Six on Saturday. 30.9.2023

Posted on September 30, 2023 by Pauline

Another month gone in the blink of an eye and still so much to do in the garden getting ready for the winter.Yesterday I spent quite some time covering benches and carvings and bringing seats and smaller carvings into the garage, but still more to do. My son is visiting this weekend so hopefully he will put the heavier things away for me, he will be rewarded with a meal at our local pub! Storm Agnes, which was the remains of a hurricane in the Carribean, didn’t really amount to much, thank goodness! After all the warnings, I was expecting dreadful weather but it was just stronger wind than usual, I think it was worse further north.

Anyway, time for Six on Saturday………..

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Euonymus hamiltonianus is looking rather pretty in the woodland with its pink fruits.

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Six on Saturday. 23.9.2023

Posted on September 23, 2023 by Pauline

When I started thinking about photographs to take for this weeks offering, I thought I wouldn’t find much at all after the weather that we have had this week. Going back to last Sunday was like living inside a waterfall!  I honestly have never known such rain, almost of biblical proportions. The Exeter area even made the national news with the dreadful flooding, our weatherman told us that we had a whole months rain in just over and hour! Thank goodness I didn’t have anything quite that bad, but the water was lapping at the back door, just as well I have quite a high step up, gutters and drains just couldn’t cope. In spite of all this, plants survived the storm and the gales that followed, yes, lots of leaves to sweep up, so my six are as follows………..

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At last my Sedum, yes, they will always be Sedum to me, has coloured up to the usual pink, attracting lots of insects, except when you want to photograph them!

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Six on Saturday. 16.9.2023

Posted on September 16, 2023 by Pauline

Another lovely sunny week, some days starting off rather misty, as they do in September, but the sun came shining through in the end. I feel it is going to be all change from today, lots of rain is forecast along with thunder and lightning for the coming week!

In spite of the weather, the garden marches on and more new flowers are opening, keeping company with the ones that have been flowering for most of the summer. Here are my six for this week……..

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Golden rod or Solidago Fireworks is flowering at last in the side border by the field. It has slowly increased over the years and is now making quite a statement. I think it is well named, it does look like an explosion of fireworks.

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Six on Saturday. 9.9.23.

Posted on September 9, 2023 by Pauline

I woke up to thick mist or fog this morning, but the sun has broken through and it is going to be another hot day.We have had a week of boiling hot sunshine, too hot for me I’m afraid, sorry to complain, but I can’t work beyond 11 am as it’s just far too hot! Plants seem to be coping though, I’m sure they would like to move into the shade along side me, but they are stuck in the sunshine.

My six for this week are very autumnal, stocking up the larder for the wildlife. I’m hoping that my little dormouse has a good feed before hibernating for the next six months.

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Cotoneaster horizontalis is scrambling up the kitchen wall. It has grown quite large and is beginning to lean away from the wall in spite of wires trying to hold it in place. I will have to prune it back, but will let the birds enjoy the berries first.

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Six on Saturday. 2.9.2023

Posted on September 2, 2023 by Pauline

Having had a week of cold wind and rain with just a little sunshine, it seems as though next week will be much better with  a lot more sunshine and higher temperatures, just hope the plants can cope with all the changes. It probably means I’ll have to cope with watering again! Lots of plants are carrying on flowering, some are flowering again and just two of my six are new.

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Roses are flowering once more after a break and are very welcome as they provide lots of colour in the garden. This is a small variety, planted long ago so no name I’m afraid, it is in the bed round the dead oak.

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Six on Saturday 26.8.2023

Posted on August 26, 2023 by Pauline

There are signs of change in the garden, the light is different when the sun is shining, it is lower in the sky, so for some of the time now it is behind the tops of my ancient old trees. Berries, rosehips and hazelnuts are developing and being eaten, I hope it is by my dormice fattening up for the winter! The brambles that I am always complaining about are now covered in lucious, ripe, fat berries so I must get some in the freezer before the birds get them all. Time once again for SOS, so lets get on……..

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These are the brambles or blackberries that I was talking about. They are ready to be picked to go with my Bramley apples to make crumbles for the winter. I feel like a squirrel, hoarding my food ready for when the bad weather comes!

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Six on Saturday. 19.8.2023

Posted on August 19, 2023 by Pauline

Another week has flown by and ended up very wet but I don’t think the garden will be complaining. Sunny spells earlier in the week has brought lots more butterflies, including the Holly Blue which I didn’t manage to photograph for last weeks six. There is still lots going on in the garden, new flowers opening, so I’ll get on with showing you my six for this week.

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Mahonia nitans Cabaret is a small shrub on the rockery where the flower buds are red but open yellow/orange. It makes a change from the taller yellow flowered one.

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Six on Saturday. 12.08.2023

Posted on August 12, 2023 by Pauline

Once again it is time for Six on Saturday, it seems to come round so quickly and this week got hotter as the week went by, Thursday and Friday were very warm with a lot of sunshine and the rain petered out eventually. The garden is carrying on as usual, roses are starting to flower again, clematis are carrying on flowering and the rest of the plants are doing what plants are supposed to do at this time of year. Butterflies are adding extra colour and movement, lovely to see them all fluttering round the garden along with all the bees buzzing.

My six for this week are……..butterflies!

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A Comma butterfly in the front border where there is a large buddleia keeping all the butterflies happy.

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Six on Saturday 5.8.2023

Posted on August 5, 2023 by Pauline

Another week of sunshine and rain, sometimes a lot more rain than sunshine! However I feel I must stop moaning about the rain as I have noticed that all my surviving rhododendrons are literally covered with luscious, fat, juicy flower buds, all ready for next spring! Next spring should be a bumper year for flowers on the rhododendron bushes as long as we don’t get a drought and then they would abort them all. Usually I am having to fling buckets of water onto my rhododendrons to try and save the buds, but no need to this year, thanks to all our rain over the past six weeks or so.

My six are as follows……..

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So, I will start off with showing the lovely buds on the rhododendron in the back corner of the garden. The bush is covered with lovely fat buds which hold so much promise for next spring.

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Six on Saturday. 29.07.2023

Posted on July 29, 2023 by Pauline

Another week of sun and rain, the plants are certainly happy and the gardener is when she can get out and do some work! Inside the house is looking much cleaner and tidier now too, just in time for more visitors! Roses are starting their second flush, which is nice and the day lilies are almost finished so not much more deadheading to do there any more.At the moment I’m trying to get rid of an Acanthus mollis which had ideas of world dominaton, which Monty Don says is impossible! I’ll keep on trying, but as soon as I think I have dug all the roots out, more shoots pop up!

My six for this week are here……….

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My Aeonium schwarzkopf sitting in the rain outside the conservatory.

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