small spash of colour

 i'm pleased with the marigolds and nasturtiums, nice bit of colour and they were grown from seed.

garden day

thats all the tomatoes removed from the greenhouse and the plants into the compost

love sunflowers

always cheery

still will need to be completely tidied out, but its starting to look a bit empty

in the back of this crack between bricks, on the right hand side, is an out of focus pink bit... that is a leg of frog or toad... as it jumped in there when I moved the crate out of the back corner... eeeek..
 

Canon Camera

My gardening and kayaking friend Fiona has gifted me a second hand camera, its the same as the first good digital that I had, a Canon S2IS, so here we go .... close up Calendula

 and orange too. these have come up from wildflower seeds sown last year.

 Hosta,

 this little viola has seeded itself into the edge of the 'lawn', so I have to mow around it, this is one of the reasons I can't pay to have someone cut my grass for me, they would cut it down....

 Mahonia berries. I think these are edible?

 Wildside's tomatoes, this is the first one, about the size of a thumbnail today.

and another bed planted up... the middle one, with broad beans, sugarsnap peas, peas, asparagus peas, and some marigolds and a couple of begonias, also what was left of the lettuce in the greenhouse, past their best but lettuce can have lovely flowers so they've been given the chance to do that in a corner, if they survive the slugs.....
I've used branches cut from the twisted hazel , over the peas, for them to grow through. 
the bed on the left has done well , I think most things that were planted have survived, you can see the brocolli escaping the fleece, its  not good quality and has been shredding in the wind, but its done its job of protecting the new planting and keeping the cats off.. I'll leave it on a bit longer.

hellebores

 hellebores. always hang their flowers down, and this is what they hide, just beautiful

 and the dark  purple one, still so pretty underneath

Casper looking out of the window, he does not enjoy going out into the wintery weather, so if he's out I need to keep an eye on whats happening outside so I can let him back in, he's never very far away when you call him in.

flowers in the garden

 Cyclamen, looks a bit lonely, I think there is a bigger clump elsewhere in the garden, but I forgot to look for it.

Leucojum, they are usually quite tall. so I'm not sure why these are so little.

Hellebore, not opened

Hellebore, again not opened.
I tagged this with spring and winter flowers, as it seems like spring , but winter is surely not over yet. As I've had more time this week I've been collecting a bag of the well rotted manure from the farm every day and I tip it into my compost bins. One bin was mostly filled with weeds, the other mostly with grass clippings and then autumn leaves. I eat a lot of fruit and veg so any peelings, skins, cores etc... all go in as well. I have three bins and a fourth one is dismantled , in future I'm going to place the empty bin right on top of a veggy bed.. so once its 'cooked' I can just lift it and spread the compost.. currently when I have to empty the bins.. not likely till the end of this summer... I'll have to get them tipped over and mostly onto a tarpaulin and then move it to where its needed. More thought.. less lifting.

underneath views of todays snowdrops

Snowdrops

I was patiently waiting for the snowdrops to come up, inspecting a clump near the front of the garden every day.. they still haven't come up... but elsewhere in the garden, behind shrubs and under leaves, these have come up , I will have to wait till the weekend to see them open, to see if they are singles or doubles. I can see from a quick look round this morning that more have come up and nearly at the opening stage.

useful Wildflower links

https://www.growwilduk.com/blog/what-leaves-reveal-about-wildflowers?utm_campaign=354976_August%202019%20newsletter%20-%20Take%20Notice&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Grow%20Wild%20%28Board%20of%20Trustees%20of%20RBGK%29&dm_i=4VE8,7LWG,RK3NN,S48V,1

https://www.growwilduk.com/wildflowers/how-grow-wildflowers/growing/how-look-after-your-wildflowers-end-summer?utm_campaign=354976_August%202019%20newsletter%20-%20Take%20Notice&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Grow%20Wild%20%28Board%20of%20Trustees%20of%20RBGK%29&dm_i=4VE8,7LWG,RK3NN,S48V,1

I signed up for their wildflower seeds and receive emails regularly.
keeping these for reference

EDIT just found a link to their sign up page if you were interested in joining
https://www.growwilduk.com/form/sign-grow-wildflowers-us-autumn-advice-and-seeds 

''PLEASE EXCUSE THE WEEDS, I'M FEEDING THE BEES''

stunning purple poppy in a friends, potted and very healthy with lots more flowers to bloom on it - this is the first, what a colour! hopefully I can take a seed pod when they're ready.
the garden here has some colour, mostly from ''weeds'', rosebay willow herb, cow parsley, forget-me-nots, daisys, hawkweed - I'm leaving them in situ providing some food for the bees , I should get a sigh that I saw on the internet somewhere, which I have made the title of this post.
''PLEASE EXCUSE THE WEEDS, I'M FEEDING THE BEES''

all my garden tools and equipment went into storage in various friends/relatives garages/sheds. unfortunately not all of it has returned. I am having to borrow a lawn mower to cut the grass, nothing has been strimmed as I've no time to keep running about borrowing things. I've bought lopers and a pruning saw, and just bought a hedge trimmer. Of course,  after two amazingly dry warm days which I spent at work, now its a rainy weekend and there is nothing to be done outside. Three mistreated tomato plants did get potted yesterday..... poor things.

