"Tickets please!"
Welcome to the Summer Tour of the Tidy Garden.
Refreshments will be served at the entrance by the butler.
It's been a funny ol' year for most of us here in ol' Blighty.
Since the drought declaration back in April it's rained almost every day. For some poor souls it's rained too much and their gardens have flooded. The Tidy Garden has been lucky and although not as 'flowery' as previous years it's certainly 'blossomed' and is 'officially' full to the brim (although I can always find a space should that 'I can't live without that plant' occasion arise.
The 'shady' side (above) has for many years been the weak area of the garden. This year it has flourished, everything is bigger & better than ever before. Even the strawberry plant (in the pot) has 'fruited' it's little head off and it's been a race between me & Mr Blackbird as to who gets to the juicy fruits first.
The lettuce grow-bag hasn't really performed as well this year...or was it my failure during all the wind n' rain, when the last thing you fancy for tea is salad, to harvest the baby leaves?
Maybe next year I'll grow a crop of hot stew vegetation.
The sun has tried to come out today, although as I scribe dark clouds loometh. What little flower colour we do have is drowned out in a sea of green when the sun goes in.
My mystic view through bonsai'd conifer for dramatic effect failed!
The cucumbers (in the brown pots) are hanging on in there and we've had 2 six inchers so far. Didn't dare to let them grow any longer as I thought at this rate all the plants energy was going to go into these 2 and there'd be no hope (or summer left) for any further fruits. This seems to have paid off and several other 1 inchers have now appeared.
The peppers meanwhile (in the black pots) have been a disaster. Glad I popped a Marigold in each pot for a bit of colour as this would just be a boring line of of black pots. Seems others have had the same failure rate so I'm not too disappointed.
However...the runner-beans have been a HUGE success as the stems make their way up in to the cooking-apple tree.
A muted splash of colour against the slate path.
The pond has sprung back to life...
...after a whole year of green-soup murkiness...
and yes....a splash of colour...those marigolds grown from seed that are supposed to be 6 inches short are now almost 18 inches tall!
We won't talk about the tomatoes...Grrrrrr....about 25 plants have so far produced 4 green tomatoes. Guess I won't be supplying Tesco this year unless they can find a use for the lush leaves that did grow (grrrr...again!)
My prize possession Gunnera, is still no where as big as I hoped it would be but I'm a patient woman, another 10 years won't hurt!
Hopefully with a little bit of the hot summer sun that's forecast this week, some of the colour will return to the Tidy Garden.
Have a groovy weekend everyone and viewers from the UK get your flip-flops & knotted hankies poised...summer's coming!