Although I haven’t been keeping an end-of-month record of the garden this year, I’m glad I have the photos from 2018 to see how everything has matured since the end of June last year. One striking difference is how much greener the grass is from all that rain we had earlier in the year.
Anyway, here’s a little tour to show you what the village garden safari visitors saw over the weekend when they visited our garden. It was overcast when I took these pictures, so imagine hot sunshine, a light breeze, the distinct smell of the sea and birds singing, and a weary pair of gardeners raising a mug of coffee to you from their chairs in the shade.
Salvias and Verbena rigida in the raised planters. ‘Hot Lips’ loves it here.I bought a bistro table and two chairs for under the old apple tree in the back garden and several people stopped to sit in the shade for a while.This bed was a riot of osteospermums and nasturtiums last year but I’ve planted three insect-friendly Nepeta ‘Walkers Low’ along the path edge. I bought it as one plant about six weeks ago, divided it into three, potted them on until roots poked out of the bottom of the pots, then planted them out. They seem very happy. In the background there are the step-over apples underplanted with geraniums and chartreuse Euphorbia oblongata to the right of the pic.The border by the back wall is a mixture of blue/purple, pink and orange. Iris sibirica has gone over but there are agapanthus coming into flower and asters later in the year. Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’ is also coming into bloom. Please avert your eyes from the slightly scrappy path. You see those pine cones? Hundreds of them. I’d cleared them all the day before. Every time the wind blows, more drop from the pines. If you have any tips for what to do with them, other than use as firelighters, I’d be grateful. They don’t compost well.Moving round the side of the house to the sea-facing side, here are remarkable self-sown hollyhocks growing in cracks in the paving and the prolific rose bush that has no scent, sadly (as it’s next to the house). The lavender hedges are just coming into flower.Looking down onto the mini orchard and more lavender from the top terrace – the bees, hoverflies and butterflies love it there and you can hear crickets/grasshoppers singing their songs in the sunshine.Looking down the Erigeron Steps to the rose and jasmine arch (both starting to flower) and the wildflower patch beyond, and our black cat hiding in the daisies.Looking down onto the pond area, which we’ve recently cleared, with the wild area beyond (and bench on the area where we’ve had bonfires!). David relaid the flag stones around the pond (yet to be pointed) and we planted up the beds with heucheras and geraniums (permanent) and cosmos and snapdragons (temporary) and should mature to form lovely mounds of foliage with flowers in spring/summer. All the new beds (and bare soil elsewhere) have been mulched with bark chippings made from the tree work we had done last summer to help keep moisture in and cut down on weeds. Lugging trugs and trugs of that up the steps has improved my fitness levels somewhat!Down the steps to have a closer look, you can see David’s ‘work in progress’ in the background. It’s going to be a covered seat with a cedar shingle roof and climbers growing up the sides. The hosepipe wasn’t there for visitors to trip over.The little apple and pear trees are growing well – there’s a load of apples coming but hardly any pears this year. Maybe next. Again, more bark mulch to keep moisture in. I love the little areas of randomly mixed flowers down here – see next photo…
The border around the orchard is a mix of grasses (Stipa tenuissima and Calamagrostis) with perennials like Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ (just coming into bloom), Verbena bonariensis, osteospermums and heucheras. You can just see the mounds of Gypsophila ‘Gypsy Pink’ tucked into the edge of the border, an emergency purchase from a local supermarket to fill the gaps here!Moving along the path a little to see more of the planting. I love the way the lavender hedge above now peeps over the wall and ties in visually with the lavender below. Repeat planting is a very useful design tool.
We’re trying to plant as many plants that are beneficial for insects as possible – lavender, verbena, salvias, geums, poppies, scabious, wild flowers and many others are insect-magnets. Above you can see a hoverfly coming in to land (more luck than judgement on the part of the photographer!).The two most commented-on plants during the garden safari were Erigeron karvinskianus (Mexican fleabane) and Stipa tenuissima, both looking rather lovely at this time of year.I can’t remember the name of this blue salvia but it’s perennial and lovely 🙂This rose was a gift about 5 years ago, planted elsewhere in the garden, moved twice and is now in its final home, breathing a sigh of relief and sending out beautiful scented blooms.I’m really happy with how the different levels are working – lavender on top of the wall, mixed border below, further mixed border, pond area. I’m looking forward to seeing how these all fill out and develop.I think this rose is ‘The Garland’, a highly scented climber from David Austin. I say ‘I think’ because David and I bought a rose for each other at roughly the same time and temporarily planted this one in a trug while we cleared the area and the labels got muddled. I am not very good at keeping track of labels… Anyway, it’s been here for a couple of months and is looking happy. The hope is that it will eventually cover this fence and look fabulous.
