Wild about the wild things.

This year I am trying out a wild garden at the back, behind the hen house. It's got a way to go but I'm pleased I've started it. I hope next year I will have learnt a little more about the wild side of things..

The foxglove looks like a big exclamation mark!

Not everything in the garden is rosy.

Here are the other beauties in the borders.

A budding Agapanthus. This should look like an exploding starburst once it's open.

Talking of starbursts, here is the Schubertii; another type of allium.

This small clematis is a pretty little thing.

The humble potato flower, poisonous in itself which makes me wonder how people realised the potato could be eaten.

If I had to choose one plant in my garden it would be this Arum Lily and it's for emotional reasons. It's from the original plant in my grandparent's garden.

Foxgloves are also a favourite of mine. I love a show off.

Nigella (Love in a mist) is tiny but I think it's such a dramatic little flower.

This dreamy Aconitum should be bursting out of it's slender stem anytime now.

To the left of the Aconitum is the large Bear's Breeches.

This latest addition, a washed out bronze Verbascum is not my usual colour scheme but I'm loving it and finally, the tiny veined Geraniums carpet the friendship corner..

Enough chatter.

I'm going to let the roses do the talking. In no particular order, here is Munstead Wood, Buff Beauty, Geoff Hamilton, Winchester Cathedral, Sombrieul (Shakira's rose) and Clare Austin.

Knowing my onions.

You may recognise the purple pom poms in this bucket of clippings as members of the allium family - or more simply, the onion family. In fact it's the smallest of the edible onions and the flowers can be used in salads though personally I've never used them for anything but garnish.

 The reason for the bucket was because it was time to trim the box hedging back, I'd given it the Chelsea Chop (a good old cut back of plants directly after the Chelsea Flower Show) and it's now starting to merge into it's neighbouring plant.

The plan is to have a mini knot garden to edge the herbs. Like most of my plans it will almost certainly decide it's own fate and I'll have to put up with what I get but that's okay - I'm not precious about it...., well, not much!

It's been a while.

I haven't bored you with tales of the chicks - at least, I don't think I have (have I?).
So, here are the ladies, out in the garden and growing very fast.

 The babies are unaware that Buck Bucky is approaching. They are too busy eating cherry tomatoes.

A second later and they've discovered her. "Quick, everyone. Scarper!"

Here is Poppy, strutting her stuff. That tail is getting very much like a cockerel's but if Luke hears me say that he will tell me off. I'm obsessed with the thought that one of the two littlest is going to turn out to be male.

Mrs. Bun is such fun. She is fearless despite being the youngest and smallest and will go places the other chickens won't. She also seems to have feathery feet which is sweet.

In the evening light she is a pretty little thing.

Then the delicate prima ballerina of our chickens;  gentle, placid Lunar - I can't help but love her. She glows!

Whilst I work in the garden these little chicks look for stray worms.

Luke offers food to the hens, only two are brave enough to take him up on it.

Chickens are actually jungle fowl and love to perch safely in trees. Here they have decided on a lower perch - the door! Only the slightly older Lunar decides to sit on the ground.

"Those ruddy chickens!!" (the words I shouted to Luke when I spied these two on the roof of their run.

And so to bed. At last they all settle down together.

Bad hair day.

So I got home after picking Luke up from work, full of ideas for the garden only to find it looking like a grungy bed head hairstyle. It's all been blown and battered about so that it's got a really straggly look to it all. I wouldn't mind if it was Autumn and we'd had a good show for a few months but right now it is survival of the fittest with some of the plants being flattened completely. I still believe we have a wonderful sunny few months ahead. I just don't know if they will be in this year or not.

Time for tea

Here I am, sitting in the window seat of yet another coffee shop. I've finished work for the weekend and am waiting to give Luke a lift home. A work colleague and I joked about our two summers when the sun briefly poked out from behind the clouds not once but twice. I spy blue skies and whipping past clouds but can't do any gardening today as its been bucketing down overnight. So I may sit here and dream of what I could do with endless supplies of money. Shockingly I think I may get a garden designer in to do a professional job. I feel like a sell out just saying that because for me more than half the pleasure of a garden is adding to it and watching it grow but the thought of a properly designed terrace with some old stone walling and a beautiful colour scheme makes me salivate already. Why don't we all do what we really want to in life? I never quite knew what to do and by the time you think you know it seems too late to retrain; the bills are ever present an the rat race seems to have got you firmly in it's grip. I'd love to have been several things, a dancer, a P.A., a window dresser and of course, more than these, a gardener. I didn't have these ambitions when I was younger and just drifted into work. I am a firm believer that it's never too late whilst there's breath in your body but do I apply that to myself when I have a chunky mortgage and a lovely home?
Well, you know the answer. As far as I'm concerned I lucked out with what I've got; a lovely man, a nice home, a good job and so on. My list of bounties is lengthy and so I'll count my blessings and carry on digging and designing my garden my way. I mean, it's hardly a hardship, is it. That way I also get to smell the roses and remind myself how many good things there are.

Batten down the hatches.

