The birdbath is behind the clump of grass to the left of the bay @didyw ... the clump of grass to the right of the bay is an ant hill ... it's been there for about 6 years ... it's absolutely fascinating watching them ... and watching blackbirds 'anting' by rubbing themselves against it to get the formic acid from the ants to get rid of mites in their feathers. I would add that is the area of the garden known as 'The Wilderness and The Shady Bank' ... around the twin-trunks of the big ash tree .... the pond is there too, but it's developed a leak and is drying out ... @WonkyWomble is going to give us some time helping to sort it out ... when she gets a moment or three ... probably in the autumn.
The garden is looking better ... the Under Gardener has worked wonders on his hands and knees removing chickweed from among the lettuce ... and we've discovered a self-seeded baby Echium Pinanana next to the Swiss chard. We've also planted some sweet peas next to the cast iron chimenea which is 'more ornament than use' ... the intention is that the sweet peas will scramble over the chimenea in a 'charmingly dishevelled' fashion.
I've also tackled some large plants of Red-veined Sorrel ... they'd self-seeded from the veg patch into the more ornamental bits and they've looked marvellous for three or four years ... but now some of them really have got too big so I've been digging them out ... they have tenacious tap roots. I've also been tieing in the Clematis Betty Corning along the back fence to the left of the garden bench ... it's already in flower which I'm sure is earlier than usual. I really must make a decision about which rose to get for the other side of the bench ... I keep poring over Peter Beales' catalogue ... their nursery is only 20 minutes down the road ... well, it was 20 minutes before the roadworks on the A11 started ...
Anyway, I've come in now and have scraped a panful of local new potatoes, prepped some broccoli and popped the brisket into the Crockpot on a bed of onions and caught up with goings on in Ambridge ... and now I'm flopping with a coffee for a noodle with you lot ... OH is pottering out there ... he's finished his designated tasks ... I wonder what he's up to ...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Morning all, Fabulous cakes @D0rdogne_Damsel - look too good to eat! @Allotment Boy, how annoying, and what a coincidence, my friend texted me at 11 pm to say she had a burst pipe in the upstairs bathroom and water was pouring down through the light fitting. Happily it's all fixed now so hope yours is too. I'm also having a quieter day @Dovefromabove, although there's still lots to do in the garden, I'm trying to restrain myself. Got to catch up on the ironing and h/wk in any event, been a bit neglectful lately.
It's dry and sunny/cloudy here but still with a strong breeze.
Hello all, just come in from tying in the tomatoes again, we have windy, stormy weather at the moment.... I hope we don't get anymore hail stones! I hope you are feeling a bit better @punkdoc and feel like a bit of pottering. So much to do at this time of year. Beautiful cakes @D0rdogne_Damsel I feel quite hungry.
Been coaxing MIL into gardening over the last year or so. Bit sad really because when FIL had dementia he didn’t like him or her going outside, so now she is rediscovering garden life (plus new dog is running round). Anyway, there is a massive patio and steep mature border so the easiest step was to go with adorning the patio with pots. She has quite a collection now, many of them cuttings or divisions from me (lavender, myrtle, astilbe, pelargoniums).
We found a lovely terracotta strawberry/herb planter which was congested with common geranium so we emptied it and planted up with a strawberry plant and some herbs. She uses the herbs for cooking so it’s pride of place by the back doorstep.
Sounds like a successful mission with your MIL @AuntyRach
I've just come in from the garden and had a shower and a thorough scrub ... I found bits of old clematis tendril in the most unlikely of places ... 😵 and I've popped some pics on the Garden Gallery ... it looks a bit scruffy ... but you should have seen it a few days ago ... the grass needs cutting and the edges need trimming ... it'll look a lot smarter when that's done. I wish we hadn't coloured the fence ... it's looking a bit tatty now and I really don't have the energy to redo it, and OH is very generous with his time in the garden, but he does have a job as well as being a professional painter (and that doesn't include fences 😉). However, the fence in the Sunny Corner isn't painted as it's a new-ish replacement for the storm-damaged one ... and the fence on the eastern edge of The Shady Bank will soon be covered with ivy ... when we moved here the garden was considerably smaller because of the overgrown ivy on the fences ... a good couple of metres wide ... but you may remember that we'd only been here a few days when a heavy rainstorm brought most of it (and the rotten fences beneath them) crashing to the ground ... NDN refenced their side and we did the rest, and we promised them we wouldn't let ivy grow on their fence again. However the folk behind have put a home office and shed on the boundary between us and are letting ivy grow up the fence (don't think they've left enough space to do anything about it) so I've decided to let the ivy take over that length of fence ...... its already poking through the fence ... it looks like a nice-leaved ivy, it'll clothe the fence nicely, and be good for the birds etc and it's an appropriate background for The Wilderness and The Shady Bank so as long as we keep our side clipped and don't let it go bonkers it's a way out of having to repaint the fence. Goodness, haven't I waffled on?! It's time I went and did something about making Yorkshire Puddings ...........
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We don't paint our fences either, Dove. Far too much of it to want to do it in the first place and I prefer the silvery faded look anyway.
Having said that I was going to rest today, having done my listed jobs, I wandered out into the garden for just a little pottering. Two hours later, I've been up a stepladder, tying in the Claire Austin rose and tried to make the arbour a bit more windproof. I might have to make a choice between the arbour or the rose as the arbour isn't really strong enough for a vigorous rose like that. The roof is a top heavy solid one.
