Through the Garden Gate -June 2024

We're still waiting for summer to arrive, although there have been some warmer spells there is still a lot of rain about.

The garden has looked lovely this month, we've  spent a lot of time just admiring it. Now there are summer flowers starting to bloom, Veronica, Astrantia, Astilbe, Alchemilla mollis Campanula to name a few. I've planted some Dahlias, I've not grown them before in this garden and I'm hoping for some good summer colour from them, buds are appearing now so it shouldn't be too long before they start to flower. 

There have been plenty of flowers for cutting and this should continue for quite a while. I love having flowers in the house and it's so much better if you've grown them yourself. 

The  'Gertrude Jekyll ' rose is clambering all over the archway.

I'm quite pleased with my container plants, the rain doesn't seem to have affected them.

My daughter Helen and family came for tea when it was Richard's birthday early in June and we sat in the garden. It was a lovely sunny afternoon although a little cool . But we had cardigans and blankets and were determined to make the most of being able to sit outside. We didn't eat outside but sat out before and after our tea.  I cut flowers for the garden table which looked lovely. 

Richard had spent the morning fixing up some festoon lights on the patio but as they were solar powered they didn't switch on until the family had just gone home at 10pm!

We've also done some https://ngs.org.uk/garden visits recently. It's nice to see other people's gardens, I often come home with a few ideas of things to do in my garden.

Last weekend we went to see our other daughter Sarah who lives in Bedfordshire. It was that really warm spell of weather when we all thought summer had arrived. We had a lovely weekend relaxing in the garden, walking her dog, having a barbecue. I took her some of the Hosta cuttings which I had potted up in May. There is a good garden centre near where she lives and as I still had a garden gift voucher left to spend from my birthday last October I was keen to go and spend it. I bought two lovely fern plants. I'm wanting to put some ferns in the shadier parts of my garden and these will do nicely along with one or two which I already have. I might grow them in pots or plant in the ground, not sure yet. At the moment they are lined up along the front wall of the house with some Hostas where it is shady.

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

Through the Garden Gate--June 2023

 

The lovely weather we were having in May continued into June, but after such a long dry spell the garden started to suffer. The damp border dried up and some of the plants started to look a bit shriveled. At last the rain came, and very heavy it was too. So I was able to put the hose pipe and watering cans away for a while. The garden looks much fresher now.

I love seeing the garden change with the seasons and seeing the early plants die back and others coming in to flower to take their place.  The early hardy Geraniums, Aquilegias, Camassias, Primulas have all gone over and one of my jobs now is to cut them back. 

Now filling the borders are, Veronicastrum, Campanula, giant Scabious, white Valerian, Alchemilla mollis, lavender. Another of my jobs is to put some supports in place as some of these are now flopping over after the battering they got from the rain.

Early in June we visited RHS Harlow Carr at Harrogate. June is a good time to visit, there was so much colour. The streamside was particularly colourful with the candelabra Primulas and Himalayan blue poppies (Mecanopsis). 

Elsewhere there were clumps of Irises and foxgloves looking lovely. 

It is a good few months since we last visited Harlow Carr and since then there have been quite a few changes. There were some big rocky areas made from huge boulders and paths meandering through. It seemed like there were more water areas too. We always like to see the kitchen garden to get ideas for the allotment. 

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

Through the Garden Gate--June 2022

We've had a lot of dry weather recently and very little rain. What rain we've had hasn't always been enough to really soak the ground.  But the flowers are blooming and as the late Spring ones have gone over the early summer ones have taken their place.  Now the garden is looking good with blue Veronica, Nepeta, Scabious, Astrantia, Campanula, Roses, Clematis and many more. And the patio tubs are full of colour too.

I have been cutting back the early flowers now they have gone over--I might be lucky and have a second flowering from some of them later in the summer.  Cutting back has left a few gaps in the borders.  I am filling these with some hardy annuals which I have grown from seed--Cosmos, Zinnia, Ammi Majus and Larkspur are some of them. I grow most of the hardy annuals in a cutting bed at the allotment, but any spare plants, I bring home to plant in the garden where there is space.

Since we moved here five years ago I have been trying to get a few Foxgloves growing. All the little seedlings which they produce are potted up and then when they are big enough, planted around the garden.  I couldn't resist buying another one recently which is a lovely cream colour, as well as another Astilbe. Both of these plants grow well in the bottom border which is partial shade and can get quite damp. Another plant which also grows well in this shady bed is Persicaria. It has lovely pink bottle brush type flowers and is much admired by visitors, but it is inclined to take over and spread along the bed. So I've been digging some of this up and this has made space for the Foxgloves and Astilbe.

We have a lovely white Valerian on one side of the archway which is often visited at this time of year by a Humming Bird Hawk Moth.  They are fascinating creatures, but I haven't been able to catch this one on camera yet as it darts about very quickly.  Only Holly the cat will pose for a photo!

With a lot of the big garden jobs now done we've been able to sit and relax and enjoy the garden more. Although it can be difficult to sit for long as I always seem to spot something that needs doing.

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

Through the Garden gate--June 2021

The garden has been full of colour throughout June.  The lupins started to flower early in the month followed by the foxgloves. 

Then we had the hardy geraniums, alchemilla mollis, honeysuckle, clematis, roses. 

My favourite of the roses is the Gertrude Jekyll by the archway.  The smell is lovely.

Two years ago I planted two roses down in the bottom raised bed--'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Rachael'. Unfortunately the labels got separated from their plants and now |I don't know which is which.  This one has been the first to flower, its a lovely apricot pink. 

Another flower which I've lost the label of is this gorgeous poppy--I'm good at losing labels and forgetting the name of plants.

These lovely blue geraniums in the wildlife garden are always full of bees.

At the beginning of June I finished planting up my patio tubs with summer bedding. Pinks, blues and purples are my favourite colours as I'm sure anyone who saw them would be able to tell. On fine, warm days we sit out surrounded by these lovely flowers and listening to the bees buzzing around them.

Early on in June when we were at last allowed to visit people, we went to visit our daughter and her family who we hadn't seen for a year. 

She lives in Stotfold, Hertfordshire and with lovely countryside around them we enjoyed some lovely walks with their Beagle puppy, Snoopy who we hadn't met before. Here where we live in Lancashire its very hilly and walking can be hard work, so it was good to have some walking on the level there. We went to visit one of her local junk/antique shops and I bought these............

I polished the lantern up and it has revealed shiny copper, it does need a bit more work doing on it, but my arthritic hands are a bit painful at the moment.   It was going to live in the garden, but I'm not so sure now.  The tin bath is to be our project for the next few weeks as we turn it into a wildlife pond for the garden.  That might be the subject of next month's garden blog.

 I am linking this post to Sarah's blog at 'Down By The Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post