Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer............

Heatwave.

California dreaming

Looking at last year's notes, maybe this year hasn't been so different in terms of what has come up when............a cold May stops everything in its tracks, but all it takes is a little warmth and rain and it all catches up. However some things are definitely delayed - the day lilies have yet to put in an appearance and only one flower spike has come up, and the pink clematis was about a month late. Roses, however, are on schedule, and I don't remember the white rose flowering so prolifically before, the lilac also went on and on for weeks, so the cooler weather may be prolonging flowering when things finally do come out. However we missed the paeonies, which were just opening as we left for Hill House last week and were gone by the time we got back. Most exciting, though, the paeony at the front has flowered - maybe even *two* flowers if the second one opens - and the California poppies are back for their third year along with a lovely pink sweet-pea and some mange-tout that came up beside the delphinium. I've taken some cuttings off the old caryopteris which has been looking a bit unhappy, and one has taken; we also took gooseberry cuttings which rooted well so two have gone to hill House and one will hopefully be going to Ross' new garden in Abernethy.

For some reason this year we also had fantastic chervil which grew in huge bunches in the herb bed when everything else was still clenched with cold; spinach also doing extremely well and the runner beans are on the move............courgettes, tomatoes and cucumbers coming on slowly as usual. 

We have just instituted a water barrel at the front, because guess what, it's HOT!! and all the things that did not die of cold are now hanging over the sides of their pots gasping and threatening to die of the heat..........I planted up all the containers with extra geraniums and lobelia for the MWF garden party (Rose's geraniums in their pots at the front door............) and strewed the steps with big bunches of applemint which seemed to go down well despite the weather not playing ball........

Have planted some Oriental poppies to replace ours that died, and some delphiniums just to see if we can grow them now that the frogs have dealt with the slugs..........

Cauld Winter's Icy Blast.................

The weather.

It has been cold. 

Very cold. 

In fact it has been bloody freezing. For months. There was one reasonably warm and sunny day in March................Hooray! we thought, spring has sprung! - and rushed out to tidy in preparation for the growing season. Even the frogs popped up to say hello. But that was it.............the temperature immediately dropped again and stayed down, and all the little planties that had started the spring fling just stopped dead. We have ONE mini-daff out at the back and two mega-daffs at the front, the crocuses and chionodoxa have appeared as usual but everything else looks all pinched and miserable. There has also been hardly any rain - hence wildfires in the Highlands, up at Hill House last weekend the ground was bone-dry and the grass completely brown. So...........we have planted no seeds because it's just too cold. However the baby tree paeonies are doing very well on the kitchen window-sill, and I have started some prayer plantlets for the Inverleith St Serf's sale in June........

And there has been some wildlife...............one morning I heard this strange noise and wondered what it was, was somebody drilling? Yes somebody was - a great spotted woodpecker on the telegraph pole. He had worked out that if he banged on the metal bit at the top it made a better noise...............and had also worked out that the suckers at no. 19 had hung up a lovely fatsnax for him. Unfortunately he is too shy to have his photo taken but we will catch him someday................M. Le Blackcap has been a frequent visitor along with a flock of long-tailed titis, and we have even seen some goldfinches down eating the nyger seed which has been there for about three years without anything touching it............

And now it definitely is spring...................the familiar cccrrrrrrrrOOAAAAAKKKKKKKKK! is emanating from the pond and the frog orgy is in progress............

Sunday sermon

 The big frog with his back to us at the top of the plank look for all the world as if he's giving a lecture, and was completely oblivious even to me creeping up behind him and moving the grass out of the way to film him........there are at least 17 other frogs of all sizes apparently listening intently..........

Beautiful California poppies. Last year's, in fact, that have sat in the barrel through rain, hail or shine. There's another in the veg bed, which this year has decided it doesn't want to grow veg and would rather be a flower bed, so is producing poppies of all kinds, borage, dill, potatoes, applemint, pak choi flowers and everything but what we actually planted..............

At Last................

'Tis the first rose of summer................a couple of warm days followed by some heavy rain and the paeonies are out at last, however only a very few flowers on the honeysuckle at the front and no Oriental poppies at all this year. Lots of buds on the organic rose and one or two flowers.............also at least 9 frogs seen in the pond.................but it is, as they say, chilly for June, extremely changeable, although we did not have the pouring rain yesterday for the Jubilee river pageant, poor old Queen looked very cold and bored by the end..............

Interesting............looking at last year about this time, tree peony was out, borage in flower.........absolutely no sign of the Oriental poppies this year, peonies have buds but no flowers yet, borage ditto..........

