Lyn and Malcolms Garden Blog
July 2010
Previous Months
May
June
July
August
Sept
July 31st
Last day of the month. We did have a small amount
of rain for an hour this morning, but July has otherwise seen hardly a drop of
rain.
Which of course is great for our open days, but gives us extra work watering.
All worth it in the end to have such a range of good looking plants.
Agapanthus just starting to flower
Hover fly on lily stamens
July 29th
We are both recovering from the busy afternoon
yesterday. The lawn today looks as no one had walked on it. The only time we get
any damage is if it is a wet open day.
Late this afternoon I took these pictures in the garden.
Lilium and
Phlox
Lilium 'Sheherazade'
Echinacea
Dahlia 'Pooh'
July 28th
Today we had an open afternoon for the National
Garden Scheme. Last year we broke our record for visitors on a Wednesday
afternoon, when we had 128 visitors. Today we had 200 visitors !!
We opened at 2.00pm, and by 3.30 pm we had no cake left.
What an unbelievable afternoon, and so many nice things said about the garden,
we even had people touching the lawn trying to decide if it was real. And so
many new visitors too. To everyone who came today, a big thank you from us both,
and we hope you all enjoyed the garden, despite it being a "little"
crowded and the shortage of the cake. We really have no idea how many people
will come to the garden on each of our open days, and we could never have
thought so many would have come today.
Our helpers, six of them today, deserve a big thank you too, especially those in
the kitchen. The pressure was on them today, big time.
A bit more clearing up to do tomorrow, then hopefully I can take a few more
pictures of some more of our plants.
July 25th
The day started rather dreary, but by midday the
sun had shown, and during the afternoon we reached a temperature of +26.2c in
the shade. What we have noticed in the last couple of days is a big increase in
bees visiting the flowers in the garden.
The scent of the Phlox and Liliums is quite heavy, I remember on one of our open
days, one of the visitors had to leave the garden because he was allergic to the
smell.
We have heard nothing about the results of the Ferndown in Bloom yet. The
judging finished on the 23rd.
Bee on Helenium
July 24th
The picture below, taken this afternoon from the
bottom of the front garden path, has the following flowers in bloom
Phlox, Monarda, Dahlia, Helianthemum,, Salvia, Achillea, Clematis, Lilium,
Crocosmia, Leucanthemum and Lythrum in view.
There were lots of Hoverflies and some Ladybirds on
the flowers today, a welcome change from the Flying Ants of a couple of days
ago.
Also pleasing to see were lots of Honey Bees on the Monarda and Heleniums.
July 22nd
A few days more and the Phlox in the garden will be
at their best, lilies are continuing to give lots of colour. So anyone visiting
us on our open afternoon next week, will have plenty to see.
Lyn has been busy restocking the plant stall and tying in plants in the garden.
The Clematis have also put on a good show this year too.
July 19th
It was Ferndown in Bloom judging day for us today,
but we are not sure what will happen as Lyn was told, and it was in the local
press, that Lyn's garden would have to go into a separately judged Champion of
Champions category this year as she won the competition last year. Who the other
champion of champions would be in the category, we have no idea, as the new
competition has only been run for one year.
Anyway here is a picture of part of Lyn's garden taken this afternoon from the
bedroom window.
July 17th
We sowed seed from some of the Eryngium's in the
garden last year and today we potted them up into their first pots, they had a
large amount of root compared to what foliage is above soil level.
We have been putting in more supports for some of Lyn's plants, after the wind
of the last few days. It is always a job to keep the supports hidden as much as
possible.
It makes a pleasant change now not to be rushing around in the garden, now that
everything is all set up.
Clematis climbing our neighbours
hedge
Lilium 'Bright Star'
A small part of one of Lyn's front
borders.
Helenium 'Sahins Early Flowerer'
July16th
The wind has dropped a bit now and we have been
tidying up and supporting a few of the plant that had been blown by the wind.
One of the hardest plants to support are delphinium, the only way we have found
is to tie each flower spike all the way up, to a cane, making sure the cane goes
right to the top of the spike. To make the cane less visible we have painted the
canes in a Willow colour, the same as we have used for the front garden fences
and obelisks.
The Brugmansia flowers took a beating with the wind, they get bruised, but there
are more new buds to come, so no great problem.
The Phlox are now coming into full bloom and should be good for our Wednesday
28th July opening from 2.00pm till 5.00pm.
