I love painting things black! Always have, since I was a child when I insisted on having a black bedroom. When I became interested in history and historical architecture, my fondness for its use in interiors was cemented and I like nothing more than seeing elaborate Georgian and Edwardian black furniture, wallpaper and painted walls.
But I know this penchant for black isn’t common, and there is a bit of a fear of using the colour in interiors and gardens. When I painted my kitchen island black, I had lots of comments from my friends who thought I was doing the wrong thing. Even the decorator, before he put the paint on the wood, said ‘now are you sure you want me to do this?’
So last week I started painting all the sleepers and Buxus-beds that Jiri has put in the garden so far, black. I used Sadolin Ebony for exterior woodwork and it goes on really well. I didn’t escape the comments from passers-by – I clocked up six ‘oh! you’re painting it black’, said in deflated tones as though I was ruining everything. My response to the first exclaimant went into a detailed rationale about the use of black during the period the house was built, how black can accentuate the colours of plants and foliage, and how I like the use of flow from the interior to the exterior. By the time the sixth person made a comment, and by this time I’d been painting for over 8 hours, then my response was just ‘yes’ and I carried on dabbing with my brush.
To date I’ve used 7.5 litres of paint, so the sleepers are certainly sucking it up.
I’m a bit stuck now because until more of the sleepers are installed, I can’t do much else. I’m unable to reach the woodwork at the back and top of the gabions and this is going to require the wily acrobatics of Trystan, the gardener who comes every fortnight, to finish painting those areas for me. Essentially there’s been another week of inactivity in the building works, because Jiri injured his neck last week and he’s still not recovered. He’s been advised to rest it until Monday, at which point I hope he’s back because I really need to get going on the planting if we’re going to see any major progress this year.
So as well as the painting, I’ve potted on lots of plants that have been growing in the plastic grow-houses. The ones that I lost after the frosts include Lavender Hidcote, Gaura Sparkle White, most of the Erigeron and all of the Monarda. They’re ones I probably won’t bother trying with again because I think it’s just too cold for them here.
The Alatus has sprung into life after 12 months of being dormant single twigs, so I’m pleased about that:
Still a long way to go until they’re the bright pink beauties seen in the catalogues, but at least there’s some growth.
The Aliums are doing amazingly well at the back of the sleepers too. As long as they remain a success, I’ll plant a lot more of them for next year. I can’t wait to see them all come up, but I want to do a bit of tidying up of that area and remove a lot of the building materials, so they can be fully appreciated.
I’m really looking forward to planting the Dahlias. But I can’t yet because even though we’re nearly at the end of April, we’ve had snow showers here over the last two days. I’ll see what the weather is like on the weekend and perhaps it will be warm enough to pot them and put them in the growhouses outside. We’re a month late here with everything!
Welsh Wellies 