The garden can surprise you. Recently, I found violas growing. Most years I’ve had Violas in the garden, in various places but I don’t remember planting any seeds last year. In fact, I’m struggling to bring up more than a fractured memory of doing anything with them last year.
I do remember transplanting a lot of Aquilegias as a last ditch resort. I had so many seedlings to deal with last year, and not enough time (you could say I bit off more than I could chew) that I just plonked them in the undefined flower bed I’d created. But, I have a full memory of doing this. I have the briefest whisper of the idea that maybe some Violas got added to this mix too – but I’m really not sure.
Anyway, what a surprise when I saw these cheerful little faces peek up at me!
I love Violas. It’s true, I do love most plants but the thought of Violas makes me happy. They really are cheerful little plants, and they flower from spring to the end of summer. Not only that, the flowers love the sun and follow it during its journey throughout the day. I’ve found that planting Violas works best in an open location (i.e. not hidden within a crowded flower bed) so that all sides of the plant have a chance to flower and be seen in all its glory.
Did I mention that the flowers are edible? Yep, they are! They’re a common addition to gourmet salads and cake decorations. Ticks all the boxes, right?
Part of me just wanted to leave my little surprises where I found them – but then common sense kicked in. They were on the rocky edge of the flower bed, where it meets the concrete pavement around the house. It was pure luck that they grew in this location, but they deserved to be in a better one. I took about 3 or 4 to add to my driveway rockery.
Four years ago, shortly after moving in, we had to start some front garden work. Quite simply, there was a mess in front of the house – tangled bushes pretending to be a spotty hedge, reeds and brush instead of a lawn and a rubbish burning area to the front and side of the house. Not the greatest. I started with the things I could do, but there were some things I didn’t know how to go about. Luckily the Hubs knew.
We had to call in a digger. Not to dig, per se. But, to take the top layer off the soil in the front and thus remove the reeds, brush and all the other things that weren’t desirable in a front garden. Of course, I learned on the go that whatever a digger rounds up, needs to be placed somewhere. And these lands are full of rocks and boulders. They had to go somewhere.
So, wherever he could, the lovely digger driver made a bit of a feature out of the boulders. Clearly, the man knew what he was doing and had loads of experience of doing just this. One result was that where the lawn stopped to make way for the driveway, we have a straight line of medium sized boulders creating a sort of rocky edging to the driveway.
The first year this edging was created I had placed some violas in the crevices and they did really well and looked really nice there all summer long. The following year I tried, but I sowed the seeds too late and they never got as lush as the first year. After that I tried some perennial plants there, but I was struggling to get the nice mix of plants that would present some interest all year round.
This year I’ve placed a few of my surprise Violas there along with two Sedum plants I’d grown from cuttings from the parent plants which are doing really well in another part of the garden. I’ve also planted two annuals in the mix from this year’s first wave of seedlings – the Limnanthes. I have no idea how this last one will turn out, but the foliage, even on the seedling, is very pretty. I have high hopes.
The Violas should flower for many months – spring into summer. The Sedum will hopefully be grown up enough to flower in the late summer to autumn. And the Limnanthes, as an annual, will hopefully flower in the summer as well.
If this mix works, then it means I’ll just need to pop a few Primroses or Primulas in for winter cheerfulness, and maybe a few bulbs later this year, to be ready for spring.
I hope the plan works this time. It will be nice to have a driveway that never looks dull!
