Camelia flowers and other garden news.

The chamomile is looking a bit brown after the winter and I need to sprinkle some compost on to encourage side shoots of new growth. This advise was included on the information sheet that came with it, as was the fact that chamomile does not like stony ground. So why is it spreading quite happily into the stones surrounding it? Uncharacteristic and revolutionary behaviour! (And I spent hours removing stones from its little patch too!) It looks like a tiny section of Dungeness in this view from above.

I think these multi-leaved bulbs are my snake's head fritillaries-which I thought had long gone. I am quite excited that they have come back, as they are so beautiful and strange with their chequered pattern.

And here is the Camelia-the star of the garden this week. It lives in this pot because of its love of ericaceous soil, and it does very well considering. Last year there were lots of promising buds in some late winter warmth, but then a frost-or possibly even some snow, killed them off and hardly any opened. This year it has lots of flowers and shines out pinkly in the sun when it is out.

A view from behind the hedge-the jasmine, which needs pruning but which provided Cassie with a prickly seat for about twenty minutes when I was out there on Sunday! She was trying to retain her dignity but without much success. These pictures are taken using the miniaturise setting on my camera-I like the blurry look of them and the way it slightly distorts the colours.

Flower in focus, fuzzy cat.

Fuzzy flower, cat in focus.

You may be able to see that I have been digging up the path. No progress has been made since last year on how to make it into a proper path, how to mend the shed, etc etc. However, rather than waste the growing season, and all this lovely unplanted space-which will only become covered in weeds, I have decided to make a meadow of annuals. I was inspired to do so by a programme I saw a while ago with Sarah Raven, all about an ongoing campaign to reassign some public planting areas in cities as meadows, rather than either grass or bedding plants. The reason for this of course being the need to provide plants for pollinating insects. It was lovely to see these areas of pretty meadow springing up. I would love to do something like this in Forest School when I finally get it back from the clutches of the builders. In the meanwhile I will test ideas here. I have bought some annual seed mixes and am going to start sewing soon. If you sew seeds in cycles the flowering is prolonged. I really do not know if it will work but it is worth a try!

Squash!

This is the baby of the squashes that will be harvested soon.

This is the squash that is hiding in the honeysuckle so well, that I only discovered it today-that makes four I can use!

This is the biggest of the bunch.
And this one only slightly smaller. I am going to have an interesting time trying to extricate the squash runners from the chamomile-especially as it is so prickly. I think the weekend after next will be gardening time.

I feel strangely nervous that I will not harvest it in time, so I check the viable ones every day for signs of mould or invasion! I have raised them up on pebbles if they are on the ground so that they will not rot underneath. I just found this good website with recipes and info to refer to. Another great site can be found here-Quick and Easy Cooking for Healthy Meals. Lots of recipes and tips for Spaghetti Squash, and lots of other interesting food articles too. And my squash is the Turban squash-not the buttercup as I thought when I first saw the flowers-though it is a type of buttercup squash according to the website.

Amazing Nature

The sights, sounds and smells in my garden this evening.... A crow cawing on the chimney pot, looking down to find who knows what?
The fennel plant absolutely bursting with seeds. I picked some and crushed them in the pestle and mortar. They smell delicious. Andy is going to use some to make some flat bread this weekend. Yum!

The delicate tentacles of the honeysuckle, and its beautiful scent.

The intricacy of the passion flower. I remember when I first saw one of these and how I couldn't quite believe it could exist. And they-well this type at least-grow so easily-as long as they get some sun. There is a little fly on the flower which I only noticed once the photo was uploaded.

The tiger striped beauty of these garden spiders.

I went out there to check on the progress of the squashes. I am not sure when to take them off the plant-if anyone knows this I would be grateful to know! On all of the whole massive plant, there are only two that are big enough to use. Two is better than none though. I just hope my chamomile survives after being used as a squash bed.

Thanks for the lovely face comments below. I wish you could feel the surface of the paint on top of the oil pastel. It is really velvety.

Seeing What's What

The wind blew down my sunflowers. Poor things are all of a tangle, propped on the fence in the hope they will drop their seeds or maybe provide a meal for a fast bird. (They would need to be fast if they were to eat here.) Peeping from under the giant leaves-a squash growing and ripening. I was beginning to worry that none would ripen in time as the weather has turned cool and windy and I think they need more sun to mature. But this one, and the one below are at the beginning of this giant plant, and had been quietly getting larger without me noticing.

Sunset apples seen over the fence.

And a collection of clouds in the sky just behind.

So many lovely things to see and all in my garden.

Thank you for the kind comments yesterday about my paintings!

Garden News

We came back to find that the squash has turned into a monster! It is right across the chamonile and almost into the honeysuckle. It has loads of blossoms and a couple of baby squash already showing. Amazing what can come from one tiny seed.

Below is a drawing to show the various plants. The bag of compost is gradually being used up. The tree stump has loads of sprouts which look really good against the fence. The path is what I need to decide about next. Not sure what to do with it. Any ideas?

The red sunflowers are lovely. Especially with the sun shining through them. They have loads of flowers on and more still to come.

