Incy Wincy Spider

Gentle Reader, although this photograph is not of the garden, it is of the sky above the garden one lovely summer's eve just this very week . . I found it intriguing the way the fainter "direction arrow" shape clouds look as if they are reflecting in the sky, like a landscape reflects in water.  What do you think?

Just yesterday, I found the first ladybird {ladybug} in the garden.  I am very concerned, for not only is this very, very late to be seeing the first one, it was only one!  I think the prolonged cold winter and lack of a warm spring may have taken it's toll.  I will buy some bamboo later and cut it up to make a bug hotel.

As I was going about moving some pots around, I noticed a leaf all curled up on itself.  I couldn't resist a peek to see what was going on, and deep inside the curl {almost at the base} I saw the teeniest tiniest green spider! I tried and tried to get a good photograph of it, and it was a struggle because the camera kept focusing on the leaf.  The spider is so tiny and so far down, it just didn't want to focus on it, but I persevered and these are the best of the images I captured~

First, a top view showing the curled up leaf, centre, and I measured it to be just under 1cm (so about 3/8 of an inch) across~

and this one shows the tiny spider lurking in his lair~

The pollinating insects are now out in force, as this busy bee goes about his business gathering pollen for the hive~

I love that the Field Poppies are growing and flowering well because I need to gather plenty of seeds.  I will scatter them where I want them to flower next year in the garden and I will also scatter some along the hedgerows when I take a walk along the country lanes~

The delicate, paper~like small pelargoniums have started to open.  Soon the green mounds will be transformed into pretty pillows of perfect pastel pink~

Carnations {pinks} are bursting forth and adding their clove~like scent to the richly fragrant air.  These beauties are from Whetman Pinks, a leading specialist in pinks, and oh! how I wish I could share the fragrance with you, Gentle Reader~and I am cutting small posies regularly for the house to ensure the blooms will keep on coming~

This is where The Gardener takes a welcome break, sitting on the deck chair, drinking a refreshing cup of hot tea, or later in the evening a glass of crisply chilled chardonnay~

The aconitum {monkshood or wolf's bane are some of it's common names} is now shooting up in purple spikes along the borders~

The Frances E Lester rambler is full to overflowing with pale pink blooms and the air is heady with it's deep perfume which fills the house too~

