All About the Garden

At the moment, my favourite time of the day is just about 7.05am. The house is still quiet, the kettle is on the hob and I pull on my wellies with my pyjamas and go out into the garden.

First job is to let out the hens, feed and water them and then there's a quick five minutes to say good morning to my garden. And at the moment everything is just about to come into it's prime.

The patio pots are all a little green and quiet this week. I've re-potted them, replacing the tulips and primulas with the cosmos, ammi majus and nasturtium seedlings I've nurtured through our Arctic spring. A couple more weeks and there should be a really good show and this lull means the borders get to really stand out.

Everything is pretty crammed in and will probably be a flop by the end of July but for now it looks just how I love it; abundant and fit to burst. This damp, humid weather we're having this week is just what the plants need to really hit the top of their form. There's so much colour to come.

Some things have happened by accident really, like the geranium that's made itself at home next to the bleeding heart. I couldn't have planned it better if I tried. I love this other accidental combination too of self-sown lime achimilla, lovely rosy pink astrantia and the regal purple of the alliums just going over.

The honeysuckle on my cheapo arch is looking really mature now too and there are tons of buds. Just hope I get some balmy evenings to sit by and enjoy it.

I'm not out for long but it really sets me up for my day stuck at my desk in the city.

And at the other end of the day 7.05pm looks like this sometimes from my bedroom window. Happy Valley!

Coming around....

... to grasses. I've never been very taken with them before, think I saw too much pampas grass growing up in the 70s. I'm sure I remember it dried in the house? But going to Trentham's Italian Gardens on a crisp autumn afternoon I think has changed my mind.

The borders were glorious in a sort of faded grandeur way; mounds of sedums, clouds of asters and fronds of stipa gigantica that seemed to be on fire in the low afternoon sun.

I've only got a tiny garden but maybe a little stipa in the front border might just be the thing for a bit of autumn glory.

Rescued from the rain ...

I've waited weeks and weeks for St Swithun's Day to flower - and as ever its lived up to its name, brought on the deluge and the petals have turned brown and rotted on the stem.

So I was ruthless; chopped them all off at 6.30am this morning in a torrential downpour and they've made my weekend already. Fabulous - whatever the weather.

Hope your weekend is dryish and fun,xxx

Blooming

After last weekend's glorious sunshine, the much needed rain descended and now the flowers have really arrived. We've rolled over into summer at No.25 with the last of the late daffs deadheaded, the euphorbia fading and the forget-me-nots pulled out for another year.

This is our third summer here and the garden really looks like mine now (well my style at least, Woody's not much of a gardener beyond the allotment). I've lost just a couple of things to the freezing winter but on the whole I think it's done everything the world of good because it looks the best its ever done.

My garden is planted with things to remind me of people and places and gives me so much joy. This pretty little thing is a geum called Mrs Bradshaw and like so many of my plants orginates from my mum's wonderful garden. I remember this delightful plant from our childhood home and where my parents live now. Isn't she lovely.

Valerian is Cornwall to me, my favourite place apart from home. It's taken ages to really settle in my garden but finally it's sowing itself merrily around (especially in the little drystone wall which reminds me of how it looks along the lanes around Port Isaac). Over the summer it will grow into gorgeous spires of fluffy pink and carmine blooms and this year I've tracked down the white variety to fill the border even more.

Not that there's much room! I think you can tell I'm a cottagey, stuffed-to-the-brim, kind of a gardener. I've got such limited planting space (two raised borders, 6ft by 2.5ft - one shady, one full-sun) so I don't bother to plan and just buy/grow what I fancy and keep my fingers crossed. I'll need to do some dividing next year but for this summer I can just about fit everything in.

Persicaria Superbum loves it here (another from mum's) and I have Firetail in the shady border which does it's thing later in the summer. This fluffy pink variety has spread in a perfect fashion and doesn't seem to need any care or attention at all.

I need to plant more aliums too this autumn. Aren't they fabulous.

So the show is just beginning. Early summer brings lupins, nepeta Six Hills Giant (catmint), geranium Johnson's Blue, aquilega, lady's mantle and the beginning of the valerian. By mid summer the hollyhocks will be in full bloom along with irises, potentilla, verbascum, feverfew, knautia, cosmos, old-fashioned heavenly scented pinks and the climbing roses (James Galway & St Swithun's Day). After that the hot zingy colours take over with crocosima Lucifer, heleniums, rudbekia, dhalias and good old fashioned sunflowers.

For now everything in my garden is lovely (well if you ignore the untrimmed lawn, the nibbled hostas and the weeds that is).

For Elspeth

The scent of paper white narcissi will forever remind me of an inspirational gardener. Such a sad day today to hear of her tragic passing. As a stranger there is little I can say but my heart is heavy and I shall miss her beautiful writing and the heart soaring beauty she revealed in the world around us. I hope her family may find peace and strength in how much she was clearly loved by gardeners everywhere.

