I have good and bad gardening events to report this month. The varied weather is not really making for a thriving garden because there is not really much of a routine. When it is hot I get on the watering train and make it part of my day and if not then I get on with sewing. However, sporadic hot days make for missed watering and leggy plants.
My verbascum has been attacked by these caterpillars and although it is a visual feast of camouflage, the caterpillar made a swift feast of the whole plant.
I changed up my kitchen vase from blue and purple to rich tones of hot summer. The first year of my 'Indian Summer' alstroemeria has been an absolute treat which I have mixed with deep burgundy snap dragons and more of the prolific knautia. Ladies Mantle always makes a good foliage filler as well as dark stemmed flowers from my heucheras.
My friend, Beth, grows a wedding garden here which has been brimming with large double snap dragons, larkspur and stocks. This pic shows the last of the foxgloves earlier this month.
Just a few weeks on, it is now a sea of cornflowers, white Ammi, roses and lupins.
I have created a monster with my sweet pea fence but I keep picking them every 3 days and giving them to my neighbours. Anything to stop the peas forming.
In other floral areas of my garden, the beds are continuing to provide continuous flowers.
The herb troughs are getting full and possibly need re planting in the Autumn now that my first year plants have established themselves.
The hot border at the front continues to provide eye candy, flowers for picking and a talking point for passing walkers.
Outside the studio I planted up a climber in early spring and it is getting settled in.
My raspberries are starting to throw out some fruit and I am so pleased I inter-planted the canes with Sweet William. These make great cut flowers with a wonderful scent.
We had the most delicious blackcurrant flan and the constant stream of summer fruit has felt so luxurious.
The back/side garden reliably flowers in pink, purple and blue. I would like it to be deeper but I remember the amount of building rubble we put under this lawn to make the haha and know that it would be too hard to dig. I am happy to consider the Shropshire view a continuation of my garden instead.
The varied weather has played havoc with my beetroot which is starting to bolt. I have a pan boiling away as I write.
I think this weekend is the time to dig my first potatoes.
We have been enjoying lettuce and my first cucumber for over a month now. The next variety of lettuce is ready to take over after these ones.
In wider gardening/small holder news Andy has taken his cut of hay because there is a good forecast for a few days to dry it out.
Before...
After.
All ready to bale today. Its going to be a scorcher... Happy gardening whatever scale you are working with. Jo xxx
It's all looking fabulous out there Jo, you have made a beautiful job of it. I love the soft fruit and sweet peas of this time of year. It is wall to wall pigeons, starlings and blackbirds here eating the cherries and blueberries, but I'm not complaining. I've had loads of cherries, although a few blueberries might be nice, but I'm happy to share really. I haven't cut the law in ages and it's thick with clover and bees which is wonderful. In fact there must be eight or more types of flower growing in it. Beans are a failure as usual - snails. Mulberries are brilliant. I have one single pale pink zinnia which I nurtured on the kitchen windowsill until the other week. It is a triumph. Hope that hay is all neatly baled now. CJ xx
ReplyDeleteSo jealous of you having mulberries - I love them. x
DeleteWhat a great blog. A wonderful harvest so far and hopefully plenty of sweet smelling hay for the winter. The colours are lovely.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing all this gardening! We have had scorching weather and then rain, rain, rain which is not so great for vegetables. Oh well. Each year is something new. Happy I don't have to subsist on what I grow!
ReplyDeleteOh Jo your flowers and fruit look wonderful, as a gardener I know that at the moment that takes a lot of watering. I am rather jealous of your view!!
ReplyDeleteThe Shropshire view from your garden is amazing.
ReplyDeleteThe hot border at the front of your place is really zinging and I'm not surprised it's a talking point for passing walkers.