Mid July and still watering the garden.

Yes we may be in Scotland but we have had very little rain for the last few months (despite the showers this morning). I have had to water the garden and top up the pond every 2nd day or so. Plus watering the patio, conservatory and house plants. The good thing about being very dry is that the roses have lots of sunshine (but they do require a lot more water) and so have done particularly well so far. I planted a new rose in a difficult area by the patio, Gertrude Jekyll, it is just a small plant just now so hopefully it will do well there as it is quite heavy soil and it should get enough sun. There has been very little slug and snail damage apart from a few plants that have been absolutely decimated. I have Astrantia major Alba, shaggy and Rubra, but only the Rubra has been attacked by slugs (the huge Spanish slugs). I have moved it’s position now a few times and it always comes under attack, even when in pots on the patio. So I have now dug them up and planted something else in it’s place for the time being. I am going to try a very dark variety called Astrantia Gill Richardson group which is on the patio just now but if it gets no damage there then I will try it out in the garden.

Another plant to succumb to slug damage is one of the Selinum Wallichianums. There are about six of these in various parts of the garden and only one has been damaged, even though it only about a foot away from another of the same. I definitely know it is slug damage as I picked them off myself!

The witch hazel Hamamelis inter Diane foliage is looking almost autumnal already but rather lovely especially if back lit by the sunshine. The Verbascum raspberry ripple that was divided last year is looking a bit bushier now. The double purple hellebore that was moved earlier this year and sadly cut in half by mistake is actually flowering just now! The blue geranium with dark purple leaves has finnaly flowered. It is Geranium pratense Midnight Reiter and when it was sold to me it had very little root system so I should probably not have planted it out as soon as I did. That was a couple of years ago and it has hardly grown at all but it has flowered now. And the sweet peas are doing rather well now that they can get a bit more sunshine as the next door neighbour’s large shrub has been cut back. (We have no neighbour there yet as the house is still being worked on by the current owner who is a property developer. Let’s hope whoever moves in will chop that blasted huge purple leafed bird cherry tree down that has taken over our left hand corner of the garden!) I did find a ladybird that I am just not sure if it is the dreaded Harlequin ladybird or not. The Harlequin ones are bad news for our own native ladybirds but it can be hard to identify them properly.

The front garden is looking very dry but I haven’t been watering it much at all. The small diamond shaped bed in the middle only has tulips and iris in it and is rather boring. It looks great when the yellow bearded iris are in flower but they only last a couple of weeks then it is boring for the rest of the year. I have decided to get a small rowan tree (Sorbus vilmorinii) and maybe some lavender to plant there instead to give a bit more interest all year round. But that job will have to wait a bit. So here are a few more pics for now from the back garden.