Book review: Wild about Weeds: Garden Design With Rebel Plants by Jack Wallington

There are some books that come into my life and a few hours later I have filled five pages of my notebook with their wisdom and brilliance. This is one of those -

Wild About Weeds celebrates our less celebrated plants, not just in the form of a eulogy, but in a practical way, so that you and I can take the information and use it to help us find a space for ‘weeds’ in our own gardens. Being a slovenly type, I’ve always had a love for weeds - the herb robert that populates window-boxes gone fallow, the iris foetidissima that gives me the chicest blooms and the brightest berries every year, even the dandelions, coming up with a big ‘screw you’ and a sunny smile every year in the lawn, but this book has expanded my horizons when it comes to considering how I perceive and deal with ‘weeds’.

Herb Robert

We all know the old saying that a weed is any plant you don’t want in your space, but I’m not sure I had properly considered what I wanted until I delved into this book. Why am I pulling out this buttercup? Do I really need to? Or have I just conditioned myself to destroy anything that dares to pioneer its way into my garden, uninvited. Well, I’ve never thrown a party that wasn’t vastly improved by the gatecrashers. Add to this the fact that these plants choose your garden themselves, rather than being planted by you, and you have happy plants that enjoy their surroundings and are therefore healthy and robust. I’d call that a win win.

Jack profiles over 50 weeds and his passion is so contagious that it’s hard not to want every single one of them. I love the idea that he includes many of these plants in the gardens he designs.

Of course you need to weed your weeds - that goes without saying, and Jack deals with this in his practical section on staying in control of your little rebels, but from now on I’ll be weeding more intentionally and looking more lovingly.

I loved this book

Wild About Weeds is published by Laurence King and you can find Jack on Instagram here.

x Laetitia

Compost 101

Compost: how to start right now

Photo by Jill Mead

Good compost takes work, but the joy of it is unending. Equally unending are the rules governing the making of it, most of which you can ignore in favour of following your intuition, once you know that you need to create enough heat inside the heap to break down all the stuff into crumbly goodness.

To get heat, you need microbial activity, so in the end, it’s all about creating the best feast for these invisible guests. Once things heat up, then other microorganisms, along with worms come in and eat the decomposing matter, and poo out the finished product.

Containers are manifold, each with their own merits, but a couple of simple wooden bays with removable slats at the front, or something homemade like the one I made from palettes (above) along with a cover, will work fine.

Balancing your nitrogen-rich greens (soft plant material and raw veg scraps) and carbon-rich browns (bits of cardboard, coffee-grounds and snipped-up woody material) is key. Cut things up small (smaller than you think you need to), and add them to your heap in thin layers, so that there’s never too much of one thing. No cooked food, or raw meat or fish - it’ll attract rats and foxes, and absolutely no perennial weeds, ever.  After this, just follow your gut - If things seem too dry, add water; if they’re too wet, add in dry stuff. With a little patience, and a healthy dose of obsessiveness, black gold will be yours.

x Laetitia

An autumn wreath

Autumn door glamour

It’s happening: Halloween is practically a national holiday and decorating the doorway thematically seems rather less weird than you thought. I embrace it as a good way to get ahead on the Christmas wreath that I will have to make (or panic-buy) anyway; it just becomes a rolling concern – when things die, I poke in new stuff. Wreath fashion, (like hair) favours the lazy nowadays – it’s hard to tell artful deconstruction apart from, well, messy, so think ‘bedhead’ and if you don’t have a wreath form, then make one from any bendy twigs or sticks, held together with thin wire. If your form is thicket-like enough, you’ll be able simply to poke things in. If not, then use more wire. Start with all the beautiful dead stuff. Nigella, Echinacea, poppies and honesty seed-heads, grasses and faded hydrangea are the obvious choices, but really anything left standing will do; old stalks of Japanese anemone – even thorny rose prunings; it will look fabulous. Swear. Add in something fresh (ivy, ferns, viburnum tinus) and some autumn leafery (obviously go for fiery liquidambar or any of the Japanese maples if possible), but brown crispy oak leaves are just as appealing. Berries or hips (rowan, pyracantha, rosehips) are a must, and if you can wield a glue-gun, or a drill, then definitely finish with conkers or acorns - all decidedly autumnal rather than wintery. You can swap these out for the more usual fir cones, walnuts and holly as Christmas looms.

x Laetitia

Autumn flowering bulbs

Autumn carpets

Colchicum (naked ladies)

A bit of freshness in autumn is always a welcome thing, but particularly close to the ground, when the garden stars are tall, wafty perennials or seed-heads. A colchicum (or ‘Naked lady’ as they are called, due to the fact that the flowers appear on bare stems after the leaves are long gone) is a truly wondrous thing in this regard, particularly if it is planted generously. Corms can be planted in August or September, and a specialist like Avon Bulbs is preferable, as they are pretty expensive. The white C. speciosum ‘Album’ is the winner, with its absolutely exquisite perfect snowy petals, but C. agrippinum comes a close second, with slightly tapered petals with a pink, chequer-board pattern - autumn’s answer to Fritillaria meleagris.

