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Lyn and Malcolms Garden Blog
August 2010

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August 31st
The end of another month, and Lyn has been in her garden doing a few alterations with the plants. At this time of year we walk round the garden with a notebook, writing down the plants that will have to be moved, they are either too tall for the front of a bed, or plants are too short and have been taken over by taller plants. You would think we would have got it right over the period of 11 years. 
Still a lot of colour in both gardens, here are just a few of the plants still in flower.

Dahlia 'Pooh'                                                                        Aster divaricatus
 

Lobelia 'Hadspen Purple'                                                    Cosmos astrosanguineus
 

Geranium 'Salome' which was in the garden till today when Lyn dug it up, too straggly, takes over other plants, she said.
I must admit I had seen it coming out through the top of a rose bush, but it had a nice flower, no doubt it will end up on the plant stall.


August 30th
It's feeling a bit autumnal now, we had just plus six degrees centigrade last night in the garden.
With the garden openings finished this year, we get a bit more time to do something different. Lyn said yesterday about visiting Pennington marsh, one of my favourite places to photograph birds. So we were up at 7am this morning, and drove to the marsh. The light was just right, clear and sunny. I have posted a couple of the pictures I managed to get. You may not know that we have a separate website with lots of bird pictures , click here if you want to see more.

A Northern Wheatear waiting for the right conditions to migrate south as far as Africa.


A Godwit which may have returned from it's northern breeding grounds, still has some breeding plumage.


August 29th
Another plant hunting expedition today, this time to 'Hardys Cottage Garden Plants' north of Winchester. Some plants for Lyn, some for propagating from, but none for me. On the way back we made a small diversion to visit a garden at Pilley near Lymington which also opens for the National Garden Scheme.

August 28th
A much better day weather wise, with some warm sun at times.
We spent most of the morning repotting or splitting plants that remained from our plant sales.
We were also able to dead head the Heleniums, which have been flowering well again this year, especially 'Sahins Early'.

August 25th
We were very lucky with the weather on our open days this year. But our luck ran out today with a private group visiting the garden for the 5th year running. It was pouring with rain pretty well all day. But proper gardeners are not put off. It was actually quite a job to get them in out of the rain to have a hot tea and cake.

Lyn directing operations while I was in the dry taking pictures.


Visitors up at the plant stall, deciding which plant would do well in a monsoon climate.


August 20th
Today we did a 247 mile round trip to Bob Brown's nursery, Cotswold Garden Flowers. We have been, once a year for the last 3 years.
We knew we couldn't buy too many plants, as we just do not have any room in the garden.
So we came away with 10 plants.
You can always be sure you will find a new introduction, or a plant you have never seen before. But you have to be a little bit mad like us, to drive all that way.

August 16th
The stars of the show yesterday, which lots of people were asking about, where in the front garden Thalictrum delavayi 'Hewitts double'.
a
Thalictrum delavayi 'Hewitts double' (the tall plant)                      Brugmansia 'Grand Marnier'
 

Looking towards the patio in the back exotic garden


The patio


August 15th
Our open day started off a bit quiet, the weather was quite dull but the sun came through around 12 o'clock, which then seemed to bring more visitors.
We ended up with a very respectable 282 visitors, and yes despite making all those cakes, we still ran out.
Thank you to everyone who came to see our garden, I know several came from quite far away including London !

August 14th
We woke up to rain this morning, which lasted on and off till around lunch time, thankfully not heavy rain.
A few glimpses of the sun this afternoon and a drying breeze meant I was able to run the mower over the lawns, before the showers started late afternoon and into early evening. The rain stopped just as we went out round the town to put out our directional and "Today" signs for the opening tomorrow. The forecast is reasonable, perhaps a bit cloudy early, then some sun and dry for the rest of the day. Lets hope the forecast is right.

August 12th
Made the Plum and Almond cakes this afternoon to ease the time baking tomorrow.
We have had no luck growing the "new" Echinacea, like 'Sundown' 'Arts Pride' and 'Sunrise' at all. Perhaps we water them too much or they are too crowded in our garden. Lyn bought Echinacea 'Tomato Soup' a few days ago, it looks a strong plant, we will see if it survives. 

Lilium 'Tiger Woods'                                                                          Echinacea, Lobelia, Helenium and Agastache
 

The sun shining through Dahlia 'Knockout'



August 8th
Yesterday we had a visit from a Swedish couple and child, they were on holiday in the UK. They where so pleased they had chosen to come to see our garden. We both send our best wishes to you, and hope you arrived home with lasting memories.
Well we are now into the lead up to our last opening next Sunday and we are trying this time, to not run out of cake on the day. All the dry ingredients have been bought, which leaves just the perishables and 50 eggs to purchase.
The forecast for next weekend is good, but we can expect some heavy rain in a couple of days time. Hopefully not too much rain as it will spoil the Phloxes and Lilium.
Here are some more pictures of the front garden today.

The centre bed in the front garden, notice the Thalictrum delavayi 'Hewitts Double' along the top right of the picture. 


View across the top of the well in the front garden.


A view across the centre bed in the front garden.


August 5th
Not much to do in the garden other than keep the plants dead headed and watered. I think Lyn's front garden has now reached the peak of it's colour. Still lots of lilium in flower and more starting to flower. We did have a 20 minute heavy shower yesterday, but it won't have done much good really.
This evening we will be off to put our advertising signs out for our last open day this year on August 15th. We are going to make 15 cakes this time, so that will be a bit of a marathon job to do late next week.
Apologies for more pictures of Lilium, but they are quite a feature at this time in the garden.

Lilium 'Eyeliner' and Agapanthus


Lilium 'Willeke Alberti'                                                                        Lilium 'Tiger Woods'
 

Phlox 'Peppermint Twist'


August 1st
We took a couple of hours off from the garden this morning to visit nearby Longham lakes, to see what birds were about. Lots of baby birds and the highlight was a Kingfisher, although quite distant.
This afternoon we did a check on what lilies we actually have in the garden. The problem is we have had several lilies that we bought  as bulbs last autumn, that aren't the ones we ordered. I hate not knowing the names of a particular plant.
The pictures below were taken today.

Part of Lyn's front garden taken, from the upstairs bedroom window.


The path coming down to the front door


A view to the right as you come down the path to the front door.


The front door from the path.