After a slow start, the beans have come on in leaps and bounds and we have already had three meals for three people from them.
Good results down on the allotment too, as you can see from these pictures, taken at Stockwood Park:
Pumpkins
Parsley
Rosemary
Chard
Yes, it’s been a very good summer. Now the fields are golden and the farmers have been busy, bringing in the crops and already there is a slight hint of Autumn in the air.
I’ve completed my journey and arrived back in Tennessee, looking forward to another game of Scrabble with Larry. A while ago he made this Scrabble board because we both got fed up with the restrictions of the usual one. I like this one much better and the game lasts all through the evening, which is a pleasant way to spend time. Larry is my husband.
It was also nice to see my familiar things like this old table, which belonged to my Oma. The table lived in Holland for much of its life, then travelled to England with my mum and finally has its resting place in Tennessee.
I say finally, but then you never know do you.
The lovely knitting needle case on the table is very appropriate for where I am in my life at the moment, i.e. a little old lady with grey hair who spends her time knitting and spinning…
I have lots of dried roses as pot pourri. They always smell so wonderful.
Now I’m going to show you some pictures from the Tennessee garden, through the year so far.
When I arrived I had a very sore back and I’m still suffering with it. However, maybe after a few day’s rest, I will feel better and be more mobile.
I did manage to walk round Joanne’s today though (wink). I love that place. It’s full of gorgeous materials and yarns and scrap-booking stuff etc. All the things that make me a happy me.
The lychnis is pretty in the next picture.
So for the next few weeks I will be blogging from Tennessee. I hope you’ll follow along with me as I live my American life?
With all the rain we’ve had this Spring and Summer, the rhubarb has been wonderful! Only problem has been what to do with it all. My favourite is rhubarb crumble and I’ll be posting a recipe for that in the near future. Meanwhile, it’s going to be rhubarb and custard, a perennial favourite.
The potatoes came out of the ground on Sunday this week. These are King Edward’s. Don’t they look fine. I had a few of them for my dinner on Sunday and they tasted delicious. I wondered if they would be a throw away crop, totally saturated with all the rain, but no, they had grown bigger than usual but they were all ok.
Also in the vegetable garden, there has been an excess of flowers on the runner beans and we have some embryo beans coming along. Look closely at the next picture and you will see what I mean. When my grandson Dylan gets back from Sandy Bay, with his bucket and spade, he will be delighted that his beans are growing strong. I still haven’t told him about the giant at the top of the stalk!
Let’s have a close look at these gorgeous flowers. No black beetles on there yet!
Happy Gardening folks!
Before I start this post, I just want to say thank you to all the people who are following my Blog. I hope you are enjoying it and will continue to visit me in the future.
After our long awaited week of sunshine, flowers started appearing all over the garden. The roses seemed to like the sun and turned their faces to their almost forgotten friend.
This rose, Apricot Abundance, has at last come into its own, although on the second flush it’s more pink than apricot.
Dylan took his turn at watering the flowers and was most enthusiastic about it. Notice in the background that the geraniums are flowering at last!
Dylan was most particular about filling the jug to the top to water the borders. It must have been quite heavy for him.
The next picture shows Dylan standing next to his very own runner bean plant (in the tub). He planted the seeds himself and is watering them regularly. With the arrival of the sunshine, he now has lots of flowers, which will make lots of beans. We await the first bean with anticipation.
I haven’t been so lucky with my Sweet Peas, which are in the smaller tub. They have been a disaster so far. I’ve had one measly flower and nothing since. Oh dear.
and to finish, here is a short video of Dylan with his jug. Hope you enjoy. I can’t help chuckling when I watch it because towards the end he takes the very big green watering can, empty otherwise he wouldn’t be able to lift it and takes both it and the jug to the borders. It’s so funny. See what you think.
Happy Gardening People.
Oma
I had to reach up really high to grab this beautiful climbing rose so I could take a picture of him. Holding him steady with one hand and taking a picture with the other is not easy, believe me but I am quite pleased with the result. He is a little bit ragged round the edges owing to the rain this week, but overall he is surviving nicely and showing off his pretty colours, don’t you agree?
Don’t you just love the contrast in the colours below? The white of the feverfew with the blood red of the Sweet Williams is just gorgeous.
