In a field nearby

I’m not at home today to share a vase with you; but I’ve been meaning to photograph and show you the wonderful poppies I pass when I drive into town.

I choose to drive into town on the back road to see the wild flowers

This year the poppies started flowering in mid-March, very early

and more poppies

Poppies

Is there anything as delightful as poppies?

The yearly visit to the Peony farm

I don’t have any peonies in my garden, not because I don’t like them but because their beauty is so fleeting plus they flower at a time of year when there are likely to be many rain storms and wet bedraggled peonies just look sad.

But I do like them and love the perfume of the tree peonies so every year I visit a peony farm not far from us where I can enjoy seeing them without the worry of having them in the garden. This post is for Julie at Peonies and Poses, from the name I’m sure she loves peonies; maybe one year you could visit Julie and see this amazing place for yourself.

Wildflowers in Etruscan places at Easter

The Italians aren’t great walkers; we learnt that soon after coming to live in Italy. Footpaths are rare, where they exist there are seldom signposts and more often than not they are overgrown! To start with I couldn’t understand why but slowly I realised that in winter it was bitingly cold (often) and in summer the beach is much more appealing when it is too hot to do more than sit under a large umbrella.

But we like walking and I also wanted to see the wild flowers to help me understand what grows naturally here. Then we also developed an interest in visiting the numerous Etruscan necropoli in the area. Most are completely abandoned, the archaeologists having done their work of recording their contents and the choice items having been sent to museums locally and internationally the areas are left untouched. BUT slowly the local councils have realised that they have a great incentive for tourists to visit the area, buy quality local produce and use restaurants, hotels etc. So the areas where the tombs are situated often have footpaths to them, usually reasonably signposted and generally the paths are trodden enough to keep them open ah! the perfect place to walk.

The Spring Walk – Still Good!

Despite the rain, despite the hail the Spring walk is only slowly fading into summer.

I am so pleased with this planting although I certainly need to add other bulbs to extend the season, especially earlier in the year. I will add Iris reticulata, maybe I’ll try again with some small narcissus and I’ve already moved some of the winter flowering Iris unguicularis and species freesia to the border. For the end of the season I will add Dutch Iris, probably a mixed pack to keep the random effect going.

The Slope on Thursday 24th April

The weather over the Easter weekend wasn’t as bad as was forecast except Saturday rained almost all day with torrential rain in the afternoon that had hail in it! As I mentioned on Monday, this time the hail didn’t pass me by. I also said that the tomatoes didn’t seem to have been affected, wrong they are covered with white spots, even the stems where the ice hit them, I’m hoping they will recover but this is an example that a gardener’s life is never an incident free one!

Wordless Wednesday – What’s blooming 23rd April 2014

Not quite wordless as there is a need for some explanation.  From now on my wordless Wednesday post will be a record of what’s flowering in the garden that day. 

GBFD – April Exuberance

Spring came early this year, already most of the tulips are over and roses and Irises are taking their place; yet despite the quantity of blooms in the garden it is foliage that still takes pride of place in my eyes.

There is a good reason for this; even though there are large numbers of different plants flowering, the percentage of the garden that they represent is still small in comparison to the foliage!

In a Vase on Monday – third time the luck changes!

We all know the saying “third time lucky!” but the true saying is, in fact “on the third time the luck changes!” And this is what happened with regard to the hail. The first time when there was a massive hail storm 5 miles away it rained here; the second time when there was a light hail fall a little further away, it rained here. But on Saturday when it poured and poured with rain in Viterbo with just a little hail, here in My Hesperides Garden there WAS HAIL.

The Spring Walk April 18th 2014

A windy week has torn the petals from some of the tulips but other have withstood the wind and are continuing to lure me into the garden to enjoy more mixed colour than I’ve ever used before.

The slope on Thursday 17th April

The weather has been mostly cold during the last week, this morning there was heavy frost on the solar panel although not on the ground and the tomatoes are Okay so even the air temperature can’t have fallen to zero. There were more hail stones in the area, not like a couple of weeks ago but I am thankful I was lucky again and that they didn’t fall here. Easter isn’t predicted to be particularly warm and someone commented this morning that it felt more like Christmas than Easter!