A close up of a bloom~

I think it is time to take a cup of tea now, I shall go and sit in deck chair in the shade of an old apple tree with Alchemilla mollis {Lady's Mantle} in the foreground.  It is a spectacular year for this most versatile and prolific of garden plants~

~~~A Gardener's Work Is Never Done~~~

Wimbledon, Recycling and Better Weather

Gentle Reader, I must confess that this past fortnight I have spent more time watching Wimbledon than I should, and so all other jobs, gardening, housework, even shopping for food have been on hold!  Still, Wimbledon reaches it's end for this year tomorrow afternoon and normal life will resume.

The weather has been improving slightly, but we are now on the verge of a minor heatwave!  Well, as I say, the word heatwave is by comparison.  Our recent average daytime temperatures have hovered around the mid 50's, but tomorrow they soar to a scorching mid 70's!  As I said, comparative heatwave, and I know I will feel like I am melting with the sudden spike of around 20 degrees.  Definitely not the off~the~scale heat that is across parts of America, and my thoughts and prayers are with those in areas affected by fires and heat so strong it kills.  There are also early and heavy monsoons in India that have caused devastation with flooding.  The weather patterns of the world are chaotic and worrying.

My strawberries did not ripen in time for Wimbledon!  There will not be many, but I am more concerned about keeping the young plants healthy and strong so they will be productive next year.

Still, here are some of the bits and pieces I have been up to since my last entry.

Finally, a week or so ago, some of the courgette seeds I planted germinated.  Today, I cleared a small corner and planted them out.  I know they should be bigger before I transplanted, but I am eager to get them in the ground in the hopes that they will settle in with the warm weather and establish quickly, and that there will be something to harvest by the end of August, if not sooner.

I like to recycle and re~use or re~purpose things if I can.  These two images (above and below) are two ways in which I recycle plastic water bottles.  The bottle on the left is a 5 litre one and is used with the base cut off as a cloche to protect delicate and young plants while they establish.  I can remove the cap in the day to regulate humidity and temperature, and replace it at night to protect from slugs and snails.  The cloche also protects from birds and cats too.

The smaller, 2 litre bottle to the right has the base removed, the cap is also removed and the bottle is buried in the ground to the level of the roots of the courgette.  I can fill it with water which will then slowly filter through directly to the roots of the plant where it is needed, minimising waste of water running around on the surface.

I thought this a pretty arrangement, with the yellow rose "Golden Wedding", as a cluster just tumbles from a stem over the old grind stone~

This is one of the petunias I planted.  I do not usually plant petunias, for they need constant dead~heading and are sticky and messy to do so too!  They are all growing well, however, and I hope there will be a good and generous display soon.  I am particularly taken with the depth of colour and markings on this one though.  I think it is very unusual, don't you?

Some more recycling ~ this time, an unused stone drainpipe that I planted with a dwarf clematis.  I know you have seen this one before, but it is now going from strength to strength.  I have never seen it looking so strong and healthy with so many blooms~

Gentle Reader~how I wish you could smell the delightful fragrance that is the Frances E Lester rambling rose! Now covered with bloom, and many, many more to open, in the warmth that is with us now the fragrance floods the air, and I can smell it many yards away as I walk up my drive!  Such blissful joy it brings, to the eye and to the nose!

Tonight, I put a bowl full of more runner beans to soak and I will plant these tomorrow.  If the weather stays warm there is a good chance I will harvest a small crop later on this year as Summer turns to Autumn.  Fear not, you will be the first to know when they are ready!

A Very Green Picture

Gentle Reader~the fruit patch is a thousand shades of green as fruits swell and prepare to ripen very soon.  Everything now is about patience, waiting for this to happen, for Nature cannot be rushed, then days of picking, preparing, and preserving will follow~

This year, which is the fourth year since I planted the gooseberry bush, there is a little crop of plumptious green jewels.  I am so excited, and am sure they must be nearly ripe, but am unsure, for I have no experience growing or harvesting them.  As they started to set fruit in the driest part of the year, I gave them extra manual watering to help them along, and now the bush, with it's mighty sharp thorns, is full of shiny green baubles.  I hope I have enough to make a delicious fruit crumble~Oh! I do love fruit crumbles, served with hot custard~

Gooseberries go very well with Elderflower, and I have two small, wild elder trees growing on my stone hedge.  They are full of blossoms, and as they are the perfect partner for gooseberries, I am certain that the fruit will not be long in ripening now~

Oh~Gentle Reader~I wish you could smell this fragrant bloom that fills the warm summer air with it's delicate perfume~

