A stroll around the garden

July 4, 2019July 4, 2019 ~ Sam ~ 21 Comments

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.

Salvia hot lips — Salvias and *Verbena rigida* in the raised planters. ‘Hot Lips’ loves it here.

garden wall — 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.

Nepeta 'Walkers Low' — 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.

Mixed border — 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.

Hollyhocks and roses — 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.

mini-orchard — 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.

steps and rose arch — 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.

Garden pond — 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!

lavender — 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.

Crocosmia and grasses — 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!

Hoverfly in flight — 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.

Light blue salvia — I can’t remember the name of this blue salvia but it’s perennial and lovely 🙂

Pale pink rose — 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.

Garden planting — 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.

Rose 'The Garland' — 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.

Hope your week is going well. I’ll be back soon x

In a Vase on Monday: cornucopia

July 9, 2018July 9, 2018 ~ Sam ~ 12 Comments

The lavender is blooming and the bees are going bonkers. It’s a veritable highway of busy apian foragers out there, all heavily and slightly drunkenly flying from flower to flower, stem to stem, plant to plant. There’s the heady scent of it, too, mingling with that of honeysuckle and privet, especially in the early evenings.

Hasn’t the weather been incredible? It’s so unusual to wake up in the UK and be confident that it’s going to be warm, or even hot. We’ve been pottering about in bare feet and summer clothes for a couple of weeks and the boys can’t believe their luck. No school and sunshine! I do love the blue skies and not having to bother about shoes, but the garden could really do with a good drink. It’s actually a little cooler this evening and it has turned quite grey and gloomy, as though it could crash with thunder and tip it down at any moment, but there’s no sign of any rain yet.

I started my vase pickings today with lavender and jasmine, which is coming into flower (and also packs a punch smell-wise), a multi-headed stem of pink cosmos, a single rudbeckia (the first flower) and added a load of different dried grass stems (dry from lack of rain) and a few poppy seedheads. There are also a few leftovers from a hasty table-centre I put together on Saturday (cornflowers, salvias and love-in-a-mist seedheads).

It is lovely to be joining in again with Cathy and her IAVOM-ers this week – last Monday I was in Cornwall visiting an old schoolfriend. We hadn’t seen each other for far too long and it was wonderful to see her, and our other friend who came too, and to see the beautiful part of the country she lives in. The three of us were military kids and boarders at a state school that had a small boarding wing in the late 70s and early 80s. There was no such thing as pastoral care in those days; benign neglect (putting it kindly) was the order of the day. It was character-building and we stuck together in adversity, making us firm friends for life. We are determined not to leave it so long until the next time.

If seeing them wasn’t fabulous enough, this weekend another old schoolfriend of mine came to visit. She was a day girl who I became great friends with and we have kept in touch over the intervening years. She now lives in Australia but is in the UK for a few weeks and slotted in a couple of days down our way. It was so lovely to spend time with her and to catch up. Honestly, I don’t see old friends for ages and then see three in two weekends! My heart is full and I feel enormously lucky to have such long-lasting and dear friends. It’ll keep me going for a while.

Right, I must go and find something in the fridge for dinner. I spotted half a pepper, an end of parmesan and some tired salad earlier. It’s going to be a scratch meal most probably involving pasta.

Wishing you a lovely week.

In a Vase on Monday: midsummer

June 25, 2018 ~ Sam ~ 13 Comments

Hello! I hope this finds you well. Is it glorious weather where you are? It is absolutely, most definitely, totally summer here. I can see the sea from my desk (which is a little too distracting) – it’s a gorgeous cerulean blue with lighter stripes where it must be completely calm; the sky is a lighter blue and there’s a slight yellow haze between the two which is a layer of fumes from the shipping. Despite this, I can see the cliffs on the opposite coast of France and ferries are crossing back and forth with the occasional yacht gliding past and massive container ships in the distance. I’m able to enjoy more of this view since we had a large sycamore felled last week and the height of the yew reduced. It’s made such a difference to the view from the house and I keep stopping to take it all in. Not good when you’ve got lots to be getting on with!

