Through the Garden Gate--June 2020

The month of June just seemed to fly by, I can't believe we are now in July.  We had a lot of rain in June--some of it very heavy, but we also had some very hot days. After all that rain the garden is looking very lush and fresh, the colours are brighter, the green is greener. Have you noticed how lovely it always smells after the rain? The rain has also made some areas of the garden look quite bedraggled.  We have some tall grasses--Calamagrostis which have flopped over. They can be quite annoying when they flop over a path, blocking the way and then you get showered with raindrops as you try to negotiate your way around them.

Despite looking bedraggled in places I can see that the effect I wanted to achieve when we first planned the garden--that of having little secluded seating areas surrounded by planting--seems to be working. Its not a big garden but when we sit on the patio, surrounded by tall grasses and plants either side of the archway there are other parts of the garden we can't see.  I like that, it gives us some privacy.

patio area

lower seating area

A few weeks ago there were a lot of pinks and blues in the borders, now there is a lot of yellow from the Alchemilla Mollis, Lysimachia, Thalictrum and golden grasses.

Alchemilla mollis

The clematis have established themselves well and are now in flower and scrambling up the obelisks and over the fence.

clematis

This poppy has gone over now but was really lovely it is called 'Bolero'.

On one hot sunny day we spotted a Humming bird hawk-moth on the white Valerian, apparently Valerian is one of the flowers which these creatures like. It moved too fast for me to photograph it though.

white Valerian

The patio pots are flowering away.  I bought some new herb pots to replace some which weren't looking as good--rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano and put them near the kitchen door. It's easier to snip them here instead of having to go down the garden, where they were before.

front garden border

Last year we made the borders in the front and side gardens bigger and planted them up with cottage garden plants.  Now they are looking good and much more colourful and abundant.  So we now have a much better view from the house windows.

front garden

I am linking this post with Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly
'Through the Garden Gate' post.