It’s been a while since I participated … Happy New Year to all the other ‘Sixers’ (may I call you that?)! Go on and read everyone else’s Six by following the links at The Propagator’s site.
Fairly cold at night here, but not below about -4 degrees centigrade. A fine, sunny week, with heavy frost every morning. At the moment the sun is rising at about 8.30 in the morning, and setting about 17.30 at night. Lovely to feel that lengthening once again.
Here’s my six for the week …
1. Scrumptious Echeverias
I am completely entranced by Aldi’s regularly offered echeverias – they’ve become my little sweeties – I just can’t pass them by. Each time they get them in, there’s usually one that’s a bit different and I stand for ages, drinking their colours and shapes in, before I choose.
But I wish Aldi would name them properly. They seem to be going through a gardening ‘dumbing down’ phase. Even their clematis are now sold as ‘pink-flowered’ or ‘blue-flowered’. At most, I can look forward to a cultivar that someone decided to call ‘Lots of Lovely Blue Flowers’. Ha!
However, as those of you who have read my blog before will know, in deepest, darkest France Aldi is the closest I get to the joy of buying plants without being in a car for well over an hour.
The one in the picture below has been with me for over a year now, and is growing a trunk. It needs repotting and I’ll take some leaf cuttings to make more at the same time. How I wish they (and agaves) would grow outside here. My garden would be a different place …
This is my newest sweetie, below – I now have four. Adorable … although the woman at the till in Aldi seemed more enchanted by the pot than the plant.
2. Mouth-watering lemons
Yes – purchased from Aldi in 2019. I bought it just coming up to Easter and we sat on our little supper terrace enjoying the perfume of the flowers over the holidays. Then, at Christmas, we used the first (of four) in our gin & tonics. Three to go … I’m quite proud, but I can see the little tree now needs potting on and treating with something for the chlorosis (yellowing leaves) its showing signs of.
3. Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Charles Lamont’
I purchased this cultivar simply because it was the only one available from the online nursery I bought from back in 2014 to 2016 when I was adding a lot of shrubs to this new garden. Like many other woody plants here, it’s not really big enough to show you a (distinctly unimpressive) long shot. But I have high hopes …
4. Chimonanthus praecox ‘Grandiflorus’
Again, a long shot would be underwhelming, but since my little plant has only been in the ground 2 years and I’m enjoying blooms already (around 15 this year?), I’m not complaining. But really looking forward to the day when it spreads its little waxy lanterns over the wall behind it. I notice that even here, on the wall, it has a slight blackening of the petal edges. Frost damage?
5. The raised bed project
This is the spot where all the action is at the moment … looked at from above, up in the Mirror Garden.
The dream is to grow veg close to the greenhouse, where I have the hosepipe every day in summer. I’ve had a fair bit of success with lettuces, spinach, spring cabbage, rocket and spring onions as long as they are planted where they can be watered daily. The main veg garden is too dry and hot for them in summer. This area includes a lot of concrete (the base of an old greenhouse?), so raised beds are the only solution.
It’s a lot of work, but I’m taking it slowly … there were heaps of soil and stones (including a stone-filled wheelbarrow – now gone!) left after building the greenhouse in 2017, but I’m gradually wearing it all away.
I’ve already bought two little metre square black plastic raised beds – but I’ll need more containers, eventually, to fill the whole area. The wall behind is the 14th-16th century rampart wall for the village, which we are lucky enough to have in the garden. The heat from the wall keeps it warmer here in winter (so a good place for autumn-sown, over-wintered greens). In summer I’ve found that draping shading over anything I grow up here (coupled with daily watering) really does make it possible for me to carry on with a little success.
I even think I might try shading draped over some of the plots on my main veg garden (divided into 12 beds), since the temperatures are SCORCHING in June/July/August. Still, pumpkins, onions and peppers do well, and the broccoli (which I try to get in really early) always comes back in the cooler weather.
The raised bed project also involves taking down my old tomato compost from the pots in the greenhouse (they are heavy – only three left to shift!). I have to grow my tomatoes under glass because the blight is horrendous in this garden.
Then I use the spent compost to cover the beds in the veg garden with it. Bet you’re glad you don’t garden here!
6. Roses from ‘home’
My husband (known on this blog as the Bon Viveur) likes to think up extra work for me. He was over in Ireland last summer and visited the (now derelict) family home of his childhood. An old Victorian pile that nobody wants or can afford to renovate these days. He collected four different types of hips from some of the old roses and brought them back for me to sow. I soaked the seeds in bleach for a time to kill any nasties. Then I used little (clean) L’Oréal moisturiser jars to keep each of the four separate. We put a little damp moss in the jars and then they went out into a plastic-covered mini-greenhouse I have on the supper terrace (where they will be lightly frosted). I checked today and the seed looks in quite sprightly condition – effectively I’ve been stratifying it. Time to sow! I don’t expect the plants (if they germinate) to be ‘all that’, but we have a bank down below that I’m populating with cheap ‘extra’ shrubs, just to control weed growth and give some pleasure. It will be a nice memory of home for him, if I’m successful.
