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Spud McPat Face

balcony

By balcony

8 comments


Spud McPat Face

Last year I wrote a blog on the very original planting designs our local Town Council gardening dept came up with:-

http://www.growsonyou.com/balcony/blog/31501-a-bloomin-marvellous-effort

During the winter the bed has looked deserted & rather forlorn but at last I can show you what it now looks like in the spring:-

A sea of purple Crocuses around “Spud McPat Face” boat:

Spring flowers in the “Spud McPat Face” boat:

Scilla Siberica around ‘Spud McPat Face’ boat (Close up):

Flower bed near bus station in Huntingdon:

This is the place where last summer the Galleon ‘Pericles’ was “stranded”:

What a difference a month makes in the spring!

I nearly missed April in my effort to wait to finish this blog. I had to wait so long before the Wallflowers started to come into flower! On the other hand if I hadn’t waited & gone back several times I would have missed the lovely Scilla Siberica around the ‘Spud McPat Face’ boat! I thought it was strange they should choose Crocuses, with their very short flowering period, over Forget-Me-Nots! Then I realized they had planted another lovely blue flower!

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Comments

 

What great planting - you must have a good parks Department. I wonder what happens to the bulbs when they change the display - pity to throw them away. I would be tempted to stand by and "lurk" a bit! (By the way, 9 tomatoes germinated but the last three are very small, so hoping they will extend the fruiting season)

24 Apr, 2018

 

Isn't it lovely when the open spaces are tended so lovingly, it's a great display.
I have lurked Stera and they won't give you anything, I just wanted to rescue some Primulas (they are perennials after all) but no joy, they were all going for composting!
Wicked really, but I suppose it keeps the Nurseries in business - sad for the flowers though.
The wallflowers make a great display, it's time the gardening programmes gave them a boost too, they seem to have gone out of fashion - take too long to come into their own I expect.

25 Apr, 2018

 

Wow, looks very pretty. How nice for you to have this where you live.

25 Apr, 2018

 

Am enjoying the "Britain in Bloom" TV programme and it's lovely to see the above displays.

Once upon a time one could visit our nearest parks department and buy stuff there. Wonder if they still do that. Seems a shame to compost all those plants.

25 Apr, 2018

 

It's nice that the town council are doing their best to create good displays.

25 Apr, 2018

 

Thank you all for your lovely comments! ??

We are quite lucky with our local council's parks dept. they have put on some lovely displays in the last few years! They must have some new "blood" with more imagination!

I, too, often would like to "rescue" some of the plants they dig up & compost every year! It seems such a shame & a waste that all the plants go to make compost. ?

This is the first year in a great many that so many bulbs have been planted out around town! The council must have planted 1,000s of them! Just look at the number of bulbs & corms they used in the display above! ??

Perhaps I should upload a couple of photos of the display we had in the flowerbed in the gardens around our block of flats. The gorgeous tulips were such a lovely display! By some strange coincidence I also had a few of these bright yellow & red Tulips on my balcony!

I've been watching the "Britain In Bloom" programme on BBC2 for the last week & I like it quite a bit!

Glad that "Gardeners World" has returned to its hour format once again! I missed the first 60 minute programme because I had set the alarm on my mobile for the half hour programme! ?

Now I wonder what they will do in this place for the summer. Until the end of May we shan't know if the boat will continue there for another season or if they will take it away & just create a "normal" flower bed. For years there was a raised bed on that site & they filled it with floral displays every year. As you might imagine, I have photos of ALL the displays they put there every year!

25 Apr, 2018

 

They have done themselves and the citizens proud Balcony, it looks really lovely, must smell nice as well especially the bed full of wallflowers..
I too get a feeling of disappointment when I see the various displays ripped up and thrown away, gone are the days when towns had their own gardeners and greenhouses, now its usually a case of hiring contractors in and buying plants in bulk, not saying they don't do a good job, as we can see they certainly do but its such a waste...

26 Apr, 2018

 

Here in Huntingdon, at least, the Parks Dept grow their own plants & their gardeners plant them out (o rip them up as the case maybe!) They may buy in some plants but as far as I know the gardeners are from our local council, though I may be wrong. A few of them I do know work for our local council because I've often seen them at other times other than the during change over periods in bedding.

27 Apr, 2018

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