Reflecting on my week #88

Well that was quite a week. And quite a wet week at that. I half-joked about the drop in temperatures from the much balmier days in Lisbon, but it wasn’t any fun persevering with your summer clothes - and footwear - and getting wet every day. Eventually even I had to cave and wear proper shoes again.

Usually when I get back from holiday I can’t wait to get out into the garden and see how the garden has fared, but this time it took a couple of days for there to be a sufficient break in the rain. I realised that my tomato plants would most likely be swimming in the trug I’d left them in by now. So there was nothing else for it, the tomatoes needed rescuing. However when I got out there, it was clear that these cowering peonies also needed some help.

And I’m sure you will have seen the rescued peonies either here on Friday or on my social channels. It’s only today that they’ve drooped and are once again looking sorry for themselves again, so their next stop will be our compost heap where the whole cycle will begin again. And while I was out there, I couldn’t help but have a longer nose around. The tomatoes were also rescued and returned to the greenhouse, where they’ve since been planted and will need feeding as it looks as if there’s tiny fruits appearing. I’ve only got two tomato plants this year - which is far from my usual tomato farm, but that’s probably representative of our garden endeavours so far this year too.

But look at the cherries. The pigeons have saved us some! Well for now at least.

Over the weekend the weather improved and I’m sure the sun has helped them ripen even more. It’s also made them appear even more attractive to our local bird population and now I’m sure even more have been pecked. Today MOH could wait no longer and he picked a tupperware tub to bring inside so that we at least get to eat some. Our garden has become very popular with all sorts of birds, so I think it’s a wise move.

It wasn’t all good garden news though, we did arrive home to this.

NOT LOOKING SO HEALTHY…

In fact it’s looking rather dead, rather than not healthy. It’s right on the patio too so wasn’t a great sight. I can only assume that it’s been snipped on the other side of our fence by our newest neighbour, who does seem rather keen on having things just so. I was all for having A Talk with the neighbour, but they weren’t in. I know neighbours can cut back overhanging branches, but they don’t have the rights to kill plants.

As the weather was nice - it was much nicer on Sunday - out came the ladder for a much closer look. And it was worse when I got up the ladder, as there was further deadness, as I looked. It’s quite dense in here, and is a mix of honeysuckle and the small pink flowered plant I shared here a while back. And it did need a trim, but even so, this was more drastic than I had in mind. And just so you know, if a garden is deemed to be overgrown or unkempt (and ours certainly isn’t) that doesn’t give neighbours any more legal rights to take things into their own hands.

I’m still all for having A Talk with our newest neighbour, as I don’t want our other plants along this boundary to suffer in the same way. Having looked at this from up the ladder, it’s possible that it was snipped in error - but it’s still quite a lot of dead plant to do by mistake. There is a lot of ivy on their side of the fence, which I know they’ve been trying to remove, sadly I know that as the fence is in places showing the wear and tear of their efforts, which I’m also not happy about and is also another reason why I still want to have A Talk.

As I tried to untangle live growth from slightly crispier growth it was clear that I could rescue a fair amount of what was there, and give the rest of it quite a severe trim. It has given us some extra space on our patio, and has made me cut further back than I usually would, but even so, I’m still not impressed. I’ve a new plan to grow more of the plants lower down the fence, but allow it to grow up again to cover the trellis and retain our privacy.

But after a full day’s gardening yesterday, that will have to wait as there’s still some severe pruning that needs to happen. As the weather is due to turn (again) the parts I’ve rescued have temporarily been tied back in place, as I’m sure in the wind they’d really look quite wild.

And I still think I’ll be having That Talk. Would you?

An abundance of roses

I’m a relatively new convert to roses, since our cycle trip to the Loire in fact. Before that I’d never really seen their appeal, or rather smelt their appeal. But on that holiday the scent got under my nose, and I started to get it. I don’t have the greatest sense of smell, which I always say to MOH is to his advantage, but even since I’ve learn the roses scent (that sounds better than smell), it’s one that’s stayed with me and I can sniff it out. Not quite a thousand paces, but it’s definitely identifiable, even in a tent full of flowers.

