My garden in July

I bet you weren’t really expecting to see my July post, so soon after June’s - especially in October, but I’m happy to prove you wrong. Just looking through these photos, it feels like only yesterday and I’m struggling to work out where the intervening months have gone - and how we’ve done so little in a single year. But I guess, that’s 2020 for you.

These roses are from our patio, during one of my gardening sessions I got a bit over-enthusiastic and snipped these without realising. Not wanted to compost them while they were in their prime, they were soon indoors in a vase to be enjoyed for a short while.

With veg growing in the garden, I was very much in the habit of checking it every morning before opening my laptop. One morning I got more than I bargained for, and found some of our beans completely upended onto the grass.

The beans look like they had been carefully placed aside and much fun was had with the earth and the pot. I’m blaming the foxes, and hastily shoved everything back into the pot and gave them a drink. They survived a bit, but the didn’t really recover and beans from these plants were few and far between. Never mind, our other pots turned out to be pretty productive, but I didn’t know that at the time.

July is the month that our agapanthus really gets their game on. The flowers breaking out of the paper casing early in the month, and looking a lot more delicate than I think they really are.

There was good weather, and evenings to enjoy in the garden - a cocktail or two helped, as did the barbecues.

There’s always gardening jobs to be done though and it was time to tackle the Chilean potato plant that goes wild early in the season. The ladder was out and the green bin filled pretty quickly. As you can see the neighbours on this side had scaffolding up, it’s been a time for most of our neighbours to have work done - and who can blame them.

I wanted a sunny spot for my chillies, and tried tin cans on the trellis. This was a little too sunny it turned out and I lost one of these as it fried in the sun. The others were hastily moved back to the greenhouse and while they’ve not grown as I’d hoped they would, they are still alive. I’m thinking of potting them up to have in the conservatory, which I think will be marginally better (and warmer) than the greenhouse.

The nasturtiums soaked up the sun and provided flowers in an array of colours from bright yellows to the deepest of reds, and everything in between. I really wasn’t expecting the colours, especially as they need very little attention or care, and in fact prefer poor soil - they’re my kind of plant!

The colour wasn’t far off the orange of the runner beans, and we’ve had a good few dinners courtesy of a pot or two of beans - but not many from the one the foxes interfered with. Our beans are still limping along in October, but they’re due to join the compost heap relatively soon.

Back nearer the conservatory, the agapanthus blooms were starting to stand up straighter and the buds were thinking about opening, but not just yet.

Our squash started to flower and that became a regular spot to visit and encourage each morning. A squash did eventually form, but I won’t spoil the ending just yet.

The peonies which had given so many fluffy flowers the previous month finished, leaving a stubby flower centre left in their place. The rain didn’t help, and despite the sun, there was plenty of that. The snails seemed to enjoy it though.

And it didn’t stop the agapanthus doing their thing.

Another ritual for the month was picking salad for lunch. That in this strangest of years felt like an incredible luxury. And a tasty one too.

We popped up to Norfolk catching up with family for just the second time this year. As usual we left with gifts including this purple oxalis, a favourite of mine and which grows freely in dad’s greenhouse.

The morning garden inspections continued, and so did the beans. On this particular morning so did the rain, so for this picture I was sheltering in the greenhouse waiting for the shower to pass. It didn’t pass as quickly as I hoped, and shortly after snapping this shot I was running back to the house.

We also had visitors indoors, this dragonfly flew in, flew around our downstairs and stressed me out during an online meeting. I lost sight of it, but after a little while found him having a snooze on the curtains. He wasn’t up for moving, so we spent the afternoon in companionable silence tolerating each other. Once his strength was restored, he decided to head off and managed to navigate out as easily as he’d come in. This, it turned out was just the first visit - we had another two visits as the summer continued. Of course, it may not have been the same little fella - and not all of them were quite as well behaved - but this year, one positive is that we’ve seen much more wildlife in our garden (and in our house!)

Remembering nature on our doorstep

It’s all too easy to forget what’s on our doorsteps isn’t it? Even though in lockdown and since we’ve stayed relatively close to home. For us it’s easy to remember Greenwich Park, and of course Blackheath. But even so there’s bits of those we rarely visit. A few weekends ago now, we took an overly long walk to the shops around the corner. Partly to get out, and partly to see something a little bit different as cabin fever started to take hold, and of course ultimately to pick up supplies.

It threatened rain, but didn’t quite manage it. It had been raining and there was a distinct whiff of autumn in the air. The wet leaves were golden, and glistening started to confirm this.

We headed into Blackheath, stopped for a long overdue look at ‘my tree’ and then headed on into the private estate for some serious house spotting - something we did often when we first moved to the area - then through Blackheath Village and our plan was to go onto the shops. However once we were out, and as the rain was holding off a new plan was formed.

We were very tempted to stop for a pint in the pub edging the Heath (which you may know as Blackheath Common - something we never call it), but we didn’t. Instead we headed straight for Greenwich Park, entering through the gates you see runners streaming out of on Marathon days, of course, sadly not this year though. Turning right we were in the Flower Garden and it wasn’t long before the fungi on the bark had me curious.

It really was a peculiar pale pink colour. It’s not just a reflection of the brightness from the flowers below, which despite their raindrops were ever so vibrant.

As it was a day of unplanned plans, we made another unplanned move. Instead of taking our usual route to the shops, we headed into a part of the Heath we rarely visit, and which we refer to as Vanbrugh Pits. It’s a wilder space, with a huge dip in the middle. It’s not open, and not somewhere I’d walk through on my own.

But it was worth the detour. I’d forgotten its wild side, and forgotten the gorse it was home too.

It’s just as well we’d forgotten about this though, or else you’d be experiencing many, many more gorse shots here. I’ll try to resist, well at least a little.

Post Comment Love 15-17 October

Welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked and share some of that love.

With the change for London announced yesterday, I”m struggling for publishable words to describe quite how I feel. What I do know is it meant for another busy, random and disrupted day at work. Another day where my Teams notification was on and off throughout the day, and one where the radio was turned on and off in equal measures. Sometimes by me, mostly by MOH.

We knew it was coming, I think we all did. But I was hoping it would be next week and we would already be safely on leave, but no. The lack of clarity and information is particularly frustrating, not only for me as an individual, but for me in my job. But anyway, next week I’m off for a week, and we will be away for part of that, trying our best to make sure we stick to the rules.

My photo this week is from a walk in Petts Wood, a local wood, at the weekend. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like this, isn’t it amazing?

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