Wednesday, August 08, 2018

August Garden

After all the heat of the last few week a lot of the garden is looking very brown and dreary but wandering up and down early morning and late evening with watering cans has kept some of the blooms looking quite healthy.  

The free packet of Zinnia seeds we got from the front of a magazine earlier this year have been productive.
 
The first sowing of seeds didn't germinate so a second batch was sprinkled on top of compost in the rather scruffy looking blue plastic tub just as a test and look what happened!

 We've never grown Zinnias before so I was fascinated to see them grow and notice how the petals on each flower seem to layer and thicken as they grow.


Echinaceas have done well this year - this plant has been struggling to produce more than a couple of blooms for three or four summers. 

This year it has produced quite a few flowers and the bees love them.

The Japanese anemones are doing well too after a bit of a set back when some of the leaves scorched and crinkled like paper in the bright sunlight.  We only have pink ones now, the whites seem to have disappeared.

Hydrangeas too have been struggling and have needed lots of water.  The blue one above starts out a bright blue and gradually turns to a soft lilac colour.

At the other side of the garden the flowers are pink. All to do with the pH balance of the soil. 

The sweet peas are still flowering and I keep taking off the seed pods to keep them going.

I was glancing down the path towards the gate when I saw what looked like a sweet wrapper, went down to pick it up and saw the little faces of the flowers of this self-seeded viola looking at me.  It is very small and growing in a crack between the concrete slabs of the path near to where the gate opens.  We've been trying to avoid stepping on it as we go in and out of the gate.

Now the nesting season is over the time has come to cut the holly hedge that runs across the top of the garden.

It's quite a task and the cuttings fill at least three garden wheelie bins over several weeks as we gradually empty the bags we store them in.
 
What is growing in your August Garden?
 

19 comments:

  1. Our Zinnias are doing well too and I love how they seed themselves and start new flowers.

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    1. They are wonderful aren't they? So colourful and cheerful. We'll grow them again next year:)

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  2. Zinnias are new to you. :-) They are an old staple, here. But ours this year, are struggling.

    Our Marigolds are super happy! They are simply bursting out of their container. :-) These are in the back patio pots, which I see.

    Out front in his perennial garden, all the later flowers are coming into their own. The Daisies have faded, but the Echinaceas are happy. Soon the Black Eyed Susans will burst forth.

    I'm thinking I will be really welcoming the flowers of Autumn, this year. Welcoming Autumn, even more than I usually do. :-)

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    1. I love marigolds so bright and cheerful. Our daisies have faded early this year too. Have seen many auntimnal signs in the hedgerows already:)

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  3. Like another blog, which used to have quite small print, yours now has delightfully large print! And the photos are also delightfully large. I love it!

    You may not have done anything, to make this happen. The other lady did not. But it is wonderful! For my "old" eyes. :-)))) And I just wanted to tell you.

    Wonder if this happens, for any other readers here...?

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    1. Thank you, glad you like the larger font. I did alter the font deliberately because I have such trouble reading other blogs with smaller print, I often have to visit some blogs a few times to read all the post bit by bit if it is mostly text. I have cataracts so find I have to have large print books from the library or e books where I can enlarge the print:)

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    2. Oh thank you for altering your font! My cataracts are long since taken care of, but I still have difficulty reading, small fonts. I even enlarged mine some, because of how wonderful it looks here.

      A question? Why don't people tend to say something, when a blog, has too small print, for easy reading??? Why? I often do. In a nice way.

      But see, I didn't here, to you. Why not?

      Because we are brought up to be "nice." To not question. To not try to put our comfort, ahead of another person's wishes. Bahhhh-humbug... And as I grow older, I am dropping more and more, of that inbred "niceness." ,-)

      Myself, I want to _know_ how my blog "looks," to Dear Readers. Every now and then, I ask. In fact, I think I will ask again. Because I just did enlarge the font size. But I need to see, if it is large enough...

      Hugs.....

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  4. Your garden looks so full of colour Rosie. I just love the Zinnias - they brought back memories for me as my paternal grandfather always used to grow them.

    Lovely to see your pink echinacea - I used to have one exactly the same but sadly it appears to have disappeared but I do remember the bees loved it.

    So lovely a little viola has self-seeded. I like their little faces :)

    Lots of Golden Rod flowering at the moment in our garden along with echinops - all loved by insects. This year the buddleias are putting on a good show too.

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    1. Thank you RR. I nearly got rid of the echinacea plant last year because it hadn't flowered and looked as if it was on its way out but it was obviously waiting for a hotter and drier summer. We've had lots and lots of bees especially on the lavender plants and they like the Zinnias too. We lost our Buddleia tree this year it was dead and dry and had hardly any root when we took it up it hadn't flowered for a couple of years but the birds loved it as they could perch in it on their way to the birdfeeders:)

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  5. Beautiful shots!

    My gardening skills would end up killing pretty much anything but cacti!

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    1. Thank you William, I'm not sure I could keep a cacti going as I always forget the inside plants:)

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  6. It's all so colourful and your grass is so green. Whi'd have thought that green grass would be so joyful. I don't envy you cutting that hedge. 😊

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    1. The hedge is a bit of a chore, but we do it bit by bit. It's a great haven for all the little birds. We still have quite a few areas of brown in the grass mostly those areas that didnt get any shade at all - the lawns look like old carpets with worn patches:)

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  7. All that essential watering has helped keep plants happy. The packet of seed attached to a magazine was a good way to grow something different and the zinnias look lovely. I'm always trying to add to the garden. I've sown some wild flower seeds in a tub. So far I've got two or three seedlings! A second sowing of sweetpeas has been more successful. I bought some small chrysanthemums to replace violas that had died when a bird uprooted some plants in a pot. Maybe the petals tasted good? We replenish the bird bath with fresh water which often dries up in the sunshine. We're waiting longingly for the rain that has been forecast!

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    1. Thank you, Linda. Our first planting of the herbs and flowers from our free seed packets (it was Gardener's World Magazine) didn't bear anything. Second sowings have produced the zinnias and some salvias but the cosmos and poppies never germinated. We have ben topping bird baths up each morning and the little birds have loved it - saw about five blue tits in the one in the photo yesterday really enjoying splashing around. I think we are getting heavier rain this weekend. the gardens will love it:)

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  8. I will send you some rain over we seem to be having plenty of short but very heavy downpours. I don't envy you the hard work of the hedge but it is beautiful.

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    1. A few cans of your rain would be lovely especially to top up the pond! The hedge is a chore but we like to keep it for the birds:)

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  9. Your flowers have done well despite the hot weather Rosie. I really like the zinnias and don't believe that I have grown them before. Alas! I don't have any flowers in my garden! The plum tree was covered in plums earlier in the year and I had to thin them out. Now not a plum remains. They dried up and got diseased due to lack of water. Water has become a precious commodity to us as we are now on a water meter and every drop has to be paid for. Thank goodness for the water butt and for today's rain! Hurrah! :)

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    1. Thank you Simone. Thank goodness we've had a bit of rain to top up the water butts and make the pond look a bit healthier. We haven't any plums this year either as the cold weather came just as the blossom came out and killed it off. I think we are getting more rain this weekend which will be good for the gardens:)

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