Fellow #SixOnSaturday gardener Sarah, lately turned the tables and interviewed me for a collection finale. I’m sharing her interview right here for all those that is likely to be .
I do know I’m very curious as to what the backyard is like of very energetic Six on Saturday member Rosie Amber. So, for an finish of yr deal with, let’s study slightly about Rosie and her backyard!
The place is your backyard and what are the gardening situations there?
My home is semi-detached and is on the sting of a frequently rising city in North Hampshire (England). We’ve lived right here for 4 and a half years. The homes had been constructed within the Nineteen Seventies when plots got here with giant backyard (We now have round 0.8 of an acre). The soil is acidic and sandy. It’s quick draining and I describe it as heathland. (Right here’s an image of the entrance backyard; I’ve a yellow rose that trails over the porch.)
How outdated is your backyard right here?
After we purchased the home the earlier house owners had modified it twice. At one time it had a small orchard and a pond. First they wished a big grassy space, then they utterly overhauled it and laid down a big expanse of synthetic grass with landscaped flower /shrub beds across the edges with a big patio and paving areas. The factitious grass didn’t trouble us as my husband builds artificial sports activities taking part in areas and at first we had been content material with simply the bigger dimension of the home and backyard. In the course of the 2020 lockdowns the massive backyard was very helpful, however I obtained interested by rising edible crops and I’ve been making adjustments every year since then. I’m fortunate to have inherited vary of established crops with the home, however there may be all the time room for extra! (Under are a few of my roses).
What fashion is your backyard?
I don’t deliberately have a method, I’m an ‘something goes’ sort of gal. However I do like cottage fashion crops and all of it will get thrown in collectively. (Under are some efficiently grown Anemone – I really like the deep blue).
What are your backyard influences? Do you go to native open gardens or have a favorite aunt that gardens?
We’re from farming households so we have now ‘inexperienced fingers’ in out genes. My mum is in her 80s and remains to be a eager gardener, she has all the time grown nearly all of the household fruit and greens. All my grandparents grew meals of their gardens and so it continues. My mum doesn’t ‘do’ flowers although, so I’m a little bit of a puzzle to her. I develop flowers and meals. One other influencer was my husband’s aunt, she was a backyard tour information at Highgrove Home in Gloucestershire. Nonetheless, she favored formal gardens and topiary which actually isn’t me, however we may nonetheless talked about gardening. (Right here’s a photograph of our Aunt from one in all her gardening journeys to France).
What are your favorite crops that you simply develop in your backyard?
My favourites are all the time altering, however I do like Hollyhocks, Sunflowers and pollinator pleasant flowers like Foxgloves. I take pleasure in listening to the excitement of pleased bugs on my flowers all through the summer time months.
Do you will have any future backyard mission ambitions?
We now have been clearing the backyard of our late aunt so I now have some backyard benches and I’ve dug some new backyard beds. I plan to get some arches to go over the benches the place I’ll plant trailing roses or Clematis. I’m presently attempting to propagate some rose cuttings from our Aunt’s backyard. So fingers crossed. I might additionally like a bigger greenhouse, however that’s for an additional day. (Under are pictures of the backyard a yr aside).
You could have a brand new greenhouse, what did you develop in it this yr?
At present I develop tomatoes, cucumbers and melons. Subsequent yr I wish to attempt butternut squash because the melons haven’t been very profitable. The greenhouse will get a bit an excessive amount of shadow from surrounding timber, however after I obtained it the positioning was the most effective compromise with the remainder of the household.
What had been your standout backyard successes this yr?
To be sincere, I’m happy when something grows! However I do wish to develop crops from seeds and cuttings. I get nice satisfaction once they take off and develop into crops. Final yr I wished to attempt Nasturtiums and I obtained actually eager to get them underneath method. I had a blended selection jumbo pack – 6 completely different ones – and about 15 seeds per pack. I planted the lot in February indoors and about 95% of them germinated in 4 days! I then needed to hold them alive till I may plant them out in Might.
The place to from right here? What do you assume you’ll develop extra of subsequent yr?
I’ve determined that this yr will likely be my Tulip yr. It started after I took a visit to RHS Wisley in August. They’d a choose ‘n’ combine arrange of their store; you possibly can select a bag dimension and fill it up. I challenged my buddy to see what number of bulbs we may get in our bag. We had giggle and amazed ourselves with what number of we obtained for our cash. Then Aldi had Tulips at knockdown costs and naturally Suttons seeds had a bulb sale and identical to that I had plenty of Tulips! Did I point out that a complete load of Alliums sneaked in as nicely? Oh nicely it will likely be a Tulip and Allium spring if the squirrel doesn’t eat all of them earlier than then.
How does your backyard enhance your high quality of life?
I really like being exterior in nature and my backyard is one in all my go-to locations. If I would like some alone time or area from life, I head out into the backyard. It additionally helps to maintain me match; sweeping up leaves and particles from all of the Astro grass takes ages! I do have an electrical leaf blower however I want the bodily work.
Thanks, Sarah, for inviting me to speak about my very own backyard and share it along with your readers.
Many thanks, to Rosie to all her kindness and for together with so many lovely gardens of the ‘Six on Saturday’ gardeners in her ‘Enchanting Gardens’ weblog posts this yr. I do know I definitely loved just about visiting your gardens by way of these posts!
 – Sarah Rajkotwala fellow ‘Six on Saturday’ backyard blogger.
You may as well follower Rosie on Twitter / X and Instagram.
