Poor Mum

I owe her a phone cal, it's long overdue and I feel very mean about itl. I keep meaning to ring when I get a moment but the garden demands my time.
I ended up getting home last night, mowing the lawn at 8.40pm and then working on a project before falling asleep during the pre recorded Gardener's World at 10pm when the rain woke me up. Having found one of the newly planted courgettes eaten already, it's soft stem gnawed at by slugs or snails, I've taken precautionary measures by sprinkling with a very few slug pellets (I don't like using them as they endanger other animals like the hedgehog as well as the birds), some oyster shell (the slugs don't like crossing sharp, gritty ground) and then circling the courgettes with chicken wire to prevent the hedgehog finding the pellets. Running out of chicken wire meant I had to improvise and the last courgette has an upside down empty flower basket topping it. They have survived the night but I'll be keeping an eye on them.

It's infuriating when you've nurtured a plant only to have it decimated by slugs. Mind you, last night as I was mowing the edges I took out one of the slow growing box plants that was happily growing into a low hedge. It now has one stem left, the rest being ripped away by the roatary blade. An own goal! Idiot.

Sadly two of the three courgettes got slugged. I'm pining my hopes on the last one!

An early morning poppy, dewy and full of promise.

Looks over taste.

Allium (the onion family), weeping pears, pineapple lily. All sounds edible but they are all just there for their looks.

Glad for gladioli

The veg and fruit patch are now dug over and planted up, maybe I'll get to sit in the steamer chair and just enjoy them.

Worth getting up at 5am for.

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Shake a tail feather.

Dear Shakira, that feather has been pinned to her for days. It's like children losing their baby teeth, it wobbles and threatens to come loose but still clings on. She's having her annual moult and is looking a little scraggy right now but that one feather refuses to budge.

Is it wrong..?

to be in love with a garden? Well, I think I am with mine. After working from 10am till 9pm yesterday (don't feel too bad for me, I did have fifteen minutes break for lunch) I had the delightful prospect of an afternoon off and today is the last day of sunshine till the weekend so it was out in the garden to do some work. I know it's sad but I just love getting the garden ship-shape and of course, after visiting the garden centre's bargain basement and not paying full price for one thing I came back, ready to dig.

We've got some flowers indoors from the garden and even a bud or two can brighten up a room. However, if I can I like to leave my flowers outdoors and enjoy them for longer. One day maybe I'll have a 'picking garden' where I can grow enough to pick as well as watch them flourish outside.

Right now my washing line is full of the clothes I had washed but forgotten to put out because I was engrossed in  gardening. Even when Linda next door came up her path with a basket of freshly washed clothes I still didn't twig till it was 6pm and I was heading in. Luckily for me the sun is still out and the wind has picked up so it's perfect drying weather.

As I type away on the laptop I can look out and see the bright amber of the Celosia, like glowing flames rising up from their leafy bases. They come in a variety of colours, from cream to the more vibrant pinks, yellows, scarlets and oranges - they look like neon candyfloss in the borders. To soften the effect of these punks I've underplanted with blue Brachycombe, little daisy type flowers with a lemon centre and plenty of wispy foliage. I also circled the newly planted standard weeping pear with similarly bleached out silver grey salvias to echo the leaves of the tree and give it some cohesion in the front garden. After planting up the Eryngium Blue Hobbit in the back garden I was ready to tackle the vegetable plot.

What joy to dig up the last of the spuds, the rich red of the enormous Desiree potatoes is a joy to behold, emerging from the soil with hopefully none speared with the fork. There were two rows left so we have two bucketfuls of these ready wrapped meals. I love jacket potato, rubbed in oil and salt and baked till ready then mashed with a fork and some butter. A twise of pepper, a sprinkle of salt and it's one of the best meals I can think of.
But I digress! The aim of digging these up was to make way for the long overdue to be planted courgettes. It'll be a bit of a gamble and very much dependent on the weather if these three small plants manage to turn into tubes of watery veg, sometimes growing almost overnight to marrow size if you don't keep an eye on them.
I also pushed in some bamboo canes to allow the dwarf beans to grow up them, three wigwams give some vertical interest as I glance out again. I've also sewn two rows of flat leaved parsley., sprinkled half an inch under the surface in a finely tilthed drill.Alongside I added one row of more ornamental cabbages. By rights they don't have a place in the veg patch but when the winter months come along there will be little interest to enjoy so the peacock colours of these frilly edged leaf chaps. I also used the last of the space to sew four rows of spinach, the chickens will love it, if we don't get to eat it all it will add nitrogen to the compost heap and we should have plenty of young leaves to steam gently as a side dish for a warming stew. I had to stake up the sunflowers whose heavy heads have proved too much with the wind we've had today and have flopped over. One is completely snapped but the others are salveagable. Likewise, one of the larger sweetcorn has also buckled under it's weight so that too has been staked up to support it.

