Saturday, July 21, 2012

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.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

July 7th, 2012

A week into July, and the garden slowly changes, showing it's penchant for yellow 
in the mid-summer months.




The first flush of roses is fading fast, and I have snipped away large branches to make breathing room for the  lilies that have been planted at their feet.






The white astilbe is flourishing in front of a vigorous fever few plant
and behind it I am nursing the small Philadelphia Orange that seems to be doing well in the shade.



A red poppy whose seeds came down with some of the compost is preparing
to put on a show, and rival the bee balm for scarlet  splendour.


A white shasta is tucked away in the bottom corner of the raised bed,
where it doesn't seem to be getting enough water
although the canterbury bell growing beside it is doing quite well.



I see that a small depot of the Chinese Underground Railway has become established
in the same quarters, and there will be Chinese Lanterns again in the garden.

Today I cut back the Oriental poppies, and soon the delphinium will be busy making seed.
A nice trimming might produce a few blue stocks in October!!


All of the roses are beginning to look a little ragged after their beautiful June revelry.

They fade and the petals fall on to the newly cut grass, and the
fragrance of the rose and the scent of the grass is heavenly in the early morning.