Silent spring

Halfway through May and it is still freezing. Unlike last year when we had a very hot April followed by cold May, it has been relentlessly cold and wet throughout. So it's interesting to see which plants have carried on regardless and which are more temperature-dependent. Spring bulbs have kept to their usual schedule, cherry and lilac have flowered as usual, clematis maybe a little later, but no roses at all yet and the honeysuckle at the front has produced no flowers. Golden oregano and marjoram have battled their way up though looking a bit miserable. No sign of wallflowers blooming yet..................
Saddest of sights is the greenhouse where there is absolutely nothing happening.................no courgettes, no tomatoes, no cucumbers, no basil. Next saddest is the veggie bed................a few seeds are now beginning to struggle up and the fruit bushes seem unaffected with loads of blackcurrants and gooseberries, plenty of apple blossom and strawberry flowers..............
Lettuce and rocket just beginning to sprout but nothing much to eat yet apart from herbs and salad burnet, which is a start I guess.................we have seen little of the frogs because they do seem to like to sunbathe and there hasn't been much sun for them to bathe in..................
Potatoes are going in the raised bed this year to save space, the cucumbers will be staying in the greenhouse assuming they ever come up, and we are trying a new cherry tomato which is supposed to have lots of grape-sized fruits, I will believe that when I see it................morning glories will be staying indoors, a few self-sown nasturtiums are just beginning to appear, good, cornflowers and nigella are in and a few of last year's gathered cerinthe seeds are sprouting indoors. Gladioli beginning to make an appearance, some of last year's california poppies still going strong in the barrel..............a lovely one planned for this year turned out to be a completely empty packet!..............but I think it's still too cold to put them in anyway............would a flaming June be too much to hope for?...............

Putting the garden to bed

The fertile summer seems such a long time ago now...............however we keep trying to put the garden to bed for the winter, and it keeps getting up again and asking for drinks of water. We picked the last tomatoes in November, and the last wood strawberries a couple of weeks ago. The autumn tidy hasn't really happened because so many things hadn't finished flowering or fruiting yet, it was hard to clear the nasturtiums when they still had flowers but they had gone so wild that they covered half the lawn and made the grass go all yellow. As a concession to alleged colder weather I've moved some of the alleged tender herbs nearer the back door, but only the ginger mint has died back. The eau-de-cologne mint and spearmint stolen from the Iona herb garden look extremely healthy and the pineapple
mint also flourishes.
Unfortunately Carrie got a bit over-excited with the tidying and tidied the baby kale plants into the compost heap, the lone survivor is battling its way up in the veggie bed and I've put in some winter salad so it doesn't feel too lonely. Having done nothing through the summer, the chervil has decided to come up now, and we are still picking fresh dill for our smoked salmon linguine - delicious! However the year has turned, the nights will be lightening, and it will be nice soon not to have to wear a head torch to go out and pick the herbs for dinner............

Garden on steroids

Well that's what it looks like.............while we were away everything has gone completely mad. It was only a couple of weeks but in that time the antirrhinums have finished, the crocosmia are out and all the salads have bolted. We had just started eating the raspberries before we went away so we missed most of them, but we did not miss our fantastic crop of blackcurrants, gooseberries and rhubarb, now all being turned into cordials and delicious fruit fool. The pak choi is most impressive - two varieties in the packet, a pale one which has all bolted and a purpley one which hasn't and is much more chunky. The spinach is just delicious, nothing could be further from that bitter dark green glop you get frozen in the supermarket........so tender it doesn't need cooking at all..........
The potatoes have also gone mad and taken over the veg plot so we've lifted them.........not a huge crop but not bad............this year the cucurbits have done really badly thanks to a cold and wet may just as they were getting going, but the squash plant actually has little squashes developing, not sure how big they'll get or even what kind they are................
We missed the ranunculus too, they were just opening when we left and had finished when we got back, I'm sure they were very pretty but it would have been nice to see them.................gladioli just about to flower, shirley poppies everywhere as usual, nasturtiums putting on a good show including some very pretty peach ones. delphinium putting up a new flower spike, and scent-wise at the moment we have lavender, jasmine, roses, and great wafts of honeysuckle, just gorgeous................
have planted out the musk mallow and potted on the himalayan honeysuckle that we got free..............put in more spinach and salad, my cos lettuce from Hill House have settled and are growing away but more salad never goes amiss...........
Hopping about in the undergrowth are teeny wee frogs..............

Maytime

What with gardening at Hill House and gardening in Cornwall, our own garden has been a bit neglected and the greenhouse was bulging with seedlings ready to go out.............so now most of them are in the ground or potted up. We haven't quite got room for all the courgette seedlings, so some of them may have to go to new homes............and the tomatoes aren't quite ready to move on yet. My basil has done extremely well so it's all potted on, not quite ready to eat but smelling wonderful...............as is the lilac which is giving us great wafts of scent every time we go past............I've planted out the antirhinos, mimulus and sunflowers.............first oriental poppies out (pink ones win this year) and the tree peony is amazing, the flowers turn out to be yellow and really beautiful. ...............

In the pond there are now various sizes of frog plus tadpoles and it must be getting a bit crowded............the big frogs like to get out and sit in the undergrowth when it's damp, i was peering into the pond wondering where they all were when i suddenly saw three pairs of bulgy little eyes just in front of my feet.............there a few very small frogs that must be last year's tadpoles, no sign of legs on this year's ones yet.............

