On the wing

The big explosion of butterflies predicted in the last post hasn't happened.  There are plenty of whites and a few peacocks; and today there was a tortoiseshell.  But no red admirals.  I hope we get some more butterflies.  On the other hand, there are plenty of wasps - most of them eating the plums (of which there are lots, fortunately).

I came home today to find flying ants on the patio.  The sparrows and the robin were delighted.  The birds have become less insistent on being fed in the mornings, and just today I was wondering whether it was time to ease back on the food; when I put out this morning's offerings there were no takers at all, although the food does all disappear over the course of the day.  But the ants were obviously a real treat, although a brief one; a couple of hours later they were gone.

A less welcome winged visitor appeared briefly in the small apple tree one day this week - a big female sparrowhawk.  Fortunately none of the other birds were around (they probably saw her coming).  She might have been responsible for the dead vole found round the back of the garage a few days ago; there again, it could very probably have been next door's cat.  There's probably a vole residence somewhere around there, as something small and furry scooted into the undergrowth when I was poking around there at the weekend.

Rose 'Golden Showers' - in its good phase

On the plant front, the Crocosmia is tailing off, the white-flowered plant whose name I can never remember (it's somewhere in a previous post) is just starting, and the autumn flowers (Sedum, Echinacea) are not quite there yet.  All I've been able to come up with for vases are a few sweet peas ('Royal Wedding', a two-tone violet blue, is doing nicely), some calendulas and rowan berries; and I couldn't resist cutting a couple of stems of the 'Moonlight' runner bean, which has pretty ivory and cream flowers.  I'm not surprised beans used to be grown as ornamentals.  There are also still some intermittent roses on the repeat-flowering plants, especially 'Golden Showers'.  It has done its usual thing this year: the first flush of flowers, and all the leaves, succumbing to black spot and looking dreadful, but then the plant recovers and produces a second flush with lovely clean foliage and more flowers.

   On the subject of foliage, building work has necessitated a lot of my pots being moved.  Some are grouped on the patio, and are making quite a statement just from their foliage: bronze sedge, variegated hosta, grey-leaved Anthemis and the purple Heuchera.  It sounds a horrible mix, and it's not a combination I would willingly go for, but it does show how much of an impact foliage can make.

Peasant gardening

Oh dear, just realised it has been nearly a month since I posted last.  The big heat lasted about three weeks in all, followed by mostly warm weather, mostly sunny with a few showery days and a couple of big downpours; some thunderstorms too (one of which damaged our broadband access, which is my excuse for not having updated this).  There have been cool winds at times which have kept us eating mostly indoors, but we've been taking our chances when we can.

The garden is currently in its quiet mode, with the midsummer flowers gone and the late summer ones still not yet there.  The Crocosmia 'Lucifer' is out in all its glory, as is its companion Lilium henryi, and the Francoa is in bloom, but otherwise things are a bit quiet.  The next event will be the Buddleia, which is just coming into flower.  I have succumbed to a few impulse plant buys recently but not yet done anything with them; and I'm afraid I just haven't got round to summer displays in the pots this year, partly because the tulips were so late in dying back.  There's only the windowbox with its usual display of Mesembryanthemums, which have done miserably this year (too dry?? - but the reason I plant them is that they're supposed to be drought-tolerant!).

My vegetable gardening this year is best described as peasant gardening.  The veg plot has been left rather unattended this year, so most of it is out of commission; there's a couple of rows of broad beans with some dill and coriander at their feet, a little wigwam of the runner/French bean cross 'Moonlight' (in very pretty flower but not yet fruiting) and a couple of French beans; two patches of potatoes (which won't have liked the dry weather), some garlic which is ready to be dug up, some leeks which were never thinned, and two winter squash plants, one coming on nicely and one still tiny.  Most of these have been tucked into whatever relatively weed-free corner I could find.  The courgettes (one huge plant and two still quite small) are cohabiting with the sweet peas and pinks in the old herb garden. It's all rather haphazard - rather like those little plots you see in Italy where someone has put in a row of beans, a couple of tomato plants and a few cabbages in whatever bit of ground they can find.  Next year it will be better .... (as I always say ...).

I managed to salvage a couple of colander-fuls of gooseberries and a few raspberries, even though a fledging blackbird tried to defend the latter from me; he really didn't want to leave them when I approached.  The plum crop looks like being good this year, but the apples will be small.

A nice sit down

The birds seem to have thrived this year.  The robins and blackbirds are now moulting but the sparrows are still feeding young and even mating.  There are plenty of young starlings about, too.  Some of the woodpigeons have become quite trusting, even bathing in the patio birdbaths (which are really much too small for a woodpigeon); we came home one day and found two of them just having a nice sit down on the lawn quite near to the house.

The lavender, which is now just going over, has attracted large numbers of bees

Small Whites on the lavender

(particularly honey bees or something very like them) and, in the last couple of weeks, white butterflies (mostly small whites but the occasional large white too).  There have been one or two peacocks and one day we had a comma, but the big explosion of butterflies is still to come - should be in the next few days as the Buddleia gets going.