. The front garden is on two tiers – it’s Wales after all! The bottom tier is shrubs under-planted with ground cover planting, and some herbs too. The top tier used to be all lawn, and I use the term loosely, however I’ve dug about a third of it over and planted more herbs and shrubs. I had intended to dig up the whole lawn but my knee reminded me I’m old and decrepit, and kept reminding me, so I’ve left it as lawn. It’s nice, easy to maintain, and I get a lot of pleasure from the flowers, and of course the herbs and fruit are well utilised.

My son reckons I’m a witch because of all my herbs lol. I guess I have a few odd books in the house too so that might be fuelling his imagination. If it keeps him in line, it’s all for the good ;)

Laughing here…

Have a great weekend. It looks set to be sunny and fine, though I wouldn’t mind a little rain for the garden.