Weeds rule OK

At last the blessed relief of sufficient rain to give Pablo's garden a  good soaking. A torrential downpour on Saturday relentlessly attacked the exhausted borders. They look shell-shocked and will take some time to recuperate. The weeds have been the first to recover their equilibrium and are popping up in all the places I don't want them to. Some - like rose bay willow herb (how did that get there?) - are so attractive when in flower that I am loathe to disturb them, despite knowing that, come next summer, I will regret that decision.

Giant hog weed

 

 

This is a perfect example of a weed that has a bad name but just look at it - isn't it splendid?
I photographed this on a visit to Hazel Cottage in Armathwaite, the home of two professional flower arrangers, who often use hog weed to create statuesque arrangements.

This, however, is one weed I don't want to self-seed in Pablo's garden.

Almost August - and looking forward to 'a wicked month!'

Where has July gone?

Admittedly it has been a month full of variety and business - garden open day, hospital attending and a surprising  visit from a garden reviewer for The Amateur Gardener magazine (of which more another blog-time).

The re-planted left-hand border

The catkins are loving the warm summer days and nights. We struggle to coax them in once the moths begin their nightly flights -  flights mirrored by by balletic cats who aspire to be promoted from the corps de ballet to take a leading role in capturing the limelight,  while at the same time capturing any hapless night-time fliers they manage to entrap (and eat with relish!)

Estella recuperating after a night on the tiles

These balmy nights enhance the wonderful natural perfumes to be found in Pablo's garden.

The honeysuckle is a particular delight and  it, together with a summer jasmine near the pergola, make for a heady combination to rival even the most expensive of commercial perfumes.

I can't wait to sample spring 2015's  combination of the newly-planted wintersweet and the daphne odorata.



Pablo's Garden Open Day on Sunday 6th July raised the magnificent sum of £660.30 for The National Garden Scheme's 6 chosen charities. So many people helped to make the day a success - you  know who you are - and I couldn't have coped without you all.

A huge 'Thank You'

Here's to next year!
 

Every picture tells a story

             Frantically busy trying to fit in garden tidying with many other calls on my time currently.

The entrance to Pablo's Garden

Progress is being made - thanks to lots of help from my sister, Heather and friend Elaine. Still got a way to go but we'll get there in time for the NGS Open Day on Sunday 6th July 11.00am - 4.00pm (apparently the same day as the Men's Final at Wimbledon - oh dear!)

The glory of the rose

Delicious scents in the garden at the moment, heightened by the warm days. My 'literary' roses are  bestsellers - Jude the Obscure, Lady of Shalot, Tam O'Shanter, Brother Cadfel, A Shropshire Lad, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and newcomer Heathcliffe who is being his temperamental self and sulking  at the moment. However he has potential.


The Philadelphus is glorious and is blooming slightly earlier than usual due to the mild weather. Fingers crossed that it will have retained some colour for 6th July. Again, the perfume is delightful and it is a pleasure 
to be working in the garden, surrounded by such a blossoming abundance.

Philadelphus

A new departure is the stumpery which almost looks as if it has been there forever. It still needs some work on it and I've just been to my favourite nursery at Eggleston Hall to buy a few new additions - mostly ferns - of which more later.







                      The borders are filling up after the demise of the bluebells and forget-me-nots.

I hope that you will travel with me on a walk around Pablo's Garden on 6th July. There are many buttercups and grasses amongst the flowers and shrubs for it isn't a pristine garden with perfectly managed borders and manicured lawns but it is a garden that our late-lamented Pablo, a cat who loved nature, enjoyed and we hope you will too.

Take a walk through the garden gate ...

A touch of Paradise

Forest Pansy

I guess we all take the everyday for granted - our lives, family, friends, even gardens - and it is only when something or someone jolts us out of the routine of our regular daily existence that we begin objectively to really see and  become aware of what is actually around us.


This was brought home to me last week when I was frantically trying to finish off filling tubs with bedding plants and had to pause when a young boy's face appeared round the  trellis to ask if he could search for his football which had flown over the dividing  fence. Grandfather then appeared and, as we walked down the lawn, he looked around in astonishment and remarked

'This is a touch of Paradise'.


' ...We sat in the garden indolently reading. L not sitting but gardening. We had the best display of flowers yet seen - wallflowers in profusion, columbines, phlox etc

Columbines

and as we went huge scarlet poppies with purple stains on them. The peonies even about to burst.  There was a nest of blackbirds against the wall. Last night at Charleston I lay with my window open listening to a nightingale, which beginning in the distance came  very near the garden. Fishes splashed in the pond.
May in England is all they say - so teeming, amorous and creative.'
                                                        Virginia Woolf     Diary 28th May 1918

Bluebell time

Just a reminder that the  bluebells are out in  all their glory this month and one of the best places to see them is in the woods on Hollingside Lane, opposite the entrance to Durham University's Botanic Gardens. There are literally hundreds of thousands of them and you don't have to walk far into the wood before they appear. Just pop through the small entrance gate and there they are!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bluebells and ferns - good companions

Just a reminder that if you are looking for perennials to fill your garden  borders, then do go to the Botanic Garden's annual plant sale this coming Sunday, 11th May.  from 10.00am. There are some real bargains to be had and the coffee shop is open.

See you there.

April so it must be Harrogate Spring Show

Mixed weather this weekend for Bishop Auckland's Food Festival but, I'm delighted to report, that Thursday was glorious down at Harrogate for the Spring Show. Dressed suitably for the projected rain, by lunchtime we were stripped off down to t-shirts and basking in welcome sunshine as we ate our toasted sandwiches and watched the gardening world go by.

Veggie owl

 (The only disappointing part of the whole day was the dearth of vegetarian food. Vans selling veggie and nut burgers no longer make an appearance and we are resigned to the ubiquitous cheese sandwich- with or without onions. Organisers please note!)

The Flower Hall did not disappoint and despite avowing I wouldn't buy any plants before the Botanic Garden Plant Sale on Sunday 11th May, I succumbed. I even went back to purchase a clematis I'd had my eye on only to find I was too late, they'd sold out on the first day. A lesson for us all in not procrastinating. Even so, I was happy with my purchases - an unusual lavender and a delighful  woodland plant I'd not seen before, together with an assortment of summer-flowering bulbs for pots.

I was also tempted by a tree nymph-like piece of driftwood which will form part of the stumpery I'm hoping to erect - if the Prince of Wales can have one then so can Gillian Wales.

Euphorbia and flowering currant

In Pablo's Garden there's still lots to do -  annual tidying of the borders is still not finished - but I did manage to place stakes ready to tie in leggy perennials. The trees have finally had a trim back and part of the high fence which decided to lie down and die has  been resurrected. Both were large tasks that de-motivated me from gardening proper but now I'm full of enthusiasm and raring to go. Both the quince tree and the apricot which should have been a medlar have flowered so fingers crossed for a fruitful summer.


 I just need the sun to shine.

Even greater generosity

A Daffodil update

View from the french windows

Back to Marie Curie and just to let everyone know that in addition to the magnificent £3,500 donated in local supermarkets in March, we have also received the terrific sum of £1,800 collected from daffodil boxes placed in local shops, pubs, hairdressers etc etc in the area.

A huge Thank You

The entrance to Pablo's Garden which you can visit on Sunday 6th July under the National Gardens Scheme