I’ve got a little behind with my blog posts. Not that I’m keeping to any kind of schedule, but I like to keep a record of the changing seasons in the garden and further afield.

So here are some photographs of the garden a few weeks ago, when most of the perennials were reaching the height of their growth. As you can see I don’t plan any formal arrangements, and a lot of the plants here are wildflowers. I don’t have loads of time to spend in the garden keeping it neat and tidy, though I could do with being more methodical. I do prefer the wild and slightly unkempt look of old English gardens.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Quite frequently a certain plant will get ideas into its head that it wants to take over the entire flowerbed – the purple deadnettle or forget-me-not are notorious for this here. I just pull up big sections and they all settle back and work together… for a while.

Having lived here for over twenty years, you get a feel for what grows well and what doesn’t in your soil and position. It’s important for a garden to be given time to settle into its own cycle. You never know what is waiting to emerge. So many of these plants have arrived from seeds blown on the wind, or dropped by birds. Some, like the poppies, only appear if you’ve turned the soil the previous year.

A lot of patience is required to allow a garden to reveal itself to you, rather than try to impose your own ideas on to it. In the beginning I bought a lot of plants from a garden centre which, while pretty and unusual, had the effect of upsetting the balance here. They didn’t look right, they took a lot of extra care and attention, and most of them failed to thrive.

I suppose it is more of a partnership – you work with the garden and it works with you. Though I don’t do a lot of planting now (I work with cuttings or reseed what is already here), it is best when I plant the native British species that suit this soil and micro-climate, or at least those that have been easily and readily naturalised (These orange and yellow Californian poppies seem to love it here. They are not invasive and easy to pull out if I wanted to – I don’t 🙂 ) This way, I am less likely to be disappointed in the long run, and the garden seems to evolve in a more healthy way… better for the plants, and better for the gardener!

It is that time of year again, when every plant in the garden doubles in size if I so much as turn my back – that goes for the weeds as well. I have just spent the last few hours uprooting ground elder and the dried dead remains of spring’s forget-me-nots, and pulling great handfuls of herb robert and cleavers that were intertwining with and choking the shrubs. There are still plenty left for making herbal teas… it’s been a while since I dried some herbs so I look forward to getting on with that soon.

The wee fella in the nest at the top was rescued from the darned cat who’d deposited it on the lawn. She sat there proudly as if we would come and congratulate her fine hunting skills! Instead, she was promptly scooped up and locked in the house while we searched in vain for the little bird’s nest. The blue tit chick was yet too young to fly, so we made a nest in a bowl and wedged it high up in the hedge in the hope its parents would come and feed it. Sadly he didn’t make it to the next morning.

The fruit and veg are coming along nicely. We’ve had a couple of handfuls of strawberries and there are hundreds of blackcurrants ripening on the bushes. The fruiting cherry is a disappointment this year, only a few small fruits forming when last year we had so many. I think I may have to transplant it out into the garden rather than leave it in the pot it’s been in the past few years. It no longer seems happy where it is, perhaps the roots are restricted.

We’ve been eating salad leaves and leeks. My favourite way to eat leeks is to slice them and boil them in the same pan as potatoes, then mash them altogether with butter – delicious!  The kale, beetroot and chard are suffering from the onslaught of slugs, but putting on a brave face.

The flowers are always a joy to see at this time of year. The iris, celandines, foxgloves, fragrant sweet peas and roses are all in bloom. It’s nice to be able to go out and pick a jam jar full of sweet peas to brighten the kitchen table every few days.

I’m afraid with all the rain we’ve had lately, the garden is a bit neglected. I’m regretting leaving it so long. The brambles grow over the fence from my neighbour’s garden and it’s such a tricky job cutting them all back, my arms are scratched to pieces. It’s good work though. The plants are no longer being strangled by the weeds. My body’s aching, but it’s a worthy kind of ache. I’ll sleep well tonight 🙂