Spring Cleaning the Garden

I know that it is a bit late for spring-cleaning but I suppose better late than never.

With the alpine shows over, as far as I am concerned, for this year it was time for the long promised clean up. You may not be aware that I propagate everything that I think is worth growing just in case someone that I know might want a plant that I have growing in the scree beds. The end result is a frame with hundreds of alpine plants that no one seems to want, and that I have to continually water and feed, not to mention re-pot year after year.

I have long promised that I would someday dump the lot and clear out all of the frames for the plants that I really wanted to grow for the show-bench.

So with the May day bank holiday coming up it was time to make a start.

Now throwing out good alpine plants is not one of my favourite pasttimes, and when all the available trays were filled and decision time had come I could not do it. I had immediately to think of another way of disposing of the plants, so with planting fork in one hand and the first of many trays in the other it was out to the scree beds to find room for the orphans that nobody wanted.

As you probably know my scree beds are already packed to capacity, but surely there would be a few casualties after the wet winter, and sure enough little patches started to appear as I made my way over the first bed.

Soon one tray was empty then a second as Androsaces, Gentians, Geraniums, Daphnes and a host of others found new homes. As the day went on the trays started piling up, first there were three then six then there were ten. Each tray holds fifteen plants, and there seemed to be no end to the supply. Space was getting very tight now and decision time was coming up again. Would I dump the rest of the plants or pull something out of the scree bed to make room for more orphans? A quick check on the frame to count the remaining plants, there were still 96 plants looking for a new home, as well as various pots of bulbs that wanted planting out; something would have to go.

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