Creating Space. ( Woops!)

Freddy and Felix having a play fight.

I have a confession to make, I am  plantaholic. I should never go near a garden centre or visit gardens open to the public, I can never resist buying another plant or taking a sneaky cutting, or  a seed head.

Lucifer and Rudbeckia.

The result of this is a jungle, but the time comes when things get crowded and need dividing, or the plant is just too big for the place that you have set it growing.

This bed needs sorting.

So I am faced with getting rid of stuff or having a new bed dug.

Thalictrum, it's so dainty and a favourite.

The new bed curves round what we call the herbaceous bed,

The overflow bed.

but as most  of the plants I grow are herbaceous we should rename it. I thought it might be a good idea to have a  fence separating this new bed from the veg garden and to stop me infringing any further into the vegetable area. Also the fence would act as support for taller plants which are just too tall for some of the other beds, it is supposed to be for the divided plants, to give them room to breath.

The hedgerow was planted just three years ago, mainly from cuttings.

Somewhere between the planning of what will go where and the digging of the bed I found that I had acquired several new plants, plus one of my readers was able to name a plant that I had spotted in the Florence Court garden, this of course led to an online search for this plant, ( Physotegia). I then discovered an online nursery just a few miles away that not only had this plant but another plant that I was wanting Sanguisorba Obtusa, plus other interesting plants, all grown locally so are acclimatised to our growing conditions. It didn't help that the plants are so reasonably priced, who can resist great prices especially when this site has excellent reviews. So what started out as a search for just one plant has ended up with an order for sixteen plants plus another ninety bulbs. My new bed just has to be the last one, there is no more space, or is there? Maybe some of the bigger plants would look good in the orchard area, but I don't think I will mention this idea to my poor long suffering husband.

At last the carving that Simon did for the garden has found it's home, now all that is needed is another one to keep things balanced.
Everything is so late this year,

Love this colour.

gladioli are only now coming into bloom, like wise Rudbeckia

and Agapanthus,

 the Tansey however is right on time.

One of my favourite flocks.

There have been so few butterflies this year only now are any appearing,

I spotted this beautiful Peacock in the garden yesterday.
 There is also very little fruit or berries in the hedgerows, I doubt we will have any blackberries, it will be a hard winter for all the little birds, and it's not been a good breeding year for the Swallows who have now gathered for their final feast ready for their long flight back to Africa.

Rosa rugosa hips.

The hedgerows are taking on an Autumn colour now,

Devils bit scabious.

lots of purple

Wild Golden Rod.

and yellows, the heathers are looking lovely.

The tomatoes are a month late and they are in the tunnel,  the outside onions mostly suffered from thick neck which means they will not store so I am faced with processing a hundred onions for the freezer, thanks goodness for my Kenwood, and the runner beans have had a disastrous year, so far we have only had one picking although there is still plenty of bloom and there's still time.

Not the biggest crop.

No glut of plums this year either but the soft fruit has made up for that. The apple trees all bloomed well but than the frost came, so apples nil ,but I did manage to get a few windfalls which I turned into

Apple pie, especially for himself.

apple pie especially for Simon after all the hard work he has done creating the new 'overspill' bed. ( Shush, I haven't told him about the new plants yet.)

Eryngium.

All the root veg are doing well, although we had forgotten to plant any turnips , the small white ones, not swede, spurred on by Monte Don we have now sown them, with luck we should have turnips in the new year. We had also made further plantings of the French beans, Cobra, and garden peas, we should get a late crop of both providing we don't get any hard frosts, these are in the tunnel so we are hopeful.

Elphin windmill.

Although our friends have now left we have still had a couple of days out, the latest one was to a nearby windmill which we remembered as a ruin, it has now been restored to it's former glory as part of a community project.

I love this roof which turns.

Old mill stones.