All colchicum need good, moisture retentive soil, and some afternoon sun if they are to thrive. You can absolutely naturalise them in your lawn, but you’ll have to hold off on the mowing until the leaves, which appear in spring, are totally gone in June. This is a cormous perennial, belonging to the lily family, and not actually a crocus at all, even though its common name is ‘Autumn crocus’. Don’t confuse it with your second, equally good option, the ‘Autumn flowering crocus’. Go straight for Crocus speciosus which will give you glorious violet flowers with fiery centres, and is a rather more economical option if you’re wanting carpets - and let’s face it, who doesn’t?

What to plant in autumn on the terrace

Autumn stars for the terrace

Pic of my terrace a few autumns ago, by Jill Mead

I’m just guessing here, but if you’re anything like me, then the garden may have got away from you a little over the summer. Sometimes a massive tidy-up just isn’t on the cards until well into October, but I do find that if I can move the focus onto the terrace with something dazzling in a pot, I can generally get away with being thoroughly slovenly elsewhere. If I’m not feeling like spending money then I will always group what I have together (see above) - got some nasturtiums knocking about? Put them on a table. A bit of chard? Add it to same table… you get the idea (oh, and always add gourds for glamour). But sometimes a complete overhaul is in order, in which case perhaps look past the chrysanthemums and towards winter beauty. Avoid mixed plantings, which always look like they’ve come straight out of a big-shed garden centre, and instead stick to one thing, repeating everywhere for the very best effect. Nothing against pansies, but it doesn’t have to be a pansy. Seek out heucheras (really very wonderful in abundance), and grasses, such as Festuca glauca or Pennisetum villosum, or Stipa tenuissima which add welcome height and waftiness to a space. Obviously heathers are an absolute winner, as are ornamental cabbages, both of which will give you an instant feel of smartness, but if that’s a little too smart, then use Helleborus niger, which has just the right mix of laxity and control all rolled into one. Speaking of green, a few evergreen ferns will create instant beauty in pots. Last but not least, love yourself by getting some Cyclamen coum. Beauteous evergreen leaves will keep you interested over autumn and the most delightful of butterfly blooms will appear over winter and well into spring.

x Laetitia

How to autumn-sow sweet peas

If you love sweet peas, then it’s MORE than worth sowing some in the autumn. They will be stronger, beefier and flower earlier than if you sow in the spring. You can totally buy autumn-sown sweet peas too, but I do find that they suffer somewhat in transit, which is why I prefer to sow my own. Here is how I do it.

Here's a video of me sowing my sweet peas! Takes five minutes and you'll have bigger, earlier flowers and NOTHING to do in Spring! xx

…and here are some written instructions too:

Find a packet of seeds. I’m not going to faff about recommending varieties here - it’s very personal - but I would say that if you are going to the effort of growing them, then you’re going to want the strongest scented ones possible. I have yet to meet anyone who didn’t love the scent of sweet peas.

Soak your seeds in warm water overnight. I have no idea whether this ACTUALLY helps germination, but I do it anyway because it’s an easy step and there’s nothing to lose.

Prepare your containers. I like to sow my sweet peas singly which makes them easy to plant out in spring. I use these rootrainers (which I bought many years ago and are still just about holding together. I also use old loo rolls.

Fill your containers with a free-draining compost. I use multi-purpose compost mixed about two-thirds to one third with perlite or grit. Make sure you tap the compost down into the container so there aren’t any huge air pockets, and water everything thoroughly.

Sow your seeds, one per container by sticking your forefinger into the soil up to the first knuckle and putting a seed into each hole. Cover them up with soil and put the tray of pots in your kitchen to germinate. I like to use a tray with a plastic lid to keep the air moist but this is not essential.

Once the seeds have mostly germinated remove any lid that you’re using, put a kebab stick or plant stick like this into each cell (you’ll eventually tie your peas to these for support) and start hardening your seedlings off. These little babies can stay outside over the winter, as long as you have some kind of protection from the elements in place. I use a cold frame, or a clear plastic storage container with lid. For the first few days I put them outside during the day with the lid ajar, then I put them outside at night with the lid on, and after a couple of weeks I leave them open to the elements, unless rain or snow or high winds are forecast. The important thing is to keep them cold, so that they grow up strong. Tie the stems in gently and loosely with string once they are tall enough.

At some point (probably around January or February) I’ll pinch out the tips of my sweet peas. This means removing the top two leaves of the central (main) stem in order to encourage side growth. This will give you two shoots rather than one, (AND DOUBLE THE FLOWERS).

