Through the garden gate July 2016
The garden changes so much each month ! Compare the images from last month it is amazing how the plants have continued to grow taller, despite less rain and the day-length slowly decreasing.
We are now enjoying Campanula Lactiflora Lodden Anna flowering in all it's glory. The soft pink bell-shaped flowers dominating most of this image below, are magnificent. I gave half the plant the Chelsea chop back in May so hopefully we shall enjoy more flowers as these ones fade! This border is also full of cosmos, penstemon, phlox and the purple Verbena Bonariensis.
In the border that edges the field, we have tried to capture a more wild feeling with the colours blue, white and yellow dominating. We moved a bench close by, and I have found pleasure in sitting in the early evening sunshine with a glass of wine, watching the insects close up enjoying this area too.
The sweet peas have also been at their best. The smell of them always evokes summer to me. I seem to have captured a few greenfly in the image too. CT recommended using a natural remedy -10 drops of rosemary oil mixed with water in a spray bottle to remove them.
The stalks of my sweet pea flowers get shorter and shorter as the season progresses. Does anyone have any hints on how to keep them long?
In the cutting border the lupins have been joined by dill, cosmos, dahlias and snap dragons. I get so much pleasure from wandering into the garden, scissors in hand to bring a few flowers inside to enjoy.
These are some other highlights from our July garden.
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| Artichokes,vebascuim,holly hocks and echinops. |
In the vegetable garden we have had some wonderful yellow beetroot, the tomatoes are just starting to ripen and we have had a good crop of red gooseberries.
This week, walking down to the bay, we noticed the seagulls were behaving rather strangely. Instead of lurking in the hope of pinching chips or ice-creams from passers-by they had all headed out to sea.You have seen this view so many times here before, but never quite like this!
The reason for this soon became clear, as we headed towards the harbour. The sea was literally full of whitebait, which the seagulls were devouring.
The whitebait also attracted shoals of mackerel, and they in turn attracted the fishermen. We have never seen so many people fishing along the pier. The mackerel have just been too easy to catch.
My computer has died, so I am sharing my daughter's computer at the moment. There are many advantages in having one of your children still living at home!
Wishing you a happy and healthy week ahead. Thank you for visiting this area of blog land.
Others taking part in through the garden gate are:-
Coastal Ripples
Margarets patch
Others taking part in through the garden gate are:-
Coastal Ripples
Margarets patch
Sarah x
Love your garden and its spectacular colour. We are beginning to get tomatoes ripening now. Don't you love summer's bounty?
ReplyDeleteFantastic fishing, I see why you said that my middle boy would like it there. That tomato looks phenomenal. Is it being grown outside? And what variety? I imagine it will taste delicious. I'm not sure it's possible to stop the sweet pea stems from shortening. I had fantastic long stems a couple of weeks ago, but as you say, now they are getting much shorter. Your achocha look amazingly healthy. Mine are rather yellowed and battered down at the allotment. I'm growing oca this year. We were given five little tubers at the seed swap we went to. I have very high hopes for them. We shall see. Your garden is looking absolutely gorgeous, you have clearly been working very hard on it. I can imagine how lovely it is to sit there in the evening. CJ xx
ReplyDeleteThe tomato is a Black Russian and has been grown in the greenhouse. Your achocha looked much more advanced than ours. I saw Caro was still picking her fat babies in the autumn so they will be a welcome crop then! Sarah x
DeleteOh Sarah, your garden just takes my breath away. It is simply gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteSweet peas were my mother's favorite flower.. I wish I could give you a hint on keeping the height, but I really don't know the answer.
Thank you so much for sharing this beautiful post..
blessings,
Penny
Just stunning - both the gardens and the bait. I wonder what was feeding on the mackerel besides the fishermen. Must have been some leviathan after them.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the tour. I love the colors in your garden!
ReplyDeleteDear Sarah,
ReplyDeleteLooks like summer is at its best at your place - loved seeing all your beautiful flowers growing in the garden and your produce. So lovely to be able to go out and pick a ripe tomato.
Have a great new week
hugs
Carolyn
Your garden is beautiful. I especially like your lupines. I recently found your blog and enjoy it very much.
ReplyDeleteCarol
puretsimple.blogspot.com
Hi Carol welcome we share some similar interests, it's nice to meet you. Sarah x
DeleteThe garden is beautiful. I too love sweet peas, they just sum up summer xxx
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pictures, thanks for sharing them with us.
ReplyDeleteSo lovely pictures from your beautiful garden...pretty colours!
ReplyDeleteHave a great week, take care.
Hug,
Titti
SO much beauty in this post Sarah. I love your wonderful garden. The flowers are a worthy reward for your hardwork and nurturing. The veg are brilliant-wow the beetroot!!!! I've tried to grow cucumbers and leeks this year as well as the strawberries, raspberries, courgette, runner beans and tomatoes I tried last year. You are right about the difference of a month-my tomato plants have reaaaaaally gone for it and the leeks too!
ReplyDeleteHow cool are the Whitebait???!!
Growing your own great-tasting veggies, this is super!Alas,our gardens are enormously stressed this year by lack of water.
ReplyDeleteHappy new month and bountiful harvest.
You have lots of lovely colours in your garden, Sarah. My sweet peas are grown at the allotment, they do really well there, but the stalks do get smaller as the season goes on. I don't know how to keep them long, I wonder if feeding them would help?
ReplyDeleteHere's my Through the garden gate post for July http://margaretspatch.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/through-garden-gate-july.html
Your garden is looking fabulous. Really love that Campanula, I shall be on the hunt for it.
