Two autumns in one year!

Winning Dahlias

Top Lawn Border

After all the gallivanting, it's good to be back home and to catch up with some garden work.  We came back to beautifully tended plants as Liz came over from Switzerland just to care for the hens and look after the watering!  How lucky were we?  She had very obviously been doing a first rate job deadheading as the day we returned, I was able to select 5 Dahlias which won 3rd prize at Stoke Bliss Agricultural Improvement Society Show the very following day (yawn!)  It was all a bit of a scramble - what with the usual Saturday jobs, serious jet lag and no preparation time, it was a surprise to win anything!  Whilst in Alaska, we were well into autumn and had the pleasure of enjoying all the golds of the birches, cotton woods & aspens; it's nice to return and enjoy the beginning of another autumn with all those colourful pleasures yet to come for a second time! The Sedums are opening for insect business and the rose hips shining red in the September sunshine.  The Top Lawn Border is a riot of colour and the Michaelmas daisies are full of buzzing insects gathering both nectar and pollen.

Just too many insects for 1 photo!

A.W.O.L. in Alaska!

Just because Chief Blogger has been a tad quiet of late, doesn't mean that all gardening instincts have been ignored!  She has been exploring gardens further afield and paid a very interesting visit to the Botanical Gardens of Alaska.  It was amazing so see the large numbers and varieties of peonies!  The average U.K. gardener probably doesn't think of them thriving in these winters!  In the wild Cinquefoils and Plantains are in abundance as are wild lupins and Purple Loosestrife is everywhere! The only difference is that the locals call it Fireweed!!  The hardy geraniums were impressive as not one of the varieties grown flopped.  All were sturdy and slightly lower growing.  It's well into autumn and the seasonal colours are the golds and yellows of the Cottonwoods, Aspens and Birches.  On the high ground, the first dusting of snow was evident - gulp!  Oh well this is the land of the glaciers and they say there are over 100,000!! Now that is an amazing statistic!!  More photos.

Cold Weather - Warm Welcome!

One day to go before our 'Gardens by Candlelight' Evening and despite the seriously dire weather forecast, Dave turned out and not only fixed the lights in the pond, but also put some L.E.D. strip lighting around the summerhouse! This was all 11th hour stuff late on a Friday evening! Dave in the pond! The wine is here so, if it's a complete washout, we have plenty with which to console ourselves!!  In hopes that the forecast is wrong, I've made lots of lanterns from glitter painted jam jars and also night lights in clay flower pots.  If it pours none of these will even stay alight!  Hey ho!  I can see that if any visitors show up, we'll all be in the conservatory or the summerhouse!! Either way, the welcome will be warm even tho the weather isn't!

'Sitting on the fence!'

Reclaimed oak seat

This is a seat that Chris and I made one rainy winter's day a few years ago. The materials used were bits of old oak fencing.  We reclaimed it from the hedge behind the Woodland Border.  We used the posts for legs and the rails for the seat and back.  It has that driftwood look even though none of the wood drifted anywhere! It sits outside the studio on old crocks to ensure the feet don't stand in water (thus preventing further rot) with a pair of home produced standard Fucshias (Winston Churchill) on either side.  I grew them from cuttings taken about 4 years ago.  Yes you guessed, it's another HDR image!

More HDR Photography in the Garden

Dahlia Bishop of York

 

The HDR photography addiction is far from cured and I couldn't resist posting this piccie of a Dahlia in the top lawn border taken just after a vicious squall.  This was a plant purchased from David Austin roses (of all places) last year.  It survived the winter stored perfectly dry in the cart shed and not in sand or peat.  In fact not following Monty's advice at all.

HDR Photography in the Garden

'Kay's Arbour'

One of Al's Costco Dahlias!

Since our recent Swiss invasion, I have been trying my hand at some HDR photography.  As well as being utterly addictive, some of the results are very interesting.  HDR is High Dynamic Range and several shots taken on differing settings are merged together by very clever software.  I couldn't have chosen worse weather for my photographic experiments as we've been having gale force winds and ferocious squalls in August!  I ask you!  It looks like autumn out on the lawns!  It was a little more sheltered up in the top lawn border where the Dahlias were not waving madly in the gales!  The winds did have quite an effect on cloud formations and the ghosting effects on the rose hips as they were swaying violently almost looks like an impressionist painting.  Anyway, do have a look and see what you think - bearing in mind these are novice attempts in difficult conditions!  HDR Garden Photos  The strange thing is that when you view these photos,all appears serene and still!!  Oh well, maybe the camera really does lie after all.

Martley Hillside from the terrace

Five Free Fowls go Foraging

Five go out on slug patrol and find a whole new world to explore.  As well as any slugs, they enjoyed some time grazing in the orchard.  The more greens they have; the more yellow their egg yokes.   Some times they have a few grass clippings to scratch around and peck at or an old lettuce, cabbage leaves, carrot tops, pea pods - they love them all.  The new three have really settled in and have just started laying.  Fiona Fenton (on the 2nd lowest step) lays a lovely bluey grey egg.   Each one lays a different coloured agg, that way, we know who's laying and who isn't!