Well I think summer may finally be about to make an appearance here in Yorkshire. May has been pretty cold at times, I still haven’t switched the central heating off or packed my winter clothes away. Fingers crossed the weather forecasts look promising!

The garden is looking pretty good at the moment if you turn a blind eye to all the weeds! The aquilegias are all starting to flower, I love aquilegias, there used to be a stall at the Harrogate Flower Show that specialised in them, I used to treat myself every year, but unfortunately he doesn’t come anymore. Some colours have self seeded a little too eagerly, so I’m going to have to move a few. I saw some beautiful cottage gardens at the weekend when we were walking the first half of the Bay2Bay East walk, Grassington to near Thirsk. One in particular was full of beautiful aquilegias, all different colours mixed in together, it looked amazing.

The alliums are all out now, I’m still not sure about the circle of alliums around the patio, it was a good idea but I’m a bit disappointed the flowers only ever seem to half open and they’re a bit of a wishy-washy colour. I’ve also found that alliums at the front of the border are not necessarily a good idea as the foliage is somewhat untidy…maybe that’s why designers put them at the back!!

Isn’t this poppy gorgeous!! It’s a ladybird one, don’t remember planting it amongst my standard poppies but I must have done!

We have two lilac trees in the garden, a white one and a purple one, I’m not keen on the scent in the house but I like it in the garden. Next to the purple lilac is a laburnum tree, well it’s actually in next-doors. It always blooms about a week or so after the lilac, I always wished it would bloom at the same time, thinking the purple and the yellow would look amazing. One year it did…and it just didn’t work, wrong shades!!

The pond is rapidly disappearing from view, which is probably fortunate as its full of duckweed.

I love this plant combination in the Amber & Amethyst garden, dicentra, geums and aquilegias. The garden is starting  to come together!!!