Eggs for Sale!

PTC got a new eggs for sale sign today!  I bought the hardwood frame (I think it may have been a fire screen originally) for £5 from a junk shop in Wales and we cut out and painted a rectangle of ply and suspended it from 2 hooks.  Don't look too hard at the lettering: a calligrapher I may be but, a brush is much more difficult to handle and behaves nothing like a nib!  We hope that, as it's not all rigid, the wind won't blow it over.  My theory is that it should just swing to and fro in the wind. For now, it's on test and we'll see what out our customers think!  Talking of freedom, the girls were out on slug patrol in the garden yesterday but, as we have a party of garden club visitors expected tomorrow afternoon, I didn't leave them out too long because I know what a mess they make!

Loads of Lovely Lavender!

The lavender is looking especially pretty and is absolutely alive with bees and hover flies.  I must pick some for lavender shortbread.  Our lavender border began life as self set seedlings in Mrs. Slingsby's gravel.  Chris's job was to remove all the unwanted seedlings and we got lucky!!

Garden Produce

The Under Gardener digging potatoes

Delicious Arran Pilots

After 2 days of rain and a group of garden visitors expected on Saturday, we were glad to see clear skies so that mowing, edging and a major greenhouse tidy up could be completed. 

The blue skies and sunshine made harvesting home grown vegetables even more of a pleasure.  We picked the first of our peas whilst we've been eating our new potatoes fro several weeks now.  Our broad beans are perfection and I'm not saying that because they're my most favourite vegetable in the universe!  The grapes are super sweet but have loads of big pips.  Tomatoes are just beginning to turn.  Podding peas with a G&T while watching the sun go down was nearly as enjoyable as eating them when they were cooked!

Grapes, peas, new potatoes & broad beans

Sutton's Early Onwards

Fig Fantasy!

The fig tree is absolutely covered in figs and has put on loads of growth this season.  The huge leaves mean that we have a lovely shady spot up on the top terrace. What a pity I don't like figs.  When the the over ripe ones fall and explode onto the stone beneath, they look like mice corpses rotting in the sun!  In variably, they're all covered in flies which add even more authenticity.  Luckily, my friend: Maureen loves figs so, with luck and a fair wind,  she should be in for a real treat this year!

The Hostas in the galvanised tanks are thriving beneath the Bay tree and you'd never know that the furthest ones have only been there since open gardens. How lucky to be given all 3 of these tanks.  They make perfect planters. Actually, I was given a fourth in which I store rainwater in the greenhouse.  I did think about using these for that purpose but, as I also have a couple of oak barrels, I decided to plant them up.  They cheer up what has become known as the Creosote Yard.  This area is a kind of work yard where various projects such as construction and painting take place.

Pruning Curtains

I purposely allow the Wisteria and Albertine clamber around the windows at this time of year.  They make perfect exterior curtains and I love to see the filtered, cool green light in the house.  It also helps to reduce fabric and furniture fading in the strong summer sunlight.  These exterior curtains also keep the rooms much cooler. When the sun moves round, it will be the perfect time to cut back the whippy tendrils of the Wisteria.  They won't get their next pruning until February when the side shoots will be cut back again to 3 - 5 buds.  I expect the sparrows will then steal all the juicy fat flower buds as they always do - sigh!  In the dark days of winter, the windows are freed from their green fetters and the weak winter sunlight allowed to flood back in.  My photos don't do justice to my system!

'Ground Cover' -V- 'Under Planting.'

Indecent exposure?

Words mean what they say! 

A tongue in cheek look at 'ground cover' versus 'under planting.' 

Do we always need to cover every inch of soil?  Is there anything wrong with the appearance of freshly tilled earth?  Modern garden designers and T.V. celeb gardeners are always bandying the words ground cover as if there was some sort of horticultural law against the indecent appearance of naked earth.

My Daddy always hated the dreaded words: 'ground cover' and I must say, I never use those words either.  Many of his ways have rubbed off and saying 'under planting' is one of them! He was a man of the soil as his living depended on it.  Neither he nor I are or were offended by bare earth.  For me, 'ground cover' suggests something creeping, sinister or invasive.  'Under planting' sounds altogether lighter. 

Is it so offensive to have a neat lawn edging a small area of freshly turned and weed free soil?  Yes I know!  Bare soil invites weeds but how long does it take to pop over it with a hoe until adjacent Bergenias (or whatever) fill the gap?  Less time than it takes to drag out, plug in a hoover, vacuum the carpet and then put it all away again!  I suppose, in the end, it's all just playing with words!

......................................................................or is it??????

Roses for Noses!

Port Sunlight

Port Sunlight in the foreground

This has been such a good year for roses, I thought I'd post a few photos.  The Paul's Himalayan Musk is not the only one with high ideas.  Rambling Rector is at least 35 feet high and cascading down the old pear tree.  Soon the lawn will be covered in its white petals.  The shrub roses have bloomed well and no excessive rain to spoil them.  With roses on both sides of the lawn now, we have certainly noticed their heady perfume when just waking across the lawn.  We underplanted the shrub roses with Golden Marjoram.  Since the photo was taken the beech hedge behind the roses has been trimmed and the Golden Marjoram cut down to maintain its dense mounds.  In a few weeks, we will be able to enjoy its dense mounds once again.  It too has a delicious scent when the mower just brushes past.  At open gardens, there were more questions about the Golden Marjoram than any other plant!

Rambling Rector

Albertine

The old Albertine over the sitting room window is a real old faithful. Every year it's a mass of bloom for about 5 minutes and for that brief time is a real show.  Every year it's guaranteed to get a good dose of mildew regardless of the weather!!  Every year after blooming and with a good dose of mildew, it looks really shabby!  

Rambling Rector behind the kiosk