In Ireland they always say that spring starts on 2 February, coincidentally the Bon Viveur‘s birthday, so not long to go now.
Correction on 27 January from the BV: 1st February, St. Briget’s day, is the start of spring in Ireland – even better! Only three days to go!
Garden Dreaming at Châtillon 
I like the idea spring starts In February. I shall remember that!
I like it too – we always have a ‘spring’ meal with pancakes and flowers around the 2nd, to celebrate the BV’s birthday even when he’s not here.
Hi Cathy. About your lemon tree, use an anti-chlorosis fertilizer. I bought one (powder to dissolve in rainwater) from the brand “Ferticament”. (My palms and citrus seem to like this addition every 15 days)
Isn’t your husband rather named “Bon Vivant” instead of “Bon Viveur”? This means that he likes good meals, good wines, the “terroir” and enjoying life.
Thanks Fred! I knew it would be you who picked up on that – my husband himself has already corrected me in the past, but I carried on regardless. I found on Wikipedia today that ‘Bon Viveur’ is a pseudo-French term invented by the English in the 19th century. I think probably because we have a hard time understanding how an adjective and a present participle can become a noun (viveur is a noun, so we are comfortable with that)! Anyway – I’m definitely pseudo-French and as any French friend will tell you my French leaves a lot to be desired. I might stick to BV from now on, because my English grammatical sense won’t allow Bon Vivant (even though it’s correct!)!!! Thanks for the lemon advice – interesting that your palms like it too, so I might try it on my Chaemerops and the cycad as well.
You’re welcome. Some of my palms (young seedlings only) seem to have a few yellow leaves and lack magnesium. This powder completes and corrects the lack and is very useful for exotic or Mediterranean plants.
“Bon viveur” is also available but old French 😉
I just look at that slope and it amazes me what you’ve managed to accomplish in such a short time. And of course there’s the house as well!
Echeverias are irresistible to just about any gardener. I would have more but I’m limited to the ones that don’t stretch and deform too much under poor lighting in the winter. This fall I was surprised that a potful left out to perish survived several freezes until I finally broke and brought it inside. I wonder if any of yours could overwinter outdoors in a dry spot.
Thanks for the compliment. So I guess I’m lucky that I have a sun room where they can sit during winter and not etiolate too much. Interesting about your experience leaving them outside. I think I’ll wait till I have some babies, because I’m too attached at the moment!
Like bittster above, I have an echeveria that stretches where others just grow nicely. They have such lovely structure and pleased to hear that you love them too. Your garden is wonderful and to have a river too is wonderful. Congrats to Monsieur et Madamme Bon Vivants. Next time your husband goes to Ireland, he may bring back some cuttings as those will be sure to result in similar plants.
Unfortunately he is never over there at the right time for hardwood cuttings – but it’s a thought. It was his very special house & garden growing up. I think the last time may have been his final visit to the house, since it was sad for everyone to see it in such a condition.
Lovely to read how your winter is progressing. Just a quick recommendation, I have found that citrus do much better if they are kept in a pot that seems too small for them. Feed, definitely and water as required in summer, but if they are in a large pot the plants don’t thrive at all.
Thanks Christina – great advice! So maybe I need to rethink the potting on plan – or perhaps a pot just a little larger than currently (it was left in the one I bought it in, since I was worried about bud drop.
Good to read this catch-up, Cathy – and hurrah to Aldi! They have sone brilliant plant bargains which I often take advantage of too. They are often quite good with their labelling and if I do sense a ‘dumbing down’ of kabelling then I fir one will contact them and complain! I had a lemon last year too but it gradually sulked and I have more or less abandoned it to the elements – perhaps it just needed some TLC… You are making great progress with the raised beds – well done!
Thanks Cathy – they do have good things sometimes. Last year a range of three different kinds of Japanese maples which were labelled properly. I was a little annoyed because I was trying to get one of each – got to the till queue and the man in front of me had grabbed the last one of one cultivar. He saw me looking and we had a bit of a laugh. So you can even meet plant people in there. I have a friend who used to chat up every English speaking person he met in the Aldi queue – his parties were fascinating!
This did make me smile, Cathy! Mind you, striking up conversations anywhere can lead to all sorts of interesting information and coincidences!
I never go to Aldi and didn’t realise they sold things like lemon trees and echeverias. Pergaps I will go and look. You are making great progress, I wonder how your roses will turn out, I love growing them from seed as you never know what you will get.
Yes – they are rather interesting. To be honest, sometimes I feel there’s not enough time for proper propagating here – too much to do. So it was good to be forced!
You live in a beautiful place and it looks especially stunning in the frost. I’m not an Aldi shopper but am now tempted to pop in to see if UK branches are similarly pushing lovely echeverias.
They should be Katharine … I think the lines are more or less the same everywhere. But then, reading Chloris’ comment I wonder … I
Your garden looks stunning in the frost. The espaliers are eye catching – did you train them yourself?