Category Archives: Back Garden

Chilli

I’m going to try and grow some of this too.

Things I know so far: 5+ hours of direct sunlight a day.

January

I got some from Vital Seeds – who I read about in The Garden and who sell organic seed. They came in a lovely package and made me feel green fingered just opening it.

I have planted them in the growlight. I am sceptical they will come up this early but we will see…..

5th Feb

They have come up! They look all perky. We’ll see.

26th March

I could not love my chillis more. It’s going to get warmer next week so I will put them out then.

August 1st

I don’t think it’s going to end well. I put them in the greenhouse and then hardened them off. When we had some sun in the Spring, I moved them round the garden so they got as much sun as possible. But it has been a terrible summer. Every time there has been a ray of sunshine, they’ve tried to flower but the rain comes in and strips them off. They’ve gone weirdly bushy, and as they haven’t set any fruit, I can’t see them growing any chillis. Maybe next year…

September

Well, that didn’t work brilliantly. I blame the weather.

Coriander

January

This year I am going to become self-sufficient in coriander. I’m going to try to become self-sufficient in parsley. I’ve said it now.

I might buy some tarragon and grow it on.

I have mint, marjoram, thyme, sage and fennel already. Every year, I do that thing where you buy one pot of basil from the supermarket and split it and it lasts all summer.

I’m going to try this method with the seeds which is a very cool man in India I think suggesting you sandpaper them.

February

I had some coriander seeds growing very slowing in the greenhouse which me and Edie planted in the Autumn. They had germinated. I put them in a bigger pot and under the growlight and they looked lovely and perky for a bit but then started yellowing and some of them died. I’ve put them by the growlight but not it in, and I’m going to move them up to the greenhouse after the snow (this weekend apparently).

I have also read a bit and learnt it doesn’t like being moved and it likes to grow a deep tap root. And (from the sandpaper guy) that they each “seed” is in fact 2 seeds, so they always grow double so presumably need super thinning which I am not good at.

I am already thinking, bloody coriander, you spend ages growing it and you end up with just enough for a sprinkle on a soup. A bunch as big as my hand costs £1.25 at the greengrocer.

Acer

I don’t love my acer any more. I used to, but now I want a more natural garden. I love minimalist foliage gardens but that’s not MY garden. Other reasons I don’t love it:

Last year it looked horrible. It is mostly in shade, but it couldn’t take the endless sun and had curled up brown leaves very early on.

It is too bushy now. It looks more like a muppet than a sculpture.

I am not going to kill it or move it (which I think would kill it). So acting on a tiny bit of knowledge that I overhead and don’t quite remember, I have chopped it this January to try to give it a bit of structure and maybe make it more like a woodland underneath. Let’s see what happens…

April 2021

It’s looking nice. Not sure it will last but the prune didn’t kill it!

Plant pot replacements

We have started saving old plastic pots to use as plant pots and it seems to be working!

Big old yoghurt pots work well, but I am quite excited about trying out some of the pots that grapes etc come in as they have lids. So they are like mini-greenhouses already.

I think the trick might be to start collecting them early – so you gradually build up a selection. Also to not mind what they look like as they are a bit random but good for the world…

4 o’clock Flowers

These come up as seeds in my garden. Sometimes I forget what they are – I once got very worried they were Japanese knotweed…. But they are these:

They made the Other Garden look good all late summer and Autumn. They come up late and last for months and they are crazy cheerful.

They only open their flowers in the late afternoon, hence the name. According to the internet they come from Peru. But these ones came via Turkey. The lady who lived next door when we moved in 2001 was Maltese (I think) and she went to Turkey on her holiday. She planted some in her back garden and she gave some seeds to Max who lives over the road. You can see a few of them in gardens round here where they have seeded over the years.

They crossed the fence into my garden. Max gave me some seedlings for the Other Garden, and Chris (who gave me some tomatoes for it) and is another older-style lady, took some of the seeds for her garden. And I harvested some seed and shared it.

I love that they all come from Gina’s Turkish holiday. Who knows how many other gardens round here will have 4 o’clock flowers one day?

Crab Apple

I really love my Crab Apple. I bought it in 2018 and it lived for a bit on the roof terrace and then fell over. It’s in a pot at the bottom of the garden. One day I might have to plant it out.

It has the most lovely blossom in the Spring that turn into apples that glow all the way through the winter. They are still on the tree when the new buds start growing.

Sometimes it gets wooly aphids. And I stand on a chair and brush them off with a toothbrush.

Jan 2021 – it probably needs pruning but I don’t know how. I reckon I don’t need to worry about it for a couple of years

Crab apple blossom — in blossom in Spring

Roses

I don’t really get roses. I don’t feel I know how to deal with them properly. I have 4, all of which I’ve had for a long time. I’ve had more but they’ve died. I just don’t understand how to make them do what I want. I feel this most with a huge Paul’s Scarlet Creeper. Last year I cut it really hard and it was beautiful this summer. This year, it has climbed right to the top of the fence. So I have cut it again but I don’t know if the lower down bits will sprout leaves or not. There is a Sophie Rose in front of it that Marion gave me.

Here’s are some pics of it to make me feel better.

Waste

March

It looks like it’s working…. lots of flowers and no leaves. Next year, I just have to hold firm and leave the leaves there.

Corncockles

I’m growing these from seed too. They are “very rare” in the South East apparently or even extinct but they are very common in my back garden and in the Other Garden, and maybe anywhere else I can put them…

Is this vandalism? I don’t know

Cerinthe

I am growing this from seed – the first time I’ve grown something in the Autumn, not the Spring. I LOVE cerinthe and I bought 4 from Sarah Raven last year. That and sweet peas were the only flowers I got all summer. But they never thrive in my garden. They are spindly and disappear.

I took seed from these at the end of the summer and planted them in September in an old wooden drawer. They all came up! I potted these on. I love them because they look like plants are supposed to look like when you pot them on. All springing upright.

They are now a couple of leaves tall and in my new “greenhouse”. Nemone from Gardening Club says they will live through the winter if I keep them sheltered, maybe just tucked inside other plants. I wonder what will happen to them….

January 2021

Here they are in the “greenhouse”. Don’t they look lovely.

Navel Wort – the start!

I took some from my parents’ house in Cornwall. It grows up the stony walls and along the paths near their house – and up the back steps of garden, which are damp and shady. I love its shape and the places it reminds me of.

I’ve grown it in 2 different places in the garden. Both shady, one down by the pond. One is in a pot under the roof terrace. The leaves look much bigger than the ones in Cornwall, I think this is because it’s in rich soil – the stuff in Cornwall is growing up the walls. I’m hoping this summer it will seed into the wall behind it….

My wildflower book says it is only found in the SW of England and I wonder if one day people will be confused that it has taken hold in Hackney…

DECEMBER 2020

My Back Garden: the back story

I love my back garden. It’s where I learnt how to garden and I see it as a process that has led to where it is now. And it has turned into a philosophy – or at least a way of thinking (more on that later). But looking back at pics of what it used to look like and what it looks like now, I wonder if it does look better….

I know it’s full of life and variety so that’s a plus but I’m not sure not sure it looks as good. Also, it looks very lush but very CROWDED… I think a lot of things have outgrown the space. And there is a real question of balance about gardening for nature and it being gardening, which is not the same thing as leaving for nature. Jon Little, who’s garden I went to see in the summer does this in a fab way and I need to learn more.