We put up signs on the road today:

                                                                                    SLOW!

                                                                                    BABY

                                                                                SQUIRRELS

                                                                                CROSSING

                                                Most people have slowed right down!  People do care..
                                 (At least three red squirrels have been killed outside our houses this year)

Busy, busy, but here is how the garden looked this evening. I love the evening light slanting across the garden at the end of a hot day - my favourite perch catches the last of the sun.......

Silver stars awarded so far to lupins, iris sibirica, and oriental poppies! Another deserving of the accolade is clematis montana - utterly hardy and reliable in my experience, they are covered in flowers during May and into June.

The regular montana can climb, quickly, to 10 mtrs or more. The variety 'Elizabeth' has the most delicious strong vanilla scent. 'Freda' has less scent but also less vigour and is more suitable for a small garden or a limited space - I have it framing a window. The regular montana arrived I think as a free gift with other plants and was left sitting and ignored. It rooted itself very firmly through the bottom of the small pot and draped itself, as you can see, very prettily over the shed. There it stays, but it will need watching....

So, a slightly thuggish tendency and a fairly short season of interest are the reasons I don't award it a gold, but for sheer abundance of flower few climbers beat it.

A very different colour scheme for the big shiny black pots this year (see also 13 June). Petunia 'Burgundy' and petunia 'Deep Lilac' with little black pansy - top centre - 'Bowles Black'. Bacopa lilac flowers and lime green foliage for freshness and trailing geranium 'City of Dresden' to lighten things a bit. Like velvet and lace, and Japanese lacquer - love it!

Last posting I said why would you want to simplify your life by going  back to basics, unless the basics of your life were good. One answer of course is that you might want to go there to sort out some issues - but that takes a bit of courage. Not everyone is up for this! The book 'Loving What Is' by Byron Katie is fascinating on the subject of facing reality.

One (admittedly fairly trivial) issue with me is a tax return query that I know I must sort out (there is also a bank matter, a pension matter and an insurance matter - it would be too embarassing to admit to how long I have been ignoring these!)
If I can tell myself I'm too busy I can put it off for a bit longer, but as my paperwork gets simplified - ie better organised - I am running out of excuses and will soon be forced to deal with it!

With something like a tax return this is probably a good thing - I think how good I will feel when I get to the other side of this. But what if it was an issue that threatened your wellbeing or your mental health? I can see that it might seem easier to concern yourself with the busyness and the clutter, than to face it.

'Reality is too much for some people' I read once. But Byron Katie says 'Reality is always much kinder than the stories we tell about it.'

Living simply is probably not for everyone......but I know it's for me, and if it means clearing my head by getting these nagging tasks done - then I'd better get on with them. Simply do it!

I've become aware that both clutter and busyness could be a comfort and/or a distraction. As I simplify I get clearer about what I want and what is important. I also get this slightly unnerving feeling that I am not going to be able, for much longer, to ignore some issues which I have been avoiding. It makes me aware of how scary it might be to simplify and declutter your life, if there are unresolved issues which you might not want to face. The books on simplicity and minimalism talk about having more time to spend with your family for example - but what if your family are dysfunctional, or unsupportive? Or there may be a health issue that you don't want to face up to....On a less serious level once you start to clear away the clutter from your living space, it may reveal that the room itself is in bad shape - the woodwork may be rotten, the furniture stripped of all the ornaments and cushions may be shabbier than you realised, the carpet more worn.

There is a back to basics feel about simplifying your life - but you have to be confident that the basics of your life are good - or why would you want to go back there?  A lot to think about....

One strategy for simplifying the garden is to substitute perennials for annuals and biennials, but I must make an exception for the three big black pots I have sitting in a row on a gravel area in a sheltered corner as I find it such fun to think up different colour combinations each year.

This is last years pots - the colours were lemon, lavender and lime with a sprinkling of white - very fresh and light in all weathers and at all times of day, luminous in the evenings: petunias, verbena and bacopa with some lime helichrysum weaving through.

Not simple in that they require planting up anew each summer, with about 12 plants per pot, and frequent watering and deadheading - but for sheer exuberance and abundant flowers all summer long bedding plants are hard to beat.

After a long, fraught journey Laura got out of her car, walked around the garden for ten minutes, then came in and said:
 
'Your garden makes me walk more slowly, breathe more deeply and see more clearly.'
 
I've never forgotten it - it's the nicest thing anyone has ever said about my garden.......

Landscapers call it 'differential mowing' which just means mowing at different heights and frequency. It is a great low maintenance way of dealing with large areas of grass. In recent years public parks have begun using it as a way to cut labour costs, and create interest and diversity at the same time. You can do the same: simply let some of the grass grow........(See previous posting). Mow that path around the perimeter, and if it is bigger than our mini meadow, mow a winding path through it too - call it the wild garden, and just enjoy.
 
Another tip: if the ground is undulating, allow the mower to follow the countours of the ground when you are making the shape - this is hard to describe in words. It means not being rigid about where you want the outline of your shape to be, but going with the lie of the land, allowing the mower to lead you ...the end result will look very natural, which is how you want a wild garden to look, rather than imposed and contrived. Believe me this works, and when you get the hang of it, it's a lovely, very creative thing to do, and you can alter the shape between one cut and the next if you don't get it quite right the first time. Fun with a lawnmower - who'd have thought it!