Tuesday View – 30th May 2017

What a difference two weeks makes to the garden when it is hot and dry!  This certainly show how valid this weekly meme hosted by Cathy at Words and Herbs is.

April 7th 2016 Companions for tulips

You will be aware that I love tulips and luckily they grow well in my very free draining soil.  Tulips hate summer wet which is why in the UK it is usual to lift and store them for replanting the following autumn – that is a lot of work so when I lived in England I usually treated them as annuals and planted them in pots.

Garden Bloggers Foliage Day – May

Welcome to GBFD, we I ask you to think about the foliage in your garden rather than the flowers; when I walked out into the garden late yesterday evening to take some images of foliage that was making an impact in the garden I thought that it would be impossible to take any wide angle shots because May is when everything flowers in my garden.

However I was wrong!  The very hot beginning to May has meant that many plants have flowered and have now decided a rest is in order and have finished.

The Slope on Thursday 29th May – Stipa in the Wind

Again a changeable week weather-wise. A couple of day with cloud and a few spots of rain and the rest hot! The images today sparkle with the sun.

The Slope on Thursday 3rd April

It has been sunny and warm and perfect gardening weather since last Thursday but the forecast says it will rain tomorrow and Saturday and the north wind will return so no more lunches outside for a little while.
All of the trees are now showing their new green leaves and the crab apple and quince have flowers!

The Slope on Thursday 10th October

Autumn has finally truly arrived with some rain every day this week; but not all day so that yesterday the weather was glorious warm sunshine for at least 4 or 5 hours, time to get weeding, especially the circular rose bed which becomes very overgrown each year with Gaura growing to about 1.2 plus metres!  Strangling the roses and hiding weeds.

This morning there was pleasant sunshine when I woke but by 9.30 rain was falling again; I just manages to take some photos of the Slope before the wind started making it unpleasant to be outside, who knows what it will be like this afternoon.

The Slope – 2nd July

Since last Tuesday the weather has been a joy.  There were thunderstorms and some rain on Wednesday and Friday but the temperatures have been pleasant – warm but not too hot.  We’ve appreciated lots of delicious meals outside and it has also been nice to sit and read under the Wisteria.

To give a rounded view of The Slope I intend taking photographs at different times of day.  Today they were taken at 9 am.  The sun is already strong, the Quercus ilex throwing dark shadows. There are four large shrubs of this local evergreen oak planted at the top of the slope dividing the slope from the slope path, I chose them to protect the garden from the hot summer wind that comes from the direction of the sea, some 50 km away.

This week’s view of the slope

I have decided to post some images of the slope every week.  It is the part of the garden that changes the most throughout the year.  This part of the garden has large naturalistic drifts of plants, some are wild plants that blow into the garden, like the Verbascum that are about to flower, others are plants that just self-seed and so they choose where to plant themselves.

GBFD – There may be masses of blooms but the Foliage is what holds it all together

The title of this month’s GBFD post says it all really.  When I went into the garden to photograph foliage this morning I thought it might be difficult this month to take images that didn’t feature flowers rather than foliage.  But then as I walked around I was reminded why I had wanted to start GBFD; Foliage is EVERYTHING in a garden.  In some seasons it might be all there is, but when it is spring and the garden shouts with colour and tells me it is truly spring it is the foliage that makes the blooms sing in a harmonious way.

The garden is full of colour, maybe more colour than at any other time of year; yet without the foliage the garden would be nothing!

The structure of the formal garden works all year. Now supporting the white tulips in the front two beds

Structure, form and shades of green are enough to create a beautiful garden

Box needing to be pruned give a slightly wild feel; the pale green new foliage is too lovely for me to want to remove it

The slope is green in a different way; Stipa tenuissima waves in the wind

Silver foliage is a strong part of my Mediterranean garden, the bright spring light makes the silver leaves shimmer and also make a wonderful contrast to Tulip Negrita.

Various Artemisia and other silver foliage plants

Sedum Purple Emperor glows against a santolina

The purple and almost jade foliage of the Sedum is stunning when it is new

Sedum Matrona has pink edges to its leaves which at present are an attraction to many snails

Festuca glauca highlights the deep purple of Heuchera ‘Obsidion’

The bright spring light bleaches the true deep colour of the Heuchera

Heuchera ‘Patty’s Plum’

Remember sometimes to turn your images into tones of grey to help you understand the forms and texture that your plants are creating.

Some large round leaves would be a good addition here.

I think the form of the foliage here, works well with strappy Iris in the foreground, with Cotinus, santolina and Phlomis and a tall stand of Cerinthe in the background.

New foliage on a Mahonia

There is of course the pattern and colour you enjoy only when getting close.

A lot of new foliage is pink or red and not green.  I think this is just amazing

and the foliage of wild lupin is a wonderful pattern

Nandina domestica’s new foliage is as colourful as any flower

Hedges are very important for the form and texture they provide in the garden, the back of my garden Has Photinia, giving orangey-red new foliage which emphasises the colour of Tulips Brown Sugar and gives a good background to the rest of the garden always.

The large tree on the left is a White Mulberry

Please feel free to use GBFD in your own way; to maybe highlight one plant that is making an impact this month in your garden or to show the combinations that work for you.  Please post and add a link to your comment.  I really look forward to seeing what is happening in other gardens.  I hope you are enjoying spring as much as I am.

View of the Day

Small Island, looking east

Suddenly the small island has burst into tones of gold.  Predominately the lovely gold comes from  Achellea millefolium.  There are many new plants that have self-seeded from my original planting.

Can you see the hidden spider

Stipa gigantea

Festuca glauca is flowering, these were self-seeders I moved to the small island.

Kniphofia ‘Little Maid’

Exotic bird of paradise tree