The chickens had plenty of warnings when they would hop over the wooden edging to nip the feathery tops of the newly regrown carrots. Even though I have some chicken wire across them those girls still can't resist coming at them from the edges. Naughty girls. Once I'd finished the garden it was in to cook dinner before a chat with Nick next door whilst his small dog snuck into the garden to cock his leg on my delicate plant. Charming!

The sky is the palest shade of blue with a few wispy clouds skittering over it and we have just a few more hours before night falls. I'm done for today in the garden, the huge bunch of sunflowers and gladioli have had fresh water in their vase and now it's time to work on a book review before the ironing. A woman's work never seems to be done but what joy to get soil under my nails and colour in the garden. I'm a happy gal!

The summer sale.

Oh, dear me! I've been to the garden centre and splurged on the half price plants again! Some things, like the multiblue clematis that I bought for £3.00 and the eryngium which has already flowered but has three new plants in the pot that will settle in over the winter and give me some thistle like spikes next year. Some things, like Luke's favourite Salvia Patens Blue will only give me a couple of weeks colour but oh, for next year.....
I've got some planting to do so will have to finish my work quickly so I can go and play. Speak to you later!

A ribbon of quacks.

We heard them before we saw them, honking geese, snaking across the sky. like the tail of a kite, little knots in a line. We looked at each other and grinned, it is was such a lovely sight.Ten minutes later another line of geese flew past, this time there were twenty three of them. We are right under a flight path of these long necked beauties and together with the myrid birds that visit the garden and surrounding field we enjoy a chocolate box full of variety and colour.
The happiest we are is when we watch our fancy girls enjoying a dust bath before standing up and shaking off the dust. Magical.

All play and no work.

make me a very happy girl!
We spent the entire day outdoors yesterday with Luke working on the fourth bridge (aka known as THE fence) and me moving my beloved weeping pear from it's temporary home in the fruit bed to the front garden (oh, the joy of starting to make that look presentable) before shifting the strawberries in front of the fancy blackberry we have ready to train up the fence and planting up the rhubard once the space was cleared and dug over. I have also moved the last of the misplaced raspberries and swapped the chimney pot to use as a forcer for the rhubarb. It's long neck will shade the rhubarb leaves and keep them pale, no sun tan for those delicate stalks. I also edged the entire length and hope, once the fence is completed, to have a row of alpine strawberries with their baby's finger nail-sized fruits at the edge of the border, half as decoration, half as food for the chicks whilst our other strawberries will be protected. You know by now that I will move things when we need to move them and not when it's best for the plant - a shocking admission I know and I'm ashamed to say it but I'm impatient and if a plant is in the wrong place for our planting scheme then it's days are numbered there. However, I will only move it if I give it the very best chance of happily surviving the move so when I knew today was going to be continual rain all day I gambled that, with a great long soak beforehand I could move the plants and then they would have all day of being rained in therefore lessening their stress. Very often, if moving or dividing plants, it's best to cut them back or take off some of the leaf to stop them having to divert energy into all parts of the plant. The less stress they have the better. So far the tree is looking very good and the raspberry seems to have not noticed it's new surroundings.
There is little better to me than spending the day working jolly hard with my man at my side, the radio down low and a sweat on my brow.

This morning, when Socks, (Jack's cat from next door who sneaks in when we aren't and are looking, she's not fussy) begged to be let out. I plodded downstairs at 5.06 to the most beautiful of sunrises. Because we had rain on the way there were great streaks of warm pink cloud and the sun was gleaming through to make it appear on fire. I grabbed my dressing gown, grabbed Luke's camera and went outdoors, happily snapping away at the wet poppy heads, the skyline and the borders before realising the battery was dead so I had to rush back indoors, all the while trying not to wake Luke who was oblivious to the racket going on around him. Finding his other camera I realised I'd missed the chance to catch the first rays of sunlight but still thought I could get some nice shots but alas, the battery wasn't even in this camera. I've posted four posts full of pictures; neutrals, pinks, vibrant oranges and yellow and deep purples- a stroll round the garden for your eyes. I hope you enjoy them.

Easy on the eye.

Blush pink.

The sunshine colours.

Yellows and orange bling the borders.

Purple haze.