Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Day – After the rains came!

Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Day where I ask you to look at and appreciate your foliage more.  I’m always glad when bloggers that I follow mention that they have been inspired to consider the benefits that good foliage bestows after reading about my approach to foliage.  It isn’t that I don’t want flowers, it is that those flowers usually need the support of good foliage and structural planting to show themselves at their best. Continue reading

In a Vase on Monday – Zinnias are the stars

IT RAINED!!!!!

Yes, the first rains of autumn arrived on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and possibly through Sunday night too; in no way did it spoil the weekend, rather I felt more alive than for a while; the garden heaved a gentle sigh and already there are new shoots on plants that had been hibernating. Continue reading

Catch-up time again 8th September

My last post was IaVoM last week!!  Last week was hectic but culminated in a wonderful few days on the Amalfi coast.  The weather was perfect for our trip and when we returned on Tuesday evening it was to find that the temperatures had dropped significantly; Wednesday the high only reached the low 20’s°C that’s 10° C at least lower than it has been.  Today is warm again but I can see that the plants know that cooler weather is coming soon and there was visibly more growth on herbs like basil.  I’ll try to write a post soon about which plants have come through this summer and what I’ve learned about how they survive. Continue reading