Monthly Archives: May 2019

Sunshine and ninja showers…

flowers, plants, raised bed, stumpery

are more usual for April not May.  However, it does make everything grow pretty fast.  Keeping on top of the slug population by doing a morning and evening slug patrol has helped enormously, especially with the problem of the huge, so called Spanish slugs.  They did get my Primula vialii so I have covered what is left of the  plants with a 1/2 plastic bottle as a cloche so we shall see if they can still come through.  The Aquilegias are fab at the moment, flowering away, but some of them keeled over in the ninja showers.  I found bright orange aphids on the Mahonia out in the front garden, so hubby gave it a prune and that got rid of some of them.  Aphids are everywhere just now and most of the time I jet them off with a water hose, or squish them as I check the plants (if I can reach them).  The cactus in the conservatory have nice magenta flowers out now.  I love the mahogany of the sempervivum , also in the conservatory.  There are a few nice plant combinations that I have quickly taken a few snaps of (bit windy out there).  Some I like for the flower colours together, and others have the same colours but different foliage forms.    I have taken a few snaps of the raised bed from different angles as it is a kind of triangular shape.  The Erica tree heath is covered in flowers, but just now it is a strange shape due to the pruning it had last year, so this year I won’t prune the spent flower heads off at all so that all of the branches will flower next year.

flowers, plants,
Selection of Aquilegias
wildlife,
Orange aphids on Mahonia leaf
plants, flowers,
Phlox and chives
plants, flowers,
Erigeron (and peony in background)
plants, flowers,
Cactus in flower
plants,
Sempervivum Reginald Malby
plants, flowers, raised bed,
Raised bed end on
plants, flowers, raised bed,
Raised bed curved side
plants, flowers, raised bed,
Raised bed back end on
flowers, plants,
white Aquilegia and Primula snowflake
plants, flowers, stumpery,
Stumpery (part of)
plants, flowers, stumpery,
Stumpery (part of)
plants, flowers,
Veronica and Tierella
plants, ferns,
Osmunda regalis purpurascens
plants,
Rodgesrsia leaf
plants, flowers,
Rodgersia, fern and Polygonatom
plants, flowers,
Hebe and Heuchera
plants, flowers,
Erica tree heath (part of)

And, back to being cold again…

birds, fungi, garden, wildlife

oh this fickle weather.  You just never know when you can put the thermals away.
I spotted the common morels again this year but a metre or so over from where they last appeared.  It is always lovely to see fungi in the garden.  I often go around the garden looking for slugs and it is a great opportunity to find unexpected things popping up in the garden.  I noticed also that the ragged robin hasn’t appeared yet so I don’t know if it has died, along with the blue poppies and the bronze fennel.
While I was on the patio I spotted a pigeon, just sitting having a wee soak in the pond, he then started splashing about having a real bath.  I took a pic from upstairs of some of the back garden.  I am finding it more difficult as the years go by to push over the grass, especially when it has been raining, so we will be getting more slabbing put down in June sometime.  I don’t want to have a lot of slabbing but it will make gardening easier and a lot less messy.  At the moment, every time I come in from the  garden, I have to get a stiff scrubbing brush on my wheelchair tyres, and also an old towel, to get most of the dirt from my tyre treads before going into the house proper.   The new slabs won’t prevent me getting pigeon poo in my tyre treads though, and it can be very tricky trying to dodge them.  The grass is also very uneven and some of the slabs we put down years ago have actually sunk as they were only put down onto sand.

plants, fungi,
Morchella esculenta (common morel)
plants, fungi,
Morchella esculenta (common morel)
pigeon, birds,
Pigeon in the pond
garden,
May 2019