In the spring, once you get around to it, prepare your ground (or if your’e like me, large containers) with really nutrient-rich compost (I use multi-purpose mixed half and half with manure) and plant your seedlings out. You’ll need to give them something to climb up and then you’ll be away.

x Laetitia

How to remove couch grass

There are some plants in the garden which are an absolute menace but at the same time spark admiration. Bindweed and green alkanet spring to mind, but couch grass is perhaps the most ingenious, as it adds camouflage to its box of tricks; when the thin green spikes appear they look relatively benign, and I often don’t register them as a threat - and this gives it the edge (at least in my garden).

If you’re chemical-free like me, there is really only one way, and consistency is the key…. Diligently and carefully weeding it out as soon as you see it will weaken it over time. Compared to bindweed, couch grass is easy to pull out, but you do need to use a widger (or something blunt and long) to chase the roots through the soil so as not to leave any remaining.

Serious combat for infestations involves removing everything from the border, thoroughly cleaning the roots of all plants and then digging over and sieving the compost with something akin to one of those plastic bread-trays. Once this is done it’s easy to spot and remove any new shoots with their rhizomes as and when they appear.

There is a school of thought, backed up by unscientific experimentation, which says that couch grass will not proliferate if buried more than six inches, so with big clumps it would be worth removing the entire ‘turf’ flipping it over and burying it in a deep trench. Your garden gets to keep all the nutrients locked in those weeds, and you get a jolly good workout. BONUS!

x Laetitia

Harvesting for an easy life

Harvesting for an easy life

Cherry tomatoes from my hanging basket

Naughty nature. Just when we are at our laziest and summer is at its haziest, the edible garden is at its most productive.

Keeping on top of harvesting the fruits of your spring toil can often be more demanding than the work it took to get it there in the first place, so it’s worth remembering a few truths.

1. Firstly, little and often wins the day, so bring snips and a basket every time you set foot in the garden. This is particularly useful with herbs like thyme, oregano or basil which need constant pinching to prevent woodiness or bolting.

2. Secondly, a surplus of anything is simply an opportunity to make merry in the kitchen - pestos, jams, passata, soups, cordials; these are all the products of glut, and we are fuller and happier for it.

The freezer is your friend here, so stock up on receptacles of varying sizes, as well as all-important labelling paraphernalia to make you feel all Martha Stewart smug.

3. Harvesting a bit early is generally more useful than leaving anything until it is ‘perfect’ - peas, beans, courgettes and most root veg are all better this way. Tomatoes and most fruit can of course ripen on a sunny windowsill. 

4. Finally, it’s well worth coming round to the idea that something home grown and edible can justifiably be ‘fed’ to your compost heap if you cannot face washing it, preparing it, cooking it and eating it yourself!

Happy harvesting!

Late summer flowers

Late summer love

Aster

The slightly parched and faded look that can plague gardens at the end of August can be entirely avoided by adding some late summer beauties to your palette of plants.

The choice is vast, but my favourite has to be Anemonex hybrida. Available in several forms, but always either white or pink, this is an absolute stalwart for me and bursts forth with a lovely freshness any time between August and September (depending on conditions). ‘Honorine Jobert’ is the simplest and most charming with single white blooms. ‘Konigin Charlotte’ comes a close second, in a soft sugary pink. The bonus with these is that they enjoy partial shade; darker corners, sorted. Do bear in mind that they skulk about doing nothing very much for about three years before they decide it’s okay to be themselves. STICK WITH IT - you won’t be disappointed.

Punchy golden rudbeckia is another star plant for me. There are infinite colours available, (provided that colour reminds you of a sunset), and they are easy to grow, utterly unfussy and not prone to masses of pests and diseases. R.fulgidavar deamiiis a real star – compact, with golden yellow petals and a chocolate brown centre. This sunshine hue is, of course, the perfect companion to blue, (remember your colour wheel?) Fresh deep blues are few and far between come autumn, which is why Asterx frikartii‘Monch’ (see above) becomes such satisfying food for the eyes at this time. It likes a sunny spot and needs little fussing over apart from making sure that it is supported. There…next year you can have a summer holiday and return to a garden in bloom.

Lavender lowdown: when and how to chop your lavender

There’s nothing like lavender in full bloom to encapsulate the summer. The combination of soft colours, and the blurring that occurs when a plant is buzzing with insects is supremely happy-making – like the fuzzy skin of a perfect peach.

The flowers are now on the wane, and the bees have had their fill, so it’s time to get the snips out and chop them off, just at the point where the stems push proud of the main bush. You want the plant to divert its energy back into the roots, rather than making seed.

This is the first of a two-part lavender regime, and it’s definitely the easier bit. After this pruning I water and forget about the whole thing until the end of September (or October if I’m busy), at which point I go in and chop it back really hard. This always makes me gulp, but it really is essential if I want a cloud-like mound of lavender next year.

As to how far it’s safe to go, the rule is never to chop below where you can see new growth. This means that I’m usually reducing my plant by about half (and I am a cautious type). Side stems should be chopped a little lower than the central ones if you’re after billowing mounds, and then you can leave well alone until next spring, at which point your hideous brutality will be rewarded with new growth, the bees will return, and all will be forgiven and forgotten.

