Wednesday, August 28, 2013

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.




8 comments:

  1. What a pretty garden you have!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your garden is so beautiful! We must have had a mutual lightbulb moment; I posted photos of the flowers in our back yard last week. Isn't it strange (maybe not) that we share so many flowers on the other side of the world? Your aggies look a bit different to mine, but I can see the resemblance (I'll photograph ours next time they flower); we've shared geranium photos before, and the Fuschias are beautiful anywhere! I love those really bright ones in your photos.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love your beautiful garden! I am so glad you shared it with us - alas, where we are now, it is impossible to have all of those lovely pots of color. I do especially love the pictures of the fuchsia!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh Isabelle -- it's all so beautiful -- it looks even more beautiful than last year -- and that's saying a lot! I LOVE LOVE LOVE your little rockery -- just my style. Love those colors. I'm with you -- really not a fan of yellow and orange. I do put up with it from zinnias though, as they're such cute, happy flowers!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your garden is so lovely. MIne is an out of control jungle! But I still love it and many nice things bloom. An acre and a half and too much arthritis are not a good mix......But how much I enjoyed seeing pictures of your lovely garden.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I couldn't agree more. Gardens, even when weed infested as mine is at present, are places to lose yourself and some of your woes. Yours is looking so fresh and pretty still.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your garden is lovely. I admit, I do like the yellows and oranges and deep reds of autumn. I have despaired of having a garden on my balcony - it just gets too hot. but around now, I think about giant pots of mums that may last until late Nov with the sheltered warmth. It isn't the same as being able to walk around as you can, though.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh, lovely lovely!! How could anyone not love fuchsia? When my mom and I went to visit her longtime pal in Italy, we visited a neighbor who, aside from his vineyard, has an enormous fuchsia collection - he breeds new strains of them, and named one after my mother. The sight of hundreds of different fuchsias in bloom all in the same place was just stunning.

    And yes... the smell of phlox - my childhood, as well. Amazing what the scent of blooms can conjure, eh?

    Thanks for that poem - I am sending it on to my dear mother, who will probably cry after reading it.

    ReplyDelete