Summertime

Still warm and mostly sunny; occasionally cloudy and a shower from time to time, but overall not bad summer weather.  The greenhouse plants need daily watering, and the pots are starting to wilt after a couple of days without attention.

The late summer flowers are starting to come out: the buddleia, Lilium henryii and the Japanese anemones (the latter well hidden behind the rose 'Mme Hardy', which as usual is looking brown and horrible now its flowers are over).  The alchemilla flowers have been pulled up, and some of the dreaded pink geraniums; I'm hoping to reclaim some of the border fronts from them.  The annuals are still holding back a bit, although the cosmos is producing more flowers now; a bit of feeding may be in order.  In the greenhouse, the first freesias have flowered;  we've had the first few tomatoes, and there's an aubergine swelling impressively. Outside, the French beans are just reaching picking size, and we've had a few tiny courgettes and some much less tiny broad beans.  The gooseberries are now finished (ie frozen and jammed), the raspberries are producing occasional small punnets and the plums are beginning to mature, to the joy of the local blackbirds.

There are at least three independent baby blackbirds around, and I can hear another somewhere close by, still calling for food (maybe the one that had lost its mum the other week?).  There are young robins still about, but they're not showing themselves much here; one got into the summerhouse one day and couldn't find its way out for some time.  The butterfly boom is also starting; we've had peacocks and a red admiral, as well as a comma and meadow brown (and the whites of course).

Two days of sun and a thunderstorm

Rather more than two days of sun, actually, and definitely more than one thunderstorm.  Two nights of spectacular flash and crash (and downpour), and intermittent daytime bouts since then. This coming week should be more settled, less hot and humid than the end of last week but dry for a few days at least.  I managed to thin the plums, rather belatedly (some are already starting to turn purple), in advance of the storms, in case there was wind as well, but fortunately there was no damage.  Some of the plum trusses were huge, and I removed a whole bucketful of plums; it goes against the grain to cut off big, healthy fruit, but it's for the best.  There are still lots on the tree.

The apple cordons have also been pruned, and this year I've tried to tidy up the shape of the trees as well as cutting back the long growth.  There's a lot of aphid damage on them and I put the prunings in the green waste bin as some of them looked a bit diseased.

The garlic (a bit small, but not too bad) and shallots (better than I had feared) have been lifted, as well as a healthy crop of potatoes that had come up underneath.

A bit too red

The flower display in the garden is tailing off, as it tends to do at this time of year.  There are still a few roses, but the big display is over.  There's the crocosmia, and the Lilium henryii is still to come; the francoa is in flower, and of course the Big Yellow Thing, but the general picture is a bit colourless.  Even the rampant pink geraniums are going over.  Nearer the house, the display is better, with still lots of pinks and the lavender, and of course the pots on the patio; the salpiglossis in these is fading a bit, but the overall picture is still colourful.  The flowers on the ricinus plants are striking, but I hadn't bargained for the bright red that they bring to the mix; it goes not too badly with most of the other reds in there, but not with Penstemon 'Garnet', which just looks wrong with them.

The last baby blackbird seems to be mostly independent now, although still hanging around with mum a bit.  Mum is taking it easier, and sunbathing a lot, even just a few feet behind me as I was picking the last red gooseberries; she's quite trusting.  The fruit has been attracting a pair of bullfinches as well as the blackbirds, and the odd sparrow has been in there too (we have lots of sparrows, and they're still mating and nesting).  There were glimpses of a small brown bird today - a warbler of some sort, probably.  The butterflies are coming out; a red admiral was around the other day, and a few meadow browns.  The buddleia is starting to flower, so I'm expecting more soon.

Growing our own

Although the veg plot isn't as productive yet as I'd hoped (mostly because much of it still needs to be cleared of weeds), we're doing not too badly so far.  The lettuces are still going strong, there are more gooseberries than I can reasonably deal with, and the blackcurrant bush that was fleeced up against bird attack has yielded three jars of jam.  There are broad beans ready to pick, and the first courgette is fattening up.  The leeks need to be pricked out (when I can find somewhere to put them), and I'm hoping that the garlic and shallots aren't too put out by the potatoes, obviously left over from last year, that are sprouting among them.  The runner beans are starting to flower.  A stiff breeze earlier this week has knocked down some of the cooking apples but there are plenty more; there are fewer eaters this year.  Lots of plums, though, and I need to thin them and prune the tree.

