Mayday

 Yesterday was sunny after a week of dull days and cold wind.  Plants are growing steadily, but need watering as there's been no rain for about 3 weeks.  I'm also topping up the pond as it's drying up quickly.

The cuckoo pint along the hedge have started flowering.  There are lots of forget me nots and speedwell across the garden.  Campions are on the way but the deer are nipping off the buds of some.  My seeds outdoors have at last started to appear.  I planted out mangetout & sweet peas with the drainage rods as a tripod.

Euphorbia Ascot Rainbow

 Euphorbia Ascot Rainbow has settled in nicely alongside 2 other euphorbias.  The Berberis Darwinii has flowered this year, don't think that happened last year.

The verbena bonariensis I planted last year is sprouting some shoots.  I pruned the clover from a pot with birdsfoot trefoil which is for bees.  Not sure whether it'll survive.  I transplanted some next to the pond.

 The weather has been beautiful over the last week, and I've been doing lots in the garden.  So I'm going to try keeping a weekly record of what I've done, and what changes I notice.

There are approx 4 areas to the garden, which slopes upwards.  At the bottom is a patio with a rockery, which catches the early morning sun.  There is a slope with a pond, a beautiful cotoneaster, a camellia, and a rhododendron, which leads to a flat area of grass below a scots pine and beech tree, where wild flowers grow in summer.  The last part of the garden is a grassy slope again.  There are a few beds around this, which are a work in progress, and a side vegetable patch that's a bit shady.  Right at the end is the compost heap, a silver birch, and a shady area with a raised bed that looks like a sarcophagus!

Muntjac deer, squirrels and pigeons mean that plant buds are vulnerable to nibbles.  I've planted a number of perennials during the autumn/winter, and I'm using hanging baskets to protect them.  I'm not sure what will happen when they outgrow the baskets.  I might have to make some chicken wire protectors.  

Last autumn I planted a number of bulbs.  The snakeshead fritillary have been nibbled in some spots, but are good in a couple of places.  Erythroniums came through this week after being nibbled.  There are lots of euphorbias around the garden, and I've added another, Euphorbia Ascot Rainbow.  I'll take a photo and add that to another post.

Signs of autumn

Not wishing to suggest summer is over yet, as it's high 20s outside today, & ate my lunch in the garden,  but there are autumn colours in the garden & the days are getting shorter.   I like autumn - previous post celebrated things I like about it and after such a glorious summer, I think we're in for a perfect autumn.

In the garden are hips of rosa glauca, spindle berries, beautiful crocosmia Emilya Mackenzie, some delicate pink fuschia flowers, & a spider

A day of gardening

I've enjoyed the last day of my holiday mostly in the garden. It was dry, initially cool then short periods of warmth. The stray cat Mr Winter was sunbathing, and I got a nice photo of him. I've been fiddling with the pond a bit, added some stones and plants. There are now some diving beetles in there. Elsewhere I discovered a possible bee nest - holes in the ground that bees seem to be making. It was a good day pottering and listening to lots of Radio 4 and Guardian podcasts.