Nature is the best gardener!

I’ve decided that nature is the best gardener, she knows best how to do things, I think I will have to hang up my trowel and leave it all to her!  Because of muscle problems, I have concentrated on trying to get the main garden weeded and organised. The fruit and vegetable garden has been sadly neglected. The fruit is fine, growing and ripening nicely, but the vegetable beds have certainly sprung a surprise on me. At the beginning of the year we emptied one of the compost bins onto each of the raised beds as a mulch, supposedly to keep down the weeds and this is what I found the other day.

Poppies

Poppies

Poppies

Poppies

Poppies

 

Poppies

Poppies

Tapestry wool

To make sure that I will save some seed of each variety, I found some tapestry wool that my Mum had left over, and tied it round a few plants of each colour.

Red poppy

Pink poppy

Poppies

Poppies

Poppies

Poppies

Poppies

Poppies

Poppy seed that I have scattered onto the borders has always failed to germinate, maybe in future I will just have to put some of our own compost round the garden and leave it all to nature, I think I’m redundant!

 

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22 Responses to Nature is the best gardener!

  1. pbmgarden says:

    These are beautiful Pauline. What a nice surprise to find and I like your trick for remembering each color. How are the vegetables?

    • Pauline says:

      Susie, the vegetables never got planted ! I’ve decided that now that the greenhouse is almost empty once more, I can start off some winter veg.in there, then by the time the poppies have to come out, the veg should be ready to go in. I’m just enjoying it looking so pretty at the moment.

  2. Cathy says:

    These poppies are astounding, Pauline! The colours are electrifying – and all from ‘nowhere’! I remember when we first came there there was a patch at the bottom of the garden that was completely neglected – and our first summer it was completely covered in frilly pink poppies that we never saw again after that. Good idea to collect the seeds – and think about it in time to do it

    • Pauline says:

      They do look so pretty Cathy, the seed must have been in our own compost from the few that had flowered here the year before. One year we had a few small white ones, but they were never seen again! I will keep a lot of the seed, sprinkle it next spring and see what happens!

  3. Cathy says:

    Absolutely gorgeous! And what a lovely surprise! I also love the idea of using wool to remember seed colour and will try to adapt that to labelling my geranium cuttings this autumn as well. 😀

    • Pauline says:

      It was a lovely surprise Cathy and to have 3 different varieties too is a bonus. Towards the end of my Mum’s life, she was very content making tapestry pictures for all the family, so I have a rather large bag of leftovers! I just hope the wool isn’t all bleached white by the really strong sunshine that we are having now, otherwise I won’t know what colour they will turn out to be. Maybe they will all be mixed up anyway with the bees doing the pollinating!

  4. Wendy says:

    The poppies are gorgeous, I would be delighted if they self-seeded in my garden like that. I love those colours. Every year I do have some surprise red poppies, this year they’ve appeared by a hawthorn hedge.

    • Pauline says:

      There are still so many of them to flower yet Wendy, I didn’t know that when we spread the compost, that there were hundreds of seeds in there! We usually just get the odd one or two in each border, never so many all in one area before, it was a lovely surprise!

  5. Christina says:

    Pauline, they are wonderful. I dream of having poppies like that and when it comes with no work, better still. I think the seeds may be mixed but it is still a great idea to use the thread as the mix from each may be different it will be fascinating to see. ENJOY

    • Pauline says:

      I’m sure you’re right Christina, the bees are buzzing everywhere in that part of the garden, so I’m sure the seeds will be mixed. There is only one poppy that has the red shaggy petals so I wanted to be sure of trying to get some more of that one. The rest were chosen because they were the biggest and the best of their colour. We’ll just have to wait and see what turns up next year!

  6. Alberto says:

    They look wonderful, Pauline, although they could become a little weedy sometimes and that’s one of the reason why I didn’t bring any them from the previous garden. But I feel a little sorry now that I see your poppies.
    PS: I guess you don’t have any lettuce by the way…

    • Pauline says:

      No Alberto, no lettuce or anything else either, I just couldn’t bring myself to pull all the poppies out to sow my seed, stupid I know, but I knew they would grow to look very pretty. I will start some winter veggies soon so that when the poppies do come out, I will have some small plants ready to take their place.

  7. Liz says:

    Hi Pauline,

    Wow, how lovely! Poppy seeds rarely ever do well for me either, quite annoying isn’t it? And then look at you with all your beautiful accidental poppies! I only have a few this year after having not sown any seeds planning to move, but the months have slipped by and actually I wish I had now. Oh well, there will be next year.

    • Pauline says:

      Only a few have grown in the rest of the garden Liz, so I’m really happy that all these have put themselves at the top of the garden. Hopefully you will have lots of seeds to take with you, from the few plants that you have, they make so many seeds don’t they?

  8. Same as where I work, Pauline. Generally I leave them be and try and keep them out of some beds altogether – but, like you, I end up introducing them with garden compost. I do love them – but you can have too much of a good thing. Dave

    • Pauline says:

      They’ve had their way this time David, I will be more hard hearted next year! At the moment, I’m enjoying them, more and more open up each day, I’ve never known that area to be so colourful before.

  9. I can’t tell how many times I have thought the same thing. Nature is the best gardener! I have tried to grow poppies where I want them and have failed. They seem to do better seeding themselves. It is a smart idea to mark them with yarn. I must remember to do that too.

    • Pauline says:

      Jennifer, I’m sure the bees have been cross pollinating them all, but I thought it was worth a try marking the best ones of each sort. Next year I’ll just have to wait and see if anything turns up in the seed that I’ll sprinkle, or will it all be where I spread the compost, again!

  10. Anna says:

    What a glorious treasure trove Pauline and how well your Mum’s tapestry wools complement the colours. Nature does indeed get on with the job without our assistance or is it interference 🙂

    • Pauline says:

      All done without any assistance from me Anna, as you say, a real treasure trove! It’s amazing what nature can do when she is just allowed to get on with it. I bought some seed of double black poppies, nothing came up where I had sprinkled them, maybe I should have just sprinkled them on the compost heap!

  11. kininvie says:

    What I like about poppies is they come and they go, and there’s damn all you can do to make them stay if they don’t want to…

    • Pauline says:

      That is so true Kininvie, so many times I have sprinkled their seed – absolutely nothing, I’ll just leave it to nature in future.

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