I had 20 roses to plant this weekend. Lucky for me the weather was sunny, my son’s football was cancelled and the cold southerly didn’t arrive. I got to spend two days in the garden. Two entire days.

When I ordered 15 of the 20 roses a couple of months ago I had no idea where I was going to put them. 16 of the roses arrived bare-rooted and 4 of them were potted up. I ordered them from two different nurseries. It’s taken a lot of time figuring out where to put them. I reckon that’s the true joy of gardening - designing as you go. I’d get bored to death if I slavishly followed a planting plan. I’m a ‘make it up as I go’ sort of gardener. It does mean that plants end up in the wrong place from time to time and need to be relocated.

I had to move a number of plants today, a rose called ‘White Wings’, a large clump of pink dahlia bulbs, a perennial wallflower called ‘Lilac Joy’ (which I took cuttings of at the same time) and a yellow hot poker (which I split into 5 new plants). This kind of gardening is ‘slow gardening’ and it’s all about pottering and thinking and planning and problem solving and enjoying nature. It also takes longer to garden when you have a puppy helping you dig holes, move the wheelbarrow and untangle the hose.

I spent most of the weekend in the back of the back garden. It’s changed a bit from last week. For starters, the fence around the meadow garden has come down. Once Moussa, the puppy, figured out how to shimmy under the chickenwire it seemed pointless having a fence.

At the end of November my garden is going to be part of a local garden tour. I have 4 months to change it from a bare careworn winter garden into a small suburban spring paradise. I do love a challenge.

Here are two pictures (above and below) of the back garden and the weed infested brick courtyard. If you look behind the table and chairs you’ll notice 5 dustbins. I filled them with soil, a good helping of sheep pellets and some wilted comfrey leaves. I’m going to plant my sweet pea seedlings in them when the air gets warmer.

Below are two photos of the fruit, herb and rose garden (for want of a better name); and the rose hedge (looking invisible in the long thin garden alongside the temporary fence.

After seeing all the Rosa rugosas in the Bolton Street Cemetery last year I was determined to have some in my garden. I have 13 in total, in the front and back gardens. Rugosas are one of the hardiest type of roses, able to tolerate poor soil, semi-shade and wind. I planted two kinds for the rose hedge: Rosa rugosa ‘Alba’ and Rosa rugosa ‘Blanc Double de Courbert’ - and like their names say - they’re white.

Rosa rugosa ‘Alba’, Bolton Street Cemetery, 2018.

I planted 3 roses in the fruit, herb and rose garden, taking the number of roses to 8. Luckily some of the roses are not grafted roses (meaning they’re growing on their own roots) so they won’t grow big anytime soon (delaying the need to relocate some of the roses). I’m going for a pink and purple colour scheme here, but I’m not a stickler for rules.

The 3 new roses are: a rambler/climber called Paul’s Himalayan Musk - 1916, which I’m training up a tree; Felicia - a Pemberton Hybrid Musk, 1928 and Louis Gimard, a Moss Rose, 1877 (a free gift from Tasman Bay Roses - thank you very much).

In case you wondered, the bamboo teepees are to stop rampaging dogs from squashing the plants, and the bare stick-like plants (in front of the garden in the photo above) are red currants. Not only are they beautiful plants but they’re tolerant of shade.

And here’s the ‘Meadow Garden’ without the fence. It’s back to being a puppy-dog toilet.

I will probably regret it, but I planted 9 roses in the ‘Meadow Garden’. I also planted 4 dwarf white agapanthus called ‘Finn’ and 2 Camellia Brevistyla, which are species camellias. They have small, white, scented star-shaped flowers. There are already lots of dormant grasses and I’ll be planting some more this week.

Here’s a list of the roses in this garden-

Blanc Double de Courbert (x2) - Rosa rugosa, 1892.
White Grootendorst (x2) - Rosa rugosa, 1962.
Sea Spray - Hybrid Musk, Pemberton, 1923.
White Wings - Hybrid Tea, 1947.
Queen of the Musks - Hybrid Musk, Paul, 1913.
Autumn Delight - Hybrid Musk, Pemberton, 1923.
Pax - Hybrid Musk, Pemberton, 1918.

I’ve grown some white lupins from seed and want to plant them in this garden. However, lupins are poisonous, especially the seeds (which I could remove). Dogs need to eat a lot of the other parts of the plant to get seriously poisoned, but there’s still a risk. I’ll think about it.

The small green hummocky plants are honesty, Lunaria annua ‘Sissinghurst White’. All of flowers in this garden have white flowers. I guess it’s a white garden. Behind the Fatsia japonica, on the far right, is a tall green wiggly stick. And beside the stick is a rambunctious climbing rose called ‘Wedding Day’, which I plan to train up the oak tree. I planted the rose a metre north of the oak tree. My neighbour has Wedding day (at least I think it’s the same rose) growing up a power poll, which I admire every time I do the dishes.

Below are two photos of my neighbour’s rose, taken in early summer last year.

Paul’s nearly finished the shed. He’s going to make a ramp, so I can wheel the lawn mower (which is yet to be bought) in and out of the shed. He’ll build some shelves and a potting bench too.

I want some bins to put potting mix and compost in. I want a bucket of sand and old car oil to dip the end of the spade into (my friend Sal’s idea) to stop it getting rusty. It will be great to have all my gardening tools in easy reach and all in one place. At the moment they’re scattered around the house. I’ll hang the big ones from nails on the wall and the smaller ones can live in a trug (my son’s old carpentry box) on a shelf. It will be a real joy to stand at the potting bench planting seeds or potting up seedlings, looking at the front garden and up the street, while being out of the wind and rain (a cup of tea close at hand).

Next week I plan to sharpen my secateurs, prune all the plants that need pruning and put up some wire supports on the fence for climbing plants. The wire thing is something I’ve been deliberately delaying because I haven’t a clue how to do it.

I have two more roses arriving in the post next week! And I truely have nowhere to put them.