The garden is starting to look really colourful now, not in a brash sort of way, but flowers are quietly starting to appear. I’ve planted quite a few geums over the years and I’m sure I’ve pulled lots up the following spring thinking they were weeds, but at least two plants have survived and their orange flowers are brightening up the Amber and Amethyst garden.

My cammassias have come into flower, I love these, aren’t they beautiful, I bought them a few years ago at the Harrogate show, I still can’t quite believe they like my soil so much, they really don’t look like they would like heavy clay, but they are thriving!

The view from the arbour where I sit and have a cup of coffee is starting to look nice…just have to ignore the weeds til after the local show!!!

The hostas are all coming into leaf and still looking good. We do fairly well with hostas, they don’t usually get too holey from slugs (touch wood!) I think a mixture of chickens, toads and occasional hedgehogs keeps them under control.

Last year I planted a flowering cherry. It’s right in the top corner of the garden, it’s actually in the chicken run so it’s very well fertilised!! We used to have an elderflower there and it finally  died so I decided a flowering cherry would be rather nice up there. I chose one that has burgundy coloured leaves, pink double flowers and good autumn colour, as I thought that gave interest in three out of four seasons. It’s just started flowering, we’ve had a lot of wind and rain this week so it’s a bit weather bashed, but still looking very pretty.

The lawn finally got it’s first cut this week when my OH spotted an opportune moment between showers, Rosie likes it anyway!

The pond area looks really pretty at this time of year, another couple of months and the pond pretty much disappears behind the vegetation. At the moment the dicentra has just started flowering and the Solomon seal is still looking good, I usually find in a few weeks time it is totally shredded by sawfly, but I just cut it back and it comes again next year as if nothing has happened. The perennial wallflowers are starting to flower and the self sown aquilegias are appearing everywhere!