My Garden Tour 2nd August '24.

A quick trip around the garden. The first rose - yellow - was 'The Pilgrim'. The second rose was 'Open Arms'. Several of the pansies will now go as they've done really well but are coming to their replacement time. I planted them last Autumn. I don't spray my roses with anything so blackspot prevails on some of them.Survival of the fittest here. The Collared Dove has been nesting successfully in the Mme. Alfred Carriere now for several years on the trot. Some of the roses are what out of work actors say they're doing, 'Resting'. The Red Rose on the Thumbnail of this video was in the garden when we came here 18 years ago. It's not very vigorous, smells beautiful but is sadly, a Rose with no name. All conifer hedges/trees have been cut back this week too. The garden could do with some rain as we overlie Kentish Ragstone and don't have much topsoil - very freedraining. There used to be a Ragstone Quarry just over the boundary fence.

[@goldiethompson6569]

Very beautiful roses 🌹 ❤💛Thanks for sharing your beautiful garden 😊

[@peterhaymaker7562]

Thank you for your nice comments. I’m pleased to hear you like our garden. Cheers! P

[@Beautifulflowers-05]

These roses are so beautiful 🌹

[@peterhaymaker7562]

@@Beautifulflowers-05 Thanks, I’m so pleased you like them. P.

[@Mycuterosegardenandthedog]

Your garden looks wonderful 😍 climbers and ramblers are growing so well and look stunning 😍❤️ Thanks for sharing, Peter!

[@peterhaymaker7562]

Thanks Dilly, glad you enjoyed the video. P.

[@nikkonch]

Still a good lot of flowers on those climbers Peter. We haven't had a single outdoor tomato yet this year and not many from the greenhouse either - you must be getting a lot more sun over there in Kent than us in the West. And we only have one apple! Just sticking a cutting in the ground seems to be as efficient a method of getting a new plant as any. You have a HUGE variety of plants - and you know what most of them are, which is impressive. As for that unidentified rose - there is an app a friend of mine put on his phone to identify roses. He went around the garden telling me what each rose was - the app managed to identify just one of my roses correctly. So that's not going to help you! I had a hornet fly into the bathroom one evening - I found it quite terrifying because it was so large, specially in the narrow confines of a bathroom!

[@peterhaymaker7562]

Yes Nik, some of the roses are still doing OK. My outdoor tomatoes are all bush varieties and are all determinates. In the greenhouse they are all indeterminates. The outdoor determinate I tend to favour is Red Alert and I do have a couple of others. Always does well and comes early. Can be grown in the greenhouse but they do well outside with me. The Red Rose is probably just going to join the list of, 'I don't know it's name' although it'll be the only one in our garden. I went to photograph the Hornet, it was on a windflower/anemone, and it flew right at me so I didn't get it. Frightening. P.

[@soulgirlktf]

Hi Peter, thank you for the tour it's lovely to see your colourful garden again. The collared Dove nesting in Mme Alfred Carriere is wonderful to hear, I know you mentioned earlier that you were hoping they would again, I'm so pleased they have. We haven't had any rain here for ages my water barrels are empty, it seems it's all or nothing for us re. rain this year ! Your roses are looking great and your hydrangeas are all doing really well along with your many beautiful fuchsias. Some of my pansies are done now, the one's in more sun mainly are over, they literally frazzle to nothing as soon as the sun gets too strong, the pansies/violas I have in the shade are fine still so it must be a heat/sun thing with them. Your toms are way ahead of mine, very slow start for mine this year. I was late potting them on into large pots because I didn't have room in the greenhouse so I have to be strict with myself next year re. how many different seeds I start. I did too many of all kinds of plants this year and then the relentless rains came so that was not a good combination. The winter time is my downfall, I shop online buying all these wonderful seed packets and dreaming of warmer weather and then I am in trouble space wise once spring arrives haha. You have lots of apples, I always wanted fruit trees but I don't think we have room. The hedges, front and back garden, are on the list to do now the birds are no longer nesting, our hedges are desperate for a good trim they have grown so much this year and we have trees and wild roses and all sorts of stuff growing in there too so that's a job to tackle next week. Hope you have a lovely week in your garden, thanks again for the tour I always enjoy seeing your wonderful garden, take care.

[@peterhaymaker7562]

Hi Linda and thanks very much for your nice long reply. 'Yes' it's lovley that the Collared Dove is back again; that she feels safe with us. I always talk to her as I pass by. We do also have two Woodpigeons nesting too, one in the front hedge/cupressus trees and one in the back cupressus hedge/trees. Not a great lover of them but there they are. Sadly, for us, they clear all the berries off the Pyracantha, even before they've ripened, every year. Water barrels here have been empty for a while too. I guess we'll get some rain sometime. Fuchsias are doing O.K. but a couple are suffering a bit from Fuchsia gall mite which distorts the growing tip. Roses are still giving us some flowers although Ghislaine de F. is still 'Resting'. The Rural England is doing nicely again and I did some dead heading on my neighbour's Rambling Rosie that adjoins it over the fence. I'll probably go around this week and do what else needs doing. I prune their Rambling Rosie, Open Arms, Blush Noisette, Climbing Ena Harkness and some other roses. I do a few others here and there too - just enjoy doing it. A Rosa Banksiae Alba Plena that I've looked after for some years has got so big that I've hit it really hard after flowering this year. It'll be interesting to see if it forgiives me. As you say, Pansies do better out of the hot sun at this time of year. I guess I grow too many tomatoes - another story - but we do like them and none get wasted. I grow climbing French Beans in pots behind the 'Little House' and they've done well this year. I don't put those in the video as it's a bit of a glory hole arournd there. The apple trees are doing OK this year. I did a 'Summer Prune' on them yesterday. I don't want them getting too crowded within - let the air in. I hope you have a good week hedgecutting or whatever else takes your fancy. Cheers! P.

