Living in a Box

Last Day of July - Random Photos and an update

The beautiful Mystery Rose that I bought last summer. She's doing really well.

Well...time really gets away from me. I think of all these wonderful things that I'm going to write about in the blog, and then - poof ! By the time I sit at the computer (usually late in the evening) there isn't a living cell left in my brain. Not one. Where do they go ?

So I thought I'd show a few random photos from the last few weeks. Nothing in particular.

Summer arrived in our neck of the woods about 2 weeks ago. It's been wonderful to be so warm. I'm such a ninny in the cooler weather. Actually, it's been very hot, but we've had some good showers in the last few days. Much better for the garden than tap water.

My life is busy - it always is. The grandchildren keep me on the go. And, of course, it's the school holidays, so my hands are full. We spend a good few hours in the park every morning. Then home for lunch and a rest, before doing something together in the afternoons.  My house could do with a good clean !! There doesn't seem to be time to get into the nitty gritty of cleaning while the children are here. Oh well...the dirt's not going anywhere. It'll still be there when I finally do have the time to tackle it.

(Photo above - hollyhock seedlings waiting to be planted out in September).

I cleared the little bed to the side of the house - it was 4 ft high with weeds. I am ashamed. Or I was. I'm not anymore. I've planted it up with impatiens, campanula, spirea, ageratum, dianthus, petunias - probably a few other things as well. It looks very nice - peaceful and calming. I can now walk past it without hiding my head.

The garden is flourishing - and very full. I started to thin out some of the plants last week. It was just getting too crowded. I have realised that I'm a collector of plants. I want to grow everything I can get my hands on. This is all well and good if you have a couple of acres, but when you have a tiny hanky patch as I do, it's not a good plan. Of course, I love what I've done with the yard, but its looking a bit crowded. So I'll continue to thin things out until it looks a bit calmer.

I said I wasn't growing any veg this year - just not enough room. But, naturally, I sowed tomatoes (tumbling toms), various salads, and the courgettes from hell ! We have been eating them almost every night for the last 2 weeks. And I'm giving away courgettes at every opportunity. That'll teach me to plant 6 seeds.  The tomatoes are just now setting fruit, so they'll be edible in a couple of weeks. I pick the salad leaves every day - delicious.  My herbs are doing very well in their pots, and will need repotting at the end of this year. I'm sure they are all pot bound.

Look who's peeping out behing the impatiens - Mrs Hedgehog. I find her in the most unexpected places. Meg moves her around the garden every couple of days. I never know where she'll turn up !   

Lottie news and a Good Clean Up

I had a chance to do a bit of much needed work in my little patch this morning. It wasn't raining !! So I dashed out while Erin was having her morning nap, and had a good clear up. I had such a lot of dead-heading to do - so many flowers were soggy and needed removing. A few plants needed pulling out altogether. I had to pot on a few things - why did I plant 6 (yes - six) courgette seeds ? Who knows. We'll be eating them till they're coming out of our ears !  They're all flowering well, and will be producing any day now. My tomatoes (only Tumbling Toms this year) are flowering.

I managed 2 hours before Erin woke up just before lunch, and the garden looks so much better. I carried on this afternoon - with the girls as my helpers. Meg (4) tries her best, but Erin is a nightmare when I'm trying to get any jobs done. She wants to eat everything in sight. I have a large clump of chives, and I allow them both to eat as much as they like. So Erin actually sits herself down in front of the clump and chomps away.  They love chives - but their breath - whew !

It was cool all day - and threatening to rain. But it didn't - which is good. The garden needs a chance to dry out, and it needs some warm sunshine. Please.

Look at the profusion of blooms on the lovely "Just Married". It's a wonderful rose - I love it.

I have never seen as many bumble bees as I have this year. They are very busy here - all day, every day.

I took the photos as the sun came out for a short while.

I managed to speak to our Allotment Officer - and yes...I did a bit of pleading and smarming (I can really smarm with the best of them). But it doesn't look as though the neglected allotment will be mine. They have written to the lottie-holder, who has yet to reply - but there are a few more people on the list before me. So...if the lottie-holder is giving up the allotment, and if the folk on the list before me don't take it up - I will get it. A small chance - but...sometimes miracles do happen...so I haven't given up hope yet. I'll keep you updated.

