Friends of Borage

Sunday morning; figured [correctly] that not many people would be about Camberwell Green... So I had a thought that the difficult-due-to volume-of-litter patch next to the Job Centre could be the place for the plant I call Friend of Borage. Its a very tough, not to say chronically invasive, perennial that looks fairly like Borage but with white flowers that bees love. Every little bit of any root will grow. Our garden was about 50% FoB when we moved in [now down to about 15%]. On clearing up the bottles, cigarette packets and coffee cups up popped a Southwark council cleaner with brilliant timing. We moaned about people's inability to use bins as I used his trash cart. I also planted a couple of Hollyhocks from the Dog Kennel Hill forest and added some compost [recycled from my aubergine pots]. In this spot one of the hardy geraniums and one of the michaelmas daisies that I previously risked here are also alive - now with a bit of non-dusty soil around them. This side is also less litter heavy so maybe, with the autumn rain it will start looking good. I plan to add to the FoB.

 

This is the one spot where my guerrilla nasturtiums both grew and flowered - yay. They will self seed...

Good Counsel

I have finally split up the very pot-bound mass of irises given to me by rose-gardener extraordinaire and painter Lynette and transplanted them to the Dog Kennel Hill patch next to the handful of sunflowers that survived the various weedings and erratic rainfall (and away from the Hollyhock forest). How can I bear to guerrilla garden irises - one of my favourite plants? Because I dont have a space for them where enough sun would bake the rhizomes! Plus, if I did, I would buy more glorious Flag irises from one of my favourite nurseries, Woottens of Wenhaston. I also planted out 3 more Lychnis and 2 more Aquilegia from my mum helping the strip spread up the hill. Today, on-site, I met a local councillor Stephen Govier who was enthusiastic about my adhoc gardening and might even be able to magic up some mulch.

I end so many posts like this it is getting to be a signature file, but - plenty more Hollyhocks to transplant!