At some point in the game your lavender is going to get gnarly, and that’s natural; if left alone this plant loses its bushiness and becomes a grey trunk topped with flowers…a strong look, but not for everyone. I visited Le Manoir recently where they maintain a lovely lavender walkway leading up to the entrance. The gardener told me that they replace it every three to four years in order to keep it at an optimum height. They are bound by strict health and safety rules, and have to think about accessibility, and I’m guessing that you are not. Even so, replacing your lavender at least every five years is inevitable if you want that fuzzy show I spoke of at the top of this piece.

There are of course other ways of maintaining lavender, but if you are new to all this, I do hope it helps remove some of the guesswork!

x Laetitia

Home-made cleaning product recipes

Home-made cleaning products

I've been using home-made cleaning products for a year now, trying to cut down on the amount of plastic that enters (and leaves) this house, and to keep things toxin-free.
These three recipes clean all of the yuck up in our house. Full disclosure, I have a cleaning lady who does the lion's share of this work and (also full disclosure) she LOVES these sprays! They clean really well and smell great.
I got these recipes from a blog called An Organised Life. This is one of those websites I go down a rabbit-hole with, wishing I had been born with the budgeting, organising, tidying gene (I wasn't). Anyway, these recipes are really good, and they work for us.

NOTE: The oils used in these recipes are the ones I like. You should use the ones YOU like! 💋
Also: The castile soap is a great all-over body wash...kids included.
ALSO! The glass bottles I use are re-purposed Sarson's vinegar bottles which I buy from the supermarket. The squirter tops are from old 'Method' cleaning product bottles and they are a perfect fit - you may have to snip the plastic tube slightly as it's a little long).

General all-purpose cleaner

This can be used everywhere - no vinegar in it so you can use it to clean your marble if you have any (I have a lot).
It's cloudy and the oils tend to rise to the top, so you need toshake it gently before use.
In a bottle put:
6 drops Dr Bronner's Castile soap
30 drops tea tree oil
20 drops orange oil
Fill to top with water

Simple all-purpose cleaner (not pictured)
This is a cleaning spray without any oils in it, that I let my children use to wipe down the table after we have eaten etc. It smells truly lovely, because of the rose scented castile soap. Shake gently before use.
Small squirt of Dr Bronners Castille Soap (see above)
Fill up with water

Loo and bathroom spray

We use this to clean the loo and all other parts of the bathroom.
Spray and allow to sit for a few minutes to remove dried on toothpaste or OTHER unmentionables.
1 cup Dr Bronner's Sal Suds
1 cup white vinegar
80 drops tea tree oil (see above)
NOTE: this is strong-smelling. I like it but it is pretty vinegary! If you can't bear the vinegar smell then infuse your vinegar with lemon rinds for a week or so. This reduces the smell.

Glass and mirror spray

This is an excellent window and glass cleaner. Obviously elbow-grease is needed too.
1/2 cup alcohol
1/2 cup white vinegar
fill to top with water
Again, this is pretty punchy in the scent department but hey, unlike some other cleaning products, it won't make you ill...yay!

I do hope that was useful. It seems like everyone is doing this at the moment which is absolutely brilliant, so if you don't like the look of these, then do find something else and try it out...Cleaning products never need to be toxic or dangerous - I've been reading really awful things recently about people getting very unwell through unwittingly chucking a certain cleaning product (which I won't even name) into the loo having previously cleaned said loo with bleach. Impaired lung function. Eye injuries...just AWFUL. Take care out there. I haven't even mentioned baking soda! Another time!

x Laetitia

Summer feeds - my favourites

Anyone even remotely interested in gardening will know that it is feeding the soil rather than feeding the plants in it, that will result in a gorgeous garden. If you stimulate lots of soft growth you’ll just create imbalance by attracting a surfeit of pests, not to mention plants that the soil cannot ultimately sustain.

There is though, a place for a nutrient-rich dousing for some plants. Anything living in a container relies completely on you for nutrients and therefore needs help. Fruit and vegetable crops obviously benefit from being extra big and juicy, and established shrubs which look in any way worse for wear are often lacking in essential nutrients.

For pots and crops, feed weekly. Seaweed extract in liquid form is my go-to product. Maxicrop is an organic brand, and has a general ‘Plant growth stimulant’ and a ‘Flower fertiliser’ for when flowers appear. For shrubs, seaweed can be used from above as a foliar feed, and really seems to make a difference, particularly to evergreens.

Comfrey is the bomb when it comes to fertilisers, but if your garden is small and you don’t fancy the pong, then you can get it in pellet form to make a liquid feed. Of course there are also perfectly good synthetic feeds on the market too. The choice is wide, but the rule of regular feeds, (weekly or fortnightly) still applies, as does switching from general fertilisers to something with more potassium (i.e. tomato food) when the flowers appear.