Casper is going outside daily now and not peeing inside... however where he has already done so continues to resist being cleaned and I will have to replace three rooms of carpets which is an expense I could well have done without just now.

''rain rain go away...'' reposted from 7 years ago.

I love the uspside down reflections in the drops.

the mystery plant turns into a Knifophia, its a tight clump which probably needs to be separated out a bit more as there was only this one flower. this was a rescue from a garden that was bought by someone who wanted to changed things. my other rescue was a Jacobs Ladder in white, now I'll need to get a blue one too....

this is a cultivated vegetable bed, honest... looks a bit like a jungle!! this is peas and beans, but there is only one bean stalk...in the foreground, I planted them twice and didn't get any growth from them at all. this photograph looks a funny shade/tone, it seems greener in real life, but its earlyish and very gloomy cloud. also I think my camera is possibly on its way out.... the disadvantage of electronic stuff I suppose. or maybe its my computer screen? also possibly on its way out... it took about half an hour to get into my emails this morning.

top right is snap pea Sugar Ann which I've been eating for a couple of weeks. not quite ready for eating are left-Alderman is which is the very tall pea, it was trying to grow along the washing line but got blown off and beaten down in our lovely summer weather.... and right-Waverex. they'll be ready soon.

This post was made on the 13th August 2011. Seven years ago but seems longer. I no longer have the garden or a good camera to record things with. I'm sitting inside with  my view of chimney pots on the roof of the nextdoor house and looking at the rain. Very heavy rain yesterday and today , so nothing going on to post about . Enjoy old memories, glad I have them to look back on. 

re-posting garden flowers, from June 25th 2008.

these pretty little flowers are from a sempervivum, a house leek. it lives in the greenhouse and seems to quite like it.
I took several photographs to try to show the bees in the foxglove flowers but this is the only one that shows, its very dark inside a foxglove flower and the bees can dissapear totaly out of sight!
and just look at all the flowers on the broad beans! I imagine every one turning into a lovely pod of beans. everything in the veggy garden seems very behind, some folks seem to already be harvesting these. I am getting great lots of lettuce, some nice baby onions and have had one teeny baby courgette.

hidden treasure

neglected, unwatered and forgotten in the corner of the greenhouse....and bearing fruit.

I ate them....very nice too!! I have since watered the poor strawberry plant and lifted it off the floor.

and this lovely clematis has flowered in one of the cold frames. it came out of the bargain pile at a local store last year, it looked very nearly dead. I think I might like to plant it beside my front door, there was always meant to be a climbing rose there but it declined to climb or even flower very much.

is summer here to stay?

its so nice to suddenly have everything erupt in the garden, weeds included. its good and warm, a couple of days of rain here and there. hope the warm summer weather is here to stay.

my gardening friend May gave me a bit of root for these orange poppys, she said every garden should have them.

and my blue poppy keeps flowering, I was worried it might not make it through the severe frosts, being one of the few plants I have actually paid money for!

and onions, out in the ground, I have planted out brassicas, and these onions. I have been out sowing carrrots, parsnips, beetroot, beans and peas. the greenhouse has tomato plants growing, still sheltereing some potatoes which I hope to eat soon, still some seedlings to be planted out...courgettes and a pumpkin, and some tall things, the name escapes me....they are very nice steamed and dipped in butter...if they survive they are a biennial so no fruits till next year.

I also forget what its called when you forget certain words for things.....some form of dementia....

garden winds down for autumn

hmm, a much neglected 'long border', its looked better!! it had very little done to it last year due to the weather and this year was just about totally neglected. there has been a couple of attacks on invading weeds and not much else, the path is growing its own greenery too now!!

the leaves start to turn their fabulous autumn colours

a bright spot provided by...the name escapes me.... I've another one in yellow and its not obvious what they are. perhaps my brain cells are winding down for autumn too...

gladioli, stunning! but only one flowering stalk this year.

some winter fare still growing, the weather is turning a wee bit colder so this will be cut off and it'll go into the greenhouse to ripen off hopefully,

pot of pumpkin soup no.2!!

this year has provided more tomatoes than I've ever had before, just hope there will be enough warmth to ripen them off a bit more. some of them have been bitter, which may be the long cold time they have had this summer. one of my neighbors has been very helpful in opening and closing up the greenhouse to stop it getting too hot or cold if I've not been in.

and further proof of garden neglect! this cold frame ought not to be sheltering such a fine crop of weeds!!!!

still thriving

I love looking at tree leaves, the way the light shines through them, and the colours of the leaves, It 'does not do it' with a photograph....I think it must be that movement creates a play of light and colour and I cannot capture it with a still photograph.

the bees are out and busy, due to comlete memory blankness the names of plants are totally escaping me today so I may come back later to 'identify'

love the colours, still no memory!

more busy bees

and my much neglected garden is still managing to grow, peas and beans here, there are also courgettes, onions, carrots, beetroot and pumpkin. tomato plants in the greenhouse and think a pepper too. the greenhouse temperatures are between 6 and 35 C. too much variation and too hot!!

this is the poppy produced by the tall, much awaited plant. there are lots of flowers, they don't seem to last long but there are more waiting to open.

and the blue poppy throws out another bloom. I love it.