We were warned by the weathermen that our summer was coming to an end and the first Autumn storm was approaching. Some of the flowers are looking pretty wet, but in a rare splash of sunlight when the rain stopped for a while, I took the opportunity to dash out to whizz round the garden for the photos for this post. This first photo is of Fuchsia magellanica by the back door which has been flowering for such a long time now.
This is the time of year when we can see how busy the ants have been. I suppose really what we are looking at is the result of what the ants were doing a few years ago, as it takes any seeds of Cyclamen hederifolium a few years to make corms big enough to reach flowering size. They really are the stars of the woodland and shady places at the moment.
Yesterday, Sunday, we escaped with others from church, on a coach trip to Lulworth Castle and Cove which are in Dorset. The 17th C castle originally started out as a hunting lodge in 1608 and has entertained 7 of our monarchs, belonging to the same family for 370 yrs.
There is no stopping the butterflies that keep coming to the garden. As well as the normal visitors that we usually have, we have had a couple of firsts, for this garden anyway. You also have to watch where you are walking, they are on the lawn, on the steps, on the paving, as well as on all the flowers. I think I can safely say that the Peacock has been seen here the most, 20 or 30 a day sometimes is no exaggeration.
The month of August seems to have flown by with not much gardening getting done, due to the heat. The small amount of rain that we have had, has made no difference at all to the overall look of the garden, it just looks very dry in places. One border that is quite happy is the bog garden, so obviously our underground stream still has enough moisture in it to keep my plants happy. The other area is the Bee and Butterfly border up the drive. The plants here look happy and the flowers are bringing in the bees and butterflies as I hoped. Even so, there are certain areas that need improving and I think I will use this End of Month Review to monitor the changes here over the next few months. To start with, this is the view from the gateway.
Some of you may remember saga of the Dormice here in the garden, their hibernation nests which we found and the planning permission which we opposed when their habitat was threatened by the building next door. So far, no trees or hedges have come down and the houses are almost finished, so far, so good. The huge extension to the school hasn’t taken place, a couple have bought it and say it is plenty big enough as it is. The smaller of the 2 houses is finished and occupied but they have a cat who seems to think our garden is a happy hunting ground for it, early this morning I saw it, making its way home but a few paces behind was a fox! Do the dormice stand a chance with a cat next door, I wonder.
Last Christmas I was given four Dormice nest boxes to put in the garden and during the summer these were placed out of the way, at the back of hedges in areas where we never normally go.
When I first started thinking about which foliage would be suitable to record for August’s Foliage Day, I didn’t think there would be very much as we are still suffering from a lack of rain. Fortunately I was wrong and there turned out to be quite a few plants that were carrying on regardless in spite of not having much moisture. The first to be photographed was Hosta June, which is new this year and has settled in nicely.
So far, August has been a bit mixed, weatherwise. We have had lots of hot sunshine but just a small amount of gentle rain which really hasn’t been enough to keep the garden looking happy or the water butts filled. Yesterday it was raining, thank goodness, we will just have to wait and see if it makes a difference.
The daylilies from the previous post are now coming to an end, the roses are reblooming and late summer flowers are opening up ready for the bees and butterflies. I’ll start with a view of the top of the garden, Crocosmia Lucifer is passed it’s best now, but still catches the eye.
What has been the best plant in your garden recently – here it has definitely been the day lilies or hemerocallis. They carried on flowering while we were having our heatwave, they carried on flowering when we had rain nearly every other day, nothing seems to stop them and they bring such a welcome splash of colour to the garden for more than 6 weeks. This first one is H. Moonlight Masquerade.
This morning I was in the garden doing a spot of deadheading, when all of a sudden, just as I was about to snip off some buddleia flowers that had finished, there was a Jersey Tiger Moth.
You can see that there weren’t many white flowers left, no wonder I nearly chopped it off.
All the time I was hoping that it would open its wings and show me the bright orange/red underwings………
Excuse me while I try and have a look underneath..no still can’t see them.
We had them in the garden last year, I wonder if they laid their eggs here then or are these visitors from the Channel Islands that come across each year?
I’m still trying to see their red wings,
but no luck this time. The red markings are very noticeable when it flies, but as soon as it stops to feed and folds its wings, it is well camouflaged.
Nothing for it but to use the one I managed to photograph last year!
They obviously favour white buddleia, it does have a very strong perfume. Unlike the butterflies that are very skittish and fly away when I come near to them, this moth was oblivious to my presence and stayed on the same panicle of flowers for literally hours. They are common in southern and central Europe, the Channel Islands and only in the SW corner of Britain, aren’t we lucky!
