A June miscellany 1

I've finally gone through all the photographs I took in June, many of which I never got round to posting here. So these aren't on a theme, except they show the garden, and some are from up to two or three weeks ago, while others are more recent.

Two geraniums - one wild, self-sown (Geranium robertianum, above), one cultivated, with larger blooms (unknown variety). The latter is very attractive to bees.

Cosmos! A favourite of mine. Easily grown from seed - I've raised over 40 plants with no difficulty this year - and in three months already starting to flower. They also have lovely feathery leaves, as seen in the upper photograph above. This flower is the variety 'Picotee'. I also have plain pink and white ones - though only a white one is flowering otherwise, so far.

Roses are my top summer flower, and I have quite a few dotted around the garden. The top two photographs show the same flowers, a few days apart. I don't know the variety, but it is a lovely rich burgundy, quite small. The lower one has massive magenta blooms with a strong perfume. It might be 'Fragrant cloud'.

The first alliums are done - 'Purple Sensation', I believe (the top photo is from over a week ago; the back garden ones flowered around a week later than those in the sunnier front). But other varieties are coming into bloom to replace them. The lower pictures show A. cristophii, which has striking metallic lilac star-shaped flowers on large, low, open heads.

The peonies started opening a couple of days ago - the buds have been developing all month, ants harmlessly gathering sweet secretions from their surface.

Foxgloves have come back nearly every year I've lived here. This time, they were smaller but more numerous.

Long days

We're approaching midsummer - astronomically speaking. The whole of June is light here, with 16 3/4 hours between sunrise and sunset at the start of the month, and twenty minutes more around the solstice. You can easily get up and go to bed and see no darkness - and it's wonderful.

And the weather has been wonderful too. For the first time since late September 2011, there's been real heat in the air, and day after day of languorous sunshine. Heavy soil virtually covered by plants holds its moisture well, but even so I've needed to water a bit in the last couple of days - and the greenhouse has needed attention daily, although that's no hardship when it gets to over 30ºC in there (I love heat).

Last night I popped out after Gardeners' World - 9pm! - and still did some planting. It doesn't get fully dark until around ten thirty, so you feel there is always enough time to do everything. I'll do a post on vegetables shortly, but here I'll share some photographs I took at dusk. The garden has a particular character after the sun has set - fragrant, poised, almost sighing in relief from the day's heat. Hopefully these capture some of that feeling.

Red valerian (Centranthus ruber) growing round the base of the house is now coming into full bloom. There are two forms here, a paler magenta, and a richer red.

These blue geraniums were a gift many years ago. They form massive clumps, and I tried to remove them, but they have returned. They look perfect for a short time, which I intend to enjoy.

Self-sown foxgloves return nearly every year. These ones are stunted, but still welcome.

 Purple-podded peas are now in full bloom, looking as good as the sweet peas that will come later - and still growing strong.

 Allium 'Purple Sensation' is still holding on. Beneath them, other varieties, planted at the same time, are starting to show buds.

 And underneath the alliums, the self-sown forget-me-nots I transplanted from a raised vegetable bed are showing no signs of going over.

 The dwarf lilacs have super-sized blooms this year. They will soon turn brown, and need to be removed. The sky here is still bright - even at 9.45pm.

A hint of the future - the garden's first roses are opening. This is a low-growing white floribunda type, with a gentle fragrance.

 The other, years-established alliums - I forget the variety - are looking better than I expected.

This part of the garden has run over into a meadow - couch grass seemingly losing to Geum urbanum and creeping buttercup. They complement each other, but I will clear them once their insect-friendly blooms have finished - they are simply too invasive to keep.

The first day of summer

For me, June is summer. Any definition of the season that says more than half of this month is in spring makes no sense to me.

And it has certainly felt like summer today. There was a cool breeze, but it was sunny most of the day, and in sheltered spots it was very warm. The garden was full of insects, and the summer flowers are taking over from the spring ones. Here's a selection of shots from the front garden - which has, mostly of its own accord, developed a colour scheme of pinks and purples, as it does at the end of spring every year now.

A rare wide view of the garden. Here you can see self-sown red valerian in the foreground, which grows as a weed here, but fills gaps in concrete and walls very usefully, and provides colour and nectar, attracting butterflies, for months on end. Lower left are chive flowers; mid left is the structure I built for my peas. In the background, you can see harmonious purples of alliums, tulips, and columbines.

The above three pictures are the alliums I planted round the base of the quince tree. This is 'Purple Sensation'. Note the pale blue self-sown, but transplanted, forget-me-nots in the background.

The tulips 'Black Parrot' have held on for nearly three weeks. I will definitely be planting more of these for next year.

I planted a quince tree just over a year and a half ago. It's doing well and is covered in blossom, which looks great - pale pink cups - but doesn't smell very nice. I'm hoping for fruit this year.

The ornamental lilacs form the middle of a loose hedge, giving some privacy from the road in summer. This year blossom has been less abundant, but I'm not sure why. It is still pristine, and gloriously scented.

More alliums - this time I think is A. christophii. I planted them around 8-10 years ago, when I completely replanted the front garden, and they have returned in greater numbers every year since - this time, there are around 10 flowerheads, though they are never as large as newly-planted bulbs.

The purple-podded peas have grown fast, and are now about three feet tall. They betray their variety with splashes of crimson, like here, where these leaf-like projections meet the stem.

 

I didn't harvest all the garlic I planted the winter before last, and it started to regrow. So this spring I transplanted them, and they have continued to grow. This one has begun to flower - forming a 'scape'. I harvested this (which prevents the bulb becoming exhausted) and chopped it into pasta. The peas have been using it as support.

