My wife hunts on with Olympic zeal!
The clematis planted among ivy at the bottom of the garden continues its bid to escape into next door’s garden, defying all attempts to persuade it to flower lower down in ours. Other plants are much better behaved, with the osteospermum and a backdrop of the climbing rose on the fence producing the perfect summer scene. On the other side of the pond the standard abutilon gives a splash of red, looking as though it's flowering in mid-air as its stem is obscured by other plantings.
Both the single-flowered and bargain-buy climbers in the front garden are producing wonderful perfume to accompany my wife as she tracks down the latest lily beetle attack. If lily beetle hunting was an Olympic sport she would definitely be a medal contender!
The tomatoes are coming along nicely in the greenhouse and the strawberries continue to crop, producing a few tasty fruits each day. Cuttings of plants taken on my travels have rooted and are growing on, mostly succulents, and when they're a little more established will join the rest of my collection outside in clay pots, which have all begun flowering. There are still a few pots
of amaranthus (love-lies-bleeding) that I potted up to grow on as larger plants that still need planting out.
The collection of miniature cyclamen have had a tidy up after their few months outside and are now on the staging in shade to grow on a little in preparation for their winter display. Also brought inside, tidied and divided, are pots of gold-laced polyanthus, which will stay under cover in order to grow on for next spring’s display.
One of the joys of summer gardening is simply to relax and enjoy the results of our efforts; a stroll around our small garden with a tasty nibble of an alpine strawberry picked still warm from the sun (or even dropped into a glass of white wine) is perfect compensation for winter work.
I must confess though to feeling a little guilty just relaxing as I sat watching a pair of ragged-looking parent sparrows feeding their ravenous offspring on the lawn. It did prompt me to do a little deadheading; a snip here and there is just the right amount of effort at the moment!