Today’s Walk Around The Estate….

….produced a couple of lovely surprises!

The yucca in our front garden is older than our occupation. It was well established when we arrived over 25 years ago and has dictated how we laid out our front garden. There was no way we could face removing it – even if we had wanted to! Far too ferocious!

I was aware there were several flower spikes emerging – nothing unusual in that – but, coming home today, I noticed a few more red buds appearing. I took a spike count – NINE in total!

That’s our record!

My next pleasant surprise was our hop. Originally I propagated it from a wild hop, to add to our very first herb garden. It used to try to scale the ash tree, which we’ve recently had to remove, but then was little more than a sapling. It has somewhat lost a lot of its vigour without its climbing pole, and instead spreads out, determined to trip us up. It’s another plant that would be nigh on impossible to remove, with its strong root system embedded within the roots of the old ash trunk! So I’ve let it do its thing, just cutting out its “trip wires”. I just draped one of these treacherous shoots, over our potted calycanthus, out of the way. I didn’t realise how nicely it would perform, once it flowered. And a totally unexpected effect!

Gardening isn’t always hard work!

Bitter Sweet Beauty

Down in the Woodland, all has been quiet for a few months. The spring bulbs have done their bit, and the early summer flowers are now collapsing and disappearing underground, as they do. But the watering has still been needed, so it hasn’t been forgotten.

And now these little beauties have appeared, almost from nowhere. Cyclamen hederefolium “Album”, shining out amongst the green foliage, under our silver birches. They have, not only pure white flowers, but also beautifully white marbled, dark green foliage. They seem to like it here – the clumps are spreading out and popping up throughout the border.

A beautiful sight! But why bitter sweet?

Because they signal to me the waning of summer and the onset of autumn. The waning of a truly amazing summer, too! It’s been many years since we’ve been able to enjoy a summer like this. Just as well I don’t mind watering! Me and the watering can have enjoyed many relaxing hours together ! We’re bezzy mates!

Now I’m starting to see other signals too!

In the grass garden, our sedum (now Hylotelephium, I believe?) is now showing hints of its future colouring.

Now, I have to keep my eyes peeled for the colchicums’ purple goblets to erupt from nowhere – I hope before the slugsnsnails get there!

Hopefully, nobody will let on to the weather, and we can continue enjoying this glorious weather for a wee while longer. And when all good things come to an end, as indeed they must, we still have much to look forward to and enjoy in our gardens.

Guess what We’re having for dinner?

…one of our globe artichokes. I fear it may be slightly past its prime picking time, but we have used them successfully before at this stage, before we knew better. Mr. Chef is using it on a four seasons pizza, with the addition of onion, prosciutto ham and mushrooms, I confess, from the supermarket. But we may supplement these with home grown herbs and rocket. All rounded off with some homegrown berries in meringue nests. Not forgetting a side salad with our Little Gem lettuce. And washed down with a nice glass of wine (again,not home made!) A perfect, if not traditional, Sunday dinner!