That tent was the Grand Pavilion at the Chelsea Flower Show. But just look at the roses, and how inviting does that bench look?

There were roses everywhere, including these arches.

And roses clambering over and through ‘abandoned’ stone walls. We know it’s in a tent (or pavilion) but how effective is this, and wouldn’t it be great to incorporate some old architecture like this into our own gardens, just to fill it up with roses?

If you weren’t convinced before, then this surely has to help?

Once again nature demonstrates that not everything has to be colour coordinated, with the various shades of roses looking great together. I think sometimes we get a bit too caught up on having everything matching, or matchy-matchy as I often call it.

It was at this stand that I bumped into Su Pollard, who was all too happy to post for a photo as you can see. She was lovely, completely zany, and full of life. I think that comes through in the photo too! And also a fan of roses it seems, not sure I’d wear them in my hair, but her bag now that’s a different matter…

My garden in May

Looking back at the photos of my garden in May it’s clear that as well as the rain, the flowers started to come and in plenty of colours too. I popped out into the garden yesterday evening, during a short break in the rain and was struck by the light and how it bounced off the leaves as they glistened, and the first of these photos do that too.

It’s odd though to see the weigela flowering at the same time as the camellia. But with the latter being extremely late this year, and not really making too much of a go of it, this year we had pinks on opposite sides of the garden at the same time.

At the back of the garden the Lords and Ladies next to the small Christmas tree (which you can just about see in the background) have really taken hold. The leaves are huge, and this one made me do a double take. I’m sure I’m not the only one that sees a pair of ears and a long face?

There were some fine days this month too, and in the border by the patio this delicate white bulb appeared. I’m not sure exactly what it is, if it’s something I’ve planted, or something that’s arrived of its own accord. It seems to be the only one of its kind, so who knows, it’s pretty though.

This year I’ve had quite some success with the alliums. Still not quite as many as I’d like, but the most I’ve had.  And considering I’ve not planted any new bulbs, or done anything to them, I’m calling this a win.  Every year I say I’ll have more alliums, and one year I’ll get around to planting some to increase my chances of success.

The rest of the patio bed, and the fences and above those too have been covered with flowers from the Chilean potato plant. They’re pretty flowers, but once the plant takes hold, it’s prolific and needs a good trim to keep it under control.

As I checked behind the gabion basket planters - which are a great place to stow pots over winter to protect them from frost - I spotted a geranium which had over-wintered there, and already in flower. I’m sure it’s much paler in colour than it was last year, but unusually for me, I’m quite taken with the pastel version.

There is a bit of a theme with the pastels though, these daisies were planted as plug plants a year or so ago in the sleeper bed, and finally they’re doing what I want them to do: providing ground cover, tumbling down the sleepers and looking pretty.  A job well done, now all I need to do is stop MOH removing them as “weeds”…

Under the lilac we’ve another addition that is not of our doing, some buttercups. They’re pretty, but I’m sure they won’t be staying long term.

And already there are plenty of cherries on the tree.  I think the year’s I don’t hold out much hope for actually eating any of them, or beating the pigeons to them, I’m always surprised.  We were away last week and had the weather been good, and continued the same then it’s likely that they’d all, or mostly, be gone by the time we got back.  But the good news is, they’re still there so the race is on to see who gets to them first, or if this year we’ll share fairly - but more on that next month!

In the middle of the garden in recent years we’ve discovered, or rather uncovered, a pyracantha.  They are the prickliest of plants, and their pretty delicate flowers defy the viciousness beneath.  As we’ve cut more of the plants around it back, and given it some space, it’s thrived, and this year there’s been boughs of jewelled branches which have been easily to spot from the house.

It’s got to the point though that this too needs a trim, as does the large - and growing back at a rate of knots - euonymus.  Both are plants that will fill our compost bins quite quickly, and if we’re not careful the pyracantha will leave its mark, if not its thorns, in our gardening gloves and skin.  Cutting them back, is definitely on the list of jobs for June, along with many more - hopefully the rain will stop again so we can start to bring this part of our garden back under control.

I’ll share how we get on next month, and I’ll let you know how we fared with the cherries too!