some changes to the Cats Garden

thanks to the huge kitchen fire the garden has seen all sorts of changes: the old greenhouse was wrecked by the scaffolding that was erected over the kitchen while the roof was being repaired.. and now we have a good view of that area from the new kitchen it was time for something much better looking:

The new potting shed was then followed by a new shed down the bottom of the garden to store all the beekeeping kit, as the old shed was utterly rotten and full of rat holes.  So the "Bee Shed" arrived in November and is very smart indeed:

And the other big change is the new veranda outside what is now my studio.. used to be the kitchen.  It makes for a wonderful space:

Last year was an annus horribilus for the garden, in fact the last 3 years have been, but this may be different and already seems better.

Last year the back garden was filled with the most enormous scaffolding and charred beams lay around the back garden and a portaloo sat in the front one.

Same garden, feline and human changes

First post without our beloved Catherine, and Katisha and Kitski have joined Bram under the Buddlea.  Catherine passed into angel gardening in 2017, Katisha in August 2018 from old age, and Kitski in January 2019 from smoke inhalation after a terrible kitchen fire. 

So for reasons of grief, bereavement, and busy beekeeping the garden has been left to its own devices.  The frogs have continued to multiply, the birds have disappeared thanks to many months of no birdfeeders after the house fire, and every corner of the garden has been run over by wretched wild leeks. 

There are two the new occupants of the garden.. Heidi and Psyki.. energetic kittens that are both excellent tree climbers, alongside Monte who would be an excellent tree climber if he were not so heavy.

Heidi is also an absolute monster as far as the frogs are concerned.  This was in my bedside water yesterday morning, fortunately it was able to swim away when returned to the pond.

It feels very very strange to be taking over as head steward of the cats garden, trying to decide where to put things, knowing that the garden pixies will probably be back and reorganise everything anyway.  I have just been the composter in the past, plus planter and harvester of fruit bushes.  But this garden loves flowers and I have to hope that Catherine will be looking over my shoulder and sorting out the mistakes.  And I can never remember plant names or locations so I am going to have to take loads of photos to try and remember.

I am quite sure no one ever reads this so doesn't matter what I write.

Goldfinch wars

So after about 17 years of us putting out nyger seed, the goldfinches have finally noticed it and come down in numbers. Unfortunately this resulted in 6 goldfinches trying to use a feeder with 2 perches and a certain amount of pushing and shoving, so we got them a bigger one with 6 perches, plus another triple feeder that you can put nyger seed in beside other things so they can share nicely with the other birds. The next photo shows goldfinches studiously ignoring beautiful shiny new feeder and continuing to fight over the tatty old one. Then we had the bright idea of switching their positions and putting the new one where the old one had been......they soon twigged, and we've had up to 9 at a time all stuffing their little feathery faces. However there is one who seems to feel that he should have exclusive use of the new feeder, so spends most of his time intimidating the others when they try to land on it no matter how many perches are free. The blue tits have also decided that if the goldfinches like it so much this nyger seed must be good stuff, so have been seen tucking into it as well as decimating the bird cake. Nobody seems to like the cheapo fat snax from the pet shop, oh dear because we have rather a lot of them, except whoever it was that managed to take the whole thing down on the ground and eat the lot. We suspect M. Le Squirrel....but if it keeps him full enough not to dig up my bulbs and eat them I think it's worth it.....

So have done the usual thing of putting in lots of bulbs and immediately forgetting where they are so it will be a nice surprise when they appear in spring, or don't. We paid our first visit to Dawyck and bought a Inula hookeri in their plant sale, so it's now installed in the back of the bed all set to be bee-friendly we hope, and I've moved the Caryopteris to the front of that bed, in the process another bit fell off and has become a cutting, so we'll see if it makes it......

Most things dying down now but the flying-saucer squash in the greenhouse is still fruiting away, nobody's told it the season is over which is nice....I also bought some new pansies to replace the ones in the pots at the front and then they decided they weren't dead after all and perked up again so the new ones will have to go elsewhere......

