A 'Summery' note for last Year

We had a great summer last year - no we really did!

Most of us talk about what a bad year it was, what with fete's fairs and car boots being cancelled due to the weather. However, most of you will only remember that when it came to a weekend the weather turned and rained or it was too cold especially for gardening.

I took action when ever I could behaving just like the weather barometer  where woman came out in good weather and man came out in variable weather. When it was sunny I went out into the garden obviously when rained I came back in or sheltered in the shed. Although it was still a hard year I have to agree.

I recall in March 2012 it was really warm - hot in fact! I had accomplished the lower borders by then tidying up the lavender beds, and watching the hens dig around and scratch on the car park.

 

 

Come Easter we had lost our best hen. With the dry weather in March and then a freezing cold Easter we wondered if we were going to get any summer at all.! April came and went albeit everything looked much greener, and surprisingly not dissimilar to this years weather pattern. I decided to surround my lavenders with a parterre of box.

 

 

May too was surprisingly hot! - too hot in fact to even plant the veg out!

 

 

May however was good enough to say we had a summer with red peonies and the azalea which flourished in hot weather.

 

Even our baby hens thought it was too hot they sought refuge in the large hole in the garden!

 

 And then came June...... Blue Iris and the blue grey range of delphinium displayed their glorious colour!

 

Even my efforts for the Queen's Jubilee with an old fashioned red rose and love in the mist trailing through the rose came right!

 

Its late June and flowers flowers everywhere! My Sarah Bernhardt peony with its crunchy petals,

 

 

the Compassion and Perpetue Roses

 

 

Even my blue hostas had gone to flower!

 

 

and so lets reflect on weather we had a good summer or not? so far sow good!

 

It's the end of June I remember watching the Chelsea Flower Show and how cold and wet at times it was however some stunning garden design work really inspired me to keep going and get the look in my garden that I wanted in keeping with the property (naturally)

 

 



 

 

My efforts for potting up for a grand sale of plants included the nasturtium's which all flowered early.

 

In July I did not take many photos as the weather seemed to take a turn. The jet stream had moved and everything seemed to be getting tired, old and going to seed. saying this I enjoyed my 'mock orange' shrub with its heavenly smell, the echinops and alliums, plus the 'celebration cream and orange gladioli bought for me for the jubilee!

 

 

 

more later for the second half of the Year!

 





Reverse weather

Is it September or October! who knows what month it is with the ever changable weather this last few months. Just when I thought I needed to start putting everything in the garden to bed we ended up getting the barbeque out again and sticking our shorts on. Despite the fury of the winds earlier in the month, flowers that seeded in September have suddenly come into flower like my Love in a Mist. Swathes of blue along side the pale pinks and whites of cyclamen in the front border were a delight. Striking acidanthera is everlasting with a profusion of perfume, along side newly emerging gladioli's. Roses in the main bay pushing more flowers up, and my ever flowering yellow border also saw more roses flowering late on, much to my surprise.
I fear I do not want to deplete all the goodness out of the shrubs by constant pruning, and so contrary to most I look forward to the first frosts.

They recommend that cutting back in autumn is the norm however as Alan Titchmarsh stated in his programme Love your Garden gardens are 'still on the boil'!! so is mine.

Mary Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow.....

Close up I have been experimenting with camera action, so here are some of the close ups of the flowers and shrubs in the borders. Does not include "hens"!!!! We did however excel at the Uppingham Produce and Flower Show this year winning six firsts including the Matthews Rose Cup, for single stem rose specimen, along with the The Garden Cup for produce from our garden, and overall most points in show cup. Worth the hard work then.

Everything's coming up roses!

What a change in the weather. The last month or so brought flowers up that had been lying dormant, which should have come up throughout the spring. Windflowers (anemone's) survived the howling early summer winds! It is said that this year everything is late - well late late for a very important date it was. I am now however reaping the benefits of my colourful border.
From the dark berberis and raspberry colour of persicaria through to pink echinaceas and roses at the start of the border, and the bright whites of the acidanthera, purple diablo and alium drumsticks with the blues of the delphinium and agapanthus, the garden stretches to warm hues of yellow gold and oranges to the top border of cool greens of euonymous, peniculata ferns and hostas. 'Sow' now with the abundance of shrubs and flowers I can finally get to work! selling the fruits of my labour. It is however getting near to the time of starting planting all over again!

Spring has Sprung, Summer is here - more than half way through the year!

After months of waiting for flowers to appear we only had a repeat of last springs weather NO rain! still I kept busy and optimistic that soon I will see an abundance of flowers, however since April we have only had a few real downpours which gets me thinking I should plant a 'dry garden' Beth Chatto style.

My labour planted pots of tulips although stunning came and went so I looked forward to the ranunculas and wind flowers appearing. Sure enough there were a few windflowers and papery ranunculas but not enough, so Ive been waiting for the next round of flowers and plants. Now my garden is a pretty picture, the scabiosa returned, the peonys opened, the red rose flourished, and my prize planting out yet to be borne is my aliums wavering in the wind. I have albeit created some of my flower boxes, which provided me with the feeling of 'was worth all the slog'. Suffice to say that the hens needed to be kept off the borders this year and its paid off! Except when one jumps over the fence! So I am sitting back relaxing and enjoying my garden until the next round of flowers come out, like my sunflowers, sweetpeas, dahlias, agapanthus, and rudbeckia's then its all go....... again

Its sow mild the weather

I am aiming to only blog once or twice a month otherwise I would not get anything done, however on that note, it was mild over the weekend so I set to, sowing more bulbs that should have been sown in December. Hopefully I will get some lovely white and blue iris', albeit late,and they are planted at the front of the house in order the hens cannot destroy the shoots this time !!

Back Breaking stuff!

Hello I am back (ha ha ) after a long period of injuries since my last post in November. The point being I was in the middle of planting some silver blue juniper trees and extending the borders. Whilst the hens tried to help it only hindered my progress so I put them in their pen, and whilst doing so impailed myself in the ribs with one of the posts of the hens net. Suffice to say not content with that I returned to digging out a very tuberous Kerria exaserbating the damaged muscle tissues even more. Since then I have finally got back on track with all bulbs and manner of flowers due to come up soon it was all worth it.