Heavenly High Scent

The garden is looking very beautiful at the moment. We have had a lot of compliments which is very rewarding.

We are just into the school holidays so there are lots more visitors around.

The weather has been mixed but this has proved beneficial for the garden itself. For instance my sweetpea rows continue to thrive and produce long-stemmed flowers. I have been feeding them with a mixture of comfrey and seaweed twice a week. I now have to stand on a box to pick the flowers. The house is full of them. I highly recommend the variety High Scent. Its perfume is heavenly. It will be one of my entries for the village flower show tomorrow.

The harvesting is going well. Steve has been making tomato sauce and I have been making raspberry jam.

The cucumbers are having a bit of a blip. Consequently we won`t have a pair for the show. Lots more to come but none ready, unless there is miraculous growth overnight.

Recently we did a charity donation run and a tip run combined. It was very satisfying to get rid of it all. From there we went on to visit a nursery near Windmill Hill called Flower Green Nursery. It was our first time. My niece Hazel told me about it. I loved the place and will be going back often. So instead of junk, we came home with a boot full of plants all very reasonably priced.

Begonias, geraniums, salvias, sedums, lotus flowers. I managed to find homes for some of them but others are still waiting. We have had a busy few days.

We are preparing the garden for the Fairy and Dinosaur day on Sunday. There are 130 wands, dinosaur eggs made and the trail checked. The garden has been checked over and plenty of deadheading going on. And the weather is going to be good.

 

Bananas and Crushed Eggshells

The wind and rain are playing havoc with the gardens. Yesterday we used nearly a whole ball of string in our endeavors to save the likes of sweetpeas, sunflowers, cornflowers etc But I have left the hollyhocks to ride the storm. It would be impossible to find a stake tall enough let alone hammer it in.

I was initially disappointed to find this one was white but it looks stunning against the blue sky.

Likewise the apricot but look into its centre and see the pollen gathered there.

This pink is glorious.

I have sown a lot of saved seeds so there should be some interesting colours next year.

The garden was fabulous yesterday after some rain. I just wandered around before getting down to hedge-cutting. The hornbeam hedge was so much easier after our autumn chop. Now I can reach it all.

I spent part of my teabreak by the pond.....frogs and electric blue damsel flies.

 I have never seen the roses looking so good at the garden. Now they will be even better. I intend "feeding" them with bananas and crushed eggshells.

 

The first poppy heads are drying in the ground. The potential for seeds in this group is astounding,

Over the weekend, we saved the sweetpea "pick" until Tuesday so that we had a great choice for the local coffee morning.

 At the end of the morning they were sold off to raise more funds.

We have been indoors today because of the rain but there has been plenty to do.

Here are the first of 130 wands which we are preparing for the Fairy and Dinosaur day on 28th.

As you can see we have used long kebab sticks cleverly spotted by Anne in Sainsburys. My finger is blistered from cutting out 200 stars from foil!!