Just While the Kettle is Boiling…

That was what I said as I went out the kitchen door with camera in hand, a late evening quick dash around the garden to see what might be interesting. I hadn’t done a lot in the garden today and felt the need to have a look about. There had been an early, for me, start and I had completed the job of turning a compost heap from one bay into the next and I planted a few pumpkin plants on top when I was finished. There were a few seedlings which had been left lying around since I had planted a few on another compost heap a month of so ago. They may come to nothing, or not very much, but I’ll give them a chance, keep them watered etc and, if nothing else, they will keep the heap covered over the rest of the summer.

A view at the bottom of the garden – hostas, day lilies, hydrangeas.

Liatris spicata with Hemerocallis ‘Joan Senior’

The rest of the morning was taken up with a visit to the doctor’s surgery to give a few drops of my blood for the routine various tests and to the pharmacy to collect some medicines – an awful part of aging is that medicines can become routine, something I despise. I know the doctor will give me a call when the results come back to her and tell me my cholesterol is a little high and then repeat that she knows that I won’t take any of those statins and tell me I’m as well off without them! The afternoon was spent shelling and cooking the remainder of the broad beans – falafels this time! And, thankfully, that’s the end of them for this year. They were very welcome when they started cropping, coming at a time when little else was available, but they cropped so well and lasted so long that we had enough of them – a good complaint, really.

A sure sign that the season is moving on when we see Cyclamen hederifolium coming into flower. This white-flowered cultivar is one of the very easliest while some late poppies, Papaver somniferum, are still holding on in flower:

So, what’s looking good at the moment? Agapanthus are into flower and looking well. Allium ‘Mohican’ is an attractive one and it slow to move throught the development of the flower so has a long period of interest. A few late poppies, Papaver somniferum, are still hanging on, late seedlings and a few of the later flowering plants are beginning – Zauchnerin californica ‘Glasnevin’ and Leucojum autumnalis, now renamed Acis autumnalis, a small and dainty member of the snowflake family which we grow on a raised bed and also in a trough.

Mixed agapanthus

Agapantus ‘Kilmurry White’

Agapantus ‘Twister’

Agapanthus ‘Windlebrook’

Agapanthus ‘Black Pantha’

And Allium ‘Mohican’ is just approaching full flowering:

Thankfully, that frightfully hot weather we had during the week has passed and we have had days that are much cooler which makes it easier to work in the garden – and tomorrow, I will do something!

Zauchneria californica ‘Glasnevin’

Canna ‘Durban’

The high grass is turning colour

Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’

Kniphofia ‘Timothy’

Leucojum autumnalis

Lilium tigrinum

Tropaeolum speciosum

Watsonia ‘Tresco Hybrid’

And, by the time I had returned from my walk around the garden the coffee was made and waiting for me!