Gardens Big...

...and Small ...

Some planting combinations both sing and dance.

It is quite some time since we last visited the National Botanical Garden of Wales.  The visit on Tuesday had been anticipated with great expectations and it did not disappoint.

Some kind of tropical lily

I call it the spider flower

The walled garden, the hot-house where I took these two pictures of lovely exotic rain forest plants, the gravel gardens...the big glasshouse - largest single span glass house in the world I believe...everything.   Just lovely.

Every time I've visited it has changed but stayed the same impressive inspiration.

A must-have Aquilegia
I think it is called an Origami Red-and-White

Cistus. Likes well drained soil in full sunshine.

There is somethig about both the plants above that I love and would desire in my own garden if I could squeeze them in.  I have a lovely bright pink cistus that thrives on neglect in poor soil in the sunshine.  The aquilegia is quite a promiscuous plant.   They do self seed easily but the also cross pollinate so you are never quite sure what will be the result.   Aquilegias this year have been lovely. They have liked the cool spring and indifferent summer so far.

In the truly enormous greenhouse.

In the greenhouse I love the section on South Africa...the plants take me back there in a twinkling.

Pelargonium

Protea

Gladioli

A cross section of mixed  South African plants

One day, or part of a day, is never enough to see all of the Nat Bot Gardens - never but it is enough to rejuvenate the soul.

I couldn't resist coming away with just one new plant.   I shall plant it in my border along the path near the sages and lavenders.   This is a little kniphofia, only grows to about 40 cms tall.

Kniphofia

I will have to get a few more of them but this was the last one in the plant shop there and I did get £2.00 off the price by using the vouchers we had...I still have to plant this out!

Well, you should expect to be impressed by National Botanical Gardens but you know, a dear friend of mine in Dorset sent pictures of her front and back garden...

Friend's Front garden

Friend's back garden

...that is IMPRESSIVE...and utterly beautiful isn't it?   Who could not be cheered up by those wonderful displays of colour?

Meanwhile back here in my garden, the cold spring and indifferent summer are just blighting the garden.

There is lots in the greenhouse I shall end up just putting in the compost because it is not doing anything.  Not dying, and not growing, just struggling.   As I am going away it is not worth me fretting or sweating over.   Compost.  Start again when I come back from Sweden.  Gardening is like that.   It is not all success.  Germination of peas has been patchy and snails, or slugs, in spite of my best efforts, have decimated them in one place.

The melon is a monster, but drinks so much that I fear it will die of thirst when I am away and only watered a couple of days a week.

The potatoes, so far, are pretty good.   This muggy moist misty weather is no good for them or tomatoes.  Not sure if they will stay good and produce if it continues much longer.

The strawberries are mostly going to ripen when I am away.  The children had the first two this evening.   That was exciting.  Geraldine got the second raspberry...I ate the first one.

Raspberry and lavender

These are little patio raspberries, a new experiment.   They are very tasty and have fruited but I think they will be even better next year.  I am pretty happy with them so far.  Maybe they would be better all three plants in one big pot, or planter.

Black and red currants look good - hope some left for me when I get back from Sweden in a month or so.

There are a,few little gems of course - enough to keep me going.

Cosmos, to remember South Africa

David Austin's Generous Gardener - oh, it's lovely!

The old faithful - the Geraldine Rose

I do not remember the proper name of the Geraldine Rose.   Gels gave me the parent plant all those years ago in Dorset.   It must be all of 15 years ago now since I planted the Mother.   This is one of her daughters, grown from a cutting.   A climber with beautiful scent and very vigorous repeat flowering.

So next week...end of next week - off to Sweden for a little while.   To eat Swedish sour cherry pie....
blueberries... redcurrants and raspberries.   With a bit of luck.   I understand their spring and summer have been disappointing so far too.

Never mind.   It will be lovely to see the family there and to be refreshed by their gardens too.

Happy gardening folks - till we chat again.

Gardeners have strange habits...

...but not as baffling as non-gardeners garden habits...

It has been said that Britain is a nation of gardeners...there is even a book by that title.  True, we have a climate ideal for gardening.   Not too cold and not too hot, lots of rain so maybe that is why there is an image that everyone is a gardener and knows lots about it.

I don't think this is true.

I live between two non-gardening neighbours.  Neighbour on the left is an immaculate home-owner.  He puts us all to shame with the non-stop washing, polishing, painting, tweaking and so on.  He has silk flowers in the basket by his front door.

He does have growing plants, some lovely trees, but by his own admission, he inherited the garden he has when he bought the property...all he has added are a few Cordylines.

Cordyline

These he cares for with the same eye for detail as his home and cars.  In winter they are protected from the wind and anchored so they won't snap in the gales we get, and if there is snow or frost forecast, he wraps them in bubble wrap.  All this is genuine good gardening practice ....

BUT...

I couldn't believe my eyes this afternoon when I saw him cementing round the base of his Cordylines with great care and precision....I didn't like to stare...or ask...but I will have a jolly good look and see if I was seeing right when he goes to work tomorrow....

Why would he cement them in?

Poor trees.

The other neighbour on my right.   Well they have no sense of gardening at all.   For most of the summers I have been here the most they do is mow their grass and vast crop of dandelions about twice a summer.   Until last summer when they put up a fence and gained some much needed privacy...now they mow their grass and dandelions once a week.

However the front garden has flowers in it.   Quite attractive ones.   Wooden ones.

Wooden flowers like these.

Equally I am sure I am a complete bafflement to both sets of neighbours with my gardening habits.

I import dirt and bags of poo.  But I pick up and dispose of dog poo.   So I must appear to be a bit of a poo freak.