Seaweed and tomato fertiliser (there are other brands from those pictured above; I’ve used most of them and they are all much of a muchness…Maxicrop are soil-association approved though, which usually makes them my choice) are my stalwarts for the container garden and shrub drenching. I’ve also been using Topbuxus’s health mix for box. I have no idea whether it works better than other feeds as I’ve not been using it long enough, but my thinking is that the makers, being box experts, should know their subject. Lastly, the Natural Grower fertiliser - a vegan feed using a byproduct from maize crops that then goes back into the soil to fertilise it. This bottle was was kindly sent to me and it seems to be doing wonders for my squashes, although be warned, it is VERY smelly…clothes-pegs at the ready!

x Laetitia

Eruption value: hanging basket recommendations

I originally wanted to title this with the words ‘Vesuvian value’ but then found I had wrongly assumed its meaning…apparently ‘vesuvian’ actually means ‘marked by violent outbursts’ or, (n) ‘a slow-burning match, often used to light cigars’, neither of which mean what I WANT it to mean. Oh well… on with the thing!

Hanging baskets can be a bit marmite I know, and nobody wants to alienate marmite haters do they (even though there is clearly something very wrong with them), so this is an ode to all the delicious over-flowing plants; the tumblers; the avalanche wannabes; the best plants, in short, for perfect pots and outdoor chandeliers.

This year I am growing tumbling tomatoes in my one hanging basket, and very lovely they are too. Here though, are some non-edible ideas:

First and foremost will always be Calibrachoa. The Million Bells series is my absolute favourite, with smallish flowers in plenty of retina-burning shades that tumble gorgeously without being garish.

Remember to put your indulgent hat on with these plants. They have soft, sappy growth which isn’t supposed to last forever and should be treated accordingly. Lots of water, lots of fertiliser (I use liquid tomato food), along with water-retaining granules to keep the compost from drying out. In short, they should want for nothing.

Regal pelargoniums are another absolute delight, not only to you but also the bees if you stick to single ones. They’re hugely forgiving on the watering stakes too, making them the perfect choice for the ever-so-slightly-forgetful.

For dainty clouds look no further than lobelia or bacopa. Again, treat them well and you’ll get the poufy mound vibe with good trailing too.

Lastly for something rather less sudden, order some Glechoma hederacea variagata (commonly known as trailing nepeta) – It’s a stunning, low maintenance trailing beauty and unlike its floral counterparts above, doesn’t need profusion to look good.

Squashing summer boredom: How to sow and grow squash

Summer projects, though of course not strictly necessary, are nonetheless a welcome diversion, particularly if you have children to entertain, and sowing squash is a failsafe exercise that will yield fantastical results fast.

First: some word-play for anyone who is confused.
All pumpkins are squash, but not all squash are pumpkins.
Squashes are all species of the genus Cucurbita, and are generally divided into two groups:
Summer squash (courgettes and marrows are summer squash) are harvested in summer
Winter squash (butternut squash and pumpkins) are harvested at the end of summer, hence the harder skin and the flesh that needs cooking.
Gourds are very decorative squash, generally deemed inedible but definitely worth growing for their ornamental value.
All pumpkins and squash are also very useful for suppressing weeds if you have a bare space to fill.

First, find some seeds; This year I am growing Tromboncino and Uchiki Kuri - tromboncino is a climbing variety with weird and wonderful long fruits that you can eat raw, at courgette stage, or allow to harden, and Uchiki Kuri is a lovely orange-skinned squash with delicious flavour.

If you are reading this in April or May:

Sow seeds singly into small pots 7-10cm diameter (or make your own from newspaper) full of damp, peat-free multi purpose compost. Poke the seed in on its side, using a lolly stick to make a hole in the compost first.

Put the pots in a lidded tray somewhere warm, like your kitchen, until you see them start to sprout, at which time you need to remove the lid and grow them on, ready to plant out at the end of May/beginning of June. You can raise seeds indoors like this until mid-June if you like, but it would be optimal it get them going as early as possible in order to have full, gorgeous plants.

If you are reading this in June, July, August:
You can sow them direct, outside.
If you're sowing (or planting out) in the ground, prepare about a square metre of it per plant (refer to individual seed packets for spacing) by removing weeds and digging in some well rotted manure. Poke two seeds into the centre of the patch, pushing them in a couple of inches deep, and protect with a make-shift, open-top cloche cut out from an old plastic bottle. Water well every day and as soon as you see action, cull the weaker seedling and watch the lucky one go.

You can also grow them in large containers like I do, using exactly the same method as above, but I'm a bit meaner with space in a pot, as I'll be paying close attention to feeding regularly and I'm not in it for prize fruit. I'll be putting two, perhaps three tromboncino into a 70cm diameter pot.
If using a container, make it as large as possible, and fill with multi-purpose compost, mixed with some well-rotted manure. Watering is crucial, and start feeding once a fortnight as soon as fruits appear. You can either let your vine gallop along the ground, or up a tipi or over an arch.

x Laetitia

Tomato Tips

Summer is a duplicitous beast; pushing you into the garden to tend to all the plants, whilst at the same time tugging your bottom towards the nearest deckchair for a snooze. It makes sense then to stick to jobs that can be done in a half-awake state, so that you can feel accomplished, even in a soporific doze.

