Established and now blooming beautiful
It’s a lovely time of year in the garden; plants are growing well and either in bud and full of promise or bursting into flower. My favourite flower changes on a daily basis, my current favourite being the irises growing in two dedicated beds interspersed with alliums, another favourite. These beds were created a couple of years ago and they’re doing everything I anticipated and more! Iris ‘English Cottage’ has pale, almost white flowers with a touch of lavender and a strong fragrance. It’s nicely set off by dark-flowered iris ‘Sable’ and blue iris ‘Jane Phillips’. The only problem is the beds now seem too narrow; they’re either side of the access from the drive to the rest of the garden and, as such, a garden tractor-sized gap has to be left. My latest plan is to dig up all the iris on one side and move them into an adjoining circular bed that is currently home to grasses, herbs and, on occasion, a springer spaniel! This will enable me to widen the other iris bed and still retain a gap for the tractor and mower.
I’ve planted out the dahlias, some into a raised bed in the vegetable garden and the rest into a bed in the middle of the drive. This is being filled again with annuals, the same as last year with cosmos, sunflowers, tagetes and anything else I come across going in.
The pond that two of our children dug during the first lockdown is a real asset. We’re adding to the marginal planting and have put another waterlily in the middle. The only downside is blanket weed, which
I gently rake out, leaving it on the edge for a couple of days for any creatures to escape back into the pond, then I compost it.
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