Plant Me Now Garden Challenge

Back in March I was challenged by Plant Me Now to find an unloved, uncared for area in my garden and turn it into a space that I could be proud of. I decided to create that special area in a space right at the bottom of my garden and couldn't wait to get going. Plant Me Now sent along a variety of perennial plants and I had prepared the area with some compost not long before their arrival.

I was very excited when the plants arrived!

I did my best to keep to plan when planting the different varieties, keeping to the recommended cms apart, and making sure they were planted in the best area of the space to ensure good growth. I can be a little impatient but knew I had to take my time with this and laid them out first to see if I liked the layout before planting. The plants weren't going to bloom over night, so I kept my eye on them regularly and watered as necessary. Unfortunately not long after planting the UK was subject to a very large rain fall and one or two of the plants I think got over watered, withered and lost their leaves. After a chat with an expert at Plant Me Now, it was advised I could cut the remaining poorly leaves off the plant and hopefully it may spring back into action. Well it seemed to have worked as this one that lost all it's leaves is doing rather well now, and with some nice new green leaves. 

  

It's quite a task to try and remember all the varieties I planted but here are some of my favourites and that are coming along just nicely! First up we have the beautiful and very pink Lupins, oh I love these. 

I especially love their green tips just befor the whole flower is about to bloom.

The vibrant violet-blue colour of the Salvia Caradonna is simply quite stunning! 

Another striking colour is the pink of the Astilbe Astary Rose. It's so pretty and although still gathering it's flowering pace, I can see just how beautiful it is. 

This is the part where I probably get told off a bit....After planting the Achillea Summer Berries, I realised I had miscalculated the distance between the six plants. They just all looked really bunched together and not comfortable in their surroundings with room to breath. So here is where I am yet to know whether I really have made a big boo boo. I decided to bite the bullet and move three of the plants, after they'd established, and to give a more aesthetic look.  Here is what the Achillea looked like before transplanting.  

And here is what three of them looked like after moving.

My plants were basically in transplant shock! To be honest they did look even worse than this pretty much straight away after moving them. I googled everything there is to know about moving rooted plants and now feel a lot more knowledgeable about transplant shock and was something I had never even heard of before. I watered the roots, even gave them a sugar solution (supposed to help) and took around a 1/3 of the foliage off. 

Yes, very droopy, a bit sorry for themselves, though I much prefered them in their new position lined up next to the other three. I was certainly not going to give up on them. I persevered, looked after them (may have secretly spoke to them)  and soon as the days went by they took notice of my care, my sorry's that I plucked them, albeit gently out of their old homes. Soon they gave me a little hello. A little ray of hope that they may be ok in their new home. 

New bright, beautiful green foliage had sprouted from the soil. Surely a sign things may be ok. And the colour came back to their little pods.

I have faith these have made it through their uprooting and shall be just fine. I check on them every day, though I still have my fingers crossed. So, a very naughty girl I've been!! On to brighter things methinks and what could be brighter than the gorgeous Erodium Bishops Form that are establishing well.

And the lovely Shasta Daisy White Knight. 

We got round to changing the fencing and adding some pretty garden accessories. 

I just love the hanging buckets!

Rather than walk past the area with my eyes tightly shut, I now pull up a chair and love to take the new surroundings in, the scent of the lavender plants is so sweet and relaxing! I can't wait for them to flower, which should be happening not long from now. 

As there are one or two areas that look a little empty, I've even popped in some other plants - this one being a heather variety. I may even look into making this an all round thing, and plant some spring bulbs such as tulips and snow drops and then perhaps some winter bedding plants such as pansies. 

So as you can now see, my unloved space has pretty much been transformed into a pretty area with delightful plants and flowers. 

A place to enjoy!

It's exciting that there's still more flowering to come and I am really enjoying learning about gardening. Rather than walk past the plant stalls at fetes as I used to do, I'm now first in line to buy a pretty plant and learn all about it. 

I've definitely had fun on this challenge, thanks Plant Me Now for giving me the opportunity! 

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