THERMOSTAT DOWN/UP AGAIN

 The garden is flourishing, perhaps too much? Our white birches stand tall at the far end of the garden as do the swathes of uncut grass.

Time for the strimmer?

There are long shoots and tangled thorny clumps of bramble in the wood and the bottom hedge will need laying, perhaps this winter. Unlike the blackberries in the lane hedges the ones in the woodland might flower but do not bear much in the way of fruit.

But we do have apples and pears. I have been up in the far lawn and cut out two twenty foot high osiers that have been flattened by past storms. I used my small hand chainsaw. The chain can come off and I have to be sure I put it back the right way around.

One gnarled old willow is sprouting vigorously and there are signs of ash dieback in some of our mature trees. To remove them would be very expensive so we watch and wait.

We may not have many butterflies though yesterday I noted a few gatekeepers and a couple of small whites. We do have plenty of buddleia flowers if they are hungry.

I do like plants that sow themselves, well some like the feverfew and mulleins and woundwort. Others seem to grow well even in the untended areas - yellow loosestrife and acanthus. The former is, of course. a wild plant. The red flower on the left is good(?) old Lucifer.

And then there is the gunnera getting bigger and bigger.

Not far away is the pond and wild plants - greater willow herb (though this seems everywhere this year), the fat pods of the yellow flag, meadowsweet and thistledown.

So much going on and so little desire to do stuff. Anyway it is raining again.

A TIME TO WEED, A TIME TO HACK

 The garden is out of control, well my control. The bottom hedge is fifteen feet high, the paths are overgrown and hedges sprouting. The grass is waist high and the wildflower meadow is desperately short of most of the flowers I sowed etc.

We are short of butterflies and bees, veg is being eaten by rabbits, mice, snails, slugs, pigeons but not us.

Everywhere is so lush, so prolific and with the warmth R has bought a white agapanthus to join the blue and put out the aeonium in the same bed.

She weeds and weeds especially the creeping jenny that has s-p-r-e-a-d.

Elsewhere we have two flowers on the big magnolia and other stuff - 

And for some reason it is a hydrangea year -

Elsewhere we have yellows, violas and roses, daisies and alchemilla.

Well, the latter is a greenish yellow but seems to love falling over the paving

The rue has been splendid and now we have the orange day lilies.

At this point I was going to upload more images but the blogger is not behaving so that is all for now, more soon.

ROASTING COLD

 

The EU says that last month was the hottest on record then the BBC weather lady said that the weather will continue sun autumnal fashion!

So to cheer me up here are some roses.

Let us go down to the pond, a point of disagreement. R wants nice sky reflections in the water. I want a wild natural habitat. So I put up an image looking back from the pond past the strimmed banking.

Around the pond are mimulus, loosestrife and candelabra primulas - but all yellow.

And also a pink spirea and a wild one - the meadow sweet. R does not like the pink. Then there is the gunnera thriving by the hedge,

Of course other things are doing well like the campanula hidden in the weeds.

Just looked out and it is pouring down AGAIN!

Sometimes there comes a combination which surprises me. Here is my small dwarf white lavender infiltrated with the weed herb robert. But I rather like the colour combination.

And so to a pic of the wisteria we were given and we were sure it was moribund and flowers on our small eucryophia - first for a few years.

It is thundering now, time for a second helping of yesterday's egg curry.

Just looked on my Flickr photo site and here is the most visited image!

24,784 times.

IS THAT IT?

 

We have had three days of warm sunshine but is that it? Now cloudy mizzly and temperatures only in the mid teens.

Plums, damsons and greengages seem scarce but I have been picking blackcurrants and apples look promising.

We have growth from our new asparagus and the wisteria that was moribund has suddenly started sprouting! It may be that our big geranium has also returned from the dead. We watch with interest.

Our ruby wedding tree is half dead and has been severely pruned and the Netto (or was it Lidl) cherry has been cut to the ground - always was a sickly tree.

Some things are just wonderful and the Philadelphus Belle Etoile is covered in flowers and pushing out scent as are the small bed of pinks. Have cut some and they fill the downstairs with from though still prefer the clove smell of Mrs Sinkins.

We have roses and tucked away under a buddleia there is a large allium. I don't remember putting it there but that is nothing new.

All in all everything seems completely out of control and flooding the garden with vegetation.

Apart from that more whites - geranium and risibly thriving.

Than there are the little gems like here the astrantia and geranium Ann Folkard.

I will HAVE to get a fruit cage. when picking the back currants I had to chase away blackbirds from the other currants and the raspberries as they complain I am stealing THEIR food.

So I drink my ginger and turmeric which presumably turns my insides orange, dream of having only a window box and make R another cup of tea as she is out tearing up creeping buttercup, bindweed and goosegrass.