Tomato care is one such job, as these plants require gentleness above all else. Keeping up with the watering is the most important factor here, whether your tomatoes are in the ground, or in a container or grow-bag (and watering is vastly easier here if you keep them inside a pot within the grow-bag). This year I’m growing a hanging basket full of tumbling cherry tomatoes.

All tomatoes need regular and copious amounts of water, so make a point of filling watering cans again immediately after watering, and leave these cans out in the sun to warm (an un-proven tip, but if I were a tomato, I’d prefer it).

Feeding is simple - just add a cap-full of liquid from a bottle of tomato fertiliser every week once your plants have started flowering. If you’re growing cordons, a pocketful of ready-cut lengths of string will help you when you need to tie the growing stems gently to their cane. And lastly, carefully rub or snap off the side-shoots that appear in the axils (that intersection between the main stem and the leaves), so that the plant can concentrate all its energy into producing fruit.

x Laetitia

More time having fun, less time watering: Waterwise with Gardena {Sponsored}

There’s a point that comes in the year, usually towards the beginning of September, when I stop watering my containers. It’s not a conscious decision, just a slow, metaphorical and physical drying up of my motivation for hauling watering cans around and faffing with hoses. 

Here is a closeup of the Gardena drip irrigation system at the base of my baby yew hedge.

Ultimately I justify this behaviour with the imminent changing of the seasons, in which I remove the gone-over, summer bounty from my containers and let them lie fallow for a while before planting them up with bulbs. Oh, and then there’s the holidays, when on top of packing and organising three small people, there is the spectre of having to educate some poor, unsuspecting neighbour in the watering of my containers; having to make sure all of them are grouped together for ease and hoping against hope that said neighbour will care enough to do the job properly.

So when Gardena approached me to try out their automatic watering systems, I jumped at the opportunity to avoid the sadness of dried out, gone over containers, and the worry of neighbourly negligence (however benign!)

Gardena sent me two kits:

1.   A micro drip system for a hedge (or shrub border, with 25 metres of irrigation)

2.   A micro drip system kit for several separate containers (7 pots and 3 troughs)

I have never been good with unboxing, sorting, reading instruction manuals and getting things working…the very thought of it makes me glaze over a bit, but the product boxes have incredibly clear pictorial diagrams which are perfect for someone like me who loathes instruction booklets in eighty seven languages 

(although if you love instruction booklets in eighty seven languages, then you’ll also be fine, because there are plenty of those inside the box).

Friends, it took me a total of FIFTEEN minutes to set up the drip feed irrigation system! Yes, it was that easy. The system is a simple one – a sturdy plastic hose with little holes in it that you attach to the hose coming from your nearest tap, which you then peg down at the base of your plants. 

Here is the connecting mechanism thingy which you use to attach whatever hose you have coming from your tap, to the irrigation hose.

It’s controlled by a very simple battery operated computer, which you can set to come on whenever you want, for as long as you want.

I set mine to water for an hour, every day, AT FOUR AM! (you have no idea how happy this makes me. The fact that my hedge and containers will be watered before sunrise, so that not a drop has a chance to evaporate, and then again in the evening, once the world has cooled down, makes me feel ridiculously smug and yes, I DO hate myself just a bit). My yew hedge was planted last autumn as a set of three year old whips, so this will be its first summer in my front garden, and it’s really great to know that I won’t have to think about watering it at all.

The second kit took slightly longer to set up, because it involves a bit more planning. 

Three containers set up with the Gardena drip irrigation system. You can just about see the thin black tubing going from one pot to the next.

I have six or seven containers on my terrace – four of them full of this beautiful argyranthemum, and the other two containing my lilac lollipop trees, and I put them into two separate groups either side of my steps. This kit uses exactly the same technology as the hedge kit; a battery powered computer that you attach to your tap, and then a sturdy hose to which you attach smaller flexible tubes which you peg down at the base of your plants. 

You simply decide the way you want it to work , and then you snip the narrow tubing, and attach little drip-feed attachment things to it (they go in easily)…it’s really not a chore, SWEAR. Again, the idea is to use as little water as possible by using dripping water rather than a flood – the water comes out in a tiny trickle directly into the compost in each pot. Because you’re not dousing each pot with water there is no run-off and therefore less waste. And because you can set the timer to water at 4am (or whenever you want) there is none of the evaporation that happens when you reactively water with a hose, from above, in the middle of a boiling hot day.

The pegs keep the tubing nice and close to the base of the plants.

This was SUCH a simple system to set up and get going. I love the fact that I can change the programming according to the weather (it’s tipping down with rain right now!) This is a really simple, easy way to conserve water and cut down on time spent on watering, and, more importantly, WORRYING! Highly recommended. You can see the kits in action on my Instagram stories, saved in the highlight called ‘Waterwise’.

x Laetitia

My tiny front garden: Update!

