West Pennines Wanderer

Originally intended to play host to one or two perenials and perhaps the odd annual, this planter (along with its sibling) seems to be in a constant state of repurpose! Currently it plays host to some dead-looking Carex, some Snowdrop and Daffodil bulbs which have yet to appear and three large Fritillaria Imperalis bulbs - which may or may not breakthrough this year owing to a very recent invasion - a rose! My sister and brother-in-law thought it might be very fitting / a nice idea to gift both Christine and myself a Rose shrub, I received the yellow - "Mark" one and she was saddled with the red - "Christine" one, which is a climber!

Now I am grateful for any gift received, however, to receive a bare-roots Rose - IN DECEMBER was something of a bolt out of the blue - perhaps even a burden as I want to keep the lovely plants alive but by and large, roses tend to prefer illuminated locations - of which we have scant at best and ... let's be honest, who wants to plant a rose in December in the northern hemisphere? Me neither, I left them as long as my conscience would let me, until the third week of January and then planted them in these two planters in between rain showers!

I hope they survive, I really do, but as they are in ... THE SHADY BORDER then I don't think they will ever thrive. That being said the Honeysuckles and Pyracathas seem to have a grand old time so maybe the roses will burst into life and exault!

Linking the Welcome and Kitchen borders is this, long stretch of gravelled terrain which is punctuated by two planters, no less than three Honeysuckles and three needle-sharp Pyracanthas.This was our first 'front garden project which saw weeks' worth of remving stones and the ubiquitous Creeping Buttercups as well as the existing dead Pyracantha - which had retained its mercilessly sharp thorns. In addition the develoers had seen fit to leave us a Hydrangea - I'm fond of the climbing lace-cap varieties but not of the mopheads which to me resemble a poor man's Chrysanthemum. It took a good few sessions and many swings of the mattock (which I had to buy for the job). Once the ground had been cleared to a point where I felt any plants that I chose to plant would stand a chance of surviving and not been strangled or stifled by weeds, we put down a weed membrane and then we raced down to Asda and bought nine - bags of Cotswold stone. This got around half of the area so ... you guessed it we raced back down to Asda and purchased another nine bags. This did lead to us putting down the stones in twilight, but it was a case of the sooner the better before the pesky weeds took hold again.