We had torrential rain last night so quite a few flowers in the garden are looking a bit bashed and sorry for themselves. I was very pleased that my UFO has survived, this beautiful pink lily type flower appeared last year, well the foliage appeared last year, quite dramatically, but no flowers. I vaguely remember getting a free flower bulb at Harrogate Spring Flower show last year, I think this is it, but I have no idea what it is. The leaves are like an amaryllis, but the flowers are smaller than I would expect, I’m also not sure when the usual flowering time of an amaryllis is, in the UK we only see them at Christmas time! So if anyone recognises it, please tell me!

The clematis is still looking good, it’s like a tower of flowers at the moment, going up one side of the arch, there’s some pinky-mauve physostegia at it’s base which looks really pretty with it.

In the Amethyst & Amber garden at the top, the Echinacea are looking great at the moment, I put this plant in last year and its clumping up nicely. I’ve got a large patch of crocosmia in the AA garden too, I think they might need to be divided in the autumn, they are starting to take over a bit, but they do give a good show at this time of year.

August is a funny time in the garden, when I look at the garden, there is still a lot of colour, but so much is past it’s best or over that the garden doesn’t look it’s best, I almost prefer September when there is still a lot about, but somehow expectations are lower so the garden looks better!

I’ve taken a picture from upstairs to give you an idea of the layout of the garden, so when I talk about areas, you know where I mean! Nearest to the house and not so easy to photograph from up here, is the patio and the rose arbour. It’s actually up about three steps from the house, the whole garden is a series of terraces! An arch leads into this area with an obelisk next to it. Up another 10 steps and the Amethyst & Amber garden is top left, its got eight raised beds and a huge obelisk in the middle. Top right is the summerhouse and the pond, the pond is hidden in the foliage to the left of the summerhouse! There we also have our only bit of lawn, it takes my OH longer to get the lawnmower out than it does to cut it! The chickens are behind the fence next to the AA garden. Then there’s the front garden, which I won’t show you yet as it’s still knee deep in weeds…