A woman’s work is never done!

So there I was, looking at the mess of a border in our ‘smaller garden’ 

and contemplating what to do!

      In no time at all, I had it all cleared and I was ready to begin the project!

 

      Luckily, I have the tools as well as the knowledge of woodworking…

     now isn’t that lucky?!

     I was soon able to whip up the shell of a raised border…I said to myself, 

     ‘Piece of cake’. Didn’t I do well? …..

Humping all the bags of soil was dead easy as I have good, firm tyres 

on the wheelbarrow!

     In no time at all…t’was full!  ‘This is going well’, thought I. 

     ‘I should do this for a living!’ 

      I carefully positioned the roses, that had been patiently waiting for a few weeks, 

     most of them having been either munched by the deer or rescued 

     from the old border. I’m confident that they will survive. 

     And I’m pretty confident that the deer won’t access this part of the garden.

      Then I set to, planting some Lavender and one or two other plants.

      My only job now is to neaten the edges of the wood so that it all looks 

      perfectly finished. Then I can grow a few trailing plants to soften the edges.

      And I even had time left over to admire the rest of the garden…

      …..and then plan my next project!

Sweet Peas

 

Sweet Peas

Under the sweet-peas I stood

And drew deep breaths, they smelt so good.

Then, with strange enchanted eyes,

I saw them change to butterflies.

Higher than the skylark sings

I saw their fluttering crimson wings

Leave their garden-trellis bare

And fly into the upper air.

Standing in an elfin trance

Through the clouds I saw them glance….

Then I stretched my hands up high

And touched them in the distant sky.

At once the coloured wing came back

From wandering in the zodiac.

Under the sweet-peas I stood

And drew deep breaths. They smelt so good.

by Alfred Noyes

A few of my favourite things…

 

‘Peace’ is my favourite hybrid tea rose. Also known as ‘Madame Meilland’, it was developed by a French rose breeder, Francis Meilland, sometime in the late 1930s. When he saw that war was going to happen he sent cuttings to his friends in various countries. ‘Peace’ the perfect name for such a beautiful rose.

An old sink is just perfect for the garden and you can utilise it in so many ways. Last year I planted my sinks with Thyme, Lavender, Salvia and Penstemon. I have two, one each side of my greenhouse door, and they always please me as I walk in and out of one of my happy places.

I became a fan of Chocolate Cosmos a few years ago, simply because it adds good contrast to the plants around it. It’s a tender perennial which produces tubers, so I’ll move it in the autumn and attempt to help it survive the winter. Fingers crossed!

I’ve grown to love Achillea! There are now some beautiful colours available and my plan is to use one of my raised beds, next year, for purely perennials. In fact this might spill over into two of my beds as I’ve so many on my list! I grew the Ageratum from seed and they have done really well both in my pots and my borders. I love the colour combination.

And  here are just a few more favourites that I snapped this week! 

🌻🌻🌻

This week in the garden…

This little area is now finished and adds another interest to the garden. I’m really 

 happy with the calming  colours. The only thing is that I can’t remember 

the variety of rose that was planted last year by the fence! So watch this space!

 

            Meanwhile…

                Our pond continues to delight…

      

And even more so when an unexpected guest drops in for a visit…and this one was a big one!

            Meanwhile…lovely things are dotted around…a perennial sweet pea…

A

    

          A stunning Hydrangea paniculata…

     

          Hypericum teamed with Cosmos…

           Ageratum…a real success from seed this year…

      

          And a Streptocarpus that I allow to have the summer in my potting place…

I’m not sure how this happened but I’ve two Fuchsia varieties growing out of one pot…oh well..sums me up really!

                And a reminder that I need to sow seeds!

I dig no dig!

You probably wouldn’t realise that there are five raised beds here! I’m fairly new to raised bed gardening and I’m still learning BUT one thing is for sure: I’m a ‘no dig’ convert and I didn’t dig my beds this year.

So why not dig?

Well…soil is a very complex eco system and it is full of organisms such as fungi, algae, earthworms, nematodes, insects..and oh so much more! And these all help in the function of nutrient cycling so that air and water can travel through the improved soil structure, in order to aid plant growth. So..if you think about it, it makes sense not to dig because if you dig you are inadvertently wrecking this eco system, exposing it to the air and the sun…which will kill the organisms and totally mess with the structure of the soil. Simples!

In fact, it’s so easy when you think of it like this! When I look back to all the years my dad use to dig over his veg plots..the back breaking work involved and then standing back and looking at the beautifully tilled soil! How we have advanced with our thinking!

I just need to mention that if you are a green manure addict, then you can’t really dig it into your soil when it grows as that defeats the whole purpose of ‘no dig’! I did experiment with one bed, using Phacelia and then I allowed it to grow and then I chopped it down and left it to mulch. The other beds I actually covered with Strulch, leaves and compost. However, this year, because I now know so much more, I’m going to do what Charles Dowding suggests…he is the expert in ‘no dig’! You can read about his ideas here .

( Note to husband…please save cardboard for me!😁)

For me this is all a steep learning curve and I’m sure that I could do better next year. But when I look at my own raised beds, I know that I’ve done something right as everything is looking lovely and lush !

 

The beauty of the July garden…

 

After I’d finished all of my garden tasks, earlier, I took my camera for a quick scoot around. T’was too good not to capture and I like to keep a record of what I’ve grown each year.

                                Happy weekend…whatever you do!

Down at the bottom of the garden…

 

 

It’s all been happening over the last couple of weeks! Where? Down at the bottom of our garden!

The area was wild and pretty, yet very overgrown! Dominated by Greater Celandine, something had to be done as although we love wild areas, and in fact we have many, this needed a good tidy up… or better still, a remodelling ! 

We opted for the latter! Gravel was bought and soon laid down by my hard working, other half, and the whole area started to take on a new persona!

Then we visited a lovely nursery to select a few plants … our furthest trip/ jolly in the last 18 months! 

I planted the containers with a variety of lavender plus some Salvia, Euphorbia and Thyme as well as a couple of mini ponds which I’m still in the process of doing. 

Being a bit of a ‘garden features’ lover, I added a few little extras …

 

And then the main feature…the beautiful, solar, water fountain, chosen because we wanted to add the sound of trickling water. The pond has no fountain because water lilies don’t like water to splash on to their leaves, hence our decision to add this to our new area…

So now it was all beginning to take shape…

And I’m pretty pleased right now …just a bit of finishing off to do as we need to buy some more gravel.

Until next time!