Even less time to stand and stare...

Turn around and it's Friday again - turn around and autumn's almost here!

My garden good intentions seem to have evaporated into thin air. I begin each year with an imaginary list of garden good intent which gets whittled down from the 'if I only could I would' to 'need to do just to keep on top of...' actual list.

Even more true of the allotment.
Having moved from a very poor site, riddled with roots from the nearby ash tree (which remains remarkably healthy, I'm sorry to say) to a much improved and better designed allotment I have allowed the weeds to envelop some areas and had to spend lots of time hand weeding just to allow the poor beetroot room to breathe.

Hey ho - next year...

I have managed quite a few garden-related jaunts - to the Malvern and Tatton Park Shows, to Littlethorpe Manor Garden, to a 4-day holiday to view gardens of the Welsh Borders - including the highlight, Sir Roy Strong's garden - amongst many others.

Despite this, here are a few photographs showing various aspects of the garden.

Top of the left hand border in May

The left hand border on 11th May


- showing the gorgeous aubergine-coloured acer near the
french window area, together with some of the tulips which I
planted in November. I love the lily-flowered form of
tulip and buy a selection each year from the Daily Telegraph.
Then I struggle to find space for them in the borders.


I guess a better solution is to plant tulips in layers in tubs as is done in Durham's Botanic Garden. That way I could place the tubs wherever I wanted in the borders.

Must make a note for this coming tulip planting season!

A bit further down the same border showing euphorbia fireglow
and one of  last year's birthday presents - a roof finial.



Here we have a magnolia - forgotten which one - in glorious close-up. It has very little room to grown, poor thing, as it's squashed in the right-hand border so it tends to lean towards the lawn.

     Even so, it has begun to produce flowers with the most exquisite perfume.

The glory of the magnolia

Small stumpery with mill wheel 

Both stumperies are beginning to establish well.
I acquired a small mill wheel last year and it has
pride of place in the smaller of the two. I have
morelogs which I need to position before the winter
sets in which will give insects etc an opportunity to
survive until spring. There is a hedgehog house nearby
but, sadly, as in many gardens this year, no sightings of hedgehogs as yet. We often see the young during the summer months but not so far.

Fingers crossed that some appear.

It has been such a strange year in both the garden and the allotment. I do have the makings of a
superb pumpkin - in time for hallowe'en -  but only two peas germinated out of a packet of a few
hundred. Similarly, in the greenhouse tomatoes refuse to ripen - not enough sun until the last few days - yet the cucumbers are doing OK and we have to give many away.

However, the roses have been splendid and my favourite gardener, Chris Beardshaw, has excelled himself after a slow start in the small front garden. A particularly handsome twosome has been a pink climber intertwined amongst the philadelphus - and the combined perfume was especially memorable - Jo Malone couldn't have done better!

Philadelphus and  intertwined rose