More images from the garden

The garden is gradually developing and becoming more colourful and we have also been delighted to see the Judas tree and the wisteria in flower. Another unexpected pleasure has been the discovery of a beautiful paeony flowering profusely behind the compost bin at the bottom of the garden. In any other location I would certainly not have picked the blooms but in this instance I felt justified in bringing them indoors, where we can see and fully appreciate their beauty and perfume for the few days that they will be in flower.

The pictures below show some images from the garden. The first picture shows my tiny dye garden with woad, weld, lady's bedstraw, dyer's chamomile and a very small purging buckthorn (Rhamnus catharticus) bush in the foreground. Also visible on the left is my dyer's broom bush. As the space is too small to grow many dye plants, I have limited myself to mainly native plants and those I know to be reliable in the dyepot.

 

 

       

 

 

8 replies
    • Jenny Dean
      Jenny Dean says:

      I got the Rhamnus catharticus by mail order from Saith Ffynnon Wildlife Plants. (Click on the link under “Useful Websites” on my blog.) It was supplied last November as a small bare-rooted plant & I kept it in a pot until I planted it out this Spring.

  1. Sandra Rude
    Sandra Rude says:

    It can take several years to sort out a garden so it's the way you would like it. I think you've done very well in the short time you've been in the new home. Seeing your garden reminds me of the garden we had for the 2 years we lived in Surrey! The climate is so different here in dry, hot California, the gardening here yields very different results. Not so much green in the summer, for example…

  2. Leena
    Leena says:

    Your peony looks really lovely and I love your pots with flowers. My dyer's broom bushes are not as big as yours, but they are growing, so perhaps next year..

  3. mjm
    mjm says:

    it is interesting to see your progress. your garden is a little ahead of the gardens here. my peony is not close to flowering yet. but i also love the flowers and the perfume. last year I picked big bundles of them and put them in every room of my house. I also gave what I couldn't use to neighbors.  I put in several slips that my sister gave me from my grandmother's garden. from those few roots I now get so much enjoyment. 
    I have been looking through your book before I visit the nursery to buy flowers and have planted coreopsis, golden rod and marigold. I have been keeping my eyes open for lady's bedstraw.
    do you have alot of bird visitors to your garden? here I am watching orioles, cedar waxwings and hummingbirds among others.

    • jennydean.co.uk
      jennydean.co.uk says:

      Your garden sounds lovely, especially with such exotic birds visiting. I’m afraid we don’t have such interesting birds here – mainly wood pigeons, blue tits, robins & blackbirds, plus the occasional seagull and magpie.

      Lady’s bedstraw is not easy to find in garden centres here but I managed to get some plants from a place selling wild flower plants. Otherwise they have to be grown from seed but I prefer to grow madder (Rubia tinctorum) from seed, as I find it gives much better reds.
      Another useful plant for both flowers & dyeing is the dahlia. In the years when I don’t have dahlias in the garden, I buy them in bunches for the house & then use the flowers in the dyepot when they start to die off.
      I think in the US it should be possible to get dyer’s coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria) which gives lovely colours. It’s not so easy to get here.

  4. Hrist
    Hrist says:

    How big does your dyer's chamomile get?  I planted some from seed last year and it was, you know, plant-sized.  This year it's massive!  The ones at the end of the garden by the spruce hedge are almost waist high, and probably three feet across.  Guess they like the acidic soil.

    Not complaining, just surprised.  I did not expect it to grow so big.

    • jennydean.co.uk
      jennydean.co.uk says:

      That sounds about right for dyer’s chamomile. Mine has certainly been that big in the past & I don’t have acidic soil.

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