Hello my fellow garden lovers, how are you? The heat is back in my little part of the uk which has forced me to slow down and garden in the evenings, which I am loving! The main garden has a completely different feel once the sun stars to dip and the temperature drops (slightly).
In the past I have witnessed the panic of many a gardener as they get their gardens ready for an NGS open garden, lawns have to be manicured and not a weed in sight. Those particular things are not the cause of my panic as I’m not precious about my lawn or weed free flower beds, no, my panic was more about just having flowers actually flowering where I’d envisioned them doing so. But now, as we continue to get the garden ready for its NGS open day, I find I am more at peace with the crispy chaos and have settled into a what will be will be headspace. It’s true some things will have gone over and it might not all be looking its best. However, it’s for a lot of good causes and I know that visitors of open gardens tend to be gardeners themselves and we’re all in the same boat. I love going to open gardens to not only get ideas but just to have a nice day out, it’s even better if there’s tea and cake- which there will be at mine. I’m just having the jam flavour debate with my daughters right now- I fancy making a big sponge cake (just as well I checked auto correct as I was nearly making a bog sponge… not so nice) filled with apricot jam (my childhood favourite), eldest daughter agrees, youngest thinks I shouldn’t break with tradition and go strawberry or raspberry, what do you think? You see it’s all about the cake, so long as there’s good cake! Wouldn’t you agree? That’s the bit I will be stressing about the week before.
The gravel area by the greenhouse had been my biggest concern with so many self-set annuals having a party and empty raised beds (where they could have self-set) looking, well, empty. But despite the heat, the dahlias have grown and started to bloom and the straw flower seedlings are turning into something resembling healthy plants. Some self-set larkspur did manage to keep to a raised bed but I know they will be over in a couple of weeks despite chopping them regularly. We’ve decided to let some cosmos stay in the gravel as they have created their own little pathway which is looking quite pretty (I know I will regret this when next year the forest takes over completely). Anyhoo, all that said, it’s starting to look half decent if I do say so myself.
Echinacea Pallida are looking beautiful and ethereal, I particularly like them paired with the hot pink of the Dianthus Carthusianorum and the gentleness of the Larkspur in misty lavender- a palette I’m rather fond of. Pictured bellow- Night Silence and Wine Eyed Jill are the first of the dahlias to flower. If all else fails, I’m sure I will have dahlias in bloom (or could that be famous last words).
My roses are in varying stages and I’m confident at least a few will be blooming, but I picked the date in July to really show off the prairie style planting which is lovely at this time, standing tall and attracting lots of pollinators. I enjoy the pairing of verbena and bronze fennel, the verbena bringing in humming bird moths and the fennel provide the perfect place for ladybird larvae to hatch- I always make sure I have my roses near fennel so that the ladybirds can just hop strait across to have a good meal on the aphids which descend every year without fail. I find the ladybirds are often a couple of weeks behind but they soon catch-up.
Today I am in my shop making sure everything stays alive here, although it’s mostly my pottery and paintings so it’s not so bad. Then this evening I will be back in the garden- working through my list of jobs. I’ve got a load of nepeta to cut back which I really should have done already, better late than never though. Right, I’ll leave you with a pic of garden roses and I’m off to make some vases in the studio above the shop.
Write soon.
Emma.
P.s don’t forget you can follow along with my Instagram stories here.
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