Once the tiny flowers of Cyclamen hederifolium start unfurling, I begin to think that autumn can’t be far away. We don’t seem to have had much of a summer so far and already the woodland has a definite autumnal feel with all the horse chestnut leaves on the ground.
Showing through all the leaves are the tiny white and pink flowers of the cyclamen. Day by day, more flowers are showing, each year the corms get bigger and bigger.
Having arranged to visit our son and dil who live near London, we usually just stop half way for lunch at a pub in a little village. Thanks to Jessica at Rusty Duck writing a post about the garden at Hauser and Wirth Gallery in Somerset, designed by Piet Oudolf, I realised that it was just off the A303 which we would be travelling along, so seemed the ideal spot for a break. It was a shame about the weather, we had rain all the way, but it didn’t stop our enjoyment of the garden.
Having been working in the gravel area recently, I’ve been surrounded by pots of foliage that have to come into the conservatory for the winter as they wouldn’t survive outside. In adding to the pots some plants that are borderline hardy, I think that these will survive outdoors with a bit of protection. If I move them under the arbour and wrap them in fleece, then they should be ok.
Various Echeverias.
I thought I would give an update on how the alterations are coming on in the gravel area at the back. This is work in progress, so there is still plenty more to do! A lot has been cleared out, by Neil, the benches have been given 1 coat of preservative and 3 coats of pale blue “Cool Breeze” by me. All the painting was done in between watching the Olympics, sometimes I was painting at 6am, sometimes quite late in the evening, it worked, I was able to watch all the events I was interested in, as well as getting all the painting done.
August has been a very dry month for us in the SW corner of England and the plants are suffering from the lack of rain. We have thunderstorms forecast for later in the week, so hopefully that will make a difference. In spite of the heat and lack of rain, the flowers keep coming, you have to admire their tenacity.
Buddleja are now flowering which brings in the butterflies, this is a Red Admiral.
Originally we incorporated four sitting areas into the garden when we were planning the garden out 25 yrs ago. The first area was outside the back door where we had a wooden table, bench and single chair. The second area was the gravel area at the back where I am in the midst of giving it a makeover. The third area was the swinging seat under the dead oak and the fourth area was beside the wildlife pond. Our daughter and family gave us a beautiful Naples Love Seat for our Golden Wedding (ah, sweet!) but there was a dilemma – where were we to put it! On went the thinking caps and we decided that it was time to play musical chairs!
This was honestly the only photo I could find of the old table, bench and chair that used to be outside the back door. It was taken Dec. 2010 when we had a really bad winter.
This day has come much sooner than I expected, I was hoping that we would have another 10 yrs maybe in this house, before the garden got too big for us to manage.
Seedling Geranium Spinners.
Our heatwave is over – thank goodness! My plants and I were wilting before the rain and lower temperatures came and rescued us both. The air is now so much fresher and plants are once again standing proud and looking happy!
Phormium Yellow Wave.
Looking through the photos that I have taken for today’s post, it has dawned on me that a lot of them are evergreens, these are the leaves that are still looking good in spite of all the unexpected heat that we have had recently.
The gravel area, tucked away at the back of the house, next to the hedge between us and next door, was looking the worse for wear and was in desperate need of a makeover. Up until now, it has mainly been planted with foliage plants with various textures, shapes and colours. The weeds this year were everywhere and had rather taken over. I should have taken photos before I started weeding, but forgot, or maybe I was too ashamed to show how awful it was!
It was a difficult decision which flowers to chose for this month’s Bloom Day, as there is so much flowering in the garden at the moment.We have had quite a lot of rain during June and July, which has made the flowers grow rather tall, now we have hot sunshine which some of them appreciate more than others.
Zantedeschia beside the alpine scree, the rain water all soaks down to where I have planted this. Even so, this plant is only half the size of the one in the bog garden.
