We have just got back from a few days walking in the mountains of Austria. Fantastic alpine flowers everywhere on the mountain tops- difficult not to walk on them when leaving the path to photograph them. Having just cut back loads of Alchemilla mollis before we came away it was the last plant I expected to find at the top of a mountain- ok it was its cousin, Alchemilla alpina – but it was spreading with the same enthusiasm as the one back home!
Day lilies are starting to flower now, each flower only lasts a day but now that the clumps are getting larger, each clump flowers for about a month. They really like our heavy soil so have collected rather a lot with different colours, reds, pinks, purples, whites, yellows and apricot. Unfortunately we now have the Hemerocallis gall midge which deforms the day lily buds so I am having to follow the RHS advice of taking off the deformed buds and disposing of them- but not on the compost heap. This will hopefully stop the life cycle of the midge and eventually eradicate it. In the meantime we have hundreds of good flowers to enjoy.
In June the perfumes in the garden are changing, now Honeysuckle and Mock Orange Blossom arrive on the breeze when you least expect it, early morning and evening are the best times. The perfume always seems much stronger when you catch it on the breeze than when you stick your nose into the flowers.
Today we are able to sit and do nothing, our garden was open last weekend 12/13th June for the N.G.S. and was a great success raising almost £600. The weather couldn’t have been better, lots of lovely people came and made such wonderful comments about the garden, the plants, the atmosphere and the cakes! I think the most used words to describe the garden and flowers were “dreamy”, “wonderful”, “romantic”, “to die for”, “magical” this made all the hard work worthwhile.
About 15 of my Meconopsis have flowered, but the first one came out deep purple, what a disappointment! We have got a few the bright turquoise blue that they should be but the rest were lilac, grey, pink or purple! I went onto the Meconopsis website & found some information which said that if the seedlings were too warm as the flower-buds were forming down at soil level, they might be inclined towards purple colour. At that time we were having a heatwave here so I suppose that could be the reason – will just have to try again next year, saving seed from the best blues and make a nursery bed in the shade.
We were away for the whole of January teaching at a mission in Sierra Leone and while we were away the moles had a field day. In the past we have had one or two mole hills which we have just removed and it usually hasn’t been a problem but this time they were everywhere and so huge. Because we were away so long the grass is dead where the molehills were and we have been busy trying to fill in all the hollows-we have visions of our open day visitors disappearing down a tunnel, never to be seen again!
This is a peaceful village garden where the plants grow freely, intertwine with romantic abandon and spread in drifts to complement the countryside around them. This natural garden is composed of colour, shape & texture of leaves for twelve months of the year on top of which flowers from all 4 seasons weave their own special magic. We share the garden with all the local wildlife – animals, birds & insects – sometimes we feel we are the intruders.
