Not a Show Garden View 3

My ONE Digitalis Purpurea (Common Foxglove - is there one that isn't common?) has thrived (there used to be some by the stone wall) ... it looks resplendent in front of a movable Van Gogh picture frame. Sometimes called fairy fingers, fairy gloves, fairy bells, floppy dock,  tod-tails!  I would like to see a field of them!

Who nibbled the lower bell?

Beneath the Breezeblock wall is bedrock which I scraped clean five years ago. It was covered in chicken muck, bones, oyster shells, metal nails and things and blue string.  I exposed the rock and scraped out soil and started to plant seeds or sprigs of rockery plants.... some died, some survived. I have been planting 'iris roots'  which have grown abundantly. I can never keep the stems from flopping over.

Unfortunately in this area grow nettles, buttercups, brambles and other wild neighbours!

Above and beyond the wall is wild, wild, really wild orchard land belonging to my neighbour. I absolutely love that she does not tend it.  BUT that acacia tree has to go! It has been pushing the breezeblock wall which is now about to fall over. She says she takes full responsibility. I presume the deed will be done at the end of Autumn! I shall weep for the Acacia, the sky, the land and I don't know how long the roots will take to die.

The tree roots spread into my garden and this is why my potager is drained of nutrients. I let four others grow because they were beautiful when young, their leaves providing visual interest and shade... but have since cut them down. 

Their root system is phenomenal. The wood is very hard. It can be burnt but gives an acrid smell. There are different varieties of Acacia. Lovely in the correct setting! I don't want the tree to come down as it provides a lot of interest for me but the boundary wall has to be rebuilt at one end. I don't wish it to topple on anyone!

Not a Show Garden View 2

The rose/lavender border was measured and dug about four years ago before the lawn took hold and the concept/size has developed over time.  Last Autumn I widened it from 1m but ran out of energy only being able to dig for 30 minutes at a time. I got about 10m along,  so the Italians finished the last 15m length for me1  It is now 1.50cm wide.  BUT I must keep the edges straight!
Nearest the house is Sorrel which I dislike but make myself eat occasionally in an omelette!
This year I managed to find a beautiful rose that I had in the previous garden called Tequila Sunrise, still small but should reach about 1.50cm height and spread.
Then this year I put two Gaillardia plants

before the  David Austen Rose: Benjamin Britten - pink

 after which is a deeper hued David Austin Rose - Chianti  - I adore the rich dusky hue.  In this photo it is looking too bright.

After that are two blue Ceanothus bought at different times. I can't work out if they are the same variety. I know they are too close together so will risk moving them in Autumn. Must dig in old horse manure. Must learn to prune so they get bushy.

Then sandwiched between three (looks like two)  Laurel which E. told me to hard prune or dig out, is a small Choisya being dwarfed by it's neighbours. I intend to move this further up the garden. Waiting for rain to penetrate the soil.

Originally, the three Laurel were the start of a hedging plan when I could not afford to do the 25m length. I wanted to conceal my neighbours.  I realised a fence was required in front of the dwarf stone party wall with a wire fence on top.  I quite like the evergreen element and maybe that is good for birds so these unsightly hedge plants which grow like topsy may have to be constantly pruned into spheres as they are more or less central to the length of this border.  After the Laurel is a series of much smaller roses. I had no idea what to buy! I purchase roses by name, colour and try to get ones that are 'remontante', which flower profusely and repeatedly throughout the spring and summer season!

The first is Peter Beales Shrub rose - Hybrid Musk 1928 - 120cm - Francesca ... my grand daughter's name! Funnily, it is very wayward and straggly! I wonder who the lady was that it was named after! Not my g.d.!

then for my daughter Felicity, Peter Beales Shrub Rose - Hybrid Musk 1928 - 120cm - Felicia neat in the pink when it buds!

Then

Peter Beales Shrub Rose  Hybrid Tea 1984 - 75cm
Remember Me
 yet to bloom and looking poorly

David Austin  Hybrid Tea 80cm  

Freedom - yellow
next to
Peter Beales Floribunda Cluster Rose - 60cm 
Sexy Rexy 

Unknown  name  - maybe better in a pot.

David Austin - Olivia Rose Austin 80cm
pink when it blooms

David Austin Boscobel 80cm
red when it blooms

Unknown name

After that are Buddlieas at the wild end of the border...essential for butterflies. I had a splendid one in the Mediterranean styled courtyard at my old house in England.  The main stem was pruned about two feet of the ground and so every Autumn we pruned it back hard... it was a sheer delight every year!  Before the buddleia is a plant whose name I can't find which has a beautiful scent...flourishes well in French towns and stays flowering for a long time.

and after that is a Lamprocapnos spectabilis or Dicentra ( called also Bleeding heart, Dutchmans breeches, Lyre flower, Lady in a bath!)
Must get photo

About here in the border I abandoned the rose and lavender plan. I squeezed in some wild flower seeds, transplanted self seeded poppies, and homed a rhubarb plant. Also have put some sweetpeas to train up an old wine rack...had to attach string to get them to climb.
Must get photos later.