For heaven's sake! Tomorrow is the longest day of our year and then we head back to darker mornings and evenings and yet here we are huddled in front of the wood burner. I have been told twice today that we are heading for the wettest June in 200 years (wasn't it the same for April?) Thank goodness I was off most of yesterday and could get out in the garden. All I've been able to do today is race up to the top of the garden to let the chickens out before scooping up the cat poo around the French beans. Not nice.
The plants that were re homed yesterday will have received a good dose of rain to bed them in but that's as far as it goes. We need some sunshine.

I just can't help it!!

I can't imagine a nicer way to spend money than to buy some favourite plants and then have the afternoon in the sun, planting them up.For what I could spend in an evening I have had the most enormous fun today. Maybe it's sad to admit I love gardening more than a night on the pop but I'm loud and proud about it - it's good exercise, looks lovely for weeks if not years to come and ....., oh, who am I kidding, Yes, I spent too much again!
In my defence I bought most plants for half price or less, only deeming to pay full price for a blue poppy and two rust coloured verbascums. I'll add some photos once they've been uploaded. Just had time to mow the back lawn and down came the rain, perfect timing.

Who is the chicken?

Whilst our little hen is only small, look who she is chasing off. (see the two paws disappearing into the border?

 

Other people's gardens.

Now, only one thing in gardening on a par to checking out the plants at a garden centre and that is nosing around other people's gardens and that is exactly what we did today. For several hours, Luke, Luke's Mum, Gayle and I pottered around, smelling the scents, guessing the plants and marvelling in the design. Quite close to where we live there were five gardens opening their gates for the National Garden Scheme and, along with about fifty other people in the time we were there, we delighted in the clever planting and designs.

Garden One.

This pond was dug out when the owners removed all the stones and rocks which they used for retaining walls.

 Luke's Mum and I contemplating 'a bridge too far'.

There was a higgedly piggedly Mr McGregor's vegetable patch in  just-raised beds using old sleepers as retainers with a of myriad bees buzzing around their Winnie the Poo design beehive.We chuckled when the guide told us to be careful by the bees and Luke asked if they were friendly bees (it's amazing how different bees can be; some aggressive and some very docile). The lady raised an eyebrow and carefully asked, "Have you ever met a friendly bee?" Well, actually we have.

The first garden we visited was massive and they had made the most of the slope and the huge amount of stones they dug out of the ground. They had made many stone wall retainers for the borders and even a few snug seats moulded into the walled bank.

There were lots of little areas including a woody pass and some bamboo and acers reaching up out of gravel as well as the most enormous monkey puzzle tree reaching up into the sky.

GARDEN TWO.

The next garden was obviously designed with lots of money available. There was a mock little chapel and a Hansel and Gretal cedar house, all planted up with lots of annuals and a huge artichoke plant as a silvery backdrop to a beautiful pink paeony. We also saw a huge Angelica which made me thrilled for the one we have in our wild flower area. Even though we had dreadful weather yesterday the gardens were all looking lovely today. After a leisurely half hour sipping tea and eating cake (it's an arduous business, nosing around other people's designs) we purchased a couple of plants and then wandered onto the next garden.

All this was at the top of the steep garden, they had really made an interesting garden out of a difficult area. More power to them!

Now onto their plants. This paeony is a beauty, isn't it?

Something has to be bought.

GARDEN THREE.

The first two houses were very beautiful and obviously very well tended in a prestigious area. The next one was on a modern housing estate but showed what could be done in a small modern plot. The owner had used her love of roses and clematis to grow upwards. There wasn't much room so every inch counted and the five wrought iron arches that were clustered in blooms were lovely. They weren't so crowded that they broke up the view and the under planting of Centurea was a super idea. As the owners had only finished the water feature and the pathway six days ago it all looked very good.

GARDEN FOUR.

The next garden was an ex council house plot and these gardens are known for the generous amount of garden they have. This of course was for vegetable and fruit planting back in the mid twentieth century. I bumped into a friend whilst we were there just as I was "ohhing" over the burnished poppy and ruby astrantia that was planted up in a luscious bed.

This garden has given me inspiration. I was going to work on clear blue flowers but this plum scheme is wonderful, I think.
As we carried on into the top of the garden that ended with a very sharp corner we saw the chickens in their run. Although the run was built over concrete it was carpeted with a thick layer of sawdust. There was also a large statue of a naked lady in the end of their run - it had been in that corner from the off and the owners said 'she' was too heavy to shift so she is now a perch for the hens.

GARDEN FIVE.

The last house was a mixture of kitsch grotto and exuberant planting. I liked the fact that the owner wasn't sniffy about weeds. He said he liked the flower of bindweed (although he used the name, Convulvulus) so when it popped up in his garden he threaded it through the other plants. Whilst it might end up strangling all other companions he does have a point. Whilst it fills me with dread, knowing how it can spread, it is an attractive flower. As they say, a plant in the wrong place is a weed but once it's in the right place - if you love it then keep it. This was the neatest part of the garden. All impressive stuff.

We got home, let our hens out and enjoyed watching our little bundles of feathers dash around the place. It's now started to rain again so I'm pleased we got to 'make hay whilst the sun shone'.My garden may not be a patch on these National Garden Scheme beauties but I love it.., and there is always room for improvement.