I bet you weren’t really expecting to see my July post, so soon after June’s - especially in October, but I’m happy to prove you wrong. Just looking through these photos, it feels like only yesterday and I’m struggling to work out where the intervening months have gone - and how we’ve done so little in a single year. But I guess, that’s 2020 for you.
These roses are from our patio, during one of my gardening sessions I got a bit over-enthusiastic and snipped these without realising. Not wanted to compost them while they were in their prime, they were soon indoors in a vase to be enjoyed for a short while.
With veg growing in the garden, I was very much in the habit of checking it every morning before opening my laptop. One morning I got more than I bargained for, and found some of our beans completely upended onto the grass.
The beans look like they had been carefully placed aside and much fun was had with the earth and the pot. I’m blaming the foxes, and hastily shoved everything back into the pot and gave them a drink. They survived a bit, but the didn’t really recover and beans from these plants were few and far between. Never mind, our other pots turned out to be pretty productive, but I didn’t know that at the time.
July is the month that our agapanthus really gets their game on. The flowers breaking out of the paper casing early in the month, and looking a lot more delicate than I think they really are.
There was good weather, and evenings to enjoy in the garden - a cocktail or two helped, as did the barbecues.
There’s always gardening jobs to be done though and it was time to tackle the Chilean potato plant that goes wild early in the season. The ladder was out and the green bin filled pretty quickly. As you can see the neighbours on this side had scaffolding up, it’s been a time for most of our neighbours to have work done - and who can blame them.
I wanted a sunny spot for my chillies, and tried tin cans on the trellis. This was a little too sunny it turned out and I lost one of these as it fried in the sun. The others were hastily moved back to the greenhouse and while they’ve not grown as I’d hoped they would, they are still alive. I’m thinking of potting them up to have in the conservatory, which I think will be marginally better (and warmer) than the greenhouse.
The nasturtiums soaked up the sun and provided flowers in an array of colours from bright yellows to the deepest of reds, and everything in between. I really wasn’t expecting the colours, especially as they need very little attention or care, and in fact prefer poor soil - they’re my kind of plant!
The colour wasn’t far off the orange of the runner beans, and we’ve had a good few dinners courtesy of a pot or two of beans - but not many from the one the foxes interfered with. Our beans are still limping along in October, but they’re due to join the compost heap relatively soon.
Back nearer the conservatory, the agapanthus blooms were starting to stand up straighter and the buds were thinking about opening, but not just yet.
Our squash started to flower and that became a regular spot to visit and encourage each morning. A squash did eventually form, but I won’t spoil the ending just yet.
The peonies which had given so many fluffy flowers the previous month finished, leaving a stubby flower centre left in their place. The rain didn’t help, and despite the sun, there was plenty of that. The snails seemed to enjoy it though.
And it didn’t stop the agapanthus doing their thing.
Another ritual for the month was picking salad for lunch. That in this strangest of years felt like an incredible luxury. And a tasty one too.
We popped up to Norfolk catching up with family for just the second time this year. As usual we left with gifts including this purple oxalis, a favourite of mine and which grows freely in dad’s greenhouse.
The morning garden inspections continued, and so did the beans. On this particular morning so did the rain, so for this picture I was sheltering in the greenhouse waiting for the shower to pass. It didn’t pass as quickly as I hoped, and shortly after snapping this shot I was running back to the house.
We also had visitors indoors, this dragonfly flew in, flew around our downstairs and stressed me out during an online meeting. I lost sight of it, but after a little while found him having a snooze on the curtains. He wasn’t up for moving, so we spent the afternoon in companionable silence tolerating each other. Once his strength was restored, he decided to head off and managed to navigate out as easily as he’d come in. This, it turned out was just the first visit - we had another two visits as the summer continued. Of course, it may not have been the same little fella - and not all of them were quite as well behaved - but this year, one positive is that we’ve seen much more wildlife in our garden (and in our house!)