Hanging in there

As usual, as the weather cools and the garden is supposed to be winding down, ours has not read the textbooks and is continuing to flower merrily away as if it were spring. Only the sudden absence of the frogs suggests any change - there is still the occasional splosh to tell us they're still there, but they don't come up to pose for photos any more. Late flowers have arrived: the heliotrope

and the tobacco plants that Shirley gave us:

while the morning glory by the back door has started to flower just as all the others have finished and gone over:

and the prostrate rosemary is having a second flush of flowers - but the first was in January, so for a Mediterranean herb it is behaving very strangely.

The California poppies also had another brief blaze of glory:

This year we seem to have grown an awful lot of these:

but sadly we have not yet figured out how to cook them. Unfortunately one of them landed right on the apple tree and bashed half the apples off, it was already a bit unstable and we had planned to move it backwards a bit, so we have, but it looks really unhappy so I hope it doesn't just die. The other one next to the fennel looks really well and has produced lots of apples this year, just needs a new stake instead of being tied up with rope.......

Dahlia Envy

A little trip chez Ross to install the tree peony in its new abode. I have to say that it was not entirely in agreement with the plan and demonstrated a certain reluctance to move, so it was quite a struggle getting it out. After we'd planted it it still did not look totally convinced:

but I'm sure in time it will grow to like it and will appreciate having more room to spread itself out. We are now left with An 'Ole, but there are one or two things grown this year and waiting to be planted up which can go in the gap. The third apple tree was also behind it and completely swamped - despite which it had valiantly produced one apple anyway - so it will also benefit. We have to accept that our garden seems to be really keen on growing fruit, so the least we can do is let it get on with it......

Other people's gardens, on the other hand, seem to like to produce spectacular dahlias and cosmos.......

Local wildlife

I'm so cute.......

 Who knew that bees liked spearmint?................

All Change

So, some denizens of the garden have had a bit of a shock. The crocosmia "Lucifer" have found themselves hoicked out en masse....some moved round the the front of the house and some transported to Perthshire to join the tree peony in Ross' garden in Abernethy. Some are staying, but greatly reduced in number and moved backwards. The apple tree has had a bad few days........we were planning to move it anyway but it was then hit by a football from the playing-fields and almost flattened. It is now in its new position slightly further back but is looking most unhappy - hopefully it will have time to recover before the winter sets in, with lots of Carrie's beautiful home-made compost to help it settle.......very pleasing though to see that the purple clematis has seized the opportunity brought by clearing all the honeysuckle off it and is rocketing up the wall...............

Cut flowers

And uncut flowers........marigolds now fully out and morning glory still soldiering on......

The dahlia has produced a few flowers but like the daylilies being overshadowed by the buddleia so some moving around will be in order next year. We plan to take out the tree peony and big crocosmia to give a bit more space for (guess what) bee-attracting plants......

Pleased to see that the organic rose has responded to my cutting back the clematis by flowering again.....and the purple clematis has started to put up shoots from the base, which means i can now see exactly where it is and stop it getting swamped by the honeysuckle again....

Council wildflowers

Nothing to do with our garden, but the Council have once again planted wildflowers in the park just where the cycle path comes up, and they have created this spectacular carpet of flowers which is absolutely covered in bees of all kinds.....

Garden produce

Of course nobody who has read E F Benson's account of life in Tilling can hear the words "garden produce" without laughing, but we are as usual very proud of ours.......never having managed to grow French climbing beans before. The runner beans were a complete dead loss - not a single one of the dwarf seeds came up, a few of the normal ones have come up but not cropped - though there's still time I guess. ......

It seemed a long wait for the daylilies this year, but when they finally appeared in mid-July it was worth it, huge spectacular blooms and only finishing now. Only the ones in the right-hand bed haven't flowered, and I think they will have to be moved again cos it's probably too dark once the buddleia comes up. The bees are very excited about the buddleia, and the borage - we've dug up the phacelia and put in a green manure with lots of clover which hopefully they will like.

The water lily continues to grow more and more leaves, so here is one of the frogs doing an impression of John the Baptist................

The patty-pan squash are now starting to crop along with the courgettes, unfortunately Carrie had cooked them before I had the chance to do their portrait, but they were very nice......