End of month views for June and July

Is the year slipping away from me?  I took the photos for last month's end of month view post but somehow they never made it to the blog so here is a two for the price of one blog because the record is so interesting and useful.  It makes you stop and look and think.

Here is the side garden at the end of June:


The oriental poppies are still in flower and the blue hardy geraniums and simple orange day lillies.


By the end of July the hardy geraniums and poppies have been cut back hard although the day lillies are still going strong.  The gazebo is up for a party with some friends who live in the US and are over here for the Olympics.  We had a great time with them and other friends who came up to spend time with them.  This makes the garden look quite formal which is misleading!  It is not.

By the end of July the stars of the side garden are Crocosmia Lucifer and a persicaria given to me by a friend.  The fennel too is soaring and the rudbeckia and cosmos are beginning to fill out the gaps created by the cutting down of the poppies.



Out in the field things have changed a lot too.  The orchard grass was long at the end of June:


By the end of July the grass is cut and the shadows are a little longer and suddenly you see why July is called Gorfennhaf in Welsh, the end of summer.


But the cutting garden if firing all cylinders now.  At the end of June the lupins were the star of the show.  They are fabulous but I have not been able to find a way to use them as cut flowers.  They are so huge, four foot high spikes of colour, that the scale defeats me inside but I love them anyway.


Now all the annual stuff is out: echium and calendula, cosmos and bupleurum and dahlias in all their spiky exuberance.




The new meadow too has flowered.  I am still undecided as to what to do about for next year.  That is a blog in itself.

At the end of June there was some flower but a lot of foliage.


The meadow is a combination of glorious and disappointing.  At this end, where the fire site was, the grass was hugely reduced and it is glorious.


The further it gets towards the compost heaps, the more grass and the less flower there is.   But I do love it.


The sunny bank doesn't change much at this time of year.  I had better cut back the valerian which is bent on world domination.


The kitchen garden doesn't look too different from this angle either.  This is the end of June and everything, if you stand at the top of the steps and look in this direction,  is the same at the end of July.  But the climbing rose which was glorious at the end of June has gone over now.



So here we stand poised at the beginning of August.  This is around the time of year when, for most of my gardening life, I have lost interest in the garden and gone on holiday.  But up here the vegetable garden starts to produce in earnest and the cutting garden, for the very first time, is a delight.  We just need a couple of weeks of hot sunshine and lazy days and who knows, I may be converted to a late summer gardener.

Comments

  1. It's really interesting to combine the two months!

    Everything is looking beautifully lush and really rather summery - and I like both areas of the meadow. At least it is still standing; mine has been semi-flattened and is going to get an early haircut...

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    1. It is good to see the two months side by side. It is interesting to see that some things have changed a lot and some hardly at all!

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  2. A blog is a great way to collect a record of the garden over months and then also over the years. I find it fascinating to look back at pictures of mine over 5 years, noting the differences in the same month depending on the weather. Your garden is absolutely delightful!

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    1. Thank you! I do find that the development of mine, which I can get a bit downhearted about when I wander around, is clear to me when I look back at my record and that is a real help!

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  3. Just beautiful, Elizabeth. My attempts to grow lupins, after which I own a subdued hankering which has persisted since childhood, have always been thwarted by slugs. I'd love four-feet high lupins or even four little lupins one foot high. With their star shaped leaves they have always seemed racy and slightly louche; dangerous flowers.

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    1. I love the blazing candle of them Fennie. I will grow you some!

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  4. I think it says a lot for your garden that when you want it can look very formal. As for lupins I kinda like them but the ones I have are in the wrong place and dont go with other things in the border and I am struggling to think of where else to put them.

    The meadow looks fab for its first year. Maybe you need to sow some yellow rattle near the compost bins to make the grass less fertile and give the other stuff a go?

    Thanks for joining in again this month

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    1. I am still wondering about whether to persist with an annual meadow or look at creating a larger area of perennial meadow. Yellow rattle is definitely on the agenda!

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  5. I like seeing the difference in your garden over two months. A good comparison. Every thing looks lush and I can imagine bees and other insects have a very happy life at your home.♥♫

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    1. We do have a lot of pollinating insects here. Sometimes the noise is quite amazing!

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  6. You have far more colour and growth than I do. Being nearer the sun obviously has it's advantages!
    When you have decided what to do with the meadow, you need to let me know which seeds you would like.

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    1. Oh thank you! Definitely yellow rattle, others still under consideration!