Not to mention the times Leah and Jonah run round the garden yelling "Poo Marnie, more poo here!" at the top of their voices.

I talk to the plants too...and the dog...and probably to myself....I photograph the plants but here is a funny thing I read about one gardener...I can very much understand and relate to this...

Taking pictures gets me strange looks from my neighbours as well. The other day there was a weed with white flowers that I didn't recognize and I took a picture. It was on the fence line between me and my neighbour. He must have thought I was being anal about the weed because when I came home from work, he had pulled it up!
Other than that, I am always looking into other peoples yards to see what they are growing and it drives my teenage daughter nuts...I will slow down when driving by a yard that catches my eye and she will tell me to quit stalking the neighbourhood plants.

But possibly they will think that not only am I a woman of strange habits but the dog has them too.

Seren smelling the roses,
they are beautifully scented.
Bridge of Sighs Rose.

Now that is what I call a dog with good taste!   Even if everyone else thinks she is weird.

She does pull up a few plants still though...she is only 6 months old...hopefully her gardening habits will modify to being more constructive than destructive as time goes by.   But I don't think there is much hope of the same being said for my non-gardening neighbours, left or right!

D tells me he is super-busy in his garden.   He is building a greenhouse....making modifications to the foundations of their house...there is a new baby...the boat has to go in the water...busy, busy, busy...

A sent me this picture of him being extremely busy.

D being very busy in the garden

I know, it does enhance the gardening experience if you take time to enjoy it too...seriously, that is very important.   It must not be all work and no play or relaxation to enjoy the labour of your hands (back, knees etc).

My busy in the garden this week has not really been much.   I trip to Dorset interrupted the week and the rain too.  Today I got back in there and planted out the courgettes, re-potted the fig tree, made up a few hanging baskets and a pot or two...all from plants I had over-wintered in the greenhouse or propagated.

Mostly the poppies and things that were lovely have 'gone over', but the roses are still doing their best to outshine everything else...and succeeding.

Dog rose by the greenhouse.
Don't you love their little open faces?

The Marguerits are prolific, like weeds.   I must cut a big vase full.   It will encourage them to have a second flush of flowers later.

Leah loves these Marguerites

Potatoes on the left.

The sage is another plant that is busy feeding the bees at the moment.   Sage are one of my favourite herbs - I use them a lot and the flowers are wonderful too.

Sage and Marguerites

Everything is growing now.   Tomatoes.   The melon is a monster.  The rain and the sunshine have accelerated the growing - especially of the weeds.   I have to pot up all the pelagonium cuttings I took.   Not one of them failed so there are loads to go around.   I'll give some to Chris and smuggle one to DnA...he of the garden-busy in the garden-swing....

That's all for this week folks...I'll leave you with this...which one are you?

Chat to you again next week.   Have a good one.

Garden ...grow...grow...

...grow...

Lupins and poppies doing well

June is bustin' out all over!

All over the meadow and the hill!

Buds're bustin' outa bushes

And the rompin' river pushes

Ev'ry little wheel that wheels beside the mill!

There is something voluptuous about June.   It is the month in which midsummer falls and even if the temperatures have been rather low - and the winds rather high - for the time of year June still seems to 'bust out all over!' 

June is Rose Month 

Rosa Rugosa

Margaret Merrill

Bridge of Sighs

And the wild Dog Rose

The 'Geraldine Rose' , the 'Yew Tree House Rose' and the Generous Gardener are not yet in flower but they are budding.

All this was bare space 4 years ago.

The trees have come into their own this year.   This year the garden looks much more mature.  It is four years since I moved here and three since I started work on the garden in earnest.  Remember there was nothing in the garden when I started so trees are such a wonderful addition to the space.  

The pond is beginning to look settled.   I must take that netting off. 

The children love this pond.   In fact this end of the garden is every bit as charming as the house-end.  Also it doesn't get quite so much wind so it is quite a favourite place of ours to sit.

The greenhouse is really bursting at the seams.   That Melon is going to be a monster...IS a monster.   I hope it fruits.   I have to get in here to sort our hanging baskets but the weather has just been too cool at night...later this week  - that's a promise to myself...

A variety of plants needing planting in baskets.

Monster Melon

Courgettes

 This week I have arranged for someone to come around and give me a quote for looking after the garden while I am away later this year.  It is really just the watering if it is necessary.   It will be for the pots.   Even if it rains they don't get enough water under the leaves.

Hostas - you can see how it is
impossible for rain to really soak into the pots under
these umbrella leaves.

The garden is a joy for the children.   They love it...for different reasons.   Jonah loves it because there are exciting holes to be dug and stones to drop in the pond.   Leah, on the other hand, absolutely sees the beauty and appreciates the growing of plants and usefulness of them.   And all of them, dog included, love it as a playground.

I am still cutting and enjoying rhubarb.

The lavender is in bloom  and the sage so the garden path is abuzz and smells diving when you walk down it.

Path flanked by lavender and sage mainly.

Cistus

Sage

The recent wind meant I have had to prune the Mallow in order to prevent disease getting into the vicious breaks.

Wind damage

But mostly...June is busting out...all over.

Scabious

Strawberries

Foxglove

Tomatoes

From here it is difficult to even see the house

So there you are  - not a lot of gardening achieved last week but in spite of that the garden has rewarded me by being ...well, A GARDEN.

I even have flowers for the house.

Marguerites

But now...well now I had better go and do one or two little things out there to keep it on track to bust out in the way I want it to, and not in some wilful way of its own.

Happy gardening everyone.