All is calm in this house. My boys have finished their exams and are on their summer holidays. They don’t quite know what to do with themselves. One has gone to visit a friend and the other is lying down somewhere. My daughter is due home from school any moment, so the peace will shortly be interrupted – she’s bring a friend home with her, so I’m braced. I’m busy working on a few book projects, which is keeping me out of mischief, away from my blog (and blog reading – I am very behind) and out of the garden. I walk around outside usually before I’ve walked the dog in the morning to water pots and anything else that needs it (tomatoes, newly planted stuff) and to check that the gooseberries are still ripening and haven’t been pinched by the bloody pigeons. They are ‘bloody’ pigeons not ordinary pigeons because they eat everything. They’re in cahoots with the slugs and snails, I reckon.

I snipped a few flowers for a Monday vase this morning and photographed it at lunchtime, not wanting to miss Cathy’s weekly gathering for two weeks on the trot. The flowers are a red-purple cornflower, deep pink pinks (with the most delicious clove-y scent), lavender (we are a week or two from peak lavender), Nigella seed heads, Alchemilla mollis, Erigeron karvinskianus from the steps and one stem of Cosmos atrosanguineus because I can only spare one flower!

Wishing you a lovely week. More soon…

Rainstorms and sunshine

August 28, 2015 ~ Sam ~ 24 Comments

Before all the heavy rain we had this week I cut back our lavender bushes at the front of the house. Planted as plugs last autumn, this is their first year of flowering and the first time they’ve been cut back. Experts say that hardy lavenders should be cut by mid-August to ensure there’s enough time for the plants to put on some growth before the winter. I was determined to do this properly (we’ve been slapdash in the past and ended up with woody, floppy lavenders), so I read up on what to do – some said cut back to about 20cm, others said to cut back to just above where you can see little nodules of growth on the stems. I’ve done both. I cut about eight plants back hard but that did look very severe, so I cut the rest to approximately 20cm-domes. The smell was amazing and I had to dodge the bees who were still buzzing about. I felt a bit bad about removing their food source, but I didn’t want to leave it much longer and run the risk of leggy lavender. Oh no, not this time. I’m aiming for perfect, healthy, prolific bushes that will last for years…

I also pulled out all the poppies from the veg patch before they spread seeds everywhere. There were lots of them this year and we let them grow to see what their flowers were like. Not nice, it turned out – a candy pink with yellow centres – so we don’t want them popping up again next year.

My goodness, the rain! The wheelbarrow abandoned under the cherry tree is full to the brim with water. Yes, it’s great for the garden but it’s been SO windy and the rain so heavy that it’s flattened the borders in places, knocked off a load of apples and autumn leaves and mostly confined us to the house.

There was plenty of sunshine inside our house on Wednesday, though. It was my birthday. Quite a big birthday. (Shh, my 50th.) It’s taken me rather by surprise. I didn’t mind 30, or even 40, but 50 is undeniably getting older. Definitely middle-aged. Oh well. I should thank my lucky stars that I have good health, a wonderful family and fabulous friends. I had a thoroughly lovely day, filled with flowers and laughter and went to bed feeling very grateful and happy.

That’s me with my youngest and eldest. We tend to be difficult to photograph, pulling faces, being silly, and this was the best of the lot!

Wishing you a very good weekend filled with sunshine (real or imagined) and smiles.

Lavender blue (dilly dilly)

July 22, 2015July 22, 2015 ~ Sam ~ 27 Comments

The first winter we were here, one of walls in front of the top terrace on the sea-side of our garden collapsed. Our attentions were focused on the house at the time but when our kitchen extension was being built we took the opportunity to have new retaining walls built slightly further away – enlarging the top terrace – and filled the gap with the spoil from the groundworks for the extension. It was very messy for a very long time…

We um-ed and ah-ed for quite a while about what to plant on this terrace – it’s south-east facing, gets bashed by the prevailing salty wind and the soil is poor and chalky. We also didn’t want anything that would grow too tall because it would interrupt the view of the sea from the house. Finally we decided on a simple, formal planting scheme of lawn with a lavender border along the front edge. We found a specialist lavender nursery not too far away and went over to see which species would suit us best. There are lots… Lots and lots of lovely lavenders but we plumped for a hardy one – ‘Miss Dawnderry’, an angustifolia with dark purple-blue flowers.

I planted the plug lavenders late last summer and they stayed the same size all through the autumn, over the winter and this is what they looked like this spring. Still very small…