It’s been six months since I put the finishing touches (a crabapple tree) to my tiny front garden and I thought I’d post a little update and some pictures to illustrate how it’s all been growing.

Fattening up

I’ve been so excited and thrilled by how all the planting has filled out over the past few months. The edging, which comprises a mixture of harts tongue fern, alchemical mollis and xxx fern, is giving me goosebumps it is so sumptuous.

This is most definitely a combination I’ll be repeating (whenever I get the chance). I love the mixture and greens and the textures, and now that the alchemilla is flowering, and that gorgeous acid green inflorescence is doing its thing, well, all the good feelings!

The tulips were a joy when they appeared. I filled the space with one called ‘Pretty Princess’ and it stole my heart.

The crabapple was a vision in spring when it flowered (no pics, I’m so sorry)…you’ll jut have to believe me, and now it has these delightful fruit fattening up.

And I planted some salvia to fill the gaps while the sarcococca fills out (it’s a slow burn with sarcococca when it’s small, but worth it.

But the most joyful thing is the yew hedge, which I planted last autumn, and has put on loads of fresh pale green new growth. One of the plants has died and that’s fine…I was expecting more of them to fail - I am a less than attentive mother to new things and you have to be tough to survive around here. I’m hoping this hedge will grow well beyond the top of the wall and give me the privacy I’m after.

x Laetitia

Book review: In Bloom by Clare Nolan

In Bloom, by Clare Nolan

I first met Clare Nolan when she came to style my flat for a piece she was writing, and saw first hand how she worked her magic in my space. Back then, I had no idea what a stylist actually did and I watched in awe as Clare picked her selection of things and created exquisite little vignettes in my space. The skill, I realised, was exactly the same as an artist’s, except through the eye of a camera. It’s all about creating a picture and it requires in-depth knowledge of how a camera ‘sees’ as well as an instinct for colour, form and space (especially negative space). She somehow managed to make everything sing for the camera in a way that I have never mastered, and it’s this talent, along with her experience in growing flowers simply for the joy of cutting them, that makes this book so special. Since then Clare has moved to the countryside where she grows bucketfuls of glorious blooms in her cutting patch and posts swoon-worthy pictures of them, along with her gorgeous work-space on Instagram.

In Bloom is like a marvellous, juicy scrapbook of Clare’s wisdom and experience…its cover and photography might have you thinking that this is pure coffee-table stuff, but no… it’s packed with properly useful, practical advice and tips, laid out simply in a way that everyone can understand, even if you are a total novice. Her growing instructions are detailed enough to give you a thorough insight into the task at hand, but sparse enough so as not to put anyone off having a go. She sets out an exhaustive core list of plants and how to grow them, (including her favourite cultivars).

Clare is quick to point out that growing plants to harvest is not about creating a garden in the traditional sense. I think it’s easy to get confused about motive when sowing seeds, so this very simple admonition is basically a huge get-out-of-jail-free card to those A-type personalities who want both a cutting garden AND a ‘perfect’ outdoor space. It’s not that the two are necessarily mutually exclusive…just that you’re going to have to be okay with a flower-filled jumble to mooch about in. Being the sort of person who adores a plan, I love her suggestions and plans for a simple cutting patch. The simple diagrams are a great springboard, and something that anyone could achieve over time.

There is a very helpful chapter on thinking about the ingredients of any flower displays in terms of SHAPE rather than being obsessed with particular plants. Clare divides the elements of her displays into five distinct sections…again, as a person who generally smooshes flowers together and hopes for the best, this is a revelation to me and I can’t wait to start including all these elements into bunches of flowers in the future. Here they are:

Heroes - the showstopping blooms like roses

Supporting Acts - beautiful flowers to compliment the heroes and provide a foil to them - so spikes like larkspur or snapdragon if you are using peonies, or something rounder, like cosmos or zinnia if your main event is spiky.

Fillers - These give bulk to the arrangement, adding texture and airiness, like alchemilla or ammi.

Foliage - All the leafy stuff (not necessarily green)

Sidekicks - to add ‘quirk’, or even a signature look, unique to you.

This book is one of those rare ones that straddles the two territories of ‘beautiful book’ and ‘practical guide’. The pages are going to end up muddy and crinkled AND you’ll want it centre stage on your bookshelf. My suggestion is to place it directly beneath an enormous vase of flowers. Happy reading!

Photo by Clare Nolan from her book In Bloom

x Laetitia

Stihl cordless mower review RMA 339 C

Note: This lawnmower was kindly gifted to me by Stihl without the expectation of a review. I am reviewing it in response to many many questions about whether I’d recommend it.

A history of my mowing

I’m going to say it straight off….

Mowing without dealing with an electrical cable is a truly excellent feeling.

