The garden in July

Do you remember those ridiculous six foot high alliums whose stalks were reaching for the sky?

Well, finally – two months later – they are starting to flower. First by shedding their pointed hats…

..and then bursting (slightly half heartedly) into bloom. Will all those tight little buds open out or is that the way they are going to stay?…

The cardoon, meanwhile, finally stopped growing (at a good two heads taller than me) and has produced a fine crop of fat thistle buds which will turn into dramatic purple flowers and then dry and decorate the flat for the whole of the winter.

The big border which encircles the patio – thanks to the incessant rain – is looking extremely lush. The geranium Rozannes have once again taken flight and are spreading not only out onto the lawn but climbing up through the roses, the rosemary, the corkscrew hazel, the cardoon and anything else they can twirl around. Meanwhile, Tawny Pipit (my wire foal) is loving all this lush rained-on grass.

In fact the border is all far too lush as, inevitably, I massively overplanted it when I started. Two rosemary bushes, one rose and one acer are scheduled for removal to new homes when autumn arrives and even then it will till be pretty tightly packed. But that does mean that, as planned, very little in the way of weeds have so far managed to get a look in.

Meanwhile I have had to keep an eagle eye on those macaleyas which, early in the summer, were shooting out new rhizomes at an alarming speed and threatening to take over the whole border. However, they then obviously decided to concentrate their efforts on growing taller than the cardoon (they are actually about level pegging) and throwing out a fine display of flowers.

The patio behind the big border is feeling sadly neglected as so far we have only managed to have supper out there once – and we are already mid July….  However, the climbers along the fence  (of which I also planted far too many) have been going berserk – including the climbing Blush Noisette – just look at this for a flush of blooms.

Down beyond the border the pond is in good shape although the water is quite murky and we do have quite a bit of blanket weed. I had been thinking that maybe I needed to empty it and replace it with clean water when, fortunately, I consulted ‘an expert’. ‘NO! Leave it alone! A new pond needs a couple of years to settle and organise its own ecosystem. Until it does so just add a few oxygenating plants or a bit of barley straw and let it get on with it.’  So I have!

Further afield the new path down to the new compost bin, the garage and the ‘growing garden’ is, thanks once again to the rain, doing really well….

…while the ‘wild’ garden in behind the compost bin is throwing up all kinds of exciting things – like these lovely colourful mombretias.

Round the side of the garage, the trachelospermum which had sat and sulked over by the holly tree for two years is very happy to have moved and is shooting away enthusiastically –

– while our ‘growing garden’ is now largely clear of brambles, bindweed, green alkanet and dandelions….. Next stage – different height hexagonal raised beds for our vegetables. But that is a lot of work.

And finally, as I forgot to mention it earlier, our no mow May/June/July lawn! It was all delightfully wild and woolly with just a few paths carved through it to get to the patios, pond etc. But I have been gradually nibbling at it with the hand shears and my push-pull mower as we need standing space for a goodish number of people by mid August for our summer jazz party – in the hopes, of course that it is not raining and we are not all crammed inside watching the downpour descend!