PERENNIAL TULIPS AND THE POTAGER

Welcome back.  The weather today has been unruly.  Wind, hail, sun - it's been very changeable to say the least, so I've retreated indoors to write this.  I promised last week to write a little bit about Mr B's Vegetable garden, or should that be Potager?  It's got a decorative trellis fence and some box cones, so I think it's the later.  

Here it is (and looking much tidier than when I was looking after it).  There are 8 beds in all.  Three given over to soft fruit, one to herbs and the remainder for vegetables.  There's also a  separate long bed beside the greenhouse.

Here is Mr B clearing the weeds.  He now has his very own garden waste bin so we don't fight over them.

 

The strawberries have been thinned out (a lot!).  The raspberry canes have been cut back and the gooseberry bush is going to be pruned next.

Gooseberry bush and Strawberry plants

The onions were in the greenhouse to get them going, and have now been planted out in neat rows.  Seeds have been sown for beetroot and spring onions outdoors, and I've sown seeds in the greenhouse.  It's a random selection from out of date seed packets.  Fingers crossed some of them germinate.  The tomatoes are well on their way though, and ready to be pricked out.

The Onion bed

There's a few Artichoke plants as well.  They produce some edible heads, but I have to admit the ones from the shop are far more tender.

The potatoes are chitting on the windowsill.  Below is the bed of Garlic planted last Autumn with an unruly Tayberry behind which I need to tie onto the fence.

The Garlic bed

So that's where we are with the edibles.  After finding out he would be featured this week, Mr B was feeling the pressure, but I think we can all agree he has risen to the challenge.

By way of a part two, and particularly for those of you who prefer the floral over the edible, we come to the part about the tulips.  More specifically, those tulips which I have found will come back year after year.  

There are some tulips which I wish weren't so perennial.  We've all found that there is one bright red or bright yellow tulip that pops up year after year in the wrong place.  There are others that disappear after one season leaving us disappointed.

Thankfully there are also some which behave just as we would want.  Starting in the white border I have Tulip 'Purissima' aka 'White Emperor'.  Its got an AGM and they were planted in 2021.

I also have tulip 'Exotic Emperor' aka 'White Valley' in this border.  It is a double with a more definite green flash on the outside.  These I planted in 2015.

Up in the Knot Garden there are 'Apricot Pride' a Darwin Hybrid planted in 2018.  The soil here is moist but well drained, that combination that rarely occurs in my garden.  To go into more detail, it is sunny and on a slight slope which makes it drain well.  Rubbish had been dumped here in the past which has opened up the solid clay to make a better soil structure.

Tulip 'Apricot Pride'

A little further down the border is tulip 'Recreado' planted at the same time.  It's a little less moist and a little less well drained, and as a result some of the flowers are a little small.  It was planted at the same time as those above in 2018.

I have also found that tulips planted in areas of wet clay soil do not do well.  This will come as no surprise I'm sure.

There are other groups of tulips in the garden which flower later and as they come into flower I will update this list.

I will leave it there for now though and I hope to see you next week.  Until then, happy gardening.