End of Month View May 2011

This is the herbaceous garden this morning, taken from our attic window. The big positive from taking a photo from here is you can't see the gaps in the planting!  The surrounding buildings leave a lot of the garden in shade until later in the morning.

The kitchen garden also photographed this morning. The potatoes in the foreground are doing well and the strawberry patch (next to the greenhouse)looks like it going to give us a bumper crop this year. Some of the fruit bushes and trees have been hit by the recent winds and will require some more pruning to tidy them up. There are also gaps in the spinach and peas where the wind pulled the plants out of the soil. They are now lying withered and forlorn. But on the whole the vegetables and particularly the salads and herbs are doing well and giving us plenty to eat.

The greenhouse is now filled to bursting point and some of the plants need to be moved on. The courgettes and sweetcorn need to be hardened off in the cold frame before planting out in a few weeks. I'm also going to plant some sweetcorn in the greenhouse border as an insurance policy. The weather is just too variable on the east coast of Scotland.

 This is one of the borders with the dreaded "gaps" The Jerlusalen Sage Phlomis fruticosa (front) and Miscanthus sinsensis are growing well although the grass should get to six feet in height at it's best. Behind  the phlomis is the wonderful Honey bush Melianthus major  from South Africa. It needs quite a bit of mulching over the winter but can be grown quite easily from seed. You can spot it in the greenhouse photo at the front with the deeply, serrated leaves. I'm trying to encourage the plant in the photo to put on a spurt before the Open Day in July
The bare earth front right is where several verbena bonariensis grew last year in a swathe of lavender. Unfortunately they are short lived perennials and few survived the winter. Ditto the seedlings that were grown on in pots. They are one of my favourite flowers attracting butterflies and bees in abundance and  the seed heads also  provide food for Gold Finches in the winter. They also self seed profusely. A friend gave me some of her seedlings that were potted on from last year so all is not lost.

 There are large groups of astrantia major in the garden partly because I like them but also because they self seed furiously. I've manage to pot on a large number for the plant stall at the Open Day.

The very beautiful anemone rivulris, with the delicate shading on the outside of the petals. I put several in shady corners.

The amazing Kiwi fruit climbing plant with  oval green leaves and hairy red stems. I saw this in John's garden (http://planticrunotes.blogspot.com/2011/05/johns-garden.html) and like a big kid in a sweet shop, I wanted it. They cover a wall or a fence in record time but alas won't yield any fruit in our climate.

This was sold to me as Iris chrysographes, commonly known as the Black Iris. But as you can see, it's a wonderful velvety purple. I don't mind at all as it is one of the most striking colours especially planted in large groups.

 The Ceanothus or Californian lilac never disappoints. It has grown from a small plant (about 30cm) to the large shrub you see in the photo in only three or four years. Every year it has been covered in flowers of the most intense blue.

That's the garden in a paragraph or two with a few photos. June is often the best month in our east coast garden. I'm looking forward to some warmer weather and some more flowers.