In front of the roses are different varieties of lavender.   I must take cuttings as evidently one should annually to ensure continuation. Lavender gets straggly and can suddenly die off. As they are at least 4.50e a plant I have to make savings! For two years now I have made lavender bags using the coloured bags for putting wedding almonds in!  A 'no sewing' gift! Everyone loved them and they were easy to post!  French Lavender even though Lavender is English!
END OF GARDEN VIEW 2

Not a Show Garden View 1

Here is a cat's eye view of the rear garden towards the potager, seen from the 3m² area of strimmed daffodils and tulips. That was about a week ago! I spent three hours mowing my land yesterday. Over to the left are chicken sheds with no chickens! The brown areas are because about a month ago I used very old weedkiller to control clover in grass though hardly is it the style of an English lawn.  I thought the weedkiller hadn't worked but the evidence is that a lot of the clover appears to have died off but again it is creeping through!  The cut grass/clover was not allowed to be used as a mulch between roses to control weeds so have had to wait a few weeks and mows. Meanwhile it mulched itself!

Behind the camera and me is a stone wall - not my property. There are two plants of Rose Metanoia and this year I can begin to train them on some wires along the wall. I like the way they change from deep apricot to pale pink.

I am inclined to leave the wild dog rose (inherited with the garden) between the climbing roses. Along this wall are a few hollyhocks, lots of yellow raspberries running rampant even though I was brutal to them in early February, yellow Kerria also rather swamped,  a Clematis in hiding which is over-run by the growth of other plants and I can't yet get at it. There was a Passion Flower plant which I think has ceased to exist!  There are a few gladioli and there was Nigella (love-in-a-mist). There were bluebells that I didn't realise were there or were they grape hyacinths but much hidden under the growth of wild grasses and cleavers (goose-grass or sticky-willy being two other names!). There is some mint escaped from elsewhere and I have scattered some wild flower seeds to see what happens.There are two paeony plants... one here and the other by the 'not chicken' sheds.

Rampant raspberries by a bricked up doorway.

I really don't know how to manage this section of the garden!

 

Three nasty concrete plant troughs which were in the front courtyard were brought around to the back garden using the Italian workawayers' muscle power and mine. It was funny and even the French neighbour had a laugh whilst he stopped work in his potager!  I have six strawberry plants in one, lettuce plants in another and 'cut and come again' lettuces and radishes in the third. I even added manured shop compost and expensive garden shop straw which is cut into little pieces into the poor soil.  I haven't had the courage to ask anyone where I can get a small bale but problem solved now as I have used the grass mulchings.

The elder bush encroaches on the path and the washing line and this year bears flowerheads!

I like elderflower heads dipped in batter, preferably deep fried... hold by the stalk, dip in the pancake batter and you could shallow fry... I don't eat the central stalky part but the fragrant flowers are nice!
END OF GARDEN VIEW 1

Sky

out on the bicycle, stop to eat a pear,
lie down upon the ground, stare into the air,
empty the mind of things that really do not matter,
stop words and nuisance thoughts that make a mindless chatter,
conversation flutters like a brimstone butterfly,
dizzy day dreams disappear, Life could simplify,
brilliant cobalt blue above, clouds scud slowly by,
forming changing vapours, castles reaching high,
not a soul around her, 'cept fields and clouds and sky.
LOVE

Vintage Cakes at the CCC

I think baking standards rise. The organisation and hosts were again cool, calm and welcoming. Their efforts to make these afternoons such a treat is very much appreciated!  It seems to be more fun and we seem to be less inhibited about our baking efforts - certainly it is not a competition though there may be some light-hearted competitive spirit!  In fact it can be quite fun when someone else makes the same cake and one confers and compares.  Folk gathered round the table sampling and chattering, so no one really sat outside to relax in the afternoon sunshine. All too soon the bell rang to signal the end of the session and so it was time to take a choice of cakes home.
For me: Austrian Sachertorte was fudgyyummy, Brandenburg was exquisitely engineered, Coffee Walnut was excellent.

I loved the 'better than my grandmother's bread and butter pudding' which was always served as a cake, the jammily filled Swiss rolls and Parkin is always such a treat.

N. made a Caraway Seed cake too so we stood and compared the two. His was more orangey with the Cognac. He could taste the butter in mine. Other than that they taste the same to me. Maybe his was more pointy because of the s.r. flour whereas I used plain and added baking powder. I am uncertain.  We each added about the same amount of Carvi (= Caraway).  I also made a completely gluten free version.

Then there was a Strawberry Cake to die for, an Old Grumpy Aunty Fruit Cake, a moist Carrot cake, another cake of which the description I have forgotten, a Pineapple Upside Down Sandwich cake and a Victoria Sandwich.

17 cakes evidently!

It took a long time to get the photos in this format but not the same as the editorial format. I went into HTML to try and space them in the preferred position but methinks I need a tutorial!

Whilst trying to present a decent posting I was wondering why I spend so much time at it when there are other things in life!!! ... and when I am not getting on with essentials!!!
A: I do it for me as I like being a kind of journalist! It is creative. Creativity is important to my happiness.