So, here we are, nearly at the bottom of the garden. I haven’t shown you the area to the right of the rose in this picture because it’s more of the same (geraniums, grasses, Erigeron, Artemisia and ivy) or the wildflower area in detail but I’m sure you’ve seen enough for now.
Ha, just spotted my m-in-l top left taking photos!Dog looking shifty.Remember that bare bank of soil?Terracing starting to come together. The grasses – Calamagrostis, Miscanthus and Stipa t. will soften it.Aha, the pond! We didn’t realise there were paving slabs this end of the pond until we cleared the big pile of rocks, soil and brambles…This jasmine smells divine.Climbing rose over the wonky arch. No idea what variety it is.Lavender and briza.Pink scabious (bees love it), with ammi, sweetpeas, marigolds, Verbena b. and grasses behind; blue Campanula to the left.The new veg patch on the other side of the steps.Colour-pop pots.The zinnias are coming!Gaura ‘The Bride’.Two ‘Turk’s Turban’ squashes growing in the compost heap. They’re now taking over that whole corner…Front left (looking towards the sea) taken from the balcony.Front right.The back garden which has been a bit neglected, tbh, while we’ve been beaming on the front garden. Goodness knows what we were thinking when we took this on…
Hello, how are you?! It’s been all work and no play for the past couple of weeks here at acoastalplot, hence the radio silence. It’s good to be busy (freelance work tends to be like buses) but I have missed you 🙂 I’ve also found it slightly excruciating (if it’s possible to be excruciated in degrees) being indoors at my desk during some completely glorious weather; looming deadlines meant that I couldn’t down tools and head to the beach with my family at the weekend. But, hey, there’ll be other days.
The garden has had to pretty much fend for itself, so thank goodness it’s finally raining! Hoo-flipping-rah. The sky has been full of grey clouds all day but it didn’t start properly raining until early evening. It’s now bouncing off the skylights and I’m imagining the plants are cheering, especially the grass which has lost most of its green. The snails are probably cheering, too, so I expect I’ll find more destruction in the morning. I must take a photo of one of the dahlias to show you – it’s a poor dahlia skeleton. Curse those slimy creatures.
These photos were taken in the garden just after the garden safari weekend. We were still planting, moving rocks and laying paths right up to the night before, but it all went well and we had lots of lovely people through the garden, met new neighbours and locals we hadn’t met before, and chatted to fellow keen gardeners. It was lovely to be able to take a breather and to enjoy being in the garden and we even managed to visit a few inspiring gardens recommended to us. A decent amount of money was raised for the hospice and everyone declared it a success. Looking at the photos, it’s amazing how much everything has settled in and grown since they were taken. The little orchard area is now full of wildflowers, the ornamental grasses and perennials are filling out, we’ve courgettes, tomatoes and squashes growing like crazy, and enough flowers to keep me in vase material for a good while yet. I can’t wait to have time to get out there again. When it stops raining.
I’ve been a little quiet lately because last Monday I knocked a large mug of coffee all over my beloved MacBookPro. It died; I was distraught. It’s now in the hands of the insurance company and I’m waiting to hear whether they can fix it or at least retrieve my data. While I wait to see what can be done, I’m using the family pc when it’s free which isn’t very often. I occasionally forget and go to my desk to write something only to find a Mac-shaped hole. And I’m very behind with my blog reading and emails – there is much to catch up on. Anyway. Enough of that. HELLO!
Summer is here at last. Throw open the doors and windows! Dig out the sundresses! Hang out the bunting! This past week has been mostly glorious sunshine and it’s forecast to be hotter than hot tomorrow. Hooray for our sea breeze. But, wait. I’m getting ahead of myself. What’s been happening here? The much anticipated Garden Safari, that’s what!
A bit of bunting brightened up the path from the gate down to the garden.Cheery geraniums planted in our old chimney pot covers. (I’ve just noticed those cobwebs on the cladding!)Our smart new compost bins. You can feel the heat coming off them.We prepared and planted up this little square with box, lavender, sage and hyssop. This small patch (about 1.5m square) under the kitchen window had been covered in building rubbish for months.
