and.............

i put in the chamomile seedlings at the front...........they've done well to survive on complete neglect so i suppose they deserve a home..................and the oenothera from Hopetoun at the back, under the rose. we did do a bit of pruning so hopefully it will get light..............i haven't cleared the veg bed yet as there's chard still going..............and some wee nettles which i hope to cultivate once i've forgiven them for stinging me.................the strawberries are putting out loads of runnersand one of them has rooted in the awkward patch.............so i suppose i could just leave it and see how it gets on..................the artichoke has responded to not having blackfly and looks really well, i guess it could come out of its pot next year but we'll see if it makes it through the winter..................

watering

two days of torrential rain, hooray!!...................gosh but the garden needed it. still some showers about but still warm and sunny, perfect. we despatched a whole load of snails over the wall at Newhaven.................Carrie thinks i've been being too kind to them, and i have to say they haven't kept to their side of the bargain, which was, i won't kill you if you don't eat the plants. so it's zero tolerance from now on..................
..............the herbaceous border still looks a bit of a mess, but i've learned that i have to be more disciplined about cutting things down when they finish flowering. the Dicentra is pretty, but it's also a haven for weeds and snails, and smothers everything underneath it. i think i have to get a bit more anal about tying things up so they don't flop about so much as well, so we can see what's underneath. acquired a couple of salvias from Hopetoun search-and-rescue, and a gaura............also one of Carrie's Cerinthus which we hope will self-seed.............not sure if Mum's kaffir lilies will make it, but i can always dig up some more...............once all the mints establish they will hopefully spread, and fill in the gaps at the front. the rue is good because it doesn't collapse, but the vinca needs to be cut pretty viciously and often not to take over..........the pernettya has died i think...............and the astilbe also looks extremely unhappy, being swamped by the ceanothus................might move it to Carrie's garden to rescue it...........
.............i still feel dissatisfied with the front garden too..........my little alpine arenas have done really well, exactly what i wanted in fact...............but the area under the tree is a mess. i realise that the way to make it look neater would be to rip out all the thyme growing through the paving..................it looks nice and smells great, but it also traps weed seeds which then establish. there are quite a few new volunteers............all those Canterbury bells that came up, a nice geranium, and a very pretty frilly aquilegia..........gifts from the neighbours...........but unfortunately they all come up in funny places and look untidy. it looks wonderful in the spring when all the bulbs come up, but apart from the bit next to the path, it looks a mess the rest of the time. being dry shade of course it is going to be difficult................however the two vincas seem to have established which is a start.................

autumn gap

well it's still summer really.................but there is a definite gap in the right-hand bed now that i've cleared it a bit...................tidying away the Johnson's Blue and the dicentra foliage shows how little else there actually is in there. so i've put in one of the hand-reared lemon catmint...........the applemint from the raised bed and the black peppermint that was threatening to die in its pot..........moved a Michaelmas daisy and the salvia...............that bed has always been a problem and never managed to turn into the nice herbaceous border that i'd like it to be, i've put in the Lychnis from Redhall in the hope that they'll self-seed, and the Helenium from Carrie's...........gave the pyracantha a good feed and water because it's been looking a bit dry............not surprisingly because digging down shows just how bone-dry the ground is..........
...........dug up and ate the first potatoes...........absolutely perfect. and some red onions.........and some green beans.............picking ripe tomatoes daily and loads more to come..........and we had gooseberry and rhubarb for pudding.......the gooseberry has done very well for its first year.
................a few lettuce in for the autumn...........plans for winter onions and rainbow chard once the courgettes are over............

o frog of mine

yes there is one!....................filled up the pond and did a bit of tidying and there he was sticking his slimy little nose through the duckweed...................i just hope he's got a lady friend or the wildlife pond may be short-lived...................will he sing i wonder?...............while tidying i noticed a mysterious purple plant that seems to have appeared next to the heather by the pondside, no idea what that is..................the Michaelmas daisies have now formed a huge clump, and there's something else appeared that looks like one of the stocks, but nowhere near the others...............
...............we ate the first courgettes and yellow squash last night, bursting with pride. so easy, and so pretty. the chilies are coming on well................so are the gooseberries..............however the veggie patch has become very overgrown with potato foliage. no idea if there are actually any potatoes under it..................suspect not with it having been so dry, but then we weren't even trying to grow them last year and up they came..............some more foliageis fighting its way out of the compost.................the onions may have had it, being smothered with borage and potato, but i've cleared it a bit and we'll see what's there once it dries out..............
.............put in the Lychnis from Redhall and some more of Mum's kaffir lilies...............there's a bit of a gap just now when the poppies and bleeding-hearts are finished and before the montbretia come out, so i need to put some more perennials in. need more salads too as they've been chewed somewhat.................corn salad is on its way but i might try some under cloches to keep the snails off...............