Much more exuberant

We're still doing well with cut flowers too.  There are still roses available, and lots of pinks.  A jugful of pinks, oregano and sidalcea with variegated dogwood foliage was very tasteful but not necessarily in a good way; they would have made nice bridal flowers but were a bit too pale.  The first dahlia flowers are now out, however, and a few orange dahlias with Crocosmia 'Lucifer' and purple salpiglossis is making a much more exuberant arrangement.

The windowbox has been planted up with the leftover salpiglossis and some red-foliaged amaranthus, around a couple of small pale pink fuchsia plants; it's a bit sparse but it'll do.  The pots on the patio are doing quite nicely; they're a mix of ricinus (all flowering, remarkably, although I put them in as foliage plants), cosmos, more salpiglossis, the amaranthus and various fillers including a phygelius, a crimson-flowered agyranthemum rescued from the garden centre at the back end of last year and overwintered in the greenhouse, the purple osteospermum, a purple sedum, some bidens which is making a splendid show, and the phormiums for structure.  The big pot at the bottom of the garden is also still doing very well.  The sweet peas have not flourished, however; Tutankhamun is hanging on in there quite well but only one other plant, a purple bicolour, has survived.

The biennials have been sown in the greenhouse: sweet william, forget-me-nots, bellis and pansies, and some cineraria in the cooler situation of the kitchen windowsill.  All are starting to germinate except the pansies, which as a genus seem to have taken a dislike to me.

The area over by the hedge is a bit of a disaster, seriously overgrown with geraniums and long grass, but the butterflies seem to like it; there was a comma in there yesterday, also a tortoiseshell and what I think was a small skipper.  Also in there was a very vociferous baby blackbird which seemed to have lost its mum; when I had lunch out on the bench it came and joined me for a bit, then went off next door.  I hope mum was just having a siesta, but it did seem to be on its own for a long time.  Our usual hen blackbird is still feeding a youngster, and there are still young sparrows about, but the birds have mostly stopped singing so I think most of the nesting is now done.  A robin appears from time to time, and a linnet came for a drink today.  Our lame woodpigeon has also returned; he hasn't been about for a while (we think he had too many competitors to chase off) so it was nice to see him back.  The other pigeons seem mostly to have dispersed, although there's a persistent individual that comes to the patio for food quite a lot.

The weather has been on the cool side, with some showers and a fresh breeze earlier in the week; one night I put the tender plants back into the greenhouse to be on the safe side.  There has been warm sun for the past couple of days, however; a little more of that would be welcome.

Catching up

Mixed old shrub roses ....

Catching up, both with the blog and with the garden, after a trip away.  Things are looking very lush, very green and romantically flowery (at least in certain corners).  The roses are all out (or, in the case of the yellow pimpinellifolia, been and gone); they've done well this year - obviously my pruning paid dividends this time.  A jugful of them is on the table at the moment.  Recent cut flowers have all been from the garden - roses, peonies, and earlier, a jug of sweet william, pinks and lady's mantle (the pinks have also flowered well).  The aquilegias are over, but there are some good foxgloves down in the bottom border (and a rather less good self-sown mullein, complete with very impressive mullein moth caterpillars).  The annuals were planted out, or put out in mixed pots, before we went away; the odd cosmos has flowered but the main show is still to come.  I'm pleased with the pink ipomoea, though; they grew on well, no damping off, and are now flowering successfully in the big pot at the bottom of the garden, with a blue penstemon for company.  The windowbox needs replanting; the current incumbents, a pair of blue violas from the garden centre and some of last year's calendulas - a lovely bright pairing when in full flow - are looking very sad now.

... and sweet william with pinks

In the veg plot, some batch sowings of beans are getting underway, and the courgette plants are managing well enough for the moment.  The two winter squash plants have both died; I'm not doing well with those!  The lettuces have done well, however, in their fleece tent.  In the greenhouse, the neighbours' ministrations kept the tomatoes and aubergines, in their growbags, settling in nicely, and flower trusses are now setting.

