Summer Garden Photos

[Jane Louise]

I adore wild red Poppies but I've never had much luck with the seeds I did grow California Poppies a few years ago but I much prefer the wild ones. I may buy some poppy seeds again and have another go.

Thanks for the tips Ch regarding what to sow for next year and I can't wait to buy some night scented stocks and virginia stocks.

I have to agree John, gardening is a great hobby and very theraputic too. Nothing makes me feel better then weather watching and waiting for a storm either sat relaxing in the garden or just tending to my plants. Nature is beautiful

[cyclonic happiness]

Just thought I'd pop a few more photos on as a few more flowers have just come out and I think it's looking resonably nice at the minute.....how are you bits and bobs coming on?

this is a view down the path again, you can see that the lychnis chacedonica (orange) has come out and the feverfew is in full bloom!

lychnis

feverfew

clematis "etoile violet" climbing over one of our medlar trees

the angel's trumpet is really doing well!!

and the hanging basket out the front is looking good, sorry it's a bit blurred

The veggie patch is doing ok, but we've had alot of slug and snail attacks!

we have growing in there, some lettuce, rocket, parsley, beetroot, and a big patch of kohl rabi (which is like a turnip crossed with a cabbage?!)

the astrantia major is flowering now

the mock orange is filling the whole garden with fragrance!

this patch at the end of the garden is lovingly refered to as "the cock up", I feel like it's planted all wrong and it may look pretty but it just doesn't work for me and it will be changed later in the year.

Oh and here is that little patch of virginia stocks that i sowed about 4 1/2 weeks ago

Edited June 28, 2010 by cyclonic happiness

[Jane Louise]

Oooh, looking good ch

I love the virginia stocks and Feverfew.Your Garden is very nice.

I took your advice and bought some Night Scented Stocks and the seedlings have sprung already.

I will take some more pics tommorow.My rose rambler has flowered now and my hanging basket out the front is looking good ,my strawberries are starting at last lol but my Tomatoes dont seem to be growing yet lol.

[cyclonic happiness]

Oooh, looking good ch

I love the virginia stocks and Feverfew.Your Garden is very nice.

I took your advice and bought some Night Scented Stocks and the seedlings have sprung already.

I will take some more pics tommorow.My rose rambler has flowered now and my hanging basket out the front is looking good ,my strawberries are starting at last lol but my Tomatoes dont seem to be growing yet lol.

Aww ty i'm glad you brought some virginia stocks, they are always a good gap filler, also it's not too late to sow nasturtiums too, you should just be able to get two or three weeks worth of flowering out of them in september before the frosts come, and rememeber, they are excellent in salads and the seeds ground in a pepper grinder, are really good as a condiment to add a spicy, hot flavour to steak and such.

Our Itea ilicifolia is almost in flower too!! this is a must if you want something classy looking that will flower in late summer and be fragrant too!

The only draw back it that it's green, but hey, I like green flowers!! ;-D

It can be trained over an arche or front door and is generally trouble free and doesn't care much about soil, although a little peat at planting will do it good.

note: this is not our plant, it's a picture of one i hawked off the net :-)

[SP1986]

[cyclonic happiness]

Nice echiveria in flower there, I take it they go through the winters alright up there too? It must be an amazing microclimate? What sort of frosts do you get if at all?

[SP1986]

Nice echiveria in flower there, I take it they go through the winters alright up there too? It must be an amazing microclimate? What sort of frosts do you get if at all?

This particular Echeveria was an offset from it's parent last winter. One survived and one died, but the pups survived. The one that survived hasn't flowered this year but for some reason the pup (shown in the picture), has (in fact two of the pups have).

Last winter we got -7C this was the worst temperature since 1981 (which was the in turn was the lowest temperature on record for the town at -10C).

In a normal winter we get an average absolute winter minimum (normally) of -2 or -3C, and frosts are light and infrequent, and can be protected against easily. Thats the benefits of being on a hill - it prevents too much radiational frost occuring, however the draw back is that also being higher up on sandstone it cools down before everywhere else in the evening (so stays cooler a little longer than lower altitude sites but ultimately ends up having a higher minimum), but warms up quicker in the morning.

[Mark Bayley]

Some very nice pictures in here, certainly put my garden to shame (but to be fair mine is only 3 years old )

Just thought i would share some pictures of the hanging baskets i did this year. There's not many 17 (nearly 18) olds that seem to have interest in gardening, which is a shame! The baskets have just passed there peak and are not as good as a few weeks ago, i suppose they would be better however me being on holiday coupled with wind hasn't done them many favours (as can be seen in the pictures!). Of course i got someone to look after them however they didn't watered every night plus the twice weekly feed.

Considering im relatively new to gardening (my third year attempting baskets) i think they have turned out alright this year

There are six baskets in total

The two end baskets contained a mixture of trailing petunia, Verbena, Bacopa, Fuchsia, Trailing Geranium, Upright For centre piece and Diascia. As you can see the petunia just took over meaning few of the other plants where visible. Some of the Discia has managed to get through as well as the Verbena.

There where four baskets by the door. The two end ones had more success with regards to the other species. Although the Petunias tried to takeover the other plants such as Bidens, Diascia, Bacopa, Ivy, and Verbena where very successful. Again there was an upright geranium as a centre piece

The two troughs contained three bizzy Lizzys and three trailing petunias. These where also successful. As you can see the troughs have taken some damage due to the wind. This is particularly evident on the first picture where a large area is just green under the basket above. The two have been bashed into each other due to the wind damaging the two bizzy Lizzys quite badly.

A picture of the four baskets on the front (not including the two end ones)

I would appreciate any suggestions on how i could improve these for next year. I would be especially interested on different plants

Edited September 1, 2010 by mark bayley

[SP1986]

As expected most of the summer flowers are still out here, bizzie lizzies, geraniums, gerbera, snapdragons and calibrachoa still flowering. In other people gardens, petunias, nasturtiums and marigolds continue to flower.

Normally we would expect it into December so we'll have to see if it averages out.