Near the House – May

We’ve had the best part of two weeks’ warm sunny weather and suddenly it feels as if summer is really here. All the trees are fully in leaf now. When the wind blows you can hear individual sounds from them again; the big oak’s roar, the poplar like water over stones.

The new raised borders are looking good , especially now the red beeches that back them are resplendent with soft new leaves. The red Berberis is beginning to recover after the drastic pruning . The variegated Pittosporums I moved here have a new crop of leaves after a few weeks of looking a bit iffy, and the two Prostranthea I found in the chuck out corner of the nursery are full of delicate lilac flowers. Quite a surprise! I’ve planted two Iceland poppies, red and pink, by a new Euphoria mellifera as well as a golden Deschampsia, which is more of a vivid lime.

Under the impossible tree, in the shade, are all of the bedding plants. G has fixed up the big trolley, which may have originated on the platform of a station. It is far too heavy to be used for moving stuff around, but now has repurposed plank sides, salvaged from the old garage roof,and has been filled with two huge bags of compost, plant food and water retaining granules. It is positioned under the kitchen window, and planted up with Delphiniums, a dozen mixed Cosmos and some dark blue Lobelia. It seems extreme to plant Delphiniums which will grow to 6 feet tall, in a planter 3 feet off the ground, but the idea is they will look splendid from the kitchen, and the slugs won’t eat them while we’re away. On the table are 36 Pelargoniums, more Cosmos, and various other bedding for the zinc planters on the deck.

The gravel area where I’ve had two concerted attempts to dig up and move perennials to the new border near to the pond, is once again a forest of Rosebay willow herb. Serves me right for encouraging a pernicious weed to grow so near to the house. Still, it did look breathtakingly stunning with the evening sun through it. I’ll just have to persevere with digging it up at regular intervals until one of us gives up the battle.