It seems that it's a good year for sweet peas.
We've been watering the garden with watering cans each evening and sometimes in the morning too. Now the water butts are empty. Lots of plants are suffering, the buddleia, rose of sharon and hydrangeas in particular and the grass is a yellow wheat colour turning to brown in places. At the moment we are watering next door's garden too so it has been hard work trying to keep their pots and hanging baskets alive as well as our own pots and beds.
I've been cutting the sweet pea flowers for the house and taking off the seed pods to encourage more growth and it seems to be working.
Inside their beautiful fragrance drifts through the house.
Thank goodness today is a little cooler, gentle breezes rustle the blinds at the open windows. After the inescapable and sometimes overpowering heat of the weekend the temperature seems slightly easier to cope with today.
Above a few more photos taken around the garden over the weekend.
So lovely to see your sweet peas. Ours are very poor this year, a different variety from last and perhaps I didn’t enrich the soil enough. Looking forward to rain here too to fill up the water butts. B x
ReplyDeleteWe usually have a paler variety of sweet peas, soft pinks and blues these are darker and richer in colour but have done very well:)
DeleteYour sweetpeas look lovely. I've really enjoyed the cloud cover today - it's been cool enough that I ventured out for a quick walk up to Thor's Cave -I've hardly been out whilst it's been so hot.
ReplyDeleteDid you go into the cave? It would have been cool inside. It has seemed cooler the last two days but I still struggle to sleep at night:)
DeleteI wish I could send you some of our rain, we have some nearly every day. Your flowers are still looking good.
ReplyDeleteWe've been watering the flowers in pots and those yet to flower and leaving those that have already flowered and just hope they get through:)
DeleteI take it, that your neighbors are away, and you are caring for their garden and pots, for them.... Too much, with this hot, hot weather.
ReplyDeleteForgot sweet peas this year. They are so lovely and old fashioned a flower. We have tried snap dragons, but the first didn't last. And these aren't really flourishing either. -sigh-
But the marigolds and zineahs are!!!
We have buds on some zinnias just coming into flower, sweet peas are old fashioned flowers like hollyhocks and snap dragons we can't grow the latter two in our soil. Yes neighbours have been away, they have just arrived back as I type these replies:)
DeleteThe foxes are quite a pair!
ReplyDeleteThey are Mum and daughter. There are four cubs this year:)
DeleteIt's hard work keeping those flowers looking gorgeous! We've been tipping out washing up water on the plants at the front, it seems a shame to throw it away when it's so dry. 😊
ReplyDeleteGood idea to use the washing up water, our grass is brown and could do with quite a few bowls full:)
DeleteI love Sweet Peas, my Mum always grows them, she used to let us pick the flowers when we were kids :) The gardens are suffering aren't they!
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame for the gardens. I love growing sweet peas - sometimes they don't grow but this year they have done well:)
DeleteA beautiful photo mosaic of things going on in your garden over the weekend. It must be enjoyable to see the fox family coming out in daylight hours. Your sweetpea plants are looking great! I can just imagine the fragrance. Ours are rather spindly with only a few flowers as they're in a planter and grown from last year's seed. Nevertheless they have a strong perfume. We have some more coming on that are still small seedlings. They were given as a gift as a packet of seeds with a pot to grow them in. It'll be interesting to see what blooms they produce later on.
ReplyDeleteThank you Linda. For the last couple of years sweet peas haven't been up to much but this year they are lovely. I bought plants this year instad of using seed. The perfume is lovely but they are only lasting a couple of days inside due to th heat. The foxes visit most evenings, it's lovely to see them:)
DeleteAbsolutely glorious photos, well done. I love sweet peas and my father has always grown them but I've never been successful. My soil is very light and my father's is very heavy, bordering on clay, and I think that might be the difference. It's a shame because I would love to have them in the house, as we did when I was growing up. x
ReplyDeleteThank you Mrs T. Our soil is heavy clay here too but having said that the sweet peas are in a raised bed and that was filled with non clay Cheshire soil when we first built it usually topped with compost from our bin. I love flowers that remind me of childhood homes, grandma - hollyhocks and london pride, granny - shamrocks and roses, childhood home - peonies and lilac:)
DeleteI too love sweet peas, with their many colours & gorgeous perfume. Thanks for sharing & hope your garden keeps looking good in the heat. Take care.
ReplyDeleteThank you Susan. It is hard to keep the flowers going in this heat but we have dahlias and zinnias coming out now which are very colourful:)
DeleteYour garden looks beautiful regardless of the hot, dry spell! It must smell delightful with all those sweet peas! Have a great weekend Rosie. Meant to be another scorcher here!!! x
ReplyDeleteThank you, Simone. I think the grass and trees have suffered most as we've been able to water the beds and pots but trees and grass have had to be left in the hope they will get through. It was so hot last night we were up at four unable to sleep:)
DeleteSo sorry for the late comment Rosie but we have been away. Your garden is looking delightful. You have my sympathies over trying to keep plants alive with a watering can - we have lost several already and our lawn is mainly brown too :(
ReplyDeleteYour sweet peas are beautiful - I can almost smell them. Sadly, I didn't grow any this year and OH failed to plant Cosmos and I am missing both!
Thank you RR, hope you have had a wonderful holiday it has certainly been the weather for it. Our cosmos seeds, free from a magazine earlier in the year, haven't grown but the zinnias we got at the same time are now in flower. I love cosmos flowers espeially the white ones:)
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