At last

At last colour is beginning to arrive on the left hand side of the garden. Around the base of the magnolia great spikes of purple have appeared – the sage.

Further along the garden, beyond the pergola & the white lilac, against the wooden fence, a splash of pink has appeared. It’s a clematis. This variety has huge flowers, the spread of my hand, deep pink in the middle of each petal with a white edge. There are several flowers which really makes the splash.

A few unexpected plants have appeared too. There’s a yellow iris escaped from the central lozenge of the garden, beneath the rowans. There’s also a deep pink foxglove. They seem to be appearing naturally all over the place. A few were planted on the right side, but the seeds seem to have spread throughout the garden. I can’t complain unduly. I do love foxgloves & these are a particularly rich colour.

The lavender beds are in bud. Soon they will open up. Then I feel the garden will well & truly be in its summer attire. As it is the roses are starting to put their noses above the raised beds revealing their creamy white flowers & perfuming the air with their sweet scent.

Meanwhile the Fox is daily watering all the pots. We seem to have been having a spell of warm, dry, windy weather, just right to dry them all out. We don’t bother watering the main beds. I tend to take the attitude that if they can’t survive a few weeks without rain we’ve planted the wrong plants. I know the ground remains very wet just a couple of inches down, more than enough for most plants.