Our garden: June 2015
My garden update this week is a little scatty. But life feels a bit all over the place so perhaps that's why. Scatty life = scatty garden. Anyway, I've found some nice things so hopefully you'll see something you like!
These geraniums were all leaves when I bought them last year. A tag marked 'geraniums' was poked into the soil - that was all I needed to know. I don't think I've ever come across a geranium I didn't like. Now it's flowering I can tell you it's a variety called 'Endressii'.
Our front garden is full of Oxeye daisies at the moment. Each stem has grown to about a metre tall and they've filled out so thickly I'm going to need to thin them later this year. Thankfully these daisies don't have the horrible 'cheese stink' most daisies seem to have!
The Clematis has been absolutely full of flowers this year. I took this photo last week and since then, the wind has blown nearly all the petals off.
This is the worlds wobbliest sweet pea support. I don't know how I ended up doing such a bad job! The string is slack and the canes are a bit wobbly. Oh well. The sweet peas seem happy enough; buds are appearing.
Marigolds are one of my favourite things to grow from seed. They're very easy to grow and they really brighten up the garden. I sowed quite a few this year - we have some in our raised beds, in pots round the back, in pots at the front and we've given some away to family.
Our herb patch has come alive over the last couple of weeks. Everything is looking strong, healthy, full of colour and is very fragrant. We have thyme, golden oregano, marjoram, sage, common thyme, chives, lemon thyme, rosemary, parsley and parcel (parsley with a celery flavour). I kept cutting the thyme to near death so in the end I just kept buying more plants until we had enough to sustain us - which is 5. We get through a lot of fresh herbs.
Did anyone else send off for free Grow Wild seeds this year? I only know about it thanks to a friend. 250,000 packets of seed were posted out so that people can help create colourful, wild flower spaces. Great project!
We spent Sunday afternoon jet washing our garden paths and patio. Both were covered in algae and lichen and generally looking really mucky. They scrubbed up good! It was a really hot day and I hadn't realised the top of my bum had been on show for most of the afternoon - until later that night. It was the one place I didn't put suncream!
Flower sowings were the last big thing on my to-do list for this month. I've sown Zinnia, cosmos and the pansy seeds I received from my seed swap buddy earlier in the year. They are growing fast so it won't be long before they'll need planting out.
The good news that we have one apple on our miniature tree!! We are 200% more successful than last year; when all the leaves went crusty and dropped off and there were no apples. Apples and leaves this year. Nature, you are spoiling us.
Does anyone have an recommendations for squirrel proof bird feeders? The squirrel thats started visiting our garden has broken two in a week :( I want to keep feeding the birds but it's ripping out plants digging for seeds and chewing its way through plastic. Gah!
