In & out of the garden - July
A series of insights into me, my place and my craft
Because things are opening up more here in the UK (note to future self - global pandemic!) I’ve spent more time out and about this month.
What an absolute joy it is to be out and about again, meeting people, seeing places.
I was away most of the time that the raspberries were in fruit, so the blackbirds had an absolute field day, which I don’t mind at all. I’d rather they ate them than they turn to mush in my fridge, I’m never quick enough to even get a picture of a cherry though, never mind eat one.
I did manage to beat the birds to some redcurrants though.
(Note to self: Don’t be tempted by supposed ‘brown’ or ‘black’ tomatoes - they always just seem to be a variation of red to me, unless you can recommend a reliable black or brown one?)
The poppies continued to flourish
The Tale of the roses
As July arrived, the last of the peonies segued into the glorious display of roses.
Queen of Shallot, Belle Epoque and Lady Marmalade
Julia’s rose
I’m an absolute sucker for roses (pun totally unintended) and my relatively small garden has 133 of them. I know this because I counted them - twice! (favoured suppliers at foot of page)
But even now, if I visit a new garden or nursery, I tend to buy a rose.
Eustacia Vye
Many have wonderful memories attached to them, visits to lovely places with friends; unidentified rescues from my Mum’s garden or just cuttings from a random ‘shovings’.
Koko Loko and Blue Moon
My garden and my creations meld
I grow what I create with and create with what I grow
Rose plants were my first lockdown online purchase, when the world felt crazy and everything we knew and understood disappeared almost overnight - a well timed arrival of the David Austin Rose brochure was just too good to resist!
Lichfield Angel
I have a surprising amount of white & delicate, pale pink rose in the garden - Paul’s Himalayan Musk, Queen of Sweden, Wildeve, Emily Bronte, Chandos Beauty, Lichfield Angel, The Albrighton Rambler to name a few.
Belle Epoque
Other favourites (and I have many) include Koko Loko, Julia’s Rose, Vanessa Bell and Belle Époque. Eustacia Vye is particularly gorgeous as are Burgundy Ice (although for me it can be a little sickly) and Falstaff.
Burgundy Ice
Hot tip!
One Rose has been a real star for me this year:
Pumpkin Patch.
It starts out a really brash, almost overpowering orange, but fades through all the shades of amber, carrot, peach & apricot, to an almost KokoLoko-like ‘beige’.
You heard it here first!
Despite early July being very wet, torrential even, mid-July onwards was scorching hot, meaning many early mornings spent in the garden avoiding the heat.
First light is one of the best times of day.
Working early, just wandering around or taking pictures.
It was forever a toss up between just sitting in the shade and working - mostly ‘just sitting’ won. That and getting very familiar with my tripod and the ‘self-timer’ run!
The fields were filled with tractors and patterns and the scent of newly cut grass set my nose itching.
Embracing imperfection. The shed should probably be painted though …
The dogs couldn’t take the extreme heat of mid-July for long, so resorted to lying in the cool of the house.
With a house that sidles backs into the earth, almost to the roof at one end, on scorching hot days it feels almost air conditioned inside if we keep the windows closed!
This autumn I had planned to move the wildly exuberant Belvedere from the front of the house to somewhere it can have its head more, after the weight of it brought down the supporting trellis, but having seen these pics from a couple of years ago I may just have to try again and tie it in properly … ?
the peonies just clung on into early july
Once you get past the Day-Glo shocker of a between-the-eyes coral/pink/orange/red at the start of Coral Charm’s colour journey, it transforms into a beautiful range of colours.
I’m increasingly falling out of love with the pink peonies though (sorry, I know that is almost sacrilege to the flowery community, especially Instagram!), preferring instead the corals, apricots and yellow’s of tree and intersectional (Itoh) peonies (with their spendy price tags!).
Hmmm, I’m just not sure …
Back at the beginning of July I picked a selection of peonies from the garden, ready to create what I envisaged would be a lovely, large dramatic urn.
But, once I’d created it I really disliked it (and I mean REALLY disliked it).
It hasn’t seen the light of day (until now!), I think the pink peonies are just not ‘me’, too pretty?
I liked the ‘detail’ shots, but not the ‘whole’.
Although looking back at it now, almost a month after making it, I have less strong feelings against it, hence why I’ve sucked it up and shared it here!
Rewilding
Project ‘Rewild cobble drive’ is proving to be mostly a battle with grass.
Although the robins loved me when I pulled the grass up from between the cobble sets.
The achillea is doing all the heavy lifting down the main driveway.
The birds can’t get enough of the fat balls and there’s always a queue.
Nuthatches, robins, dunnocks, blackbirds, blue tits & the family of great tits mentioned in May’s notebook entry are all daily visitors.
We still have nests aplenty - the goldfinches have just fledged, as has the lovely nuthatch family who seem to have moved in on the banking, while the wrens nesting under the deck are due to fledge any day now.
The ‘turning circle’ has all sorts of interesting plants thriving in the cobbles, as well as the aforementioned poppies, there is achillea, lavender, lunaria, potentilla and even a couple of roses! And plenty of grasses, van-unloading-self-seeders from projects-past, which will get re-homed on the banking.
