MARY, MARY . .

 

How does my garden grow - out of control, so much vegetation.

It is the day after tomorrow already, at least it feels like that time is passing so fast. I suppose it is an age thing so you who are young luxuriate in the slow passing of the days.

The turnips are bolting, the daisy bush, crambe and eremurus are over.

There is bindweed flowering in the hedges (and flowerbeds) and goosegrass everywhere.

One good thing is that we have had some rain, a long day's soak which means I can forgo watering the garden. However it makes the grass grow and when it is wet difficult to mow.

Went to an immaculate garden near Cartmel, Crumbles Cottage, makes mine look chaotic!

The creeping jenny is everywhere, campanulas spill over paths, and the Hydrangea Annabelle is thinking of changing from green to white.

One thing thriving is the rhubarb - a regular (!) harvest.

Elsewhere we have the scent of the phlox and privet.

And not all interest is in flowers, fruit and veg.

The seed heads of the white honesty, now back-lit by the sun are fascinating with their visible seeds - a bit like an X-ray.

We have a possible helper have a look at the garden, R wants all the paving repointed and soon I will be wanting a good man to strim.

Meanwhile R has cut back the catmint that was suffocating all around and I have done a bit of this but not a lot of that.

We finally have flying flowers, Small Tortoiseshells and red admirals, small whites and gatekeepers and the ragged comma.

The fruit has been very disappointing this year - ? something to do with the spring. We do have pears and a few plums (not ripe yet) but the apples and currants a feeble. And at least one greengage.

The damsons too are poor - there must have been frost on the blossom.

Sometimes I dream of living next door to a wonderful public garden where I can go and sit without the workload - R is laughing as I never do much in the garden - it does itself largely. I get away with it a bit by describing it as a wild garden. This is only because it is out of control most of the time and offends R's sense of order and tidiness. Me, I am really just a creature of the jungle, even am rather taken by sharing the place with all sorts of creatures - even rabbits? But not sheep!

PHEW!!

 It is Tuesday and 11 am. Outside it is 32C and airless. Flies buzz around my head, Oh! So Soft is sprayed on my legs to deter the horse flies. Should we be wild water swimming in the pond mud with the newts - though if they have any sense they are buried deep in cool vegetation.

Flowers are going over quickly in the heat despite watering the pots etc - thank goodness for a borehole.

Last blog I mentioned deer - well now the rabbits are eating the convolvulus cneorum! 😞 and are everywhere - the little breeders.

By 4pm it is 26C and falling, a brisk breeze is bring in cooler weather from the west.

In fact the "heat wave" lasted a whole two days!

Down in the bottom garden the wild meadow is mainly grass and yellow rattle and long. The meadow sweet by the pond is flowering and the yellow loosestrife falling over the grass at the back.

The crocosmia Lucifer is out in the rough banking as is the prickly Bear's Breeches (acanthus) and we also have other crocosmias.

The Lambs' Lugs (stachys) is also out. Whereas one can stroke its velevet leaves - definitely not with the acanthus.

Other plants near the pond are the astilbe (R dislikes) and the wild marsh woundwort.

We seem to be an a red/pink mood now so here are some more of similar colour.

Pink

Alstromeria

Sweet pea

Opium poppy

And, of course, rose.

I have been and bought a hedge trimmer - I already had a suitable battery so the expense not too bad.

So we have all had enough of politics. Whoever the prime minister is it will not affect our turnips which are doing well. As you saw above we actually have some sweet peas flowering this year even though the soft fruit has been very poor. However there are a few damsons, greengages, pears and apples on the way.

Now quiz time - What is this ornamental plant in full flower though yellow and purple is a rather strange partnership?

Enough, must go and play with my hedge trimmer.

OH DEER! (OH DEAR!)

 

So the house martins have abandoned us - wait, what is that at the gable top - 

We were sitting out, R my sister and her hubby when suddenly we saw a bird fly up to the gable above us.

No swallows but we have house martins - about time.

And a roe stag has taken up residence in the wood reclining on the top path. Probably glad I mowed it!

2022 is a goosegrass year - everywhere cleavers, sticky stems, in my pockets, in my pockets, in my . . 

Anyway, to the garden. Most of the soft fruit already eaten by the blackbirds and thrushes, managed to salvage a few blackcurrants and goosegogs. There are a few plums and damsons and the greengage has fruit.

What is that I was asked. That is Clematis New Love, I think, bought many years ago from Muncaster Castle when they has a garden centre.

Elsewhere the anthemis is doing well, I have put in the erigeron P gave us, the rue is eight feet tall, the lilium regale are out and, of course there are roses.

I do go on about white in the garden but it sets off so much else like this white lavender and a campanula creeping in at the top right. We have other whites like the roses and off-whites like the astrantias and veronica.

Sometimes there are surprising successes - the Geranium Ann Folkard has gone rampant.

And all is not just colour but form and shape - alliums in flower and seedbeds like the purple sensation and the camassias.

Now the buddleias are all out but there arena flying flowers on them - where are the butterflies? We just have a few whites, the odd brown and speckled wood so far, fingers crossed.

Today is Thursday and not very hot here but they predict a heatwave - we wait.

BLOG 904

 Yes, this is my nine hundred and fourth blog! And apart from and odd poem and recipe it is photos and chitchat about the garden.

The weather remains unseasonably cool and dry.

R has cleared the pond of plants so we can see the water so I moved the heron. "Come," she called, "There is a white egret by the pond." Alas it was only our anaemic plastic heron.

I am reading Robert Macfarlane's Underland - another of his wonderful books.

Outside clouds drift past, there is a dragon, there a face and then nearer the flash of white of a house martin. There are three birds I think of straight away with that flash of white - the martin, the bullfinch and the wheatear.

It is my grandson Robin's birthday soon and Charley has suggested binoculars and a bird book. The binoculars are too small for me but have autofocus. I hope he can see some interesting life in his Oxford garden.

We are picking black currants and raspberries, there is more rhubarb but the carrots and parsnips have not germinated. The gooseberry bushes I abandoned in a corner because of sawfly and mildew have a few fruit.

I thought I would look closer at our plants, perhaps when not important nor in flower. Grasses and seed heads, close-ups.

Allium seeds, scabious in detail, and the lovage.

Of course there are still roses and geraniums -

The creeping jenny is taking over the rose bed and sowing itself elsewhere - where it is not wanted, the alchemilla, one of R's favourite flowers is also coming up everywhere. The former is fairly easy to uproot, the latter not so.

And so to two oddities - the variegated New Zealand flax that Pam gave us is flowering and some, the potato in a bottle flourishing.

Let me finish with a shot of opium -