Stihl Cordless Lawnmower RMA339 C

I used to mow with the cable draped over my shoulder (see above). I used to have to stop and unplug the cable in order to get to certain places, and I was forever stopping to move the cable which invariably gets in the way. ONE particular person (NOT ME!) actually mowed over the cable whilst on the job. This happened a couple of times and, as you can imagine, it was NOT a popular move. The person in question then ‘fixed’ the cable by attaching it with a contraption I don’t know the name of. After that, whenever I wanted to mow, the wires within this ‘fixing’ contraption would come apart (because, when you mow, you move the cable about quite a bit) and I’d have to ‘fix’ it again, numerous times. A PESTILENCE on my husband! (oh dear, did I drop the offender’s identity?) Sorry.

Unpacking and battery

So as you can imagine, I was very ready for another solution when Stihl contacted me to ask whether I wanted to try their cordless model and I jumped at the chance. It arrived in a gigantic box and, delightfully, it was ready to use as soon as it was unpacked. This was because this mower shares a battery with various other tools in Stihl’s range, and I had one, fully charged and ready to go.

It folds!

One of the lovely things about this mower is that it FOLDS. Now I’m not usually a folder of things. Like, if I had one of those pull-out beds it’s a safe bet that it would remain forever down, off the wall, ready to receive me in all my exhaustion. But a mower is a different thing altogether…you really REALLY don’t want it taking up too much space when you’re not actually using it. All you have to do with this one is remove the clippings bucket thing, press a button on the handle and fold it down over the machine. This means you can store it in a really tight space, which I love.

Using the mower

You have to charge the battery first, which takes an hour or so. The battery clicks reassuringly into its special dock and all you have to do is set the height for cutting. You do this manually by moving the lever on the left hand side. Then you do that thing of pushing the button and squishing the hand lever at the same time and you’re off. This mower is really light and, crucially, relatively quiet. But the obvious plus is that you don’t have to bother with avoiding and moving awkward cables. If you mow regularly then you don’t need the collecting bucket thing - just let the clippings fall on the lawn and fertilise it. But if you don’t get around to mowing a lot and have too many clippings, then the bucket is easily attached, removed and emptied. Mowing my entire lawn, which is full of twists and turns and a very irregular shape, takes around 15 minutes (if I’m being anal about getting every blade of grass). I don’t like stripy lawns or bowling green perfection, so I’m not the person to ask about how good it is at producing either of those things, but if you want to mow the lawn quickly, quietly and easily, then this machine is a great option.

I got this machine late last year, just after I cut down my ‘mini meadow’. It made light work of dealing with the uneven surface and long growth from that meadow, once I’d given it all a rough chop with a scythe. So I’ve been using it since November and it’s behaving itself very nicely thank you. I love it and would go as far as saying that it has changed my experience of mowing, which once was a total chore and now is something I look forward to.

x Laetitia

Water Garden 101 for small spaces

Once you’ve added water to a garden, it’s impossible to imagine having an outside space without it. I resisted for a while, when I gardened on a balcony, thinking I’d have to get involved with pumps and the like, but this couldn’t have been further from the truth.

In the end I just filled an old tin bath with water, added bricks to make it the right depth, and plonked some water plants in it. The result was transformational, and not just because I actually had dragon-flies visiting my first-floor urban balcony, but mostly due to the sense of calm that having a body of water (however small) seemed to impart.

Here’s how to do it:

Find your receptacle first. A large bowl is a fine place to start, or an old favourite glazed plant pot (lined of course). The only requirement is that it should be water-tight, and deep enough so that your pots can be submerged. In terms of plants, you can go for anything sold as a ‘marginal’ plant. This is not the time to get distracted by terms such as ‘oxygenator’ or worry about the balance of plants. Just find one, three or five plants that you love, get hold of small ones and try them out.

Three suggestions

I love Iris pseudacorus - a lovely, late-summer flowering yellow. Hydrocotyle sibthorpiodes‘Crystal confetti’ (variegated pennywort) is another favourite; it will spill over your container beautifully. Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) is an absolute must for those needing something bold and architectural whilst being delicate at the same time. This one is a dwarf variety, and would work in a less-than-pond-sized container, but if it likes you, be warned that your water garden may just become a bog…and that’s okay!

Sink the pots in your container, paying attention to their preferred planting depth, and weighting the pots down with stones if necessary. 

If your container is large enough, be sure to submerge some stones or bricks in it so that frogs can get in or out. Having frogs in your garden, and hearing them sing their evening song is one of the more blissful experiences you can have.

Be aware that, as with any border, some plants will really enjoy their life with you, and some won’t, so be open to your particular water garden becoming a monoculture…I mean, why fight nature? Seriously. It’s important to realise that it’s the WATER, rather than anything else, that’s important here. By bringing water into your space you’ll be supporting SO much more wildlife than you thought possible. Even a small bucket of water, left alone, in a garden becomes a magnet for insects, birds and the rest, especially during the summer.

x Laetitia