ReplyDeleteWE LOVE mackeral! I used to broil it and we'd enjoy that with beans and rice and just love every bite. What a glorious scene to see all the people fish...yes dearest, the garden is changing, and I want to document what I see. The cycle continues, and each moment must be embraced. Enjoy it ALL.
ReplyDeleteI think whitebait are best caught with a net and cooked as soon as possible, having first been tossed in breadcrumbs, totally delicious !
ReplyDeleteWe did see someone throw out a huge net to catch the whitebait, they must have had quite a feast. I'm not keen on the taste of most fish despite living by the sea. Sarah x
DeleteThere's always so much happening in your garden!
ReplyDeleteYour garden is looking really lovely - I always use a very diluted mixture of washing up liquid on my greenflies - it forms little bubbles around them and suffocates them apparently!!!
ReplyDeleteIt is always exciting to see shoals of fish in the sea and watch the reaction of other animals. I have seen the pilchards arrive in Cornwall creating great excitement amongst the seals, and some small silver fish in Florida being scooped up in beaks full by Pelicans.
I think you have a lovely garden, beautiful photos, also of the seaside and the fishing people.
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks beautiful. My garden is very small this year. Those seagulls looks great in photo. I bet it was quite a show to watch them.
ReplyDeleteEverythings looking lovely in your garden ,someone told me to keep feeding the sweet peas through summer,which is what ive done,but there still short ,so not sure really sarah,xx
ReplyDeleteYour garden is looking beautiful. My sweet peas are just starting to flower; it's the first time I've grown them for years so I'm interested in any tips for looking after them. One year I had them flowering into December so I'm hoping to be that lucky this year. My 'early summer' aquilegia's are still flowering so I imagine anything is possible!
ReplyDeleteOh how lovely! My garden is a complete wreck this year between the cats trying to catch the hummingbirds and the dog who seems hell bent on chewing up every shrub and trampling everything else to get to the shrubs. GAH! Why on earth did I even try to have a garden with all these animals tearing around the yard?! xo
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful selection of flowers and vegetables in the garden at the moment. Your colours are much more pastel than mine. I love the idea of your evening bench to watch insects and sip wine. My vegetables are being plagued by pests too. Will have to get some Rosemary oil. B x
ReplyDeleteSuch a lot going on in your garden, most of mine has gone over, not much colour except for annuals in pots, I never quite get the hang of planting for colour all year round. I loved the picture of the whitebait. I am particularly fond of fried whitebait but didn't know what they looked like swimming about - now I do.
ReplyDeleteWonderful shots. I take it that the 'Chelsea chop' is not a reference to the behaviour of their football players? Amazing to see all those fish! Is this somewhere near Golden Cap?
ReplyDeleteNo Chelsea chop doesn't relate to the football players, it relates to the time of the Chelsea flower show and this is a good time to reduce late summer flowering perennials to make the plants more bushy.The cliffs with the seagulls was West Bay or fictional Broadchurch. Sarah x
DeleteHello Sarah, love seeing how your garden is transformed from month to month, it's always a joy to see new flowers growing! Sadly I do not grow any vegetables only flowers. My front garden is a sea of cottage flowers taller than me, 5"2 which isn't hard but they do look lovely!We blessed to live so close to the seaside and enjoy the ever changing scenery that the sea gives us. Have a lovely week. Sharon x
ReplyDeleteYour summer garden looks wonderful .... & very interesting to see the seagulls diving for the whitebait ... The fish are sitting ducks!
ReplyDeleteHello dearest Sarah! Thank you so much for coming to visit my blog. I know, there are so many social media outlets and I can only concentrate on two, maximum! I'd rather be by the sea or take to the lake any day....enjoy the weather!
ReplyDeleteYour flowers are looking beautiful ♥
ReplyDeletesummerdaisy.net
Hallo Sarah, dein Garten sieht wieder wundervoll aus - die Loddon Anne ist ein Traum. Ihr habt einfach das richtige Wetter. Obwohl es diese Woche recht kühl war - aber sonnig. Hast du mich winken sehen? Ich war da - ich liebe Westengland! Allerdings sind die Straßen so voll gewesen, dass wir unseren Plan nicht einhalten konnten. Ich habe im Fernsehen gesehen, dass die Regierung plant, für Südwestengland eine neue Straße zu bauen bis London. Nun frage ich mich, wie und wo sie das machen wollen? Das wird sehr schwierig werden.
ReplyDeleteAuf alle Fälle waren die Gärten wieder wunderschön und in Devon habe ich seit Langem einmal wieder einen Garten besuchen können, den ich noch nicht kannte. Falls du mal Lust hast: Der Headgardener von Garden House ist nun berentet und hat einen eigenen Garten (Wildside Nursery). Der Garten ist ein Traum!
Sigrun
Oh, your garden is so beautiful! The sweet pea flowers... we planted it for the first time in our small vegetable garden and it did not work well :( , but next year we'll try it again.
ReplyDeleteYou have a lovely and refreshing blog, a place to come back again.
Nice to meet you :)
Hi Sarah, your garden is just beautiful. I don’t have any tips on keeping the sweet pea flowers from getting shorter because whenever I grow them, the same thing happens. To be honest I thought I must be doing something wrong but perhaps not.
ReplyDeleteI’ve never seen so many fish in one small patch of ocean, how incredible.
It's romping away, those boarders are packed to the rafters! My sweet peas are the same, do you think it's because they are growing so rapidly, they know we are going to pick them!? ;) xxx
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks beautiful with al the flowers and vegetables. Everything is growing so fast now, We were in France for 3 weeks and the garden looks exploded when i came home:)
ReplyDeleteOh, how pretty the garden looks.
ReplyDeleteAmalia
xo
Keep on working, great job!
ReplyDelete