[@kenvoong5977]

Hi Peter thanks again for a quick tour in your garden. A very quick question about your verbena rigida, I just bought one last month and wonder if they self seed easily like the bonariensis , they’re like weed in My garden. I love the compact size of the rigida.

[@peterhaymaker7562]

Thanks for your comments Ken. As you say, the V.Bon. self seed very easily and I love them. Yes, the V Rigida do self seed but they're a different plant in as much as they have underground rhizomes which then send up new shoots so will spread where a V.Bon doesn't. Neither V.Bon or V.Rigida are totally frost hardy from memory but I don't seem to have a problem in that respect. Sowing V.Rigida seeds will give you new plants. Now I tend to just wait and see what pops up in the ground or elsewhere and pot them up and grow them on to give away or whatever. They seem to be a late starter in the Spring so you might think you've lost them but not so. Dare I say it, I got my first seeds from a seed head I took when walking around Sisssinhurst Castle a few years ago one Autumn. I shall be saving seed and after giving away several plants this year I've saved two young ones for myself. I notice I do have some coming up in pots and here and there that I'll be potting up sometime soon too. I love them. Cheers! P.

[@kenvoong5977]

@@peterhaymaker7562 Thank you Peter for your info, I’m hoping I’ll get new baby plants from V Rigida next year. Both verbenas are great companion plants.

[@peterhaymaker7562]

@@kenvoong5977 Hi again Ken, Presuming your Rigida is/will be flowering keep the seed because that's how I started with mine. I don't know what sized pot yours is in but at some stage turn it out of it's pot and see what the roots are doing. Maybe when it needs potting on or is it in the ground now? P.

[@wendybartlett6717]

Your garden is still looking wonderful Peter. I really like the late flowering perennials such as Phlox and Sedums. Your Hydrangeas are gorgeous. Didn't your Pansies do well? I've never kept mine as long as that. In fact I'm lucky to get a month's worth out of them as the slugs seem to eat them just when they're looking their best. I never give up as I like having them in pots. I've just been to David Austin's rose place and one of the Roses that I bought was Harlow Carr. Good to see that you have it. Thanks for the tour.

[@peterhaymaker7562]

Hi Wendy and thank you for your ++ comments. I know some people say Hydrangeas are for 'Old People' but that's fine becuase I'm in that club anyway. I love mine, that's all I know. I'm not sure I've kept Pansies this long before. I have Pansies and Violas. Probably get some more this Autumn. I tend to favour the yellow colours as they seem to stand out more in our garden. I've been to D. A's rose place in Albrighton once, quite a few years ago now, and really enjoyed it. It was a very nice day which helped. Harlow Carr seems to be a bit like mustard. It seems some don''t like it because of it's thorns. Doesn't bother me, just be careful. Mine's not in the best of places but seems to be getting established now. Maybe the young cutting I've got coming along will end up joining it's Mum. It certainly has a lovely scent and I've seen some really strong plants here and there. I didn't want something too large and a rose that flowered lower down too. We'll see how we get on. Is your's going in a pot or in the ground? Mine's in the ground. Hard to believe I know but I'm off into the garden now. Cheers! P.

[@wendybartlett6717]

@@peterhaymaker7562 Hi Peter, Harlow Carr will start off in a pot but will eventually go in the ground. I'm glad that you've been to David Austin's place. We were a bit late in the season for our visit but there was still plenty of colour and beauty around and the best bit was there were hardly any people there so we more or less had the place to ourselves. It was so hard trying to not to buy everything but there was only so much room in the car plus my pockets aren't that deep! I love Hydrangeas and I'm in the "Old People" club too and am glad that I am with all that's going on in the world these days. I'd hate to be a youngster setting out in life. I like Sweet William too and that's supposed to be another old fogey plant but it reminds me of my childhood when all the gardens seemed to have it. I'll definitely be buying more Pansies. I like the yellow and purple ones but so do the slugs. They seem to avoid the orange ones for some reason. Hope you are having a nice weekend and a trip to the garden centre is always a nice thing to do. Us gardeners always seem to see a plant that we have to have! Bye for now Peter and happy gardening!

[@peterhaymaker7562]

@@wendybartlett6717 Hi Wendy and I quite agree, I wouldn't want to be a young person today, here or anywhere else. I guess you and I have been very lucky to have lived the lives we've lived. 'Yes' to yellow and purple Pansies - a lovely contrast. 'Yes' to Sweet Williams too. 'Yes' my orange one seems to be still quite happy so will be here for a bit longer I think. 'Yes' garden centres are great places but leave your money at home; well maybe not all of it. Treat yourself. Just come in from the garden now - 19:06 pm. I wish you a good evening and a good day tomorrow. Cheers! P.

[@peterhaymaker7562]

Just remembered, Harlow Carr starting off in a pot sounds like a good idea. It seems several do that now. I also remember, when I went to the D.A. garden centre is was probably about now as I wanted to see what was still doing well past the main flush part of the season. P.