Part done…

My birthday treat, hanging baskets up, some plants on the wall. I still need to empty some pots that have weeds in and do the rest of the wall and on the ground. Sometimes I will place pots on top of other pots that have soil in them so they get more light and the roots can grow down into the lower pot. Possible further plants I want are trailing lobelia, fushias, pelargoniums, nemesia, montbrecia, busy lizzies, sweet peas and oriental poppies.

I have a hosta in flower, lilies that are away from where the cats can go (it’s pollen is poisonous to them), a hydrangea, Welsh poppies. I also have an apple tree that my hubby put in that I’m trying to trail horizontally against the fence.

My main concern is the garden is very shaded now as my neighbour has put an 8 foot fence in. I’m hoping the shelter it offers will create a microclimate and allow the plants to last well into the autumn.

Happy times

Describe one of your favorite moments.

One of my favourite moments is collecting my hanging baskets from a local nursery. Today  (yesterday now) I did that. It was my birthday treat. I ordered 6 this year instead of 8 so I bought some extra plants for the walls and ground. I was really pleased with them. Luckily my sister was over for a visit so she helped me hang them. And that was a favourite moment.

Petunias

Flowers everywhere. I love these deep pink petunias. It’s a close up of one of my hanging baskets. When the sun shines they seem to glow.

The head in the background is a ceramic one I made about 30 years ago. It’s got a few flowers trailing from it that managed to survive the winter.

There is an ancient song from the 14th century I think?

Sumer is icumen in,
Loude sing cuckou!
Groweth seed and bloweth meed,
And springth the wode now.
Sing cuckou!

Ewe bleteth after lamb,
Loweth after calve cow,
Bulloc sterteth, bucke verteth,
Merye sing cuckou!
Cuckou, cuckou,
Wel singest thou cuckou:
Ne swik thou never now!

We sing this at choir practice (with slightly less difficult wording).

Hanging baskets hanging on!

Begonias, still in flower, In our hanging baskets….In November! I think its because their stems are a bit more robust. The fushias, with woody stems have also survived. There are also lots of green leaves because this area is a bit of a microclimate and things just survive round there. It’s enclosed so it holds the heat. Also the plants all shelter each other holding the warmth in x

Pelargoniums and Surfinia

Oh I do like a good hanging basket. This is one from a couple of years ago, I think it was one I planted myself. The red flowers are pelargoniums although generally they are called geraniums. The purple ones are Petunias which are also called Surfinias. It’s interesting how names can be changed for fashion or trademark reasons.

Slow thunder

Hard to see, but the rain is falling in our yard after several days of scorching heat that despite watering have dried out our hanging baskets.

Thunder is constantly rumbling south of us. I’ve checked blitzortung.org and you can see a large concentration of lightening strikes happening now about two miles away. I tried taking a screenshot of the website but this phone is an awkward beast at times. I’m going to post a video online but not here, I haven’t got enough memory anyway there’s some hail mixed in so it must be cold up in the storm.

Happy flowers

Joy

Bees and hover flies pollenating the flowers, I don’t get out to deadhead them so they are going over (dying back) sooner than usual, but they are still joyously beautiful.

I didn’t realise how much the back yard meant to me ubtil this period of isolation. But I just have to look out of the back door and I see this glorious view. I haven’t taken any recent photos so I must get some before it’s too late. Have a lovely September.

Farewell summer

The flowers and plants will wilt and die over winter. Autumn is still slightly warm and they are clinging on, but I’ve noticed the delicate leaves are yellowing. I will try and get a few photos of the back yard before the hanging baskets die off. I might plant some of the more robust plants into the main garden to give them a bit more shelter to overwinter. I will miss the bright colours that have sparkled in the sunlight this summer. I know things probably will last till November. Early this year we still had a few flowers in January!