Friday 10 June 2011

In the garden - warning: photo heavy!

Today's blog post is all abut my garden. I think it's looking pretty good, although there are a couple of faces missing from the line up - stuff which didn't survive our bad winter. The Agapanthus didn't survive in their big tub, so I have now planted that up with Violas for a bit of colour down by what was mum's little patio garden.

This is one of two Clematis I have planted against a length of wall beside the house. There's a Dorothy Perkins rose at the far side of them.


This is my Albertine climber which has just come into flower in the last couple of days.


Johnson's Blue hardy Geranium. I must relieve it of a few more young plants and transplant them about the place.


The beautiful pink cupped flowers of Constance Spry scramble up into another apple tree.


This is Graham Thomas, a pretty pink rose with a sun tan!


I have several Troillius around the garden and love the splash of sulphur yellow they give.


An eye-wateringly bright Peony starts to unfold. Probably Sarah Bernhart . . . A friend was telling me about a friend of hers who haad come across people wheeling out trolley-fulls of gorgeous peonies from a garden show. Oh those look lovely, she thought, I'll get a few. Then she saw the price - £90 or so apiece!!! Must have been very rare specimens indeed . . .


Alchemilla mollis (Lady's Mantle) - I have acres of this which looks wonderful in flower and then takes a LOT of cutting back to make it managable. It looks lovely right now though.


A battered old Victorian jam pan now houses some bruise-coloured Violas. I know - it could do with a polish!


It's June, so of course my blog pictures are going to be heavy with our absolutely amazing Paul's Himalayan Musk, which goes from strength to strength.


A lovely yellow Scabious which has fortunately survived two bitter winters in our garden. The morning light didn't do justice to its colour, as it is more primrose yellow than shows here.


Isn't this Clematis a gorgeous colour? I have it growing up the fallen Bramley apple tree.


Above and below, some of the Violas I have along the top of the wall beside the path. Makes a change from Nasturtiums, which is what I usually plant there.

I was planning to take this Black Elder (Sambucus nigra) with me, and I had it planted in a tub, but it didn't look to be thriving, so I thought I would plant it up and get myself another one once we've finally moved. It's happily flowering now and gives a nice contrast in leaf-colour in that intake area.


You are probably thinking, what on earth is THIS doing in her garden? Well, this is the sacrificial Mullein plant - the Mullein Moths have laid their eggs on it and it's now swarming with stripey caterpillars. However, there is a method in my madness as whilst I won't have a lovely statuesque Great Mullein this year with its rod of yellow flowers, my Mulleins in the main garden hopefully won't succomb to the Mullein moth caterpillars as they're a long way away by caterpillar march, and there's a wall in the way . . .


A corner of the intake plot, which is now an established garden and taking shape nicely.


This is Fantin-Latour,a centifolia rose which has the most amazing perfume and beautiful rosette-type flowers.


Early morning in the garden. I need to have a little revamp of this area and inject some colour. I've transplanted some Borage plants, but they have yet to flower.


This is Common Fumitory (snap, Dartford Warbler!) which grows in the top of the wall by the path. I tolerate it because it is such a pretty little flower - far too pretty to be called a "weed" . . .


After all the hours I have put in on the house and garden in recent weeks, I thought I had earned a little treat. I spent ages browsing the magazines - this sort of genre - before chosing this one.

7 comments:

  1. Your garden certainly looks beautiful. I hope you get some sunshine over the weekend and are ables to relax in it with your magazine

    Tracey

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  2. Oh my goodness, your garden is so wonderful, filled with so much beauty, color and form. My heart was taken with those pansies, what a lovely color combo.

    FlowerLady

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  3. Beautiful BB!

    I am always amazed at the different forms and shades of colour that the
    "pink roses" bring. So many varieties of them in your garden.

    A neighbour looked around our garden yesterday and said that the sweet, soft scent of Paul`s Himalayan Musk reminded her of the old fashioned talcum powder scents of her pre-WW11 girlhood.

    I love your jam pan filled with pansies!

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  4. Thank you all for your kind comments - I'm glad you enjoyed my garden too. I am on top of it for once - a case of having to, because of marketing the house, but also I need to have the produce side running efficiently too. With the price of food going up, anything I can save on growing my own is a real bonus.

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  5. Woah! I'm on beautiful flowers overload! The blue geraniums are gorgeous, I remember seeing such a lot of them when we were back a few years ago. Their color against grass green made even greener by the rain(!)is what memories are made of.
    About the caterpillars. Beware! For many years we had willow-tree-eating-caterpillars that would march like an army across three front gardens and driveways. We neighbors gave in and the willows are no more.

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  6. Your garden looks so lovely, it makes me even nore aware how awful mine looks at the moment. All my efforts have benn going into my daughter's garden which is now looking far better than mine. I love all your violas - I think I shall get some and plant up my empty pots with them.

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  7. Rowan - I'm sure your garden looks lovely - you have such beautiful plantings. Finally, I have a letter to you being written . . .

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