The garden's next star - a peony - is nearly ready to open.

Aquilegia (columbines) are native to the garden - they sow themselves around every year. They are probably descended from cultivated varieties I've grown in the past, but they tend to revert to this classic, deep purple, or sometimes pink. Their time is short.

One last allium - chives! They are just as pretty, and the flowers can be used as a garnish on dishes, such as poached eggs.

Growth

This exquisite wallflower is in a garden just down the street - aside from raising my spirits every time I pass with its rich colours and sweet scent, it's inspiration for my own garden next year.

This is the best time of year to me. From mid-April to perhaps as late as early July, there's maximum daylight (increasing during most of that period), everything is growing - seeds sown germinate in days, perennials come into leaf, often into flower, and the garden seems to change visibly day by day. There's no hint of the decay to come, it's all positive - although weeds grow faster than the plants I've chosen, and the vegetable garden isn't offering much for the first few weeks.

 In my own garden, a second variety of potted tulip, 'Black parrot', is coming into its prime - totally different to the last one, equally luscious.

 Even the emerging buds are beautiful, the colour beginning at the ruffled edges, the central petals changing from green to almost lemon, before assuming their final burgundy hue.

I've been getting on with a few things. Mostly just tidying, removing dead materials left over from winter (hopefully any invertebrates have come out of hibernation), mulching, reorganising. But also, sowing - cucumbers, for instance - and repotting the flowers and vegetables I'd sown earlier in spring (chiefly tomatoes and cosmos). I've also taken inspiration from my first tulips (see previous post) and planted bulbs for later in the season - dahlias, lilies, and other tender exotics.

My cherries are in full bloom. The fan-trained tree usually flowers first, but both are at the same point this year, perhaps due to the delayed spring. The last sunshine catches the free-standing tree, while the rest of the garden is in shadow (the terrace, behind, needs a lot of work).

I also finally sorted a project I'd had in mind for at least a year - a pond. I have a large plastic 'pot' (it's a bit too big for that word to seem entirely appropriate), originally bought to be sunk into the ground and restrain a tree, but which has sat, full of dug-out garden soil, for a couple of years. At last I emptied it, then filled with water. I discovered a plant I've had on my windowsill for a couple of seasons, Houttuynia cordata 'Chameleon', will grow happily in waterlogged conditions, so I've floated it at the edge, secured by a wire (it'll either cover the ugliness with fresh growth, or I'll find a more permanent solution). I ordered three more plants, which arrived and were plunged in today - Butomus umbellatus (flowering rush, with lovely pale pink, allium-like umbels), Caltha palustris (marsh marigold, with lush round leaves, and bright yellow buttercup flowers), and Pontederia cordata (pickerelweed, with pale blue flower spikes).

H. cordata 'Chameleon' is both a culinary herb - prized in Southeast Asian cooking for its fishy aroma - and a very attractive foliage plant. Note the improvised wire support, and the lovely texture of the pond's surface.

 Aquilegia (columbine) season is beginning - this unusual variety has self-sown into a neighbouring garden. Sadly they don't come true from open-pollinated seed, and the ones that return every year in my own garden tend to be plain purple or pink - though still lovely.

 But at last, one local self-sown plant has made it to my garden - Meconopsis cambrica. Unlike its Himalayan relatives, this native poppy has orange, or occasionally yellow, flowers. Delicate, and lovely - I'm glad I didn't weed the driveway recently.

Payback

When I returned from my week and a half away, things had changed. It felt like the time of year at last - everything had grown, the trees and shrubs were bursting into leaf, dandelions were blooming everywhere, insects filled the warm air.

Here is the essence of the season, the highlight of the current garden, and the biggest inspiration at the moment: my first tulips are in bloom. In fact, a single 'Purissima', a bag of which I bought for 30p two and a half years ago, planted in pots, enjoyed, dug up, stored, and replanted in haste last April, has returned - a single perfect cream bloom. But the ten pots I filled back in January have started to flower, so I thought I'd share:

This variety is 'Apricot Beauty', and what a beauty it is. Pale pinkish-peach, lightly streaked darker pink, perfectly formed and with a luminosity that looks good all day long, whatever the light and weather. They won't last long, but they are exquisite right now.

Spring at last

So I did the typical blog thing of saying I was back, and then disappearing for a few months. But not to worry, here's an update.

Spring in the UK was severely delayed, with unseasonably cold weather holding on into April. So a lot of sowing, planting, and flowering was held back, although it may end up having been of use - the weeds have been slower growing, and fruit trees may produce a better crop, if the summer is reasonable.

Here are a few photos from around the garden, taken a week ago (I'm away at present). Hints of life.

First, the tulips I planted back in January. I got ten pots done in the end, which was only half of the bulbs I had (I ran out of containers):

Perennial herbs are sprouting. I have a large lovage plant, which produces intensely savoury leaves for stews and sauces. I've never noticed before how pretty the emerging stems are, though:

And mint. I split a Moroccan mint plant into four last year. One pot went outside, where it was massacred by snails, and the other three thrived in the greenhouse, but ultimately died. So the outdoor one won, and will be split shortly so I can ensure a large enough crop this summer:

(There's also a lemon balm, which is doing well).

I have two cherry trees, entering their fourth spring. I'm hoping at last to get a crop from them this year, but flowering is two or three weeks late. The buds are still tight:

Sowing indoors has continued despite the weather. These broad beans are the best I've grown, strong and healthy, and ready to plant out (and there are some more purple-podded peas, lower left):

And my tomatoes. I didn't sow them until the start of the month - scandalously late, considering I started them in mid-February last year. But they should catch up by midsummer: