End of Month View: the Weather Changes

After what has largely been a warm and sunny month, the sky is grey and it is trying to rain, albeit not trying very hard. The water butt nearest the greenhouse is almost empty even though it has been difficult to find a cool enough time in the day to make it worth watering all the young plants that have made their way out of their trays and into the ground. An hour or two of rain would certainly give everything a real boost – and at least the greyer sky means no shadows on today’s photographs, taken for the End of Month View meme, hosted by Helen the Patient Gardener. Do visit her blog where she will be hosting links to other end of month views across the worlsd.

Above is the view from the back of the house, the tulips in the five pots in the foreground now replaced by pelargoniums which have now been overwintered 3 or 4 times. The apricot roses in the round container beyond them are ‘Sweet Dreams’ and the red ones on the pergola to the right are ‘Danse de Feu’. The rose arbour on the left is  home to ‘Rambling Rector’ which is now smothered in buds and will be in bloom sometime in the next few weeks.

Below is the streamside grass and the shrub border (from both directions), the latter hand cut this week now that the narcissi and crocus foliage has died down. The path between is desperately in need of weeding, and although the Golfer has valiantly been on his knees this week weeding paths and paved areas there is still a long way to go!

The woodland, now like a green jungly cave:

The main borders from The Bothy and ground level, aquilegia and allium the dominant blooms:

The clematis colonnade, still with a pile of redundant slate in the forefront but now with pink and purple painted pots to shade the clematis roots instead of plain terracotta, covering up the Golfer’s inadvertent mistake of using permanent marker to draw his cutting lines… ;):

The woodland edge border, from both directions (note the recent transformation of the ceramic sink to a ‘stone’ one, sadly requiring a patch or two as I tried to adjust its position before the sand/cement/peat mixture was dry; no need to coat the inside, which won’t be seen once it is filled with soil):

The bold borders (and with a functioning spout of water from the very thirsty lion’s mouth after about 15 years without a drink), colour courtesy again of aquilegia and allium, but also orange wallflowers, geum and the red ‘wedding’ anemones:

The blue & white borders (see Allium ‘Mount Everest’ in the first picture and stalwart centaurea in the second:

The rose arbour, with ‘Zéphirine Drouhin’ and ‘Guinée’ vying to outdo each other (ZD will always win), Linaria ‘Pretty in Pink’ at their feet and sweet rocket around the sides along with not-yet-flowering ‘Blush Noisette’:

The special snowdrop border in its late spring disguise of burgeoning white hardy geraniums, white aquilegia and various white annuals grown from seed – and lots of green foliage of course (the globes are solar lights, a very recent purchase from Aldi, and the first solar lights I have considered acceptable; watch out for them elsewhere in the garden):

And that’s it for this month, except the not often shown view from the sitooterie across the Tai Chi grass and paved area towards the house with the delights of the wisteria: