Category:

Simply..gorgeousness to come....

19/9/2023

Mixing it - with price and colour.

Last year I grew these pink tulips from Morrisons's supermarket in the three black pots. They were fabulous and at £5 for 25 bulbs a real bargain, so when I saw them last week I bought more.

I am going to mix the fifty pink ones with this 25 bulb collection from Sarah Raven -much more expensive but a wonderful imaginative mix. She is very good on colour combinationsa and on quality.

Don't you think they will be very exciting together?

I also love the name on the supermarket buls.

Flourish and Joy.

(I must keep flourish in mind for my next word for the year, but I am getting ahead of myself!)

Do you have any plans for georgeousness?

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Simply..changing season....

12/9/2023

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I listened to Sakanoro as I walked around the garden seeing both summer and autumn and it seemed to me the nusic had just the slightest tinge of sadness... Take a leisurely look with me.

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Simply..an idea..

11/9/2023

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Sometimes I can't sleep for having ideas.

I came back from The Tree Shop with a small buddleia and within 36 hours several red admiral butterflies had found it, although none had been seen in the garden until then. There were also some on the eupatorium which I was considering getting rid of - not any more as I just love having butterflies fluttering about!

They have given me an idea..I am going to make a butterfly walk..

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Simply..misty....

9/9/2023

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Morning cup of coffee in the greenhouse as the outdoor seats were too wet with mist.

The thick mist (before another sunny day) had the effect of making the garden look much bigger than it is. A lovely silence over it all, and then a robin's song.

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Simply..one man went to mow....

9/8/2023

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The first of the meadow areas has been cut and all the cuttings raked off. This is important to reduce the fertility or the rank grasses would take over from the wild flowers. It will soon green up again. When I walk through the still long grass in the back garden little flocks of birds rise up out of it. Lovely!

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Simply..love agapanthus....

28/7/2023

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Simply..at last....

21/7/2023

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A sweet pea! Fifteen plants and barely a flower. I don't know why.

Today was an unexpectedly lovely day and I put off the shopping to spend the whole day in the garden.

Bruschetta and a glass of Merlot for lunch. Simply delicious.

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Simply..too wet....

16/7/2023

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..to cut the privet hedges, so they have flowered beautifully. Who knew the humble privet was so gorgeous?

Thank you for reading, and for your very interesting comments on yesterday's post!

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Simply..meadows....

14/7/2023

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The dominant wild flower in my garden is a hawkweed (hieracium) known as Cat's Ear. It only opens in sunshine whch is a pity.

We spotted a few wild orchids in the early days and simply let that patch of grass grow to become a 'mini-meadow' and I found it so much more interesting than a conventional lawn (and so much less work) that I extended the uncut areas. I strim them when they get too meassy, about the end of July, thoroughly raking off the cuttings, and thereafter cut them regularly with the mower set high.

It looks pretty awful for a bit after the first big cut, and it looks rough inthe winter but I like that it changes each year. This year there is a nass of bird's foot trefoil. Flocks of finches love when it all goes to seed.

I am calling the back garden 'rewilding' and feeling very on trrend!

NB If your soil is rich you may get many coarse grasses and docks and it might take few years of raking off all the cuttings so as to impoverish the soil before you get the wild flowers. You can grow wild flowers quite easily in plugs and pop them in to speed up the process.

Whereas a conventional lawn can look good all year round a meadow changes all the time and really only looks colourful for quite a short time, but for me the benefits outweigh the lack of tidiness and in the countryside that doesn't matter as much as it might in an urban environment.

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Simply..reverse order....

13/7/2023

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I cut the grass before breakfast the other morning as rain was forecast, hem ate, then I showered.

The interesting challenge in the design of the garden at this time of yyear is managing the wild parts. I use mowing at different heights (differential mowing). I love mown paths through long grass. My tip for meadow areas is to always have a mown border to them. This makes clear tha it is intentional, not neglect! The contrasts are aesthetically very pleasing to my eye. It's a more Scandiavian than British style of gardening I would say.

The little square I call 'lawn' as opposed to meadow is quite hard to keep weedfree, but again I love the contrast.

My mower cuts at 3 different heights and it can all get quite complicated to manage! I notice the blackbird keeps to the short mown paths, follpwing all the loops and curves.

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Simply..gentle June....

29/6/2023

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..is nealry over. I have spent most of it in the garden, and a lot of it in the hammock. Enjoying the meadow areas which I have extended to cover almost all of the back garden. Counting orchids, watching a family of chaffinches and the swallows which nested for the firs time on the end of the shed.

Weebly is being really glitchy tonight and won't let me load more photos! It does that sometimes..will try again tomorrow.

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Simply..the wild flowers....

28/6/2023

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..have been especialby abundant this year.

Abundant enough to pick some..

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Simply..waiting....

16/6/2023

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Waiting for rain. Thunder rumbled and echoed round the glen all late afternoon and the garden and I waited, and waited, and eventually great big drops of rain fell on the parched ground - for all of three minutes!

Not enough. More is forecast for tomorrow...

Th garden enters it's most colourful phase.

Thank you so much for your kind comments yesterday.

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Simply..sumptuous....

13/6/2023

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Rose Timeless Purple seems to have quadrupled in size alnost overnight (compare to yesterday's post).

The perfume is amazing these hot days.

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Simply..so far so gentle....

12/6/2023

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I wanted June to be a gantle month and a prologed spell of beautiful weather has made that easy to achieve so far.

Cool in the mornings, 20 - 23 degrees in the afternoons (siestas in the hammock), gardening from early till late and all meals outside. A perfect staycation.

Here are some of the best bits in the garden. I only show you the best bits of course!

I hope your June plans are working out well, or perhaps you are just letting the month unfold?

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Simply ..on the wild side....

11/6/2023

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Simply..no words needed,,,,

9/6/2023

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Simply..in the pink....

2/6/2023

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Painting the cames pink to go with sweet pea 'Gwendoline'.

The black pots are planted with sweet peas, nicotiana, petunias, bacopa, lobelia and Mexican daisies - all pastel shades this year. I love to try something different each year in these pots.

The gentle evening light after a hot day.

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Simply..June already!

1/6/2023

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I'd like Jine to be a gentle month.

Weather permitting I will focus on the garden.

A romantic month perhaps..

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Simply..blue....

27/5/2023

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..in a good way. The vase is a charity shop find, the flowers are perennial conrflowers - centaura montana - and the foliiage Philadelphus aureus.

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Simply..excitement....

22/5/2023

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A parcel appears.

Clever packaging.

Beautiful isotoma, disappointingly tiny lime green petunias...We'll just have to see what we can do.

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Simply..grow....

20/5/2023

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Getting ready for summer....

sweet peas, cosmos, ox-eye daisies, cornflowers and fuchsias. The greenhouse is filling up nicely.

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Simply..too tired to write anything....

19/5/2023

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Lovely sunny day. Overdid it in the garden. Will I ever learn!

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Simoly..twice round the garden....

15/5/2023

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The first perambulation, cup of tea in hand, is to look for what is new and what is beautiful, listen to the birdsong and perhaps pick a posy for the breakfast table.

The second walk round with pen and paper is to make the to-do list, notingg what needs doing most urgently and trying not to feel overwhelmed by the tasks!

It's important to me to separate these two walks..