In a Vase on Monday: Harebells

June 14, 2021 by Cathy

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!

In a Vase on Monday: Plonked!

June 7, 2021 by Cathy

Every Monday Cathy at Rambling in the Garden invites fellow bloggers to join her by sharing a vase of flowers etc from our gardens. So here I am again, wondering what happened to last week. Time flies at this time of year!

I reused a few things from last week’s vase… the Allium was still looking lovely, the chives and a spiky Heuchera flower too. But the rest is new and a bit un-thought-out. But I like it!

The lupin in the middle is one of the many I now have that set themselves from a single plant added two years ago. Blue lupins grow at the roadsides here, usually accompanied by masses of yellow broom. Sadly a lot of the broom died in 2020 – the third drought year in a row. But there is hope as there are many smaller plants doing well. The lupins, however, seem completely unaffected by drought!

The Siberian Iris was so welcome… this is the first time it has flowered for me after being planted in the then new Butterfly Bed in October 2018.

A sprig of silvery Artemisia found its way into the vase too. I am constantly pulling this out! More Alchemilla, some Salvia and some Borage were also added.

Oh yes, and a white Polygonum flower was plonked in there too. A bit of a mishmash. But a pleasing one!

Do have a look at Cathy’s post and the other vases linked in to it.

And have a lovely week!

😎☀️🐝

From a Cool Spring to a Hot June

June 4, 2021 by Cathy

June has got off to a good start with temperatures in the upper 20s, blue skies and sunshine. And we were so ready for it after such a cool Spring.

Back in March a big freeze took many plants in the garden by surprise and all of my Buddleia froze right back. There are leaves coming at last, but the Butterfly Bed, where there are three central shrubs, still looks a little bereft.

Cool temperatures also extended the bulb season, with tulips up to the last few days, here with Alliums…

….and there are even some Narcissi still in flower… in June!

Narcissus ‘Baby Moon’

The rain we had all through April and May meant some of my perennials grew way beyond expectations. As you can see in one of the photos above, the Geraniums and Alchemilla are enormous compared with previous years! This does, at least, make up for the lack of Buddleia foliage.

This Geranium is currently my favourite (it changes regularly!). G. ibericum ‘Vital’. The colour is very intense and the veins on the petals very pretty. I also like the foliage.

Wind and rain and very cold nights (e.g. 1.6°C overnight on 31st May) have given the vegetable garden a difficult start. I am still waiting for the beans to sprout and the cucumbers died so have been replaced with one spare seedling and one bought plant. I believe it may have gone down to freezing point last week a little way away from the house. The only things doing well are the kohlrabi and the salad leaves… and the weeds of course.

But now the danger of frosts is over for a few months and I have all my summer pots planted up, all my annuals planted out and tomatoes in pots on the patio.

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No time to sit and enjoy it yet though… this afternoon we collected a trailerful of mulch from the biomass yard to spread on the newest beds and around the vegetable bed. So you know how I will be spending my weekend! 😁