Category Archives: Animals/Creatures

Uprooted (well, almost!)

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We live on an exposed hillside, and when it is windy, it is really windy. All my planting decisions take this into account… usually. But for some reason I didn’t apply this to the annual sunflowers in The ‘Edge. They all have large buds already and were looking so good and sturdy earlier this week…

 

About 20 sunflowers and Tithonia are planted between the shrubs and perennials in The ‘Edge.

Well, one night we had yet another thunderstorm, but accompanied by extremely strong winds…. I spent a good hour the following morning rescuing and staking them all! With all the rain we have had the ground is so soft that they were almost uprooted. Luckily the stems were thick enough and I could save them all by stamping them back into the ground and putting in sturdy tomato canes and bamboo canes to help them stay upright.

They looked much better a day or two later. I am looking forward to seeing them in bloom. 😃 Do you stake your sunflowers?

I hope that the wind will stay at bay for a while, but the weather patterns seem set for the summer… heat and humidity, then thunderstorms with wind and rain, then a couple of cooler days in between, repeat. 🙃

My title also refers to our new family member… Anouk. Rescued from living rough in a port in Greece she was brought to us last weekend to spend her retirement here.

This wasn’t actually planned, but we think it will work out. Poor Anouk is no doubt feeling uprooted too. But what’s worse is that she is petrified of thunderstorms. So she had a tough time the first few days and we are hoping there won’t be too many more rumbles of thunder this summer.

How is your summer developing? I have heard of heatwaves in the north west of the US and in Canada, and a rather chilly spell in the UK.

Whatever the weather, happy gardening!

In a Vase on Monday: Harebells

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This Monday I am joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her lovely meme once again.

And it is a special vase today: not only is it my Man of Many Talents’ birthday, but the hare jug I used arrived unexpectedly on Saturday as a gift from my Mum! (And what’s more, we have finally got an electrician to set up the power for the doorbell and gate opener up at our gate. Tradesmen are like gold at the moment here!)

The gorgeous jug is filled with harebells (Campanula patula) and a few moon daisies from the wilder parts of the garden. Here it is a bit closer up.

My Mum sent a card with it that has wild flower seed incorporated into the paper. You just cover the whole card in compost and give it a good watering. 😃 I shall display it a bit longer before trying that though.

The grasses, some clover, sanguisorba and even a buttercup, sneaked in with the harebells too.

Hares galore are exploring our garden at the moment, and it is so lovely to see them. We watched this one the other evening as he ambled through the oval bed and nibbled at  various plants before moving on. No serious damage as he found the grass tasted better! 😉

Here he is again, washing his face… how could I be angry about a few dianthus flowers when I see this!

A big thank you to my Mum, for the vase. And a Happy Birthday and big thanks to my Man of Many Talents too, who helped me with the marathon task of spreading mulch around the whole garden last week. I will show you the results very soon.

In the meantime, thanks for reading and have a great week.

Happy Gardening!