This year I've got at the green gooseberries early, and have made jam; there are still quite a few to pick, but I'm more relaxed now about the blackbirds going in there.  The red ones are still colouring up, as are the blackcurrants; I've put a fleece tent around one of the blackcurrant bushes, which I hope will keep the birds off!

The robins' brood seems to have fledged and gone; before we left there were three quite friendly little ones about, but no sign of them now, and the adults are singing lustily, suggesting that they're back on the nest.  The blackbirds are feeding quite large fledgelings, and the sparrows and starlings are also taking food away; and there were two little thrushes following a parent around the other day.  Various finches are about too, a nuthatch was pecking about in the big ash tree one day and young woodpeckers have been coming to the peanuts.  The jay has been back (and was scared off), and also the red kite; the latter was hunting quite low over the garden last week.

Weather has varied from wet to warm and sunny, with a thunderstorm thrown in.  The latter didn't deter a hedgehog which was snuffling around the cold frame, apparently quite oblivious to the lightning.  After a warm and dry week we're now back in the heavy showers phase.

Nearly Great Dixter

Too spotty, but colourful

When I planted red, dark purple and orange tulips in the bottom border, I didn’t reckon with them still being in flower when the pink rugosa rose started to bloom, not to mention the pink aquilegias that found their way into that border. The astrantia 'Hadspen Blood', also just starting to flower very nicely, is just the right side of the pink/red shades to be acceptable.  Fortunately the overlap was very short, and the orange tulips were by chance not close to the pink flowers, so the Great Dixter effect was avoided (just).  Actually that border could do with a bit more Great Dixter; it’s turning out a bit too pink and needs something to spice it up a bit.  And a memo for next year: either plant more tulips, or plant them in groups instead of sprinkling them across the whole border - the effect is too spotty otherwise.

The latest of the tulips, the little orange species ones, are also now going over.  They’ve proliferated very nicely, despite being sat on by a couple of self-set euphorbias.

Species tulips - urumiensis or batalinii?

The wisteria is in full, heavily scented, swing, and looking rather fine.  The early roses are out: Rosa altaica has responded remarkably well to the heavy, late pruning it received, and ‘Golden Showers’ is in flower although going through its blackspot stage.  The aquilegias are also flowering, as is the orange potentilla; just starting are the white camassias, the sweet rocket, some pinks, the Sweet William planted last year, and the numerous (too numerous) pink geraniums.  We also have some lady’s smock which has seeded into the lawn, next to some daffodil leaves that haven’t been mown back yet.

The contents of the greenhouse are being hardened off gradually, and accustomed to the rather cool and breezy world outside.  The weather went through a very warm and dry spell but has become very unsettled, with a mix of rain (and even some hail), wind, thunder and warm sunny spells.  Out of the sun it’s decidedly cool, and the forecast is for more of that to come.

I hope the rain holds off enough for me to clear more space in the veg plot so that I can plant out the remaining seedlings!  The lettuces have gone into a patch behind the gooseberry bushes which is really meant to be a grass path but had to be cleared so that I could get the weeds out; they have a fleece tent to keep the pigeons off but I'll need a much bigger fleece cover for the brassicas.

The summer birds are here, including the swifts screaming by, and a pair of linnets.  We’ve also seen a bat, and a newt in the pond (and lily beetles).  Other bird visitors include the male bullfinch and, twice today, a jay – unfortunately (but unsuccessfully) in search of a baby sparrow for lunch.  The sparrowhawk has had more success, making off with one of the little sparrows the other day.  There are a lot of baby birds about: we’ve seen blackbirds, robins and dunnocks, and two woodpigeons, besides the sparrows, and bluetits are taking food into the nestbox.  One of the robins is becoming quite friendly, probably because he's hoping I'll put more food out for him; he and his mate are very busy feeding youngsters at the moment.

