Summer Garden 2021 🌼🌿

Hello and happy Sunday! 🌟

I've got lots of photos to share with you from the last month in our little garden 🌷 I was surprised to look at the dates and see that it had only been a month, it seems like a lot has changed in such a short amount of time! Like these nasturtiums below which looked great back in July but are now long gone:

Juniper in her favourite corner, you can see the backdrop of bindweed which looks quite nice in this photo but is actually our worst, most annoying weed and we spent a tiring day off recently doing all the weeding that we'd been neglecting for too long!

Our ragged robin 'Petite Jenny' looking very pretty against the silvery calocephalus (I just had to google the name 😆 it's not one I've committed to memory just yet!) which has quadrupled in size since we planted it in the autumn:

Our first time growing garlic was a great success! I can't remember the variety but I chose it because it was particularly purple (classic colourful Bethany) 🌈

After harvesting we hung them up in a dark place to cure for 4 weeks and now we are using them in our cooking, very satisfying! 

I gathered all the nasturtium seeds I could find and have pickled them to make what they call "poor man's capers" 😆 I haven't tried them yet but they should be ready soon!

We've had lots of blueberries from our bush, but I might have been a bit too excited and picked them too early as they were quite sour...we're leaving the rest to ripen up for longer!

A fuchsia called 'Winston Churchill' and one of our very rare dahlia flowers...they really have not been a success for us, it seems they are just too delicious for the slugs! 🌼😩

Bird's eye view from mid-July, the heatwave was great for hanging the washing out but not so great for the state of the grass:

A couple of newer flowers in the wildflower patch, and our handsome purple aquilegias which we've since planted out in the border so hopefully we'll see them again next year!

Juniper in her second favourite spot, right in front of the bird table:

The night sky petunias back when they looked good...now they have got to the leggy stage where I need to prune them back! I think I'll do that right after I've finished this post..

Gardening assistant.

Most of our potatoes are still in the ground but these were some spares which we grew in a pot, they made a delicious meal:

Our tender stem broccoli was a success as well, we had two yummy meals with it..........and then the caterpillars descended 🐛 and it was good bye broccoli! I won't lie though, it has been fun seeing the caterpillars grow and grow, it's just a shame they're getting fat on our crops 😆

We've finally got tomatoes turning red! It's going to be so exciting when we can finally pick them after our blight disaster of 2020, and I don't even like tomatoes! 🍅 

Juni hiding in amongst the potatoes 🌿

Our frothy, pink astilbe at its best back in the last week of July:

Crocosmia 'Fire King':

Sunny rudbeckia and hypericum berries turning dark red:

Little alpine strawberries and petunia 'Indian Summer':

This sweet hosta which we planted in a bonsai pot last year now has some sedums growing (they grow on our roof and fall down into the garden!), I like the combination:

Our most perfect courgette (the only one not to be nibbled by slugs), and a very pretty onion flower:

A shield bug hiding in a hydrangea, and a cactus! I bought this cactus for Ed probably 2 years ago and it has never really thrived inside, it always got pests and looked unhealthy. But since I planted it in the sunny garden border it is plump and green and has has never looked better! 😄

Alyssum grown from seed, and cyclamen popping up amongst the hostas:

A tasty meal including our homegrown courgette, beetroot from my grandparent's garden, and chutney made by Ed's mum 😍 and our last poppy in a vase with a few sweet peas:

I took these photos at the beginning of August, just to document our border looking its best. Considering that this time last year there was nothing there but grass, I think we've done pretty well!

I am aggressively opposed to any sort of empty space so have been filling the gaps in the garden with random annual plants or other miscellaneous objects such as this leopard figurine I've had since I was a child 😆

Juniper likes exploring the shed every now and again, this time she told us that it was in a terrible state and we really needed to tidy it up ASAP:

⛅ Home sweet home ⛅

Finishing off with some pink delights...firstly my precious hydrangea which I grew from a cutting in 2018,  secondly these sweet hollyhock buds which I am very much looking forward to seeing open any day now:

And thirdly, my new begonia 'Macarose' which I've been eyeing up all summer and had to grab when I found it on the reduced shelf haha 🌸 

Shed update: as I was writing this post, Ed tackled the mess 💪 (anyone else have infinite plant pots?!)

That's all for now! See you next time 💫😚🌽🌿🍓🌼🐛🌸🐌🌵🐾