End of Month Review - June 2012

and so we reach June.  June, like May and April has been largely wet but has also had some rather nice warm days.  Latterly its been stormy and quite windy, not very keen on this development and hope it ends soon.  It means the garden is struggling to stay upright in places.

Anyway, the garden in June is looking like this:

The front garden is looking reasonable at the moment.  I am likely the Rosa Leda by the front gate, this year it is really growing well and covered in flowers.  The pink dianthus is filling out the centre of the knot garden well and I will be planting some white dianthus in the outer triangles soon.  They are currently still in the greenhouse as they have been grown from seed and need to get a little bigger I think before I put them out.
On the front door step I have my Thompson and Morgan trial pots.  They are full of begonias, petunias and geraniums.  Of these plants I only traditionally like the geraniums, but I am enjoying the colour of these more than I thought I would (though I am still viewing the petunias with a bit of cynicism).
The gravel garden (corner) is looking mainly green.  The mexican daisies are doing very well this year but the rosemary has been flattened by the wind and rain.
Another Thompson and Morgan trial plant, I have pots of these geraniums by the back door, I like them a lot (Saxonia Red).
The view as I approach the back garden is dominated by this massive cardoon.  One of the first plants planted in this garden nearly five years ago and grown from seed.  It is huge and I remove the lower leaves regularly to get more light into the planting around it. 

The conservatory border is looking lush, but you see Rosa Portmeirion that is bent over from the recent storm.
The sweet peas are slow to get going but are looking good placed near the Chinese Foxglove.
The coal bunker border (well its in front of the coal bunker so what else could I call it?) is looking good, this is the other side with the cardoon in the background.  It is mainly roses, poppies and self sown foxgloves and nigella at the moment.
The poppies in the pond border are doing incredibly well this year.  I am tagging the ones I really like to collect the seed and preserve.  I do pull up the other ones regularly to create more space.
This is today's favourite poppy, the bees like it too.
The pond border is doing well, but still has bare patches where the seedlings have not yet grown into their spaces.  Soon (she says) this will have zinnias and cleomes doing wonderful things in it, soon.
The roses are doing very well this year, this is Rosa Mundi, now a firm favourite.
This concrete planter is under the Bramley tree, it pre-dates my occupancy of the house.  It has species tulips and alliums in it but in the summer I struggle to know what to do with it.  This year it has Thompson and Morgan trail geraniums in it.  They seem to be doing well at the moment.
The prairie borders are coming on.  They have been hit quite hard by the wind too and need more grass planting in them, but I am relatively pleased with them.
This is the grassy knoll by the side of the pond.  It is some of the soil from the creation of the pond that has been grass over.  This year I have sown nigella seeds into it and it is looking really pretty.  I have let the grass grow on it which I do not usually do, but I am liking the effect.
Further around the pond border iti s just a cloud of orlaya, black cornflowers and nigella, all self-sown.  They look amazing and are far better than I could ever have planted.  Very very pleased with this area.
The wild garden is coming on ok.  The nettles etc have settled down a bit and the ox-eye daisies and clover are flowering well. 
The woodland border is doing quite well, it is filling out nicely now though is a little dominated by teasels and poppies at the moment.
There will be medlars.
The Katsura Tree is growing very well, enjoying the rain I think and it has now had a few years in the ground so it is establishing.
The view back across the pond border is very pink with stachys, lychnis and Rosa Munstead Wood.
This is Rosa Hilda Murrell, a new rose in the garden and flowering really well.  I like it a lot.
I like this view too, it is with the pond border on the right and the coal bunker border to the left.  I like the path of grass between the borders and how it opens out into the formal lawn.  I want to shape the formal lawn further, I think there is scope to widen the borders a bit further around it.  That is an Autumn job.
The vegetable beds which are bounded by the Rosa Hyde Hall hedge, which is getting to look a bit more like it will be a hedge one day now.  The roses are putting on great growth and flowering very well.  Next year it might be knitting together.
There will be courgettes.  The vegetables feel like they are struggling this year, slugs and lack of sun is not helping.
I wonder if there will be sweetcorn, my first year of growing this.  You can see how well the weeds are coming along.  I had a guilt pang after taking this photograph so I can assure you there are now less weeds.
and I finish as usual on the pond.  Its full.  It has never been full this time of year before, look at it last June, but it is full.  The dragonfly nymphs have just started to emerge and all is well.

Thanks as ever to Helen for hosting this meme.

Comments

  1. Thank you for that lovely tour around your interesting garden.

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  2. It looks lovely and floral.


    My sweetcorn has failed again this year - second year on the trot. I think it is too windy at the plot, as it seems as though thee wind jusst sucks the moisture out of the leaves

    I havent heard of Chinese Foxglove so will have to investigate that

    Thanks for joining in again this month

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  3. What a lovely garden.
    I love the shapes of the broadest leaves at the base of a cardoon, but like you always end up taking them off to give the surrounding plants space.

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  4. My vegetables have really suffered from slugs and snails this year.It is great when self seeders come up in an attractive combination. I am a great fan of Nigella and like the fact that the seedlings are easily recognisable.I like your Poppy - a lovely intense colour.

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  5. I love your garden tour. Especially like your coal bunker border! :-)

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