One veg pot with runner bean, flying saucer and tomato plants planted up.............the barrel is coming on great with glads, dahlias, California poppies and something else which I think might be love-in-a-mist coming up...........no sign of the outdoor begonias or LOTV coming up yet but I've never had any success with LOTV in this garden although the ones at Hill House seem to be doing OK so far. As for begonias.............I planted three indoors of the same variety on the same day in the same compost...............one is about 6 ins and growing rapidly, one about 1 in and the third has only just appeared. So they are a bit temperamental I think...............

Morning Glories are out.................nasturtiums coming up everywhere as usual so some moved to the front and some into containers............borage coming up everywhere also, a few seedlings have gone to Hill House, some to the compost heap and the rest will be going in the drinks for the rest of the summer............I've put some Livingstone daisies along the front of the hot border just cos I like them, and we've planted some little thymes and creepers in front of the frog viewing station so we can sit there with our breakfast having our heads stroked by the Japanese maple every morning..............

More Georgia Blue............

Just cos I love them so much, although it's really difficult to get the colour right, that intense cobalt blue, been experimenting a bit with the settings on the camera to try and get a better image............anyway they're finished now so we won't see them again till next year...............

Or, what we did on our holidays..................

The perfect Easter break..............a weekend of backbreaking slog in a hot Cornish garden........ably assisted by a mutant blackbird, an interested robin
and assorted slow-worms that had been living a peaceful undisturbed existence in the disused veggie beds. Fiona watched all this with horror convinced that we must be hating every minute of it and trying to make us go and look at the sea, but there was just too much to do, discovering the much loved garden that lay under all the brambles and nettles............. The brambles and nettles did not give up without a fight, by the time we left I looked as if I'd been locked in a room with 25 Kilkenny cats, but we had uncovered several more veg beds, released one of the apple trees, tidied some of the borders and uncovered lots of carefully planted treasures in the beds near the pond. Of course Carrie managed to fall in the pond and give the newts a fright............we also found an indignant toad snuggled in the undergrowth.............but we've completely uncovered the little stair down into the back of the veg garden that was totally overgrown. Lots more to do of course, but three days of the Mad Gardening Squad has certainly made a difference, and we jolly well deserved that roast pork dinner..............we also enjoyed the traditional English barbecue which consists of several shivering people with coats on eating sausages in the rain................

The Lost Gardens of Tregaminion

First clematis flower

On April 19th, which I think is late.....................we have had some very hot weather but quickly followed by colder winds and this evening a chilly haar...........things are happening in the greenhouse as tomato, squash, courgette and cucumber seedlings make their appearance..........basil, sunflowers, antirhino and mimulus also starting to sprout. In the veg beds: beetroot and potatoes are in along with salad mix, rainbow chard and bull's blood, a few runner beans in the ground and climbing French beans in a pot. Dill planted, herb pot revamped, pineapple mint planted. Begonias into pots, glads into the ground, Livingstone daises into the hot bed. At the front some small plants to the gravel at the side, it looks so much better since I cleared the winter jasmine..................most of the spring bulbs are over and the bluebells are starting to appear, but we have a glorious display of tulips almost to rival George's...............

The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la (again)

At this time of year things suddenly gather speed, and there's so much to do it's almost impossible to drag yourself away from the garden to go to work..............not that six hours of digging and weeding and planting and hoeing isn't work of course. It all looks really rather nice. the daffodils have been fantastic, some of the new ones have turned out to be double and are really beautiful, and the new tulips at the front are almost out. Chionodoxa finished but fritillaries out and bluebells on the way, violets and clematis in bloom........we had a very hot weekend which brought everything on really fast, although it's now reverted to the usual chilly winds. I mounted an assault on the winter jasmine at the front and chopped it right down, that bit has always looked a mess and just catches lots of litter and dead leaves, so I've tidied it up and planted some mint in the hope that it will a.) bind the gravel and stop it sliding about and b.) smell nice when we run it over by mistake. It put up quite a fight but I managed to wrestle it into the compost bin eventually and I hope the Council appreciates it. At the back the leeks from Hill House are in the veg bed, the other contingent are still up there so we can have a leek race and see which are ready first..............in the greenhouse are squash, cucumbers, tomatoes (2 varieties), sunflowers, antirhinos, mimulus (first to sprout), courgettes and basils - now moved indoors cos it's too cold. Pink fir apple potatoes are chitting in the downstairs toilet; I have also tidied the shady corner and planted three coreopsis, a variegated aubretia and some lobelias in the perennial bed. Tree peony has grown huge and is preparing to flower, so are the non-tree peonies. And most exciting of all........... WE HAVE TADPOLES!!

Daffodil "Ice Follies"...............

Amaryllis in the shade........I actually planted this last year and it sat sullenly in its pot and did absolutely nothing. This year it decided to grow..........very fast, once it got going, and this is the result...............worth the wait!