Her obituary in The Daily Telegraph is a beautiful tribute.

Garden Love

It's ridiculously cold here today. A bitter, easterly gale is roaring down the valley and we're right in it's teeth. Our bedroom is in the roof and the wind has whistled and moaned around the eaves all night long. I'm yearning for spring and mild days. Oh I do miss my summer garden. Pottering, dead heading, bringing home a new treasure from the WI market and finding somewhere to squeeze it in. We've only been in the house for just over a year so last summer was the first for me in this garden and it was complete delight - ok very wet but I loved it, we all did. My garden is so precious, a sanctuary, the place I feel most relaxed and very peaceful. But it's fun too and a place to play. I feel a bit imprisoned in the house and find myself gazing out of the window, willing spring to come.

Earlier in the week it was mild enough to spend an hour tiding the borders and sorting out the shed but I long to be out there with frothing flowers for company. Time seems to go so slowly in February and I find it torturous so I'm getting out my summer pictures to cheer up a blustery, dreary day.

But there are good sides to this winter battering. The garden is full of birds. Not so many people in our road seem to feed them, apart from us and our neighbour, so we're mobbed especially on raw days like today.

I've been passionate about garden birds ever since one bitter winter when I was around eleven and my sister and cousins and I began a bird club. We fed our little feathered friends then watched them from the kitchen window and drew endless pictures.

I'm very appreciative of the wildlife education my parents gave me, a little too enthusiastically on occasion though it has to be said (I'll always remember mum getting me out of bed aged 15 to come and look at a woodpecker on the apple tree - you can imagine how unimpressed I was at that age!)

Today though I'm such an enthusiast and it's something that has become a special bond between my little chaps and I. Daddy is a master of junk modelling, train building etc, etc but bugs, birds, flowers etc are mummy's forte.

Our garden is very small, perhaps 30 ft square, but our position is just perfect for attracting birds. We're close to a river, the water meadows, farmland and a wood so we get all sorts of unusual visitors.

Reed buntings are as numerous as sparrows, although I'd never seen one at all before moving here. In the winter the birch tree is alive with siskins, red poll and long tailed tits and the ivy hedge is home to a family of wrens, as well as the more usual tits, finches and thrushes. We keep a list of everything in, or flying over, the garden that we see and already it includes sparrowhawk, barn owl, pink-footed goose and even cormorants.

I find it so relaxing to sit curled up with a brew, snuggled up from the cold and watch our visitors flit from feeder to bird table and back to the tree and hedges again. Miles more interesting than a fish tank in my opinion but it does the same job! Wish I had my own pictures to share but my camera really is useless for photographing anything more than six foot away.

Finally the bulbs are coming through. In the autumn we stuffed all the buckets and pots full with crocus, muscari and narcissi and before long the patio will be bursting with colour.

I can't wait, everything is so very bleak and it feels an eternity since my borders looked like this. But if I look very hard I can see clusters of forget-me-nots forming, primroses in bud and a beautiful, deep pink pulmonaria is actually in flower.
Well, think I'll pop back to the window now and see if the bullfinch or my favourite the robin is back. Batten down the hatches and stay cosy everyone.

Nice work if you can get it

Despite the dreary, awful, awful weather the skies finally cleared and I got to enjoy one of my favourite summer traditions yesterday even though I was working. I only discovered Open Garden days a couple of years ago but since then I've searched them out and been to as many round our way as I can get to and they're just the best fun for £3 quid I can think of!

Last weekend was our village's day to throw open the garden gates (these pictures are of Winster not my village btw. I forgot to take my camera - oops!). My lovely friend Helen and I had great plans to get around most of them but, typical for us, we got completely distracted by a chance to go up the church tower, have a go at ringing the bells (brilliant!), a delicious cream tea and then plant shopping. We don't hang about when we haven't got our pushchairs in tow! Such a special day.

Yesterday I was in the beautiful Peak District village of Winster, not far from Matlock, in the garden of one of the trustees of the charity I work for, handing out magazines and leaflets and generally promoting what we do. A's garden surrounds a wonderful old house with soaring views so it hardly felt like work at all. Not many garden pics but here's some of the village looking lovely all decked out in its summer finery.

More cream cakes followed (I think this is as much an Open Garden tradition as the plants - hurrah!) I even managed a bit of thrifting whilst I was on my break - a free hose reel. Ok not very exciting but Woody is about to break his neck on my snake of a hose by the back door so I am now very popular.

There's something so special about the sharing of gardens plants and knowledge. As a novice I really appreciate any help and advice and although I haven't got much to pass on myself yet it's lovely to share plants and disaster stories with my friends and family.

It was fascinating watching people coming and going yesterday and eaves-dropping on their plant passions. Everyone was very polite and even if there are things you wouldn't have yourself I love to see how other gardeners put colour and form together. I learnt such a lot and I've got plenty of ideas for my patch next year.