With two days to go, my mother-in-law (never one to shy away from a challenge) even painted the old shed black. It looks much smarter now, don’t you think?The red geraniums and osteospermums really stand out against the black.
My mother-in-law came to stay for the week and we all worked hard, and I mean hard, to get everything ready; thanks to her, we did all we’d planned to do and more. Happily Saturday dawned with blue skies and warm sunshine. It was lovely to put on some summery clothes instead of soil-smeared old ones and have some time off from all that planting, weeding, pruning and brushing!
I’ll admit it was a little odd having people wandering around the garden but everyone was lovely and interested in what we’d done and our plans for the rest of the garden. ‘Come back next time and it’ll be done!’ we said. Ha ha.
We had grandparents and the children helping serve tea and cakes in the afternoons, which meant the kitchen got pretty crowded at times (and the boys were more interested in polishing off as much cake as they could), but we managed to remember who’d ordered what and not spill anything on anyone. All in all the weekend was a great success and, best of all, I’m told the Safari raised a good deal of money for the local hospice. We’ll definitely take part again next time but thankfully it’s not for another two years.
Over the last couple of weeks I have learnt that black nail varnish covers even the most tatty gardening fingernails; empty jam jars make perfect mini-cloches for strawberries; there is still just about enough light at 10pm in the garden in late June to see what you’re doing; and you must never, EVER, balance a mug of coffee right next to your laptop.
Inspiration comes from many different sources – the landscape, other gardens, photos, paintings, fabrics, the way the light falls at different times of the day.
I’ve been proofreading a fascinating portrait painting book this week and it’s got me thinking about sources of inspiration, different styles of planting and layering colours in the garden. As in a painting, you want tonal contrasts, differing textures, and colours that make your heart leap. Of course, there is one crucial difference with a garden: you are right inside it. You can see it from different angles and you can add elements of intrigue: ‘Wow, look at that! But, wait, what’s that over there?’ And you can appeal to the other senses – touch, smell and sound. It’s an exciting creative challenge.
This large patch of clover is growing next to the big field I walk past almost daily. Copying what nature does best can work really well – mass planting or repeat planting (if you have the space) is often very easy on the eye.
I read a lot about plants and design and I love to see what works for other gardeners but there is inspiration to be found in many other places.
I’m inspired by the colours in this favourite sheet, for example, and personal treasures, such as one of my grandmother’s cloths and a Carl Larsson postcard. I love his charming style.
Discovering many wonderful blogs since I started writing here has also been a delight and very motivating – there are such beautiful photographs and a wealth of creative, talented bloggers out there. It is a real pleasure to read what everyone is up to and see into generously shared lives.
I was going to write a lot more about inspiration and garden design but I’ll save that for another time. I need to snatch a couple of hours in the garden before the children get home. The newly planted areas of the garden are starting to fill out – it always amazes me how quickly everything grows at this time of the year (including the weeds).
The renovated bed by the back wall is starting to fill out.A view across the veg patch towards the back wall.
Remember that lovely blue-flowering plant I pictured at the end of my last post? I put it on Twitter and someone kindly forwarded the photo to their mum who has identified it as Moltkia, a herby, rhizomatous shrub. Hooray! Thanks to the wonders of social media we now know what it is.
Moltkia. Never heard of it, but this is it!
Thank you so much for your kind comments on my previous post. I admit I was having a wobble but, as the Garden Safari weekend gets nearer, I’m feeling much calmer. It will be fine, we’re just one of many gardens open and this is our first year. I’ll let you know how it all goes.
Our Safari pack has arrived with lots of ‘health and safety’ signage…
The view across the fields yesterday as a weather front loomed. We just made it home before the drizzle set in for the day.
My dear friend Mrs Ford (of the delightful Mrs Ford’s Diary) and I discussed our plans for the looming village Garden Safari this morning as we walked our dogs. We decided we should come clean on our blogs and declare that we know each other in Real Life as we’re both likely to write about events such as this. It was she who encouraged me to write my blog and I have her to thank for introducing me to some very lovely blogs and bloggers. If you haven’t read her blog, I urge you to do so. It is beautifully crafted and never fails to cheer me up (and even guffaw loudly). I am convinced that one day she will be Discovered and go from being a Pillar of the Community to an Overnight Sensation and Best-selling Author.
The flowers on the renovated climbing rose looking zingy against the new wall.