General Catch Up

Just a general catch up today. I am so busy at the moment - looking after grandkids, housekeeping, gardening etc. etc. You know how it is...especially as we move into warmer weather. We always seem to be doing something. Baby Erin is walking now, and needs constant watching. I need eyes in the back of my head.

The weather is really improving here in Oxfordshire. Mind you, we have had such a lot of rain in the last few days, and it's set to continue for the next week. The little garden is sopping wet. I picked an armful of flowers this morning. I don't normally pick for the house, but they are being ruined by all the rain, so I thought we would enjoy them more in the living room. They look lovely...and what a sense of satisfaction to know they were grown from seed by my very own hands.

This is one of the most wonderful sights in the garden right now - well...to me it is. Last year I planted so many crocosmia bulbs that I thought I would have a wonderful display. Not even half of them came up. The few that did grow formed a small clump (I'd wanted a large drift). but they didn't flower - not at all. I was very disappointed, but that's a gardener's life, isn't it. You can't win them all. This year, however, the clump has doubled in size, and there are flowers appearing. I'm absolutely thrilled !!!

Another thrilling sight are the flowers on the Day-lily (Hemerocallis). I put a very small plant in last year - I think I bought it at a garden sale (can't remember).  I split it in 2 as it was dying down in the autumn. I now have 2 clumps - large clumps, flowering profusely. Wonderful.

The next photo is Cerinthe (behind the Sweet Williams). I've never grown them before, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I sowed a lot of seed (late), and this was one of the packets that came free with a gardening magazine last year. I thought I'd give them a try. They are doing really well. The photo was taken at the beginning of last week, and they are now about to flower.

The garden is looking lovely - like a real cottage garden...just as I want it. But no matter how I love it, I stand drooling at the back fence, looking out at the allotments just 30 feet from my back door. Oh how I want one. I've noticed one of the lotties, the nearest one to my house, hasn't been worked at all yet. I'm wondering if the allotmenteer has given it up. I'm going to phone the allotment officer tomorrow and find out. If you hear any whining coming from Oxfordshire tomorrow, it'll be me. I may have to beg a bit.

If I can't get the allotment this year (I'm on the l...o...n...g waiting list), I thinking of redesigning the back garden, and going for raised beds - might even turn the whole thing over to veg next year. I'm seriously thinking about it. Of course it would involve a discussion with the owner - who might not be too pleased with my idea. But if I can guarantee that we'll leave him with a clean and tidy garden, as we found it, he might go for it. When we moved in it was half paving slabs and half lawn (not very good lawn either). We'll see what happens.

I leave you with our latest stir-fry. My grandchildren do not use woks for cooking purposes - they grow their salads in them.

Roses - The Prince's Trust

I wanted a climbing rose, and this one is very sweet. I hope it's a fast climber. It smells wonderful, and looks really nice against the back fence. I can't wait to see how much it grows this year. Its supposed to quite a prolific bloomer.

Its still in it's pot. I'll leave it as it is for this summer, and repot it next spring.

Roses - Queen Elizabeth

Meet Queen Elizabeth. A very lovely floribunda. I wanted a pink rose, and this one is just perfect. Very regal and stately as one would expect. We are very much amused.

   

Roses - Just Married

Good morning folks. Well...I said I would show the new roses that I got recently, so here goes. I'll show each one in a separate entry - otherwise there will be too many photos to load in one post.

This little one I just couldn't resist. It's a floribunda called "Just Married". When we got it home, there were a few small buds on it. I was dying to see the open flower...so curious to see why it was called Just Married. Well...when the buds opened, it was perfectly clear. There was so much frill and flounce - the flowers look like a pink negligee. Very, very pretty.

I'll continue to grow it in a pot as I will want to take it with me when we buy our own home.

I was browsing the local charity shop the day after I bought this little rose, and saw the perfect container for it. It's a bucket ! Love it. Baz has already drilled a few holes in the bottom, and I hope to replant it later today.

So there we have it. Just married and her bucket. All she needs now is a mop, and she'll be set for life. Yeah...right. 

June Almost Over

Yes indeed, June is almost over, and I don't yet feel as though summer has started ! It's just not warm enough for me. I really hope the temps pick up soon. We've also had some awful winds during this last week.

The garden is coming along - everything is growing well, and I'm quite pleased so far. Of course, I've overplanted - as usual. But I can always thin things out if it gets too crowded. I'm going to insert some random photos here and there as I type.

The herbs are doing very well - they have all come up again, and I'm using them in the kitchen. Yummy. Lemon thyme is one of my favourites.

