A mixed bag.

Posted on June 22, 2022 by Pauline

We have had mixed bag of weather as well as a mixed bag of photos this last week. Temperatures ridiculously high for a few days, then quite hard rain last weekend, followed by more very high temperatures. Today should be the last day of this latest heatwave, cooler weather will be following on with more rain forecast for this coming weekend. So far the garden is coping well, this is when I am thankful for our heavy clay soil where the plants can dig deep for moisture.

I’ll start with something that looks to me like an alien from outer space.

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Six on Saturday 18. 06. 2022.

Posted on June 18, 2022 by Pauline

A busy week gardening and keeping out of the hot sunshine. This is when all my shady borders benefit as I can’t work in the heat. Thank goodness there was tennis to watch in the afternoons and it will soon be Wimbledon! If I need to work on sunny borders, I try to get them done before breakfast as it is nice and cool then. It was so hot yesterday and last night but rain is promised for later today so I hope it isn’t an empty promise as my water butts need filling again and the garden needs rain.

My six for this week are as follows.

No 1

Stipa gigantea, my favourite grass. I already have one up by the circular lawn but can’t see it from the house, so have planted another near the dining room where the sun can shine through it all day long and make it look like spun gold!

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More Roses, Roses everywhere.

Posted on June 15, 2022 by Pauline

I’m continuing with the roses that I started last Wednesday, there were so many, too many for one post. Keeping up with the deadheading is another job that has to be done every few days, but at least it keeps me in amongst them, smelling their beautiful perfume.

I’ll start with Gertrude Jekyll which ia a beautiful rose, colour, shape and perfume, couldn’t be better. Photo must have been taken some time ago, we haven’t had rain for ages, thank goodness it is coming at the weekend!

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Six on Saturday 11. 06. 2022

Posted on June 11, 2022 by Pauline

People say”what is a rose without perfume” I could say the same about peonies, what is the point of having one without a beautiful perfume when there are so many that smell so gorgeous! I know the flowers are fleeting, just a couple weeks at best, depending on the weather. Over the past few years I have been adding peonies to the garden ever since my lovely daughter gave me some in a birthday bouquet one year and I realised how wonderful their perfume is. At last they are now flowering, but not in the numbers yet that would mean I could pick armfulls of them for the house, never mind, that will come eventually I hope. Most of my photos are of the peonies flowering at the moment, I’ll start with P. Coral Charm which was the one that started this latest passion of mine.

No 1

P. Coral Charm lasts a good 2 weeks in water inside the house, I’m finding that outside with the wind and rain, so far it has lasted 9 days, but changing colour each day.

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Roses, roses everywhere.

Posted on June 8, 2022 by Pauline

All of a sudden there are roses everywhere in the garden and they are all flowering beautifully with lots of rather large flowers, is it all the rain we have had? So much colour from the roses and peonies and the rhododendrons are still flowering, so colour everywhere I look, on the grond, up it the air, climbing trees and walls of the house and on the pergola where some have escaped, unoticed at pruning time and climbed the apple tree! So many photos to choose from, but too many to put them all into one post, maybe have to split it into two.

I’ll start with one of my favourites, A Shropshire Lad with a perfume to match his good looks!

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Six on Saturday 4. 06. 2022

Posted on June 4, 2022 by Pauline

What a busy week, watering, weeding, cutting back, deadheading, Jubilee watching, restoration work on a wood carving and cooking for visitors, it has been a very varied week indeed. I now need a rest as my back is protesting!

My six are as follows, they are all seedlings of my candelabra Primulas which have seeded into the front of the bog garden in the soil that sits under water all winter. There is an underground stream running under the border and I never need to water anything, even in the driest of summers, except recent plantings. The border has always been very wet in the winter but about 7 yrs ago it started to be flooded for months at a time, I’m so pleased that the seedlings like the conditions.

No 1

A very pale pink one suddenly popped up the other day, there is so much variety in the colouring of them all.

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Six on Saturday 28. 05. 2022

Posted on May 28, 2022 by Pauline

I have just had a week where more gardening has been possible as we have had less rain, in fact the last few days haven’t seen any rain at all and the watering can has had to come out again for recently planted plants! I’m hoping that this weekend I will be able to get lots more work done in various areas of the garden.

My six for this week are as follows….

No 1

My white Camassias are flowering at the moment, they are always later than their blue cousins.

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Boggy Update.

Posted on May 25, 2022 by Pauline

With the alternate rain and sunshine that we have been having during May, the plants in the bog garden have shot up and I have been working hard to keep up with them. Back on 3.5.22 this is how it looked when I was telling you that the Acorus just had to go as it was taking over and strangling everything in its path!

The Acorus just doesn’t know when to stop, I can’t have it smothering all my precious plants, it has to go!

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Six on Saturday 21.05.2022

Posted on May 21, 2022 by Pauline

After a week of rain and sunshine, sometimes quite heavy rain, the plants are shooting up and so are the weeds! Weeding though is a lot easier when the ground is so damp, especially all the docks that seem to seed around everywhere while I’m not looking. It is hard to choose which six to show this week as there is so much choice, but some plants will have posts all to themselves in future weeks, so here are my six for this week….

no 1

Clematis Lasursturn, climbing up the drainpipe has started flowering at last, it seems to have been in bud for a long time.

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Six on Saturday 14. 05. 2022

Posted on May 14, 2022 by Pauline

Another week gone by, more weeds have been pulled, more plants planted and a lot of rain came on Wednesday so I had a rest from watering! Everything is growing at an alarming rate, I just wish I could keep up with it all!

My six for this week are as follows…..

No 1

The rockery is changing, narcissus and the first flowering shrubs are now having a rest, handing over to the next wave. In this view a new little Deutzia is now flowering and behind is one of the new dwarf Japanese azaleas. Filling in lots of gaps with a little pink flower is Claytonia sibirica which seeds everywhere and needs editing every year.

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