My Little Pottery
As the weather was fine yesterday, I put some washing out to dry. While I was outside, I had a look at my plants…in desperate need of attention after a winter of neglect. To be honest, it has been a few years of neglect…firstly due to a bad neighbour in the ground-floor flat who was always outside with her pissed up friends. Then, a couple of years ago, due to health problems.
Last year, although I was still feeling unwell, I did manage to cut back the encroaching brambles, from 
an over-grown garden, and sweep up all the leaves and debris that had gathered around the pots. I never got as far as clearing the accumulated debris and weeds from the corner, so I hope I can manage to beast it into submission this year!!
Back to yesterday…out came the gardening gloves and broom, and I set to work….pottering! I even managed to finally pot up the two hollies that I bought just before Dad died, three-and-a-half years ago….if I’d left them much longer, I might have lost them! The day lillies look much happier, too, and I managed to put them in the right pot without even thinking about it!
It’s bad enough having brambles encroaching from that garden, but now there is Japanese knotweed spreading from the end…and even coming through the tarmac!! If it is left unchecked, how long before it reaches my little ‘pottery’…?!! Japanese knotweed is a pernicious weed that is very hard to eradicate by normal means, so it will have to be reported….council or Environment Agency? Or both…?
As I am going for my radioiodine treatment on Thursday, I will be off work for a few days, so I’m hoping that the weather will be nice enough to tempt me out again….pots need re-arranging, and the corner monster needs defeating…!!!
Diary of a Madwoman! 
Don\’t you have room to put up a small shed….it may solve a few storage problems…like what to do with Bob!I love pots especially full of lillies and nastursiums. You could run some trellis against the wall and grow some runner beans.
I love lilies…I used to have Casablanca and Stargazer lilies….in fact, I think I shall get some more! At the moment, I have tiger lilies that came from Nell\’s garden…I\’m afraid that Glynis has had them dug up, because last year they had red beetles all over them….they used to look so beautiful.
Knot-weed is a reportable plant; the Environment Agency is the place to report it too but if you want to knock it back some of the more deadly contact weed killers like Pathclear will seriously damage its health! Trouble is it will kill everything else it comes into contact with so only use it on paths and make sure the spray doesn\’t carry. We have a serious problem with it in Cornwall as it is blocking up all sorts of waterways and spreading through the valleys they run through, each, in places each plant is being injected individually with weedkiler in an attempt to destroy it without it affecting the surrounding areas — The Cot Valley near St. Just in West Cornwall, a small valley near the sea, has taken ten years treatment to remove the knot-weed and they are still working on it that shows what a noxious plant it is too remove!
When looking it up online, I came across one or two Cornwall and Devon websites. Those that I checked out said that it can take several years to actually eradicate it. Oh, joy!! I\’m just glad that that is not my garden! Though it has gone under a wall into a friend\’s garden, that backs onto the flats…I must mention it to Mary when I see her next…if I remember!!
Sandi, my \’pottery\’ started with three lonely geraniums in pots many years ago, now I usually have about 50 pots, and everyone tells me it looks better than the garden….hope you get your Knot-weed sorted out 😦
Yo Sandi! I am impressed! ur pots look Fantastic! Well Done! I love plants…but it sadly seems 2 be a death sentance if I get hold of them! Hope u have a lovely evening! Luv PF XXX
Thanks PF, but they are just lined up against he wall at the moment since I moved them to sweep all the dead leaves from behind them. I will re-arrange them and add the bricks as borders and the logs as pedestals to add some height later.Poppy, this lot began as a handful of pots brought from home when I moved…I did have quite a few more than this, but the neglect, espescially over a few hot summers, put paid to some of my favourites. I was really upset at losing a pieris, as I\’d wanted one of those for years!
Hehehehee, just glad 2 see there was no spade leaning by the side of them! Froggie hops of sniggering…
I\’d pass that spade around…let others do the digging…hehehe!!
i used to grow a lot in containers you can get such a variety that will not grow in your particulr type of soil .I have a azalea that has been in a pot for twenty years and was repotted a few weeks ago it is splendid and would never grow in our limey soil.Bramble on .
To think I was grumblin\’ on my space about Ground Elder! phew! glad I have not got to tackle Knot Weed, it sounds awful. How did it get over here?
Even when I lived at home (before parents moved) we had pots and tubs on the patio. You can also move a tub into the border to fill a gap…they don\’t have to just sit on the path/patio/drive/steps/wall etc. So much easier than trying to dig up shrubs and re-locate them…besides, they might not like being moved!What\’s the name of your azalea, again….it\’s a scented one isn\’t it?
I really have no idea where the knotweed came from…I don\’t even remember it being there when Pat and I first moved here…just weeds, daffodils and bluebells.
Apparently all you need to have Knot weed grow is a piece less than a quarter of an inch on your soil it will then root and it might not even show above the surface where it lands as the root can penetrate as many as thirty feet into the soil and then spreads underground. This is why you even have to have a M.A.F./envioronment agency licence to dump the stuff, the slightest little piece can start an infestation and it seems to survive on any sort of soil. A couple of miles from us there was a load of the menace coming up through a solid concrete base of an old coastal gun emplacement apparently it had exploited a flaw in the three foot thick base and worked its way through, before it was bought under control it actually broke a corner off the slab, so watch out for your yard! Apparently its not a pest in its place of origin (japan) as there is some sort of beetle larvae that feeds on it, and the fresh shoots of the plant are considered as a food item, perhaps that\’s the way to get rid of it, we shall all have to start eating it!
I do believe it was used for medicinal purposes, though I can\’t remember what for, now…will have to look it up again.Yes, you can get done for dumping it in normal land-fill sites, and it has to be disposed of very carefully by specialists. As you said, it takes years of treatment to eradicate it from a site…which must cost a fortune!It grows 10cm per day, and can break through tarmac, concrete and building foundations, and all parts of the plant and any soil contaminated with it are classified as Controlled Waste and are required legally to be removed by a licenced
My garden isn\’t big enough for all the plants I\’d like. I did manage to pick up a pink Ceanothus at the garden centre a couple of weeks back. I couldn\’t believe my luck as I\’d wanted on for ages. It still sits in it\’s pot waiting to be given a home somewhere. Maybe a pot is the answer for it. xx
Oooops…removed by a licenced waste control operator.Sorry…clicked on Add, instead of New Tab.There are several Acts and regulations concerning this plant, and people who have it encroaching on their property from another can take legal action….like the council and my friends over the back, both of whose properties adjoin the infested land.
Such pretty shrubs, Rachel…I\’ve only seen the blue ones. Yes, a tub or pot is a good idea, as you can move it around to suit you….even if I had a big garden, I would still have my containers. My two hollies survived (only just!) over three-and-a-half years in their little pots…they must feel a lot happier now that I have finally re-potted them!! I must remember to go out and water my plants this summer…no more neglect!
Yo Sandi, hoppin gin 2 wish u a Great Evening! Luv PF XXX
Thanks PF…will do…just wondering why I ache so much…left shin muscle and lower back….! What have I done…!!!!