It is written “Thou shalt not miss two Six on Saturday stints in a row without calling down upon thyself the wrath of the great Propagator”. Unless, of course, your name is Gill and you’re granted medical dispensation.

Whilst it is not written that “Thou shalt not post a post which is repetitive of (a) your recent posts or (b) any posts which others may choose to post during the course of any SoS (that’s “Six on Saturday”) sequence”, I have tried to not simply shove in a pic of something green poking its head up.

Irrespective of all that (you may call it “crap” if you’re reading this after 9pm), I’m quite enjoying the discipline that this meme induces and I’m enjoying even more the glimpses into the gardens of others (or the clients of others, which may be cheating a bit but who am I to say?). Indeed, as a result of this meme I have formed some acquaintanceships, even may I say online friendships. This is, of course, no thanks to our glorious leader of the Peoples Democratic Republic of the Six who carries on regardless, regaling us with his sowing and propagating exploits, of which, if you are so inclined, you will find ample evidence on his blog. Indeed if you were to visit his blog and locate, on his home page, the link to his SoS (that’s “Six on Saturday”) post for today, and scroll down past his witterings to the comments below, you would find links to the posts of numerous other SoSers of great repute. Some of those contributions may, indeed,  be more interesting than mine.

Enough of introductions. My cunningly contrived (and wholly in my own garden – Nah! Nah!) six for this week are ……..

1 Progress

I’d hoped to be further forward by now but a string of inconvenient appointments at doctor, dentist and hospital, all conveniently timed for the middle of the day, coupled with some nasty weather, have conspired to delay me. Still, at last I’m getting somewhere.

The Berberis Hedge first morphed into a row of stumps:

Which also revealed all the weedy stuff – sedum and ivy – that was growing underneath the hedge and so, rather than simply build over them, I decided to give myself an extra day’s work and dig out all the crud, leaving me with a reasonably tidy space:

2 Casualties

I should have used my trusty Sukoppu but I didn’t want to abuse my Niwaki collection so out came an old spade and a newer garden fork. Both succumbed. The fork lost a tine – no worries as it makes a handy scraper to remove mud from tools. The spade lost its handle.

I could repair the spade I suppose but it’s not worth it. I have my Sukoppu

I will need to replace the fork, though, as I have some rootball splitting to do soon and two forks are better than one.

I now only have stumpy to deal with before I can start building the new raised bed thing, the parts for which will arrive on 1 February.

I’m wondering whether to get in touch with a man with a mini digger. An initial exploration around the tree stump reveals a lot more underground than I’d anticipated. Or maybe I’ll use some of the napalm left over from eradicating the Acanthus in the back garden.

 

3 Crocus

I promised no photos of emerging bulb shoots. Over the last couple of weeks, everything has woken up and I have Narcissus of various sizes, Hyacinths which have progressed to a stage which removes the confusion with bluebells (strangely, not a single bluebell has yet stuck its nose above ground) and tulips. But the stars are the crocus which are starting to open. So not a photo of an emerging shoot but of an emerging, ready to open, flower bud.

4 Primroses

The Polyanthus and Primroses in the wall planters are now really getting going. I offer but one representative as evidence. The appearance of emerging tete-a-tete shoots is merely a bit of photobombing by them. I couldn’t be bothered to edit them out.

 

5 Hellebores

Some might say that I’ve planted these too close together but I haven’t – they’re still on pots. I have a fair number of Hellebores in the back garden but they are all spring-flowering types. Part of my grand designs for forthcoming raised thing included some Christmas-flowering ones. But somehow the sequence of deliveries has once again got a bit wrong and the plants have arrived before the planter. But I can enjoy them (in their pots) in the meantime.

 

6 Sarcococca

I know, it’s like the BBC, all repeats! But opening the patio door in the morning to let resident cat in and being greeted by the scent of sweet, sugary blossoms is a great start to the day.

 

So there we are. Another six. I’m off now to study the contents of my surprise HPS seed package. Mr Propagator has already sown his I guess. I need to order more compost before I sow mine. All of a sudden, decent peat-free has disappeared around here. Fertile Fibre here I come.

Until next time, enjoy your gardens.