The Middle of August in the garden

August 15th, 2012

There is a lot of greenery in the garden these days.  This town garden is tucked into a small space between trees and neighbours and so there is a lot of shade in the garden, and I have noticed that the phlox in the front garden is very unhappy, - as is the sedum.  A garden I pass on the way to get the mail has Autumn Joy in it that is flourishing in the sun, and twice as large as the plant I brought down from the hill garden and planted along the picket fence, not realizing it would be so shaded.  After the year of experience there are things I will move around in the fall, - or in the spring in the case of the sedum.

On the other hand, the flowers which I planted in the raised bed and which get oodles of sunlight are doing famously!!!

Here they are soaking up the sun and even making the Chinese Underground Railway customers welcome.  Look for them, - they are scattered throughout the bed.  The Smilebox below won't work and won't go away.  Recalcitrant creature......

August 6th, 2012

The first week in August, and it is time to post a little record of what is happening in the garden now.

Definitely the plants are having a little siesta before that last burst of summer brings on more roses, a minor display of delphinium, and all the wonderful fall colours of sedum and chrysanthenum, fall asters and sunflowers.

The side garden is quiet, but the wildflowers in the back corner are blooming gaily between whatever that large perennial plant is that shoots up above the fence and eventually has a sparse bloom of yellow daisy like flowers.  Warm yellows and oranges definitely predominate, but are complemented by the pink of the Abraham Darby and the brilliant white of the phlox.

The Bergamot is doing much better than I expected after a slow start in the new bed, - it was so vibrant in the patch on the hill.  It looks quite gay next to the second bloom on the white Delphinium that got moved into this raised bed along the west fence.  A few sweet peas and morning glories are starting to bloom along this fence, - I expect them to be better next year when the perennial sweet peas have made themselves at home.

A little snippet of yellow barn flower promises to cover the fence in coming years, - it is so prolific.  The wee bit that got left in the garden on the hill has grown to a great large bed which towers over the rest of the garden and calls for me to come and trim it - soon!!!

Birds are going to come a-flocking in the fall, - what a tremendous crop on the Mountain Ash, - the branches are bending low, so heavily laden!

Out in the front the yellow daisies guard the entrance, and the Rose of Sharon is now up above the eaves, each bloom in quick succession adding pink perfection against the house and blending with the purple clematis that just keeps on blooming, all summer long.

We are having a slight respite from the heat, but for a few days it was rather like a furnace outside.  Sydney Smith has something to say about hot weather in Lady Holland's Memoir,

"Heat, ma'am!  it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones".

July 21st, 2012

Change in the garden is measured in days, and sometimes hours.


Since last I posted here the lilies have entranced us with their pastel colours and blatantly come-hither sepals, and then dropped their petals and began with the business of shoring up their corms for next year's show.

Volunteer poppies from the garden on the hill

 And that lovely mallow like flower that lives mainly on the neighbour\s side of the fence.

 Yellow is definitely the dominant colour in the garden these days.....

A visiting vine from Doreen's garden, making itself at home on the bench.

The Bee balm establishing itself  in the raised  bed.

and Mr. Lincoln, close beside it...

Poppies and wildflowers and daylilies around the compost bin,  growing nicely

The Abraham Darby starts its second flush

and here the camera captures the deep rich red of the Mr. Lincoln more faithfully

The apricots that hang over the roof of the neighbour's shed.

  

and oh look, the Rose of Sharon has started to bloom.  Are we really that far into summer!!

Two tiny hummingbirds were breakfasting there this morning.

The yellow daisies at the gateway

and the very last of the lilies

the lovely delicate bell like plant I took for a weed - probably a wild canterbury bell

the mountain ash are laden with berries, - good news for the birtds!

yellow daisies and red geraniums in the back garden

some of the fallen apricots......

It almost seems that the garden is more advanced this year than last, - the first of the clematis are over

but I see new buds appearing

I have dead headed the roses and cut back the poppies and the delphinium.

hoping that blooms will reappear in August and on into September.

It will soon be a year since we moved here and I fear that the hill garden has been neglected.

Time and energy don't seem to work together to enable me to keep up with it

and I am thinking of digging the plants, and either having a plant sale or donating them

to the Bargain Centre, and then replacing the space with grass.

Much tidier, and someone will take in the plants and love and care for them!!!

At one time there were long stretches when nothing seemed to change too much,

but now the days and months go by so quickly,  and circumstances change

from day to day and week to week, so that the future is always tenuous.....

Isak Dineson said that 'God made the world round so we would never be

able to see too far down the road.'

and Alexander Graham Bell made the observation that 'when one door closes another opens'

cautioning us not to look so long and regretfully at the closed door

that we do not see the one that opens......

So many people have said so much on this subject, and I have come to the conclusion

that the most important thing is to wake to each day 'in happiness and kindness'

so that all regret and bitterness is overwhelmed with gratitude, and all fears

banished by the roses that bloom for us today.