Anyway, back to the rapidly approaching Garden Safari (can you tell I am getting slightly anxious?!). As well as making sure that the garden is in a fit state to be viewed – paths cleared, stacks of planks and posts transformed into respectable-looking compost bins, brash from hedges and bushes cleared away, sacks full of garden waste taken to the tip, as many weeds as possible got rid of – we have rashly declared that, as an added attraction, we will serve Afternoon Teas. Not content with the stress of having strangers wandering round the garden noticing things, we have the added excitement of providing refreshments. Thankfully my lovely children are game for helping out on the day (with the promise of a little financial inducement/bribe), so it will be all hands to the pump.
When it all gets a bit much, I have a wander round the garden and enjoy the small beauties such as this Nigella (love-in-the-mist).Our first radishes harvested yesterday. They were delicious (more so because I sowed the seed, tended them and watched them grow).
As well as all this, we have the ‘builders in’… Our balcony is being repaired/relaid and there are two massive piles of old roofing material and discarded stuff at the front where I am planning to arrange chairs and tables for people to sit. This was all meant to be finished a while ago (big sigh). There are men here today clearing the rubbish as I write (phew) and there are other men on the balcony adding another layer of waterproof membrane, climbing up and down ladders and dropping splashes of noxious substance onto the paving below. I am trying not to look at the broken stems on the climbing rose and the odd stains on the lawn.
I remain hopeful that it will all come together enough to be ok. Whenever anyone asks me about it (and a surprising number of people do!), I reply in a very confident tone that ‘everything will be fine’. There are enough interesting works-in-progress, some pretty plants, a view of the sea and, of course, there will be cake.
This really pretty plant is growing out of a wall – it’s quite woody with lavender/rosemary-type leaves and the most gorgeous blue flowers (but no scent). I’ve asked gardening friends and searched through our books but haven’t found out what it is. Does anyone know?
Two gentlemen from the Garden Safari committee came to survey the garden yesterday. It was pouring with rain and blowing a gale – not ideal garden-viewing conditions. They looked with alarm at the piles of rubble, the steep steps, the new retaining walls with sheer drop, the pond, the trampoline and all the other ‘risks’ and made notes on their clipboards. ‘Have you got any poisonous plants?’, one asked. Oh crikey. I thought for a moment that they were going to strike us off the list and tell us our garden was too unsafe. But, no, it’s ok. We will have barriers and signs saying ‘Go no further’, ‘There’s nothing to see here’, or similar. We’ll be cordoning off the steep, terraced, ‘lots of work to do’ part and keeping visitors to the safer, flatter, and very luckily, better-looking part.
Steep steps, a sheer drop and part of the garden I’ve not introduced you to yet…Work in progress and blue trug.
They were slightly aghast at our relaxed attitude. There is still so much to do! The date is fast-approaching! David and I looked at each other – ‘But it’s weeks away…’ we said. Perhaps we’re being over-confident but, as we’ve done so much since March, we’re sure there’s time to get it in a fit state for people to look at.
We spent the weekend clearing this border by the back garden wall. There’s a plum and greengage (both requiring attention) and a Campsis radicans (trumpet vine) which we’ve cut back to encourage it to flower lower down. We’ve lots of plants to go in here when we’ve sorted out the edging.
There’s a whole heap of plants almost ready to go in to the newly revealed bed by the back wall and to fill gaps after the tulips have gone over. And the roses should be well into their flowering by then. Most of these were rescued from underneath overgrown shrubs in the front garden, so I’ve no idea what cultivar they are or what colour they’ll be! They’re in a sloping bed edged with box and also containing Miscanthus – a simple planting scheme but hopefully it’ll be looking pretty for the Safari at the end of June.
In any case, we’ll be serving afternoon teas with David’s scones, so it’ll be worth visiting just to sit and look at the sea and eat cake.
Box, roses and Miscanthus in the sloping bed by the path should be looking good by the end of June. It was full of white daffodils (Narcissus ‘Pheasant’s Eye’) earlier in the year – they lasted really well and their scent was gorgeous.This rose is flowering already.
Plants waiting to be moved to their new homes.
In other news… Two children are away this week – the youngest and the eldest (who is spending a lot of time away at the moment) are abroad on school trips. I’m missing them and the house is Very Quiet. Our self-contained middle child is tolerating the attention of both parents and enjoying having the computer all to himself. To take advantage of simpler logistics, we’re off to have a look at the Chelsea Flower Show on Thursday. I’ll try not to bombard you with too many photos.
Garden visiting, looking at what is through the garden gate, especially those open for National Garden Scheme, with just an occasional foray here and there.
acoastalplot 