The Charming Nook

Hello and welcome back again to my blog. I was away recently, so haven’t done as much in the garden over the last few weekends. I’ve also been working around the weather, which now really feels like it is starting to turn into Autumn.

Today’s post is a brief update showing you some more of the maintenance jobs the Mr and I have been chipping away at and what is growing on in the greenhouse right now.

I am still waiting for the leaves to fall on our hazel hedges in The Fruit Cage so that I can move them when dormant, so there will be more interesting posts to come, but for now, things are starting the wind down for Autumn and my blog posts will probably reflect that over the coming weeks.

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More garden maintenance

I recently posted about starting some weeding and repointing of the paths in our garden, which I wrote about here: Growing tomatoes outside: An early September 2024 update and the start of Autumn maintenance jobs

The Mr and I have continued our efforts on the weekend to slowly chip away at the pathways. We have now almost completed one of the larger sections that leads to the greenhouse and into The Suntrap, which I introduced recently: Introducing a new area of the garden: The Suntrap

Here are some photos for comparison. It makes such a huge difference!

Before:

This is the small section we worked on:

After:

The Mr and I will keep working on the paving section by section over the coming months, as the weather allows. It is fairly hard work on your knees and back, so we have found that doing it in short bursts works well for us both.

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What’s growing on (in the greenhouse)

Echinacea (cone flower)

I have posted about some echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’ (aka, coneflowers), which I grew from seed a few months ago and subsequently potted on; you can read about that here: Potting on echinacea seedlings and verbena cuttings

Since posting the above, I have just been looking after the echinacea. I am planning to plant them out in The Wild Borders, because their seed heads are excellent for feeding local wildlife. I am waiting until the crocosmia dies down and can be dug up; I will then either plant the echinacea out in the Autumn 2024 or in Spring 2025 – it will depend on how cold the weather (and the ground) becomes.

The echinacea have grown on well since I potted them on in July 2024:

Scabious (pin cushion)

I’ve also been growing some other plants – scabious (aka pin cushion flowers), which are some of the first flowers I ever grew from seed many, many years ago and they are one of my favourite flowers.

When I visited Kew Gardens in May this year (post here: Highlights from a visit to Kew Gardens), I purchased some scabious ‘blue perfection’ seeds. You can buy the seeds from Kew’s online shop here: Kew Scabious Perfection Blue Seeds | The Kew Shop

I sowed the scabious a few months ago now, around June 2024:

Like the echinacea, the scabious have been steadily growing on well in the greenhouse:

Scabious are another plant that are great for local wildlife and I will be mixing these into The Wild Borders with the echinacea. Again, I am undecided as of yet whether I will plant these out this Autumn or wait until next Spring; it will largely depend on the weather.

Hollyhocks

In recent months, I also purchased some hollyhock seeds from Sarah Raven ‘Giant single mixed’ Buy Alcea rosea ‘Giant Single Mixed’ | Sarah Raven. I sowed these a few months ago and recently potted them on.

As seedlings, before potting on:

Potted on:

I had planned to put the hollyhocks along the wall of The Suntrap, but I have since changed my mind after ordering a flowering quince, which I want to train up the wall. There are many places I can put the hollyhocks, but I will be growing them on possibly until next Spring now.

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I have some more plants that I haven’t yet mentioned that I will be potting on, growing on and planting out over the coming months.

I am glad for Autumn to arrive as it means the jobs that couldn’t get done during the heat of Summer can be started, though it will depend on what the weather does over the coming months!

Happy gardening 🙂