logical transplanting

It may be 23C in the shade (and rising fast) but it is very hot in the sun, which is where I have been for the last hour or more transplanting. Yes, yes, I know daft idea but I wanted to bury more of the soaker hose and as I was going to do that it was logical to move the rosa ‘Coral Carpet’ and plant the new rosa ‘Emily Carr’ in its place.

‘Coral Carpet’ went to the porch bed, which is now in shade, to join an unholy alliance of pinks, from sharp magenta pinks to dull purple pinks to coral. I reckon if you are going to have pink, you might as well have pink in abundance although there is soft melon, lemon yellow and red in that bed. My youngest son banished pink from his garden which to my mind was quite an achievement. I gave ‘Coral Carpet’ a gallon of water and buried the soaker hose in that bed and put semi-decayed compost on top of the header pipe to shade it from the sun. ‘Coral Carpet’ is next to an Achemilla mollis which looks exceedingly dusty and dull at the moment. Every time I look at it I wonder why it is so popular in the gardens of professional gardeners. Its pleated leaves are quite pretty when they are fresh in the spring but… One has already gone to compost perhaps when I see something I really, really need a space for this one will go too.

‘Emily Carr’ went to East 2, the deep reds and maroons bed. Her pot soil was very wet, too wet, so I left her unwatered and hope that the drier soil around will leach some of that water away and balance out during the hot afternoon then I will water the bed this evening.

I have been watching what parts of the garden dry out really fast – not surprisingly parts of beds raised and facing south with a lot of sun – so I am going to put extra soaker hoses and run them closer together in those beds. Even when the soil is well watered, plants wilt in the strong afternoon sun and they will only grow within a limited range of temperatures (I wonder where I put that bit of information).

I woke very early this morning and have been through nursery mail order bills and my hardcopy garden journal tracking plants. I must now have most of them covered, although there are still a few mysteries. So my maps and lists are now pretty well up to date. Nice.

Vertiginous photos of my garden this morning, from east to west, the porch garden is missing; the contrast between light and shade shows the brilliance of the light.