New paintings and regular art updates.
I took a few photos of them this morning. The sun wasn’t shining so I think they don’t look as bright as they could. There’s lobelia, fushia, begonia, surfinia, pelargonium, nemesia and other plants in them. There are other plants in the yard and I’ve taken a photo of the cala lily as well.
My back yard, fern at spode, carnations at spode.
Just a few plants I saw today. The ones in the yard are mostly in hanging baskets that are billowing out in great waves of colour. The fern is a shuttlecock fern I think because its fronds radiate out from the centre and it looks like the shuttlecock used in badminton. The third picture is of carnation flowers planted up with a blue grass. These last two were taken at the Spode Site at Stoke. There are plants that are planted up by our stairs that soften the edged of the semi derelict buildings there. I love plants.
I took these photos a couple of days ago outside the studios at Spode. Su Hurrell is an artist there and she works with urban garden planting. She works with other artists and uses objects like washing machines, old chairs, a chest of drawers and other objects.
Other places are being greened in the town centre. There is Spode Rise garden by the China Halls in Kingsway, Stoke, and then some wild planting along London Road and Hartshill and in Lonsdale Street.
I enjoy seeing these plants, it’s great to see people using planting in exciting new ways.
Such a lovely tree
Cooper beech
See me.
Burnished copper and purple,
deep shine
So fine,
I want you to be mine.
Plant you in the garden,
Let your roots entwine
Copper Beech you beauty,
you are so fine.
Copper and bronze
draped leaves
Hanging above our heads,
Shining in the summer sun.
Autumn, your leaves are shed.
One plant is doing really, the other is partly dying off. I wonder if its too shaded out. I’m going to move it into a brighter place.
Anyway one of them is covered with blueberries which are starting to ripen, the other has a few flowers on it. I might also clear the slate off the top of the pots to allow the compost to breathe a bit more.
X
I’m craving bright plants and flowers,
Summer sun and bright blue skies,
Hanging baskets
Piled up with blousy flowers
Swiss chard and marigolds
Poppies and antirrhinums
Names that scramble on the tongue
But bloom on the ground.
Days to sit on the patio getting hot,
Or in the summerhouse keeping cool
……. Instead? Rain and wind!
I have really interesting, involved dreams, marvellous fantasies. The trouble is when I wake up they are gone. Dissappeared, dissolved into the mists of reality. I have just woken up from one marvellous concoction. But it’s gone. I can’t grasp it back from my sleep. Today as I woke I could hear myself shouting Noooooo…..
In other news, I just heard the very quiet sound of running water. A hiss that signifies something is happening outside? Went out. My partner had switched the outside tap on last night with the hose attached… He’s left it on all night! I’m surprised the garden hasn’t floated away! We don’t have a hose ban, but I might ban him. Thank goodness we are not on a water meter!
Another reason to wake up shouting Noooooooo!
X
Rain, it makes buds swell and leaves unfurl in the spring. We had to wait for it to rain this year. The trees took a while to come into leaf, and although most of the trees in the garden are covered some are just coming out.
I don’t know what to do though, we have a lot of trees in the garden. If you Google map us you can’t see the ground. It does make for a lot of shade! 
But that doesn’t mean you can’t grow interesting plants. The ones in the foreground are wild garlic. We also have some new Zealand plants from a plant fair, and tomorrow we should be getting a few Woad plants!
The only unshaded part is South at the back of the garden. Apart from a massive laurel Bush that has turned into a bit of a thug of a tree. Sadly it needs cutting back. I’ve got someone coming to do it just not sure when. What I don’t want to do is disturb any nesting birds.
I will take some photos when it’s tidy? Which might be by autumn!
X
It took me 24 minutes to draw this and you won’t know what it represents unless I tell you.
Four days ago I was cutting back blackberry stems that grow through our fence from next doors garden. We pick the fruit but the stems have a tenancy to grow sharp thorns which I sometimes get caught on when I’m tending my plants.
Anyway I didn’t bother with gloves because a) I couldn’t find any, b) it was only a small task.
Ouch! I got thorns in my fingers. I pulled them out quickly, but I could feel a sharp pain in my right index finger. But I could not see the thorn.
Hoping it would work its way out I ignored it. But the next day I still felt a sharp pain.
I prodded it but no sign of the thorn and nothing came out. Finally this morning my index finger felt really sore. What to do. No choice. I got a needle and found the thorn. It was tiny about a millimeter long, but it had gone straight down into my finger instead of along parallel to the skin surface. It is amazing how painful a thorn can be.
Anyway after about half an hour of gently sticking the needle in my finger (ouch) I managed to work it free. Got some salt water and washing up liquid to cleanse the area. Hopefully that’s it. But Ouch! Not a nice way to start your morning!
Most weekends I’ve been busy recently with other things, but I decided to get out and plant up tomatoes in the grow bags and added some pepper plants ( which had sadly been partly munched by slugs). We don’t use any pesticides or herbicides so everything just keeps growing and we seem to have lots of bees round the cotoneaster flowers. We saw a couple of butterflies too. There is a bare patch where we are having a summer house put in soon. Then I can get some clematis growing over the fence.
Blurry shot of a bee on the cotoneaster plant. Its covered in tiny flowers so very attractive to them.
Mallaband-Brown