Garden in December 2016

I didn't get round taking pictures on the first of the month, but these were taken just before Christmas.

The lawn is looking very green with all the rain it's had.

The grasses at the side are dying down now it's cold.

But there are some signs of life - Clematis 'Wisley cream' is just coming into flower!

The Japanese anenome is covered in fluffy seedheads.

And something else coming into flower! The Daphne is about to flower for the first time.

Winter flowering pansies flowering. In winter.

The Sarcococca  is about to flower too.

Garden at the beginning of July 2016

OK, so July ended up being rather busy and, despite my best intentions, I didn't get round to blogging at all. Oops. I haven't yet taken the August pictures, but here are the July ones to get it started.

One lawn, with LO playing.

My newly arranged pots on the patio. I am really pleased with how these are looking now.

I cheated and bought ready-planted hanging baskets, having worked out that buying two hanging baskets (as we didn't already own any) plus the plants to go in them would be more expensive and a bit of a hassle with limited time available. The idea is then to re-use the baskets in future years. The water butt is getting a lot of use now the weather has turned warm. We've actually managed to completely empty it once already, even though I got the biggest one we could fit in.

The sedums are beginning to flower, and are really popular with the bees.

 I had to thin the apples on the espaliered tree as so many had grown, as you can see below. Last year we lost all of them to squirrels anyway...

So pretty, we've had this Anthemis tinctoria E.C. Buxton for about five years, and I usually put a plant support in for the flowers, but didn't get round to it this year. It looks so pretty mingled with the sedum below! Think I might do the same thing next year.

The raspberries are growing well, and have now almost got ripe berries on them.

And the rhubarb went completely crazy in the warm weather with all the rain earlier on!

Phew, July done. Now I really must get round to getting the August pictures taken...

Autumn colours

I meant to write this post in October, but had too much else going on! It's got a bit colder since, but some of the flowers are still there.

The first two apples from one of our trees - and the first year we've had any fruit from it, as we were given it as a wedding present three years ago, waited to let it get settled in and then squirrels ate the apples last year! These were really really tasty. Looks like my attempts at outwitting the squirrels worked.

Japanese anenomes in flower - this variety is called Queen Charlotte.

And my sedums. The different shades of pink are from Chelsea chopping them to different heights back in May - the deepest pink ones are the farthest on, with the others following along behind.

Fuchsia Mojo Boogie - my favourite fuchsia. Which will soon have to come into the coldframe as it isn't hardy. Wonder when we'll have our first frost?

I've been doing lots of heaving things around in the garden, as we've just ordered a new shed. The old shed is very very leaky and not really useable, plus not in the place we'd like it to be in. Now we know when the shed will be arriving (mid-December), I needed to get somewhere cleared for its base to be constructed.

We've decided to put it here, as this area doesn't get much sun, so it's not very good for growing things. My raised beds for vegetables are here, but the nasturtiums had taken over after I'd harvested the last of the veg. The rest of the space is taken up with the old compost heap from when we originally bought the house.

I used a lot of the compost to mulch the flowerbeds in the rest of the garden, then moved both of the raised beds, to create one, taller one. Lined up our compost bins, and dug out the original compost heap to start filling up the raised bed. The bucket and tap is what I make comfrey plant food in.

Now we just await the builder who's going to construct the base for us!

More gardening 2013

I was going to do a knitting update as several projects have made real progress, but there's more going on in the garden at the moment so I'm doing that first!

I had a lovely day out with my Mum to the Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Wisley (more in a different post), and bought a couple more plants so that I could plant up this new border. The new plants are a Physocarpus, plus a Heuchera "Chocolate Ruffles", to go with two Euonymus  "Emerald n' Gold" we already had, a Phlox and a rose we were given as a wedding present. Of course, it's been ridiculously warm ever since, over 30°C sometimes, so we've ended up having to water these a lot to help them settle in!

We've been able to harvest some produce already. This was the first strawberry, and we've had loads more since then. Unknown variety, I propagated our plants from runners from one plant given to us by a friend a few years ago.

The apple trees both have a lot of fruit ripening, which I've thinned out in the hope of ensuring at least some of them get as far as the eating stage. Unfortunately the squirrels love eating them before they're ripe, so we have a strong suspicion that we're not going to get to eat the ones from the espalier tree as there's no way of protecting it. This fruit below is on the standard tree, which I think we might manage to protect.

The first lot of broad beans I brought in from the garden today. Can't wait to eat them tonight, combined with...

the first crop of potatoes!

In the less edible but pretty side of gardening the Phlox paniculata is in full flower, and much loved by the bees.

All the fuchsias are developing flowers, but this one, Fuchsia Mojo Boogie is my favourite (Fuchsia Mojo is a newly bred range). We've had a few accidents with it, as the first one I had was trodden on by a builder when we had a new wall built, so I had to get replacements the next year. It's also only half-hardy so had to spend the winter in the cold frame. But worth it for the beautiful flowers.

This is my now huge Eryngium planum, which I bought for £1.50 as a teeny tiny plant last year at a nursery 'oop north (where plants are a LOT cheaper). I was hoping it would get big, as it's a really good source of nectar for insects, as well as having seed heads that look dramatic through the winter. And it has SO many more flowers on it that last year, it's brilliant. Behind it you can see the wire netting I've put up so I can espalier the Pyracanthas. (does this sound like I actually know what I'm talking about?!) The Pyracanthas were rather spiky to prune, but I did manage it with many "Ows".

I'm rather pleased with this new acquisition (as a plug plant) last year - it's a new type of Foxglove, called "Illumination Pink", which won Plant of the Year at Chelsea last year and is perennial. We've got three of them and they've all grown really well and have beautiful flowers this year. Next year it should be even bigger with even more flowers.

And this is the rather pretty Sisyrinchium, which I've had to move as it wasn't very happy where I'd originally planted it a couple of years ago. It's now flowering in its new home.

I've using the RHS' Plants for pollinators list when planning what plants to buy, as it helps you find plants that flower throughout the year.

That's all for now, I'll be back soonish for more of an update!