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Letting the grass grow ha saved me hours of work over several months, and I have loved the wilder look, but meadows do need managed and it's time to cut them now.

Mouse nests and little mouse routes are revealed after the first cut (with hedge trimmer - I can't manage the strimmer). If the little creatures only had the sense to stay outside!

It's really important to remove all the cuttings - you get more wild flowers if you keep the fertiltiy low...Good ecercise!

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Simply..can it be....

1/8/2020

..that there are buds on the sweet peas?

My three big black pots are usually planted with lush and fulsome bedding plants, but the usual choice was not available this year and I have filled them with lobelia from the supermarket, and all the straggly little seedlings I managed to raise! A few cornflowers, poppies which were in an envelope marked Dark Plum (they are red), dill, gypsophila which must still be hidden in the middle and my feeble sweet peas.

The effect is quite ethereal and pretty and if the sweet peas flower I will be very happy with it.

It quite suits the wilder look of the rest of the garden.

Have finished Kondoing my wardrobe! There is a surprising abount of stuff to part with...

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Simply..still no sweet peas....

23/7/2020

..but here come the dahlias.

And my favourite film is on iPlayer - This Beautiful Fantastic.

No mouse so far tonight..

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Simply..astonishing....

21/7/2020

..that these three tiny flowers - only one of them fully open - should fill the whole greenhouse with their wonderful sweet and spicy heady scent! Night scented stock, matthiola bicornis. When there are more I shall pick them for the house.

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Simply..perfect proportions....

15/7/2020

Love this tiny pot..

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Simply..too soon! Too soon!

14/7/2020

This came through my door today..

My first thought was No! I am not remotely ready to think about autumn yet! I am still waiting for my sweet peas to flower for goodness sake.

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Simply..an invitation to tea....

12/7/2020

Do you have a favourite tray? Why not set it with your best dishes and a pretty flower and send a photo of it to a friend with an invitation to join you ? Ideally in person but even if it's WhatsApp or Zoom, or Facetime..

I just did and she said yes! Not face to face this time, but soon....

Making a Beeline - an interesting wildflower/wildlife article today.

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Simply..prettying up the greenhouse....

6/7/2020

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I don't grow nearly as many plants from seed as I once did and decided to partly re-purpose the 6' x 8' space into a 'sitooterie' - a wee place to sit out in.

I had to make do with what I could find....

Jasmine (£5 from the supermarket) Also from the supermarket lemon balm, trailing lobelia, scarlet gerainiums and pinks.

From seed I have gypsophila, dill and night scented stock. I had such pathetic germination from all of these usually easy seeds that they were not worth putting in the garden but I potted them up individually and grew them on, and they have really prettied up the greenhouse. One little nicotiana seedling appeared from somewhere and I gave it a pot to itself too.

Plants were difficult to get online with long waiting times for delivery, but by ordering a special selection from Fibrex Nurseries I got five scented leafed geraniums quite quickly (good service, good price and great plants). I had now realised that scent was the thing to go for.

I ordered the heliotrope from Srah Raven at the same time as the sweet peas and although they have only just come they are good plants and fill the air with scent already.

Nothing rare or difficult or expensive but all sparking joy!

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Simply..alchemilla....

4/7/2020

..in abundance.

I love supersize vases of flowers! I decided to cut back the flowering stems of the flattened clumps as it didn't look likely that the flowers would bounce back, and to see if ithey might flower again. As you can see these two full vases came from only half of one clump..

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Simply..under the table....

3/7/2020

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..and through the roof. My garden goes everywhere!

The quaking grass loves the gravel under the table, where it seems a bit wasted so I crawled under there to pick some for a vase where I can appreciate it more..

And I need stepladders and long handled shears to stop the golden hop going, literally, through the roof. You can see I missed it last year....Can't reach those bits that got away!

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Simply..sending you flowers....

1/7/2020

..while I get my thoughts in order!

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Simply..sweet peas....

26/6/2020

The germination of my sweet peas was so poor this year that I splashed out on some expensive seedlings from Sarah Raven (I justify extravagances lately with 'Well I'm not spending on aything else these days!'

The stonking plants (a Sarah word!) were well worth the money with fabulous root systems. The foliage had yellowed a little in transit but that will sort itself out.

They are Windsor, very dark, and Prince Edward of York, a brilliant pink.

I had gone to the trouble of repainting the red canes, so I had to have something to grow up the wigwam and I hope these will look spectacular before too long. I had to shade them from the hot sun when I planted them yesterday..

I had to shade myself as well and the garden fork made an easily moved stand for the umbrella.

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Simply..a little mini-break....

19/6/2020

I am taking a mini blog break and leave you with some photos of the mini meadow...

