A lovesome thing

This is just a little record for myself of what was blooming in the garden yesterday. The sun is getting lower in the sky but the light is still quite summery and though most herbaceous plants have flowered, some are still hanging on. The tender plants are providing lots of colour and will continue to do so till the first frosts, though they'll become more straggly as light levels fall. The lily above has dropped more petals since I took the photo, alas.

Veronica?

One of my beloved agapanthuses.

Annual sweet peas - not very impressive but good enough to provide small vases of flowers for the house. The leaves are a bit mildewy, presumably because it's been a dry summer.

A potful of cheer: lobelias and begonias and fuchsias (yes, spelt like that, after Mr Fuchs.)

This astilbe is nearly over now but last week it was beautifully pink and fluffy.

I do like my fuchsias. (Sorry, Rachel. I know you don't.)

Mainly annuals but the pink heuchera in the middle is perennial. Red leaves give such a plop of colour for a long time.

As you may gather, my garden is mainly pink, white and blue in the summer. I don't like orange; and while there are some yellow flowers earlier on, they're all over now. Anyway, I'm not too keen on mixing yellow and pink.

This was my little rockery-that-had-never-really-worked, last August.

 

This was it after Mr L had shifted the stones about, the day after the photo above. The slugs loved the gerberas. Not a good planting idea.

 

And this is it at the moment - mainly annuals but there are spring bulbs lurking below. I'm really pleased with the effect - not perhaps subtle, but cheerful.

More agapanthus.

 More fuchsias.

Phlox. I love the scent of phlox - it transports me right back to my childhood garden.

A bright geranium (pelargonium), which is in a pot so that I can rescue it from the frost.

This is my favourite astilbe, though it's just going over. I love its feathery crimson plumes.

Anyway, you get the idea. It's not autumn yet.

I do love my garden - it's small but gives me such pleasure. It's partly just being outside, partly the satisfaction of making something pretty (with a lot of help from the plants themselves) and partly that there's always something to look forward to - some things fade but others are growing to take their place. Already, the first spikes of grape hyacinths are pushing through the soil, slowly preparing to bloom next spring.

MY GARDEN

A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
Rose plot,
Fringed pool,
Ferned grot--
The veriest school
Of peace; and yet the fool
Contends that God is not--
Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?
Nay, but I have a sign;
'Tis very sure God walks in mine.

Thomas Edward Brown (1830-1897)

 

I'm not convinced that "ferned grot" was the happiest phrase to choose and I don't have a fringed pool, but basically T Brown and I are in agreement: gardens are Good Things. I like "school of peace" - gardens do bring peace of mind and you learn stuff all the time, such as not to plant lily of the valley if you don't want it shooting up between your toes as you stand contemplating the meaning of life.