The potatoes are doing ok but the true test will be when I dig them up! I hope they are not rotten in the ground. We have had the worst summer ever in England this year and that’s not just my opinion! Apparently we are importing a lot of vegetables from abroad now because we have just had too much rain.
The runner beans (on the left) have at last got some flowers – now we need lots of pollinating insects to get them going so they set. In the front are some tomatoes – not many flowers yet!!!
The runner beans look healthy enough and most years it is hard to get enough water to their roots, but this year I don’t think I’ve had to water them at all. I can’t believe we were in a drought situation at the start of April! We even had a hosepipe ban!
These Sweet Williams are that cerise colour which looks so good in a fashion show.
…and doesn’t the yellow contrast so well with the silvery green of the dogwood?
In the next picture we’ve got purple and white. White lifts every other colour and what would have been a dark corner is now ablaze. Even some liatris has got in with the feverfew.
During last week we have had far too much rain in the cottage garden. The climbing roses have been doing their best to hang on, but today I cut them back. With luck and if the weather is kind, we may see another flush in August.
The geraniums (pelargoniums) have also taken a battering but now, at last, I see some flowers.
The vegetables have suffered even more. The next picture shows the runner beans this time last year. Notice there are lots of flowers!
Now compare this year’s photograph… too much rain, not enough flying insects to pollinate the flowers. Flowers? What flowers. We are still waiting.
Geraniums
Ivy on the balcony.
Feverfew is abundant just now. It has a lovely, musty smell.
The daisies are hardy and seem to take whatever comes. This year because of the wet conditions, they have grown very leggy.
Have a great week fellow bloggers.
Dylan just loves to help out in the garden, especially on a sunny day! Well we haven’t had many of those lately, so we have to make the most of the ones that we do have.
He loves to plant seeds and water flowers. Here he is watering my Sweet Peas:
He’s a busy little fella, isn’t he.
I especially wanted to show you how he has been learning where his food comes from. Click on this link: to watch a short video of how he learned to shell peas last Friday.
It’s great being an Oma and sharing in the learning process.
Star
‘The botanical name of Lady’s mantle, Alchemilla mollis, means ‘the little alchemist.’ A hardy perennial, it has soft, fuzzy leaves with pleated edges that collect drops of dew, which explains how it earned the folk name of ‘dewdrop’ and ‘dewcup’. This plant bears gorgeous yellow-green, loose and frothy-looking clusters of flowers in the summer, making it very popular in bridal bouquets and floral designs.
If you gather the dew that collects on the leaves of this herb, add it to spells and potions for a boost. Or touch a dewdrop to your forehead for a herbal blessing. Alchemilla Mollis was originally sacred to the Goddess, but as time went on, it became a popular plant in Monastic gardens and later became connected to the Virgin Mary. This easy-to-grow herb is a wonderful addition to the magickal garden. Work the flowers and leaves into spells for women’s magick, the earth goddess, healing and turning up the volume on your own herbal spells. The elemental correspondence for lady’s mantle is water. The planetary association is Venus. In the language of flowers, this herb signifies the comfort of protection.
Ellen Dugan
When I went into the garden this morning, it had been raining. Raindrops adorned many of the plants and shrubs and dripped from the trees, but the most beautiful were the lady’s mantles. This year I intend to move some of them to fill up some empty spaces (choke – there aren’t many empty spaces!) but maybe I’ll find a few.
It is midsummer and what better time to work some spells for the good of other people. Alchemilla Mollis is the perfect choice to use at this time of the year.
Who knows,if you look really closely you might even see a fairy taking a shower as the wind disturbs the droplets.
I love being in the garden, especially on Sunday. It’s like playing with a paint-box, trying out all the different colours. I love to see dark red with silver:
pink with blue:
The Nigella’s or to give them their common name, Love-in-a-mist, are usually blue, but sometimes you get a white one or a pink one. This year I have several white ones and they are prized, only because they are a bit different and they look good with the other colours. White always sets off the other colours nicely. So here is a white one. What do you think?
Today being Father’s Day, I wasn’t in the garden for long, just enough to fill up the dustbin again. I wish the dustbin men came every week to collect the garden refuse in the summer and Autumn.
The Sweet Williams are such diverse colours this year. How about this vibrant pink?
or this more subtle one behind the blue Nigella?
Let’s have a splash of yellow:
and to end with, a medley of them all together!
Hope you are enjoying your Sunday as much as I am?
Star
Oma 