Lazarus

When I first planted the garden, I envisaged a tiny glade with woodland-style plants in among the shrubs.  It didn't work out that way, not least because I very seriously underestimated how big the shrubs would become, and the paths into the glade were never properly maintained.  One plant I put in there was Solomon's Seal, but it succumbed to caterpillar attack and had its leaves shredded, and then it disappeared.  I haven't really got inside the tangle of shrubs for a number of years, until the other day when I started to tackle the over-large evergreen viburnum which is in need of some branch removal.  And there, under the viburnum and in deep shade, are several Solomon's Seals, just coming into flower.  How long have they been there and doing their thing quietly and unnoticed?  I thought they were long dead!

Something else I have been tackling is the summer jasmine, which keeps trying to climb into the summerhouse.  It has been severely hacked back, and the area around there properly weeded.  I plan to put in a grass path with small borders on either side; the bicoloured aquilegias are destined to go in there, at least while they bulk up.

Cowslip patch

The lily-of-the-valley has been early this year; for the first time I was able to pick a posy of them for May Day.  The late spring/early summer flowers are now starting: the first roses ('Mary Queen of Scots' again), the first wisteria flower, the first aquilegia bloom.  The choisia is well in flower, as are the blue camassias.  (Something has squashed some of the white ones; a cat?)  The cowslips are going over, and the hellebores have been deadheaded before they can set seed.

Several great bird sightings this past week: at the 'big' end of the scale, the red kite has been over, while at the other extreme, a goldcrest has been about.  It hovered at the library window the other day while hunting for spiders.  I hope it's nesting nearby.  I've seen one here before, a few years ago, but they're not something we see every year.  We also had a yellowhammer here the other day, and the first swallows feeding overhead; we'd seen a couple of them high above, presumably en route for elsewhere, but these are the first this year at feeding height.

The weather has been mixed, with some rain but good warm sunshine over the weekend (and some lunches outside on the bench), but today it was cool, showery and very windy.  Forecast is for more of the same.

The big race

It's that time of year when everything is growing rapidly, especially those plants that I don't want to grow - the weeds, and those plants which have become far more successful than I ever wanted them to be (eg the pink geranium).  And at this time of year I always get the sinking feeling that they will probably get away with it, because I won't have the time to deal with them.  With more time available this year, I hope to make more inroads into the general chaos than in the past, but the race between them and me is on.  With the help of a couple of bags of salt I have reduced the number of dandelions in the lawn, and regular patrols round the garden are keeping more or less on top of the flowering weeds (so far).

Tulips with Sweet Cicely and forget-me-nots

The new tulips ('Prinses Irene', 'Couleur Cardinal' and 'Havran') at the bottom of the garden are coming out nicely.  They're rather shorter than I expected but they're a great match for one another in size and shape of flower, they have good leaves and are a terrific colour combination; the Euphorbia characias and Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve' add to the fun (the latter is a particularly good companion).  On the subject of euphorbias, I had been assuming that all the big ones that come up in odd corners of the garden were the offspring of an E. characias I had years ago, but I've just noticed that one in the front garden has dark 'eyes' in the flowers, and looks more like E. wulfenii.  I wonder where that came from?

The centaurea is out, and so is the chaenomeles, although it's rather smothered by the honeysuckle so you can hardly see it.

The early potatoes ('Belle de Fontenay' and 'International Kidney') have gone in today; I'm still renovating the bed where the maincrops are to go.  The leeks are coming up along with the oriental greens (and a whole lot of weed seedlings!), and I've sown dill and coriander alongside the broad beans as that seemed to work well last year.  I need to start hardening off the lettuce and brassica seedlings in the greenhouse.

The weather has continued to be a mix of sunshine, dull periods and showers, though fewer of the latter than forecast.  A little cooler than normal but the sun is pleasant; warnings of overnight frosts haven't come to anything thus far.

On the wildlife front, the first baby birds (a blackbird and a thrush) have briefly broken cover.  The thrushes seem to be keeping mostly to the bottom of the garden; an adult has come once or twice to the patio for water, but they mostly seem to be down in the compost corner (which is where I startled the youngster the other day).  Still lots of (adult) sparrows, and several very frisky dunnocks; the robins are still feeding their brood.  The lame pigeon has been having some big fights with other male pigeons who feed underneath the seed feeder; he tolerates others, who I assume are the females, although he hasn't noticeably had any success in wooing them.

There is also some unidentified wildlife in the greenhouse; something has been eating my aster seedlings.  Grrr.