The blackcurrants are starting to turn colour!  They will be ready very soon.  I usually start to pick them around the middle of July, and it is a long and tiresome job, for each tiny fruit must be 'topped and tailed', and I must fend off the blackbirds too, for they consider these bushes their very own!  These will be used in crumbles, pies, and jam.  I freeze the fruit and make small, fresh batches of jam throughout the winter months for a delicious boost of Vitamin C.  I spread the jam on hot, buttered toast or crumpets, but also dissolve a tablespoon or two in a mug of hot water for an easy, warming drink to soothe a cold.

I have four different varieties of raspberry, to give a prolonged picking season.  I pick these warm from the canes in the early morning sunrise and serve them fresh, with organic homemade yogurt for my breakfast~so good!  The fruits are only now starting to set, and I should really be starting to pick them, but this is because it has been such a cold and slow start to the growing season this year~

These are my loganberries which are a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry and they are very tart.  There is a bumper crop.  Unlike a raspberry, the core stays in the fruit when picked, so last year, my first decent crop, I made Loganberry Gin by steeping the fruits in gin and sugar.  When I first tasted it, in January, it was very sherberty and I didn't think it would be very good, but now it has matured I don't think I made enough!  This year I will know better, and I am on the look out for more recipes to use this unusual fruit~

The apples have thinned out very tidily, leaving good space between each small fruit, which is what is needed to give the apples room to swell and grow without damaging each other~

I already have a brand new strawberry plant!  I planted six new bare root plants a few weeks ago and one put out a runner which has put down roots of it's own to make a new, baby plant.  It is looking very healthy~

I don't think it has been warm enough for the strawberries at all, for there are not very many berries growing, but there are a few at least to give a small taste, and if the weather picks up soon we could have months ahead for everything to catch up and produce some fruit~

Gentle Reader~the temperatures are still quite cold, remaining in the high 50's and seldom breaking 60℉, so let us hope things warm up very soon.  Much needed rain is forecast for tomorrow, so I will hope I can save the heavy job of watering for a day or two, and the water barrel will be full again.  Soon, I will be harvesting the fruit and then I will share some recipes with you.

Mixed Bag Miscellany

Gentle Reader, in the four days since my last entry, there has been a mixed bag of weather.  The wild, wet, and windy weather of the weekend passed and the days have found gentler, kinder conditions, but not without some anomalies, like the bank of fog that swept in from the ocean yesterday morning, only to be replaced a few short hours later with warm summer sunshine that seemed blistering and left me melting with the juxtaposition of temperatures.

One of the bizarre things that seems more prevalent than usual in the garden is a strange little critter called a frog hopper.  Frog hoppers hide beneath a shield of 'spit', a frothy substance they secrete to keep themselves covered and prevent them drying out.  We call this phenomenon 'cuckoo spit' because it generally shows up on plants in the garden around the same time as the cuckoo bird arrives in Britain after it's migration from Africa.  Although they suck the sap of plants, the damage is minimal.

Here is Cuckoo Spit~

and I rinsed it off to reveal the tiny Frog Hopper underneath for you~

It soon replaced the 'spit' so no harm was done!

Every year, the sycamore trees that border my property drop their leaves in Autumn and over several days I am able to go out and rake them up.  I gather them into big bin bags, tie the tops and pierce the bottoms of each back to let moisture drain out.  Over the winter, these rot down to make a rich humus that can be added to soil or used as a mulch to suppress weeds.  I usually harvest several such bags, and once the job is done it is forgotten about until I come to use them.  Yesterday, however, I noticed a bit of a mess by the bags, and on closer inspection some have been torn open, scattering the contents to the wind.  The only thing I can think of that has done this is a badger!  I know there are several holts nearby, so it is entirely likely that one wandered into my garden again, as they have done in the past, in search of juicy worms~

I am still waiting for my runner beans and broad beans to germinate, but am happy to see that I now have three tiny courgette plantlets, so there is hope that there will be something to eat from the garden very soon.  I am preparing the small vegetable plot in earnest now, and today I ventured to turn back the weed killing membrane that I placed over part of the plot late last year.  This is how it looked a few weeks ago, you can see one of the yellow recycled inflatable mattresses I used~

and this is how it looks today after I turned back the two mattresses.  It seems to have worked really well, there are just a few white bindweed roots, squiggling across the surface like long, skinny worms.  They will soon be removed~

If you remember, I mentioned that I am using this area to hold plants for the borders this year, and this is how it looks now, after I planted out five healthy foxglove plants.  They will soon grow and fill out, and I hope they will be a natural weed suppressant~

These are the same plants just a few weeks ago, so they have grown really well~

Gentle Reader, the plants and flowers continue to open and delight, so here are a few for you to see tonight~

A double, cultivated poppy that looks like an old~fashioned ball gowned dancer waiting to waltz~