You've just reminded me I'd better go and put the dinner on as well!
We haven't painted our new fence either, it's just starting to fade from the orange it was.
I looked at your photos on the Garden Gallery @Dovefromabove. The veg garden is very tidy and I love the way you described it "charmingly dishevelled".
We have been to visit gardens in Hingham, their open gardens day. Some very pretty but very small cottage gardens and a couple of big wildlifey gardens. One of the big ones had a rose called "Jacqueline du Pré" which I've fallen in love with. Had coffee and very dry fruit cake in one. It was a warm sunny day. Hingham is where my grandfather's ancestors are buried in front of the altar of the huge church.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Posts
The garden is looking better ... the Under Gardener has worked wonders on his hands and knees removing chickweed from among the lettuce ... and we've discovered a self-seeded baby Echium Pinanana next to the Swiss chard. We've also planted some sweet peas next to the cast iron chimenea which is 'more ornament than use' ... the intention is that the sweet peas will scramble over the chimenea in a 'charmingly dishevelled' fashion.
I've also tackled some large plants of Red-veined Sorrel ... they'd self-seeded from the veg patch into the more ornamental bits and they've looked marvellous for three or four years ... but now some of them really have got too big so I've been digging them out ... they have tenacious tap roots. I've also been tieing in the Clematis Betty Corning along the back fence to the left of the garden bench ... it's already in flower which I'm sure is earlier than usual. I really must make a decision about which rose to get for the other side of the bench ... I keep poring over Peter Beales' catalogue ... their nursery is only 20 minutes down the road ... well, it was 20 minutes before the roadworks on the A11 started ...
Anyway, I've come in now and have scraped a panful of local new potatoes, prepped some broccoli and popped the brisket into the Crockpot on a bed of onions and caught up with goings on in Ambridge ... and now I'm flopping with a coffee for a noodle with you lot ... OH is pottering out there ... he's finished his designated tasks ... I wonder what he's up to ...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Fabulous cakes @D0rdogne_Damsel - look too good to eat!
@Allotment Boy, how annoying, and what a coincidence, my friend texted me at 11 pm to say she had a burst pipe in the upstairs bathroom and water was pouring down through the light fitting. Happily it's all fixed now so hope yours is too.
I'm also having a quieter day @Dovefromabove, although there's still lots to do in the garden, I'm trying to restrain myself. Got to catch up on the ironing and h/wk in any event, been a bit neglectful lately.
It's dry and sunny/cloudy here but still with a strong breeze.
Enjoy your Sunday everyone.
I hope you are feeling a bit better @punkdoc and feel like a bit of pottering. So much to do at this time of year. Beautiful cakes @D0rdogne_Damsel I feel quite hungry.
Well I have managed to get up today, so progress, but still not up to doing anything, still it is nice to sit in the sun.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Sunny spells and warm-ish here.
I've just come in from the garden and had a shower and a thorough scrub ... I found bits of old clematis tendril in the most unlikely of places ... 😵 and I've popped some pics on the Garden Gallery ... it looks a bit scruffy ... but you should have seen it a few days ago ... the grass needs cutting and the edges need trimming ... it'll look a lot smarter when that's done. I wish we hadn't coloured the fence ... it's looking a bit tatty now and I really don't have the energy to redo it, and OH is very generous with his time in the garden, but he does have a job as well as being a professional painter (and that doesn't include fences 😉). However, the fence in the Sunny Corner isn't painted as it's a new-ish replacement for the storm-damaged one ... and the fence on the eastern edge of The Shady Bank will soon be covered with ivy ... when we moved here the garden was considerably smaller because of the overgrown ivy on the fences ... a good couple of metres wide ... but you may remember that we'd only been here a few days when a heavy rainstorm brought most of it (and the rotten fences beneath them) crashing to the ground ... NDN refenced their side and we did the rest, and we promised them we wouldn't let ivy grow on their fence again. However the folk behind have put a home office and shed on the boundary between us and are letting ivy grow up the fence (don't think they've left enough space to do anything about it) so I've decided to let the ivy take over that length of fence ...... its already poking through the fence ... it looks like a nice-leaved ivy, it'll clothe the fence nicely, and be good for the birds etc and it's an appropriate background for The Wilderness and The Shady Bank so as long as we keep our side clipped and don't let it go bonkers it's a way out of having to repaint the fence.
Goodness, haven't I waffled on?! It's time I went and did something about making Yorkshire Puddings ...........
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Having said that I was going to rest today, having done my listed jobs, I wandered out into the garden for just a little pottering. Two hours later, I've been up a stepladder, tying in the Claire Austin rose and tried to make the arbour a bit more windproof. I might have to make a choice between the arbour or the rose as the arbour isn't really strong enough for a vigorous rose like that. The roof is a top heavy solid one.
You've just reminded me I'd better go and put the dinner on as well!
I looked at your photos on the Garden Gallery @Dovefromabove. The veg garden is very tidy and I love the way you described it "charmingly dishevelled".
We have been to visit gardens in Hingham, their open gardens day. Some very pretty but very small cottage gardens and a couple of big wildlifey gardens. One of the big ones had a rose called "Jacqueline du Pré" which I've fallen in love with. Had coffee and very dry fruit cake in one. It was a warm sunny day. Hingham is where my grandfather's ancestors are buried in front of the altar of the huge church.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.