Delphinium 'Pericles'
Eryngium bourgatii 'Picos Amethyst'
Phlox maculata 'Monica Lynden
Bell'
Lilium tigrinum 'Sweet Surrender'
July 15th
Quite a wet night with strong winds trying to
destroy the garden, it did clear to a reasonable early afternoon, with sun and
cloud, for a group on a private visit to the garden.
This evening we have more rain and strong winds.
July 13th
Some rain overnight and a few spells of drizzle
during the day. This afternoon I helped Lyn re stock and tidy the plant
stall. Lots of plants sold on the open day.
The yellow Brugmansia in the picture below was grown from the cutting which was
shown on BBC Gardeners World. being taken from the parent plant in September
2008. So the plant, which I grew as a standard, is just 22 months old, and as
you can see it is covered in flower.
The Clematis in Lyn's front garden are very good this year, lots of flowers. We
did cut them back in early spring rather harder than we usually do. It will make
them flower later than normal, which for us doesn't matter.
Part of the Exotic back garden.
Clematis 'Wisley'
Clematis viticella 'Venosa Violacea'
July 12th
Well I am a happy man, the weather was good for our
open day and we ended up with 264 visitors.
If anyone reading this came to see us, we would like to thank you for supporting
us and helping to raise money for the National Garden Scheme charities.
Not one slice of those cakes was left.
Needless to say that we are both a bit tired tonight, so I will keep this
posting short, If I get time tomorrow I will take some more pictures in the
garden.
July 10th
I made that cake we forgot yesterday, and we both
had time in the garden finishing the hundred and one jobs before the open day
tomorrow. We will be up early tomorrow, first job is to go out in the car and
put up our direction signs on the roads round the town. Thankfully we have
plenty of friends coming to help during the day to man the kitchen, at the gate
and on the plant stall.
I am not expecting to break our record attendance on our same open day last
year, 200 would be nice.
The cakes, some of which still have to be
filled. And new this year, our garden open day recipe book, with 10 of the
most popular cakes we make. All pages are laminated to keep them clean while
cooking.
July 9th
It was cake baking day today, well all morning from
8.30am till 1.15pm, in preparation for our open day we made 12 cakes, each have
10 to 12 slices.
It was hotter in the kitchen than outside, so we were glad to finish, but then realized
we had forgotten to make a 2nd Pear, Hazelnut and Chocolate cake, so that can
wait till tomorrow.
In the shade this afternoon the thermometer reached +28.1 centigrade, mowed the
lawn and dead headed the flowers, the rest of the afternoon was spent watering
the garden.
July 7th
The plants in the garden have had a bit of a rest
from the hot sun today as it has been quite cloudy here.
The lilies in the garden are well underway with flowering. Pretty well every day
there is another in flower, here are a few to look at.
Don't forget you can see pictures of nearly all the plants we have in the
garden, by looking at our Plant
Guide
Lilium
'Sphinx'
And one of my favourites Lilium x pardalinum 'Giganteum'
Lilium 'Regale'
July 5th
A surprise for me today, while getting breakfast I
glanced out of the kitchen window and noticed the Strelitzia reginae in flower,
after at least six years of waiting.
July 3rd
We are often asked if we get bananas on our Musa
Basjoo, well yes and no. Summer is quite short here in England, so there is not
really time for the banana fruits to grow. Occasionally we get a flower head and
very small Banana fruits.
The picture below shows a flower which was hiding just below leaf level when
last Autumn I cut the leaves off the plant ready for putting up the protection
for the winter. A few weeks after taking the protection off the banana plant
this Spring, the flower appeared and has been slowly opening.
Musa Basjoo flower
July 2nd
We had some rain here this morning, not a lot, just
enough to freshen the garden, no watering this evening for a change.
So with nothing to do !! I took some pictures of a few of the plants in
Lyn's garden.
By this time next week the marathon cooking of twelve large cakes will be
finished, ready for our open day on 11th July.
It looks like Lyn will be joining me in the kitchen this cake making time,
hopefully no arguments about me being bossy, otherwise I will be making them
myself.
Trollius europaeus and Campanula persicifolia
Clematis 'Ruutel'
Clematis texensis 'Princess
Diana'
Sidalcea 'Sussex Beauty'
Hemerocallis 'Corky'
