The Cutting beds in July

I like to review the cuttings beds each month as it helps me understand what works and what needs to be improved.  So it is useful that Julie at Peonies and posies also writes about her wonderful cutting garden at the end of the month and this prompts me to do the same.

Wordless Wednesday Views I’m enjoying this week

It is hard to believe that in the very bright sunlight there are actually views I am enjoying.  I’m lying about this being wordless!

In a Vase on Monday – eye protection required

Cathy at Rambling in the garden managed to post a beautiful vase today even if she is hundreds of miles from home!  Our challenge is to find something in our own gardens to put in a vase to enjoy all week.

The cutting gardens is very full of flowers, I’m not keeping up with picking at all so today spurred on by this meme I picked buckets of flowers.  Chose which you like best, and let me know.

It’s raining!

After 9 weeks of high temperatures with no rain at all, today at 15.05 it started to rain.

GBFD – The Garden in the hot Mediterranean Summer

Welcome to Garden bloggers Foliage Day where I ask you to share all or some of the foliage that you are enjoying in your garden this month.  Today I’m going to show you what the plants in my garden look like after two months of drought and temperatures that haven’t dropped before the mid 30’s C during the day and not below 25°C at night.  Many of the plants I’m going to show you haven’t had any irrigation in that time, others have had to have some water just to keep them alive.  But this isn’t a depressing post (well, I hope it isn’t) while taking the photographs I gained some insights into how the garden is and my view of it.

In a vase on Monday – Dahlia joy

Monday has become one of my favourite days of the week since I began joining with Cathy at Rambling in the garden where she asks us to create a vase to enjoy in the house from flowers picked in our own gardens.

It is still very hot so I was up at 5.30am to be able to work a little outside and in before it became too hot.  This is even more necessary on Mondays as it is important to pick flowers before the sun is on them and they begin wilting.  I cut and place them immediately into buckets of water; sadly the myth of walking around with a beautiful trug of flowers would mean that the flowers were dead before they reached the relative cool of the house.

The slope on Thursday A different perspective

It is a while since I’ve posted about the slope.  I did take some photographs last week but then my laptop decided that it needed a rest and wouldn’t work; I am backing up almost every time I use it as I am sure it is going to break down very soon – I’m nursing it along as I really don’t want to buy a new one at this moment (apart from not knowing whether to change to Apple or continue with Microsoft – any thoughts on this would be gratefully accepted!)

Did I mention how hot it has been since we returned from the US?  The slope is perfect for showing you what high temperatures, free draining soil and no rain since the beginning of June can do.

In a vase on Monday – calm versus vibrant

The flowers in the cuttings garden have been so plentiful in this past week; I could have filled a house with vases!  While I was away all the lilies flowers and finished so there will be no vases full of their perfume this year which is sad.  Some of the gladioli are also finished; some I was able to give to a friend and others were used for a religious ceremony, a few I used today and the rest I will try to use during this week, they won’t last until next Monday when I will again join with Cathy from Rambling in the garden for her weekly meme.  This week I have two very different vases; one cool and elegant with just white flowers the other couldn’t be more colourful.

In a vase on Monday – Sunshine orange

I am home after an amazing three weeks travelling in the US; I have to admit that I’m quite tired and would enjoy a few days total rest after travelling so much, I must be getting old!  It is lovely to be home and joining with Cathy at Rambling in the garden to share a vase of flowers picked early this morning from the garden.

I returned to a huge amount of blooms in the cutting-flower beds; my instructions to those caring for the garden while I was away to pick EVERYTHING possible was followed so that new blooms are continuing to be produced.  It was so hard to choose what to pick today so I decided to pick one colour range – orange!