Wednesday 5 August 2009

Gardening


For the past few weeks the garden has had very little attention. Open Garden Season is over until the autumn, which means I can relax a bit and let nature do its worst for the moment. The endless rain has made going out into it an unpleasant chore; walking the dog every day and getting soaked in the process was bad enough without volunteering to get dripped on by shrubs and trees.

But the humidity and warmth also caused an explosion in growth and gardener and I had to grit our teeth and start cutting back floppy herbaceous plants, pruning shrubs that had finished flowering and trim edges and hedges. Pot plants needed feeding, roses needed deadheading and feeding to provide a second flush for the autumn, large clumps needed re-staking and the overflowing compost heaps needed turning.

geraniums in a pot

gardener standing in one compost bin and forking the
contents into another.

eryngiums (seaholly)
newly staked

the big border is looking tidy again,
acanthus, campanula and helenium are all standing up again, supervised by
the very prolific flowers of clematis Polish Spirit

agapanthus,
no work required, just looking beautiful.

I have seen the first dark red leaves in the ornamental cherry tree; I don't know the species name; it was here when we came and is a large, mature tree, whose leaves turn a deep burgundy red in autumn. Leaves turning at the beginning of August is surely extraordinary; can anyone confirm or even beat the record?




17 comments:

  1. Your floral photo is just beautiful.

    I know a lovely garden is worth the effort, but at my age I am glad that all I have to do is water a few plants (Mostly cacti and succulents) once in awhile.

    I loved the cut flowers when I had a big yard, but have retired from that chore now. When you wrote of removing the dead heads from the rose bushes it brought back memories of doing so to my dozen rose bushes and coming in with bloody hands and arms from the thorns that attacked me.

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  2. Oh, you have reminded me to feed the potted plants tomorrow! With all this sun today they will need a drink too! I love your geranium, it looks most unusual. The border looks so splendid with that lovely clematis too.

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  3. How wonderful to see such colours, at a place where threes are filled with oranges and alike, even during Christmas. Remember walking to a New Years Party with just a shirt (trouser too, of course).
    Leaves which change colour...had me two red one flown in from Germany, to remind me of such thing as seasons. At least have a garden now, with evergreen lemon trees.

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  4. Hi Friko~ Your flowers cover every color in the spectrum! Beautiful! I am afraid you're right: there are signs here and there of the end of summer. Black-eyed Susans are in full bloom; dogwood trees are starting to produce bright red berries: stringbean plants are weary and dying out; impatiens are beginning to produce seeds; at the store, peaches and plums are plentiful as the crops are in full swing, and we have one particular maple tree showing a tinge of red (it may be another variety). I've never seen seaholly before, very unique. you're going to have a colorful August and to finish up the season! xxox

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  5. Sommer ist die Zeit, in der es zu heiß ist, um das zu tun, wozu es im Winter zu kalt war.
    Mark Twain, (1835 - 1910), Here in Toronto, Canada we are just getting some warm summer days. In 2009 we experienced the coldest July in many years and received a lot of rain as well. We hope August and fall will provide a lot of sunshine. End of November it is time to shovel snow again.
    Your garden pictures are very lovely.
    - Cheers Gisela.

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  6. No summer in Kentucky yet. Had an enormous flood in Louisville Wednesday. 6 inches in 1 hour. Streets closed and roads cut off. My burning bushes are already starting to turn red. I guess they think it is fall. That is an unusual geranium to me. Blessings
    QMM

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  7. Still summer here in Atlanta, Georgia but the crickets are playing their scratchy tunes louder. I always think they are getting their music out of the way before winter comes and with it their demise.
    Chancy
    www.driftwoodinspiration.blogspot.com

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  8. You say open garden season is over. Do you open your garden to the public then? It's certainly looking beautiful.

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  9. Love that sea holly photo - would make a lovely collage/free machine pic!

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  10. I'm not surprised everything is flourishing with all that lovely compost!
    Hope your cherry tree is wrong and it isn't autumn yet - a few days of summer first would be welcome.

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  11. Darlene - It won't be long before the garden is too much for me, already I couldn't do it all without paid help.

    Celtic Heart - glad to be of service! have you done it?

    robert - enjoy your garden. I have a lemon tree in a pot which has to come in in autumn. The lemons are very small and take a long time to ripen.

    Margaret - there is quite a lot of colour still to come, I try to have something interesting in all seasons.

    guild-rez - you don't seem to have much of a summer at all. How do you get all your beautiful photos? The UK is very mild, there's no real summer and no real winter.

    Queenmothermamaw - that is hard to believe? I thought Kentucky had a warm climate. Wrong again.

    Chancy - that is a lovely thought - sing all you can today, for tomorrow you may die.

    Wipso - yes, we do at the end of June and at other times people can come and have a look by appointment. It's not a very big garden btw.

    Twiglet - there you are more creative than me, I can only grow the things.

    When I am Rich - So do I! Unfortunately, once the cherry leaves have started to turn it means that the nights are getting shorter and cooler.

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  12. hello - i've just come across your blog and have so enjoyed the beautiful plants you offer for our visual takings - it is such a treat to see lovely plants and flowers - thank you so much for sharing - and should you be so inclined please feel free to browse over at any of my several blogs - they are most in infancy as you will see - and i am very new to blogging but find it such a wonderful "play ground" for all my new friends!!! anyway, come on over and we can sit out on the veranda and have a glass of iced mango tea! till then - jenean

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  13. Hello - these colours are just lovely. You blog is wonderful too - thank you so much for sharing it with us

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  14. Everything the garden - except the weeds, of course - seems to be reaching its conclusion early this year.

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  15. Rainy summer or not, your garden looks beautiful. Such colour!
    Your compost arrangement looks very much like ours - three bins?

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  16. Love the eryngiums particularly! I left everything too late to stake as usual so am impressed by the neatness you have achieved. may have to be next year for me now!

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  17. Gypsywoman - thank you for your kind remarks. I have been over to look at your blogs and like what I see. I think you have been blogging for longer than I have!

    Elise - thank you for visiting - I have the slightest possible connection with the RB through my husband who was with the ROH for half a lifetime.

    Dave - Sadly, that is so.

    Pondside - thank you and yes, indeed, three large compost bins, made out of planks, with lids. Lovely things, I love my compost.

    elizabethm - it is very sad to see the garden ruined by the weather. I walked round today and saw an awful lot of irreparable damage.

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