I have been doing lots of felting and making myself laugh at what appears! I will show you tomorrow-after I get back from Rye. My friend and I are going for our summer holiday browse around the junk shops, though I am determined not to come back with anything too big! Last year it was a ladder, formerly used for apple picking. It stood in the little gap between bathroom and sitting room for most of the year-coming out at Christmas to be decorated as an alternative tree. Recently though I have put it to use as a bookshelf next to the bed and it works well.

This week has flown by. Time always does that towards the end of the holidays! Oh well.

I did do a bit of work today as I suddenly had a feeling of panic. It soon went though as I think I have done enough really and need to get back into the place now before I do much more!

Back Again!

I have had a productive few days and feel more like myself again. I have been really appreciating the garden-so many things going on. I don't know how people with big gardens keep up with it though as there is always something to do and it is only small! I love my geraniums-there are a few varieties and they all seem to love it here so I know I can safely add a new one now and again. I love the fact that you can just cut them back and they will flower again.

Luckily the cats have been sleeping a lot, as the Robin continues to chirp every day on our fence.

As promised-a couple of pictures. I managed to get these yesterday, after trying for about a week. Can you see his little damaged tail? I wonder how he did it.

Wet Weekend

A 'wet weekend' is defined as 'a very boring or disappointing experience or person' by this online dictionary. I don't know about that, but it is not the best occasion for washing all the Forest School clothes-this lot just had to stay out on the line until today when they were almost dry. Three loads later of washing, hanging, turning inside out and back again, folding and putting in bags, they are done, and going back to school tomorrow. This week should be about enjoying the company of the children for a last few days before they go off to next year, but it becomes about frantically trying to get eveything finished! Oh well, I shall enjoy the days anyway. The wet weather is perfect for the garden and it looked very lush this weekend. I have planted my first experimental lemon thymes-I will see how they go before I get more. The fennel is amazing-and every time I look at it I think of the lovely word 'umbelliferous' (not sure if that is the correct spelling)

The sun came out briefly, and caught this terracotta flower. This pot has one weed in it(and not even a very nice weed)-it is a wall hanging pot and used to have something better than that-I must replant it!

Another view of the fennel.

Behind it is a pot of cerinthe seedlings which I have dug out of the proposed path. I have laid the dried plants around the garden as I really like these flowers and they seem to self seed easily. I also scattered allium seeds around everywhere in the hope they would do the same.

I have grown Verbena Bonariensis from seed before and it is quite easy to do so. I bought these plants from Great Dixter and they have done really well. Even the one that looked dead for ages has recovered and grown huge. The flowers last for ages and at the moment they are gradually dropping, so scattering little purple flower heads all over the dark earth which looks very pretty. The chamomile is doing so well and has spread to fill all but one tiny gap. It is very thick and springy. I need to look up how to care for it in the winter. I took some verbena and some chamomile cuttings the other day-I am a bit hit and miss with cuttings-I don't always remember to look after them.

An arrangement of little bits and pieces that looked good after the rain. It really brought the colour our on the piece of wood.

I will pretend I meant it

I will pretend that the effect stumbled on by mistake when idly fiddling with photo shop was deliberate. The girl is from a painting of my fairy feller doll (one of my first dolls and my favourite I think) (inspired by this painting with the big legged ladies) She is cut out,(in a virtual way) made into a stamp, stamped black, then overlayed with a texture from Kim Klassen and a photo of Angelica growing on Sheppey. Then I will pretend that the way the garden has suddenly bloomed all in different shades of purple was planned all along. Actually, it may be down to Jenny's good taste in plants, (Jenny is the source of a lot of my plants!) and liking for purple that this has happened. The sun was shining tonight when I got home and I took yet more garden photos as everything looked lovely!

The wisteria was already here, the irises are Jenny's and some from school (the darker ones), the alliums are a present from Jenny and the cerinthe was from her garden.

Tea in a Strawberry Cup

Wisteria buds-I must have pruned it at the right time last year as it is flowering at the same time as everyone else's!

I like the way the Spring mainly starts off white, then moves onto yellow then blue. Pixie hat bluebell.

Voila! Swept and tidied. I still have some sorting of pots to do, but it is better than it was. I have kept three flower pots full of dead grass for the cats. Lily is using one here.

This doesn't look much but represents three days of work! I finished off by raking it and am proud! I deserved a pot of tea after all that digging and raking. I popped to Greenwich this morning to get some postcards to send to a friend's friend's children. The market is on Thursday and I do find it hard to resist. I was quite restrained, what with all the money I am about to spend on the garden, but this tea cup and saucer caught my eye.

It is so pretty and nice to hold with a strangely large handle.

I don't know how long it will last as I seem to be breaking a lot of things this week.

The price tag was tied on with this little ribbon.

This round window is lovely isn't it? I like the design and the way the light catches in different places in the triangular panes. It reminds me of a diagram I once produced as part of a management training session (when I was briefly in management!) representing people's different styles. It turned out the management team were all, with the exception of two people, people pleasers (as in this is their prime motivation) ''Good!' I thought.

A dark and dramatic print of some explorers.

A table of rather undignified dolls-not their fault of course.

Strange mixture of metalwork and baby dolls.

Great pirate chest!