IT'S COLD UP NORTH

And the Rambling Rector rose is forty feet up the big ash and flowering.

No trail camera videos today - my son has borrowed it to catch which of the neighbours animals is using his lawn as a lavatory - and we have the results - it is his cat!

Bit of a gap since last blog - have been in Scotland to try and escape the cold wet weather - and succeeded as it was not bad up there.

We went to Corsock House Gardens again during the Spring Fling (look it up).

We have been before and love it.

But to get back to Rosside jungle.

The oriental poppies are out and the mixture of colour on the banking with aquilegias (now going over), catmint and calendulas I like.

Elsewhere everything is out of control, even the white hebe is flowering better than ever.

Have popped a few things in the veg beds and put some new asparagus in their bed. Poor show this year but I remember the wild asparagus growing on the dunes at Ainsdale and think our soil might be too heavy?

Saying that, the bottom garden is still a bog - marsh thistles, ragged robin, docks and flags -

And the really good news is the gunnera has survived the winter by the hedge stream.

This is a plant I first met in Logan Gardens as a lad and not long ago we went back. There is controversy over the plant as ?an invasive species but it certainly lends drama to a damp corner. And I would rather have it than Giant Hogweed, Japanese knotweed, skunk cabbage or Himalayan Balsalm.

So it is June and feels like early March - Global Chilling?

So I am in front of my ageing computer listening to Peter, Paul and Mary and Ray Charles. Perhaps I need Martha and the Vandellas - Heatwave?

WAITING FOR THE SUN

It is good when I receive a communication from the other side of the world, albeit asking for some of our rain. Well William, if I could find a carrier I would send it to you.

Here is the new spring in the lawn and the path below. The old hydrangea heads must have blown over from the compost heap. We have springs because we are a conjunction of two geological strata and the water runs between them.

I was walking around the garden and the hole in the woodland left by the fallen tree from a year ago is plain to see. And that is not the only holes we have - mole holes which also act as a conduit to water.

Occasionally the sun shines - lights up miscanthus heads, leaves still on the apple and the small black berries on the privet.

Elsewhere, apart from early showings from snowdrops and daffodils, the day lilies are sprouting and we even have first signs of rhubarb - forcing pot on.

At least the air must be clean here, probably because a lot of it is off the sea.

This means then lichens thrive as here on an old bit of pear tree (is that canker?) I hope not - must keep and eye on it and prune and burn if it is.

 It is Sunday and it poured this morning but has  settled now to showery. I have been out with the blower blowing away soggy leaves from the big sycamore.

R bought a bag of tulip Queen of the Night and I have put them in the pot J and D gave us for Christmas.

The heron has been eating our frogs again.

Then the sun comes out at dusk, rainbows and a magenta sky, and lights up the Acer Sango-kaku.

On an non garden note have been thinking of Scottish holidays (which has always included garden visits - Inverewe, Arduaine, Achamore House, Logan etc.) and here are a couple of old non garden photos - 

Suliven from above Kerkaig Falls and, below, The Summer Isles from Fox Point, one of R's favourites.

Suliven is a bit of a big cobble and I am glad I do not have to strim its slopes - could be worse, could be Stac Pollaidh.

One day will get back to Assynt and Coigach but not this year.

It is 3.35 pm as I type and already getting dark - cup of tea time.

SPRING ROARS IN

We go away for five days to Gatehouse of Fleet in Scotland, stay at the Ship Inn walk in Castramon Woods for the fabulous bluebells, meet friends and sort of family (J is a cousin of a cousin.)

Then we come home and find the oriental poppies are out.

R is concerned that our Euphorbia characias Wulfenii is not flowering. In every garden we visit it is in full bloom - Cally Gardens, Logan Botanic Garden, etc. We will just have to watch this space and hope.

We went to the local garden centre and bought some extra sweet peas, chard and broccoli, and a rodgersia to put by the pond. 

P and A's geranium maderense goes on giving.

Elsewhere we have orange - welsh poppies, euphorbia and calendula survivors appearing in the forget-me-nots. The yellow azalea is sending out its scent at the woodland fringe.

We have a small red rhododendron and lots of apple blossom.

Something that I realised sitting in J's garden in Scotland is how good a coffee tastes in the sunshine with spring around one. (And good company)

We have planted three whiteish alstroemerias for R and hope they do well. our own bluebells cannot match the magnificence of those in Castramon but they are thriving and the first red campion is out. Down in the meadow area we have a few plants, lots of Yellow Rattle and also plenty of Ragged Robin.

And then there is the blackbird, sigh! I jammed the nest box that fell with the tree in the storm by the beam at the front of the house - perhaps a nesting tit? No, a blackbird has built on top of it! So I mow the lawn, pull up armsful or is it armfuls of goose grass and bindweed and so on and so on. Think of all the things I have to do and go and make a cup of tea to have with a gluten free biscuit. Oh! For a custard tart. 

PAST THE EQUINOX

Where to begin - underground?

We have toadstools in the wildflower area, I think small wax caps. We have moles everywhere and I may have to get the catcher in again if it gets out of hand. The mowing machines do not like the sudden soft soil and turf. I walk along and suddenly my foot sinks into a run and I mutter.

The garden has its plethora of disease and troubles - slugs, snails, leaves falling off the grey poplar and one or two other trees, brittle and ailing.

The azaleas have decided to be infected with mildew, turning the leaves powdery grey.

There are always dead twigs and branches on the ash trees and the thought of dieback comes to mind. Were have several large mature ash and I would hate to lose them - but it could happen.

However the white birches are looking good the older they get.

Our gardener has strimmed the top bankings and the area above the back retaining wall, also levelled the soil by the old compost heaps and heaped it there ready for toppings up beds. One day my soil depth will near that of M. Don.

Shapes and contrasts are important whether in colours, here greys and yellows, or in leaves and flowering heads elsewhere.

We have just spent three days in southern Scotland and had dry weather - home and get up this morning (Friday) and it is raining, not downpours but soft soaking mizzle. This helps the grass grow and stops me cutting it. What is it about lawns - they become an obsession even if they are 70% clover like our lawns.

So it is deadhead - especially the cosmos and dahlias - be prepared for an early frost and to get in the tender plants for the winter.

I must go out and buy some grass seed for the bare area. I must this and that - have bought some white alliums on an offer but where to put them? I have not yet potted up the old tulips and the wildflower meadow could look a little more encouraging. We have the beginnings of the turning of the leaves, especially the Virginia creeper on the shed going red.

And there are berries - the rowan are splendid at the moment and our wild barberry glorious.

I have pruned the apple tree and sown the cleared area with lawn seed and covered it with netting to keep off the birds.

We do have a few Bramleys but a poor do this year unlike the damsons that are dropping off the trees. The dark bed at the back of the house is lit up by the golden helianthus.