The fragrant David Austin rose Frances E. Lester, a beautiful, and highly fragrant, rambler that I have pruned into a shrub~it is covered in clusters of these delicate, pink blooms~

Another fragrant favourite, the rosa rugosa that I am making into a small hedge~

and another image of the lovely poppy, with colour singing out against the blue borage~

A peach coloured patio rose which I bought quite cheaply as it had no label.  A bargain purchase, don't you think~

My dwarf clematis, which trails rather than climbs, in a terracotta pot against a sunny wall~

So, Gentle Reader, I have brought you some of the strange, and some beautiful too . . Please stop by again to see how this garden grows, for I have been busy clearing the soft fruit patch and there is now some news to share from there.

The Drone of Lonely Lawn Mowers

The drone of lonely lawn mowers, like giant bees, buzz across the gardens of the village earlier in the week.  Everyone was out working hard, just like those honeybees, cutting grass before the next forecast deluge arrived at the weekend.

It almost seemed a shame to mow through the pretty daisies and buttercups sprinkled across the green like stars across the night sky, but they have had two extra weeks to grow, and it has been three since the lawn was last cut.  Here are the before and after~

See the pretty daisies and buttercups?  Look how green the grass is too.  It makes me want to walk barefoot across the lawn, so cool and pleasant.











The daisies and buttercups are gone, there is a semblance of stripes, but I am shocked at how poor the condition is.  Yellow is the new green!  I will have to look up what to do about this to improve it for next year.  I don't mind the daisies, but I don't like the yellow grass.




There were pollinating insects at last!  This is a hover fly on the pink osteospermum~

and here is a white tailed bumblebee getting ready to dive, head first, into the oriental poppy~

Then, with what is becoming almost too predictable for comfort, it all changed for the weekend.  On Thursday I made an emergency dash to the hardware store for thirty bamboo canes to stake up the lillies in an attempt to give them some support from the forecast gales and rain, due on the weekend.  It is now Saturday, it rained heavily all night, but that is okay . . I don't mind the rain at night.  Night time is a good time for it to rain!  The wind, is another matter.  My lawn is littered with the fronds of a neighbouring Cordyline Palm tree.  This is a viscous tree.  I do not like them at all.  The fronds are tough and I can quite see why they are used for making sturdy baskets in foreign climes, for they are strong, fibrous, and do not compost well as they just break down into fibrous strands that knot into everything.  They have a vicious spike on the tip that can give a nasty, sore wound.  They caffle around the lawn mower blades . . and the flowers produce a pungent, sickly sweet smell that cloys and permeates everywhere.  I do not like them.  Rant over! 

For two days now the wind has blown hard, and more again today.  Thankfully, my attempts at emergency staking are mostly successful.  The ground is deep pink underneath the rugos roses where the petals have ripped off.  They should recover well, as they flower all summer long before producing those beautiful, glossy, red rose hips.  The poppies did better than I expected too, but they are a sorry shadow of what might have been.  I am increasingly amazed at the tenacity of plants to survive and recover.  This photo was taken before the wind~

My lettuce has not fared well . . the slugs have decimated the small crop, so I must start over.  It is not too late to sow another crop.  My curly kale and Swiss chard seedlings also became slug fodder.  What can I do?

Still, the flowers are doing really well, and here are some photographs for you to see them all~

This is one of my favourites (I do seem to say that about most plants, don't I?) It is purple alyssum.  When I bought the seeds I thought they were annuals, but this is a not~so~common perennial variety!  The purple cushions of bloom just get bigger each year~

I love how these two Alchemilla mollis tumble into each other, over from a raised border and down the step.  Very effective, and it pleases me a lot~

This is a dwarf clematis.  You can see there are many buds, and I wait patiently to see this a mass of purple, one of my favourite colours in the garden~

This 'dwarf' geranium looks very healthy, but so far it is all leaf and no sign of flowers.  It is puzzling, because it is also twice the size it should be! I grew it from a cutting taken in spring this year. We must wait and see~

The Nigella are opening too.  I love their feathery fronds surrounding the pure, white flower.  These are all self~seeded.  Originally, there were blues, pinks, and mauves, but only the white seems to survive now.  Very pretty, though~

This is a dwarf verbascum.  I check daily for the Mullein moth, for verbascum and mullein are different names for the same plant.  Mullein moth can destroy a big, healthy plant overnight if left unchecked.  I love how this opens up in sections along the flowering spikes~

A wild poppy, not quite like the Flander's Poppy, and I wonder if it isn't a cross between two varieties~

The same bloom in close up~

Finally, Gentle Reader, just yesterday evening I received a beautiful gift from a dear friend.  A copy of  The Plants of Middle Earth by Dinah Hazell.  I cannot tell you how thrilled I am, especially as I already have many of the plants listed growing merrily in my garden.  Now, new ones are added to my wanted list too!  Isn't this such a thoughtful gift, for a gardener who also happens to be a fan of Tolkien and Middle Earth?  I am such a lucky gardener.