Finally it looks like the weather is perking up just as the holidays start, thank goodness. Hope everyone is basking in the sunshine.

I've got a couple of thank yous to make for two awards I've been kindly given. Thanks to Dolly Dollop who I really admire for being a breastfeeding mentor (what a brilliant thing to do) for this first one and to Schotzy in America, a prolific and very lyrical blogger with a passion for Scotland. Apologies for taking a while to post about these, life's been a bit chaotic recently and I got a bit behind myself. I've forgotten how many people I'm supposed to tag so I'm going to award both of these to these five bloggers who really make me smile! Thank you for brightening up my day!

Funky Monkey

Linen & Roses

Mollycupcakes

Periwinkle

Dragonfly

Lovely Lupins

What do you think? Not a bad return on £1.50 spent at the WI stall in the Butter Market. My glorious lupins are flowering their hearts out and the rest of the border is really taking shape. Everyday I just have to pop out and see what's going on in my precious little patch. Even on the busiest of days I squeeze in a minute to pull up a weed or drench my hanging baskets and I've started hanging the washing out the other side of the line so that I get the best view of my flowers.

The rose plants Woody gave me for Valentine's Day are blooming too, you can just see one in the corner of the picture above and its actually a lovely pink rather than the deep red on the label. The other is a patio rose and is covered in velvety scarlet blooms and I must take some pictures of it this weekend if the sun peeps out.

Pinching out the tips of the cosmos is definitely paying off, plenty of flowers and tons of buds to come for the next few weeks. What a brilliant treat that'll stretch the £2 spent on 6 plants out for ages. Next spring I think I'll try again to grow some annual seeds myself - I'm hopeless and forget about them usually but now I've got a proper garden I might give it a proper shot and see if I can be a real gardener.

More lupins, not sure what type but they're the loveliest shade of dusky rose. Only thing is I've gone and planted them next to deep pink verbascum, pinky/purple foxgloves and a pink. Hmmm, I think this end might need a bit more planning for next year! One day I'll get around to posting some pictures of the front garden and the other borders at the back but they're looking a bit hopeless at the moment so I'm keeping my eyes trained on this side of the garden for now.

Thanks for the lovely wishes about my job. In all the excitement I'd completely forgotten to say what my new post is, typical. I'm going to be working on a new project for the NHS in our region as a Communications Manager, part-time still which suits us perfectly. All quite exciting and a still daunting but now I've had time to let it sink in I'm feeling much more confident.

And another thank you to the lovely Sairer who has one of the most beautiful and entertaining blogs I know. If you like vintage florals, beautiful gardens and delightful chickens pop over and say hello. Thanks Sairer, I'm very touched and still so chuffed to think people actually read this stuff that tumbles out of my head! Blogging is one of the highlights of my day and i want to pass this award onto 5 other smashing bloggers but the laptop battery is about to give up the ghost so if it's ok I'll pop back with those tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the lovely wishes!

Flower Power

Anyone reading this blog must have realised by now that I'm rather flower mad and one of the things I enjoy most about blogging is discovering other people's joy in all things floral, from the garden to curtains, to books and embroidery.

Every morning we walk along a lovely little path, in-between the fields, from the modern part of the village down to B's school in the older heart and is one of my places of floral heaven.

View from the path across the meadow that's just been cut for silage and smells fantastic!

Early in the summer the crowded hedgerows were bursting with forget-me-nots and primrose and we could see the rosettes of foxglove leaves beginning to mass underneath them. After being away for a week I couldn't believe the sight that greeted us on our first walk this week. Purple spires fill the lane and as just glorious.

All week I've been inspired by them and finally got around to making some floral cushion covers for my beautiful but still to be revamped vintage sofa (one day, one day...)

My favourite is the Cath Kidston Posy version which reminds me so much of prints my Grandma had. I'm keeping my eye out for a couple of bargain metres of this for some curtains to cover the washing machine in the kitchen but it's hard to come by.


And joy of joys, this month's CL is full of flowers and country weddings too - perfect weekend reading if you ask me.

Along with this.

The pictures in this wonderful Ladybird book are where I first learnt about garden blooms with my mum. Our copy was chucked out years ago when Dad had had enough of the bags of books in the attic that threatened to bring down the ceiling on us and I don't think I realised then what it meant to me. Thankfully it was really easy to track down a copy on the internet for less than the price of a WI plant and I'm enjoying having it again so much. The lupin print on the cover is my absolute favourite.

Ladybird pictures have coloured so many of my childhood memories and looking back I can see how much they taught me, everything from idenitfying sea shells to trees, the seasons and wildlife. How fantastic then that Ladybird are now selling prints of these beautiful drawings online from most of the original sries, including the Peter and Jane books.

Oh blimey, a whole new vintage obsesssion blooms!