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  7. What lovely photos - I'm afraid my garden is decidedly in need of attention and I certainly wouldn't care to display photos of it on my blog right now:) Due to 'life' I haven't got round to cutting back a great many things that I should have done some time ago and it looks rather like the morning after the night before at present.

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    1. Ah Life! Yes mine gets in the way too. The great thing about photos is that you can turn your back on the giant hogweed and point the camera the other way!

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  8. As usual, your garden photos are like a breath of fresh air to me. I am just now back from 6 weeks' Home Leave back in the US, where I think my best hours were spent on the patio watching the yellow finches fly around my mother's garden, feasting on the flowers that had gone to seed. Back in my tower of metal and glass on the 14th floor here in Seoul now,up at 3am with jet lag, and thoroughly enjoying 'walking through your garden!'

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    1. I imagine I would be able to cope with living on the 14th floor with no garden if I had to but it would be a stretch!

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  9. Wonderful photos of your gardens and the many flowers. Isn't Crocosmia amazing. I love the color and the contrast against the green leaves such stunning contrast. I so enjoyed this !

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    1. I love crocosmia too. I like it even before it starts to flower for the form of its leaves so it's a winner all round.

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  10. How beautiful it all is. I have tried to grow lupin but have had no luck at all. I wonder if I will have a chance to see your garden - or at least hear about it from you next month!

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    1. I really hope to get to see you. You would be very welcome up here if you can fit me in!

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  11. It's fascinating, isn't it, to document the changes. It all looks beautiful Elizabeth and a testament to all your hard work. I hate having to leave mine in the middle of summer for holidays, especially as, high up like you, that's just when the veg are coming through - left behind all my gooseberries, red currants, raspberries and cabbages this year :-(. It's even worse when you have a summer like this one and already feel so cheated after months of preparation and expectation - but then that's why I go away: to try and find some sunshine! You see, you can't have it all, eh,

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    1. Can't win! I do know what you mean. We always used to go away in August and lose some of the garden. Now that we have the holiday cottage we are more likely to stay here but then I can find myself longing for sun!

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  12. I can only say I'm extremely jealous of my countrymen and women who are getting to attend that garden party. I'm more a fan of your garden than the Olympics!

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  13. Interesting how things change from month to month. Perhaps that's why we garden. The constant change keeps us on our toes and brings new work all the time.
    Boredom? What boredom?

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    1. I agree that part of the drive to garden is to connect with change. You are always looking forward when you garden, and in the moment too.

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  14. More than I've ever seen of your garden and a pleasure. The photos make me want to walk about and see better. Have you ever posted a diagram of the garden? I'm unclear on it's structure.

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    1. I haven't ever posted a plan and I am not too hot at drawing. I shall consult with Ian and see if we can come up with something!

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  15. What a beautiful and eclectic collection of flowers all wrapped up in verdant greenery.
    it is interesting that in Wales July is seen as the end of summer - although our weather remains glorious there is definitely a hint of change in the air. Normally come August we're will into our "autumn" weather" - wet and windy!

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    1. August is often like that here but September and October can be beautiful!

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  16. It all looks quite wonderful, tidy and wild in pinches. A big fan of Lucifer too, in our garden it is a jolt of colour in a purple sea of Verbena bonariensis. I must confess I still love this time of year, as I watch Japanese anemones unfolding their simple flowers and see a glimpse of tightly furled yellow buds on the helenium; avidly watching asters and rudbeckia for signs of flowers, while keeping a close eye on the turning wild plums to catch them dry and ripe for jam.

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    1. Might be gently drifting towards more wild than tidy! We hardly have any plums this year, cultivated or wild. Must have been a bad season!

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  17. Your garden is so lovely. Gardening is very challenging here because of our low rain fall. I am getting an automatic watering system put in in early September and am planning to start planting after that! (This will be our spring.)

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  18. Hej! Vad roligt att du gillade min Tobaks-blomman! Jag köpte förra året ( på våren) en vanlig liten planta som du kan se på min Betong Sida, en liten och tanig en ;o)...och på slutet av våren när den gjorde sitt...så kunde man tydligt se små frö kapslar, torra och lite små spräckta i kanten...precis som man kan se på Petunior... ibland på höstkanten.Provade och det fungerade...kanske hade bara tur för jag provade med andra frön och det gick inte lika bra.
    Föresten...du signerar med Fru JG och på bloggen så är du ...Elisabeth Musgrave...hur kommer det sig?
    Hälsningar från det myggiga Småland, Karla.

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