Take care!

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Simply..new and beautiful....

16/6/2020

In my early morning walk around the garden I try to look for what's new and beautiful..

Being joined by Jennie was new and beautiful in itself and made me very happy all day! She spotted the fritillary on the fox and cubs (Pilosella aurantiaca).

And there are two new orchids, very pale, almost white.

And more heath bedstraw (galium saxatile) than ever before, like fairy dust sprinkled on the grass.

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Simply..working....

15/6/2020

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..on adding to that list (see yesterday's post), and doing Fly Lady's Weekly Home Blessing Hour - makes such a difference!

Meanwhile the garden is at it's June best....

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Simply..more books and a new toy....

6/6/2020

Well not a toy exactly...I bought a cord free, lightweight (a relative term!) hedgetrimmer which I can use five minutes at a time. I call it a toy because I like playing with clear cut shapes against the wilder parts of the garden - getting the right balance, getting good shapes..it absorbed me - in five minute stretches - all day today. It's a bit like drawing with a giant pencil! And quite hard work - long hot soak required now.

Nearly got a perfect circle

but only from the front..

Am loving your reading suggestions - do keep them coming!

Here are a couple of my own: The Summer Book and The Winter Book by Tove Jansson and Sightlines by Kathleen Jamie - in fact anything by these two authors whose writings I can read over and over again.

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Simply..couldn't have planned it....

2/6/2020

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..better.

This beautiful clump of foxgloves arrived beside my favourite mealtime chair. Serendipitous gift from the garden. Perfect.

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Simply..falling in love..

1/6/2020

..all over again, with my garden!

From the start (see here) it was a labour of love, but it's also a gift from nature and has taken on a life of its own..

Two orchids appeared in a patch where they have not been before, in among the speedwells

Likewise in the front garden mini-meadow, only one so far...

It's the gift that keeps on giving and it's what gets me out of bed in the mornings. Devoting all my attention to it, giving it the tender loving care it has been missing , has made it a magic place for me once again.

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Simply..on the wild side....

28/5/2020

The back garden..

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Simply..more sunshine....

27/5/2020

The bliss of a sunny day is even greater when the weather forecast is not good, but the day turns out to be beautiful!

I hope if you've had some sunshine you have been able to be out enjoying it.

Enchanting aquilegias. They do their thing then disappear They never get out of hand or in the way of anything else.. . No work involved at all, ever.

I have a number of easy things which do that, and I'll be collecting seed and sprinnkling it with abandon all around. Welsh poppies both orange and yellow, geranium robertianum Celtic White, erigeron karvinskianus, forget-me-nots and foxgloves.

Any other contenders for the no-work category anyone?

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Simply..permeable....

24/5/2020

The architecture of my front garden has very permeable walls.

I've considered the floors here and the roof here. Walls in a house serve the purpose of protection and privacy (as well as holding up the roof!), and in the garden they could be said to servie a similar purpose. They protect from the wind to a degree, create some privacy, and have openings for access and for views.

We renewed the original picket fence around the perimeter. It is now held up mainly by the honeysuckle which growns on it! In a way the fence is a declaration of ownership. It keeps strangers out and pets and children in. See here. Over time and by growing plants on it it has become merged with the surrounding landscape - the 'borrowed landscape in designer-speak - making it feel much bigger than it is.

Clearly defined entrance from the drive and the fence between gardens is covered in plants. Trees in every direction.

Privacy too from the neighbours on the other side and a magnificent forest backfrop.

The yellow gate (purely decorative) faces the yellow fron door and the view of the bluebels in the forest is lovely at this time of year. There is a road between the fence and the forest but you are not aware of it until the occasional car passes by.

Openings give views to the forest and to the field (far left) which seem to extend the garden into the countryside around. The borrowed landscape.

Prospect and refuge are both provided for. A view to se who is approaching and enough sense of enclosure to make you feel safe. Ancient traditions which still apply.

The house meanwhile does not have permeable walls and has thankfully kept out the wind and the rain these last few days and feels rather like a cocoon...

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Simply..looking up....

20/5/2020

..from the haammock

into the birch trees planted almost 20 years ago. A tree canopy gives a sense of enclosure, dappled shade and a perch for flocks of chaffinches and goldfinches. In the absence of trees a pergola can be useful to give height and structure and provide screening and/or privacy.

Other roofs in my garden are on the open porch and in the greenhouse which I am developing as a place to sit when it 's raining. I've just ordered a collection of scented geraniums for it.

I like that one of the cornus is now just tall enough for me to walk under.

And I pruned the lower branches from the trunks of the betula Jacquemontii so that I can walk under the canopy and to show off the white trunks to better effect.

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Simply..ground plan....

18/5/2020