We're All Going

On a summer holiday. Leave in the morning, not remotely organised but have passport and credit card....sorted.

Wish I was leaving the garden more ship shape but not enough hours in the day, and, today the rain was torrential so no doubt will return home to weedfest.

Only seven days but I know I will miss the garden and my wee furry friends - I love that even when I'm almost touching the bumbles, like today staking the peas beside the foxgloves, they don't even mind - I literally have hundreds of them around me every day - as soon as the rain stopped today, it was as if they were waiting behind the scenes and they had to then work overtime.

Have wifi...will post (promise) xx

Pick of the Month

We are still quite behind in the bloom department for June - the feverfew and toadflax have yet to flower, the peonies are only starting to open. Yet there is blossom galore...cornflowers, orlaya, cerinthe, sweet pea (all autumn sown) alliums, centranthus, nepeta, astrantia, anchusa. For foliage & filling there is applemint, alchemilla, feverfew, quaking grass, barley grass, sweet cicely seed pods (my new favourite find...the flowers don't last that long in a vase but the seed pods are fab and smell like licorice). And things can only get better...

Good times ahead.

Blooming Busy

How awful are my post titles...I just can't resist.

Mad busy with flowers at the moment, should post more but, by the time I come in after my almost daily dusk harvesting, upload my photos, post on facebook, check my emails...excuses, excuses.

The garden is looking good just now but gale force winds forecast for tomorrow - typical.

Foxy Findings

The foxgloves are starting to flower at last and I so love them. My biennials were a disaster this year as I didn't sow them early enough last year but, thank goodness, the good old foxys do their stuff regardless - popping up everywhere, we try to guess by the foliage, the wild whites from the purples, from the mertonensis (different leaves) from the Suttons Apricot, from Primrose Carousel, from Candy Mountain....and the list goes on. The T&M Illumination is rather disappointing - it flowered at Christmas and still looks rather pathetic - the flowers are just so....well..boring - small and spotless.

Foxgloves make great companion plants as they are kind to their neighbours and even kinder in a vase (albeit poisonous) - they prolong the life of your cut flowers. I think they float my boat because they signify this time of year which is still so full of promise, and so close to the summer solstice, with white nights and memories of post exam, all night celebrations - the thrill of the summer holidays stretching ahead, the wildness of youth, the carelessness of it all. 

I digress...back to grumpy old middle aged woman - my bones are aching, it's like winter outside, I worry for Ireland about anything and everything. Yet I still like to stick my camera into their flowers, on macro setting, and fantasise about living up there, as if I was an everlasting bee, happy and high on nectar.

Hot Hot Hot

What a week - temperatures soared to over 20 degrees every day and no rain since last Saturday! I spoke too soon about our rainy Irish weather - I hate having to water plants - they get a good soaking at planting out time and then are left to get on with it, but all of the pots need watered frequently.

Plant wise the aquilegias are amazing, the rugosa roses are starting to open, the peonies are teasing us and taking forever to open, the hesperis smells superb, the nepeta is soldiering on, the alliums are still doing their thing - my favourite, allium roseum are just starting to flower.

The evenings have been amazing - the birdsong alone makes it worth staying outside for, and the bumblebees seem to find it too hot at midday - they seem far busier in the evenings.

A busy few days ahead - tomorrow an all day workshop, Sunday a TV crew from Holland are coming to film the garden and Monday I have a garden group visiting in the afternoon...am heading back out now but promise and update with pics asap!

Happiness

The first day of summer, the weather has improved, in an Irish way, as there are still frequent showers, but then that's why we live within the greenest green...we take it for granted I suppose. 

Day by day, I can see the garden change. It's irresistable, every plant is full of promise. There is a fresh lushness with such vibrant colours that I wish we could slow the ascent to summer solstice. 

There is the novelty of new shady areas which were never planted up before. I now love shade loving plants...tellima, solomon seal, galium odoratum, epimediums, smilacena racemosa, the list is ever expanding.

On a more flowery note, I had my first decent harvest of flowers this week - for bouquets and a wedding - we are a month behind which was slightly stressful but, at the last minute, the plants came up trumps and I was able to harvest more than 500 stems.....mainly alliums, honesty, hesperis, nepeta, aquilegias...things..can only get better.