End of August

Took photos in July and then deleted them!

Good things this Summer:

- not too dry although it was hot in July

- beds next to the patio filled out and looked good, syssirinchium had a second flush of flowers

- lilies in the pot flowered nicely end of July

- two pink bush roses at the far end of the garden put on some growth and flowered

Bad things this Summer

- guinea pigs were back here temporarily while Sian and Will went to Brazil, and they left a hideous pattern of eaten patches on the lawn

- the new roses up against the fence didn't get quite enough watering

- the attractive blue flowered weed went bezerk and invaded every border 

- the scabious I ordered online turned out to be tiny plugs which were too weak to stand up and all 5 plants have been leggy and pretty useless.  There were also about 50 other plugs of various perennials but I didn't have anywhere or any time to pot them on so I put them out as they were and I think only about 2 campanula may have survived. At least they were free. 

- whatever was eating the clematis in the border by the fence went on to eat the Salvia and the red currant bush.

So this week I have

- bought three new pots and planted them up with Autumn colour

i.e. Hebe Addenda mix, a lime heuchera (Lime Marmalade), a red heuchera, a purple viola and a lime trailing Lysimachia  (Lysimachia nummularia Aurea) in one pot, then in another there is a purple Aster, pale yellow antirrhinum (Floral Showers Yellow), some purple violas, and a cyclamen (Miracle White).  The other pot had a well established ivy and a nearly dead rose which I have taken out and just popped in a left over viola.

-  There is also a new pot with a small rosemary plant (pink Rosmarinus Officinalis)

- I have treated the hideously prolific blue flowered weed with glyphosate or dug it up

The end of the lilies

A pennisetum Hamelin I just put in

I had to do a lot of weeding here because what I thought was foxglove turned out to be the blue flowered thug of a weed.  Also the aquilegia and forget me nots had taken over.

The hazel which had been cut right back when we put in the new shed has made a good amount of regrowth. Also there is a good flush of berries on what I think may be a kind of cotoneaster. Note the lush foliage of the blue flowered weed, which I have now treated with glyphosate.