The courgettes are doing well - in fact, the photo below is from last week. I've potted them on since then into individual (larger) pots. The hot peppers are also growing away, and are almost ready to pot on too. And I've succumbed, and planted tomatoes - tumbling toms and lettuce. Lettuce hope I haven't left it too late. It's killing me not to have a huge veg garden. I am a veggie gardener at heart, and I would gladly give up all the flower growing if I could have a decent veg garden. But I know the owner of this house would NOT be pleased if we dug the little back garden up and turned it over to veg. *sigh*. I had a lot of success with the few veg I grew last year - we were eating salads right into the autumn. Thankfully, I'm a very patient person, and I know my time (and house) will come ! Maybe next year or the year after. House prices are starting to come down slowly. We wait.

The garden is ablaze with colour at the moment. I'm loving it.

Hanging baskets are doing what hanging baskets do !

I was a bit late with a lot of seeds that I had planned to plant in March/April. Early spring just got away from me. I've sowed the seeds anyway, and they are all coming up. Let's hope we have a mild autumn then I'll get to enjoy the blooms.

I got a few new roses, as a present from my lovely Mother ! I'll show them in another post. I'm thrilled with them - they're my new babies, and they are in for a lot of pampering.

So...that's June in a nutshell. I'm really enjoying my little patch - I'm out there fiddling for at least an hour or two every day. Hubby wonders what I can find to do every day. But we know that a gardener's work is never done, is it ? And I can always rearrange the pot plants. 

Rain...and a Walk round the Village

My last post was on the 3rd June...and on that day, Oxfordshire had almost a month's rainfall ! It was horrendous. Luckily, there was no flooding in our immediate area. Further south there was a lot of flood damage. The next day, I got stuck into the garden and cleaned up the mess. There were so many wet, soggy flowers lying on the ground. I trimmed away as much of the damage as I could, and, hopefully, everything will come back as good as new. Annuals do well from a good trim, so the garden should be full of colour again before long.

One day last week, I went for a walk with baby Erin in the pushchair, and my camera in my hand. I think passing motorists thought I was a crazy woman, standing on the side of the road, clicking away. Erin slept from the moment we left the house, so I made it a really long walk...an hour and a half. Did me good.

I thought I'd share a few photos with you.

The little brook running near the house. Last year, when we had the floods in July, this brook burst its banks, and the water caused a lot of damage to surrounding houses. If you look at the photo below, I took the photo above standing looking over the railings on the right of the house. That house, which is the Old Post Office of our village, was flooded. They had a couple of feet of water in it. Awful.

The photo below was taken during the floods last year from the other side of the house looking down towards the brook.

It was a bad time for a lot of folk who lived near that harmless-looking brook ! 

The house above is really old - parts of it are from the Tudor period. I actually took the photo very quickly, trying to hide myself behind the shrubs. I would have appeared very rude, standing right in front of the house taking a photo, wouldn't I ?

I love this little cottage (above). It looks quite shabby on a rainy day, but when the sun comes out it is so appealing.

My walk took me along the path near our park...

...and through some little back country lanes...

...and across the brook again (looking over the other side bridge).

Here's another house I love - very old too. We have such a mix of old and new here. I prefer the old.

And another very pretty little house.

I hope you enjoyed seeing just a very small part of our village. I must do this again, taking another route. I thoroughly enjoyed taking the time to really look at the houses near our little box !   

Erin has just had her lunch - which she didn't want. I ended up giving her a baby yoghurt ! She is teething, and miserable. She's playing with blocks near my feet.

I'm sitting at my desk, near the patio door, watching the rain as it comes down in torrents on my little garden.  It has rained so much in the last week. The ground is saturated. This latest deluge started in the middle of the night, and has not stopped since then.

I can see foxgloves, weighed down by the water, bent almost double. I really regret not tying them to stakes. I hope I can save them. I see petunia petals, sticking together...looking tatty & wet. Everything out there is drooping...sagging...collapsing. And there must be half an inch of water on the paving stones. A little lake.

I really hope it stops soon. I need to get out there and tidy up the mess.

Update on the Mimulas

I said I would post an update on the mimulas, so I took these photos this afternoon (a very overcast, grey day!)

I seem to have far fewer yellow flowers than I did last year. They are so pretty - the yellow ones - beautifully speckled.

I have actually added a new category just for mimulas as there have been so many searches for them.