Well, our heatwave continues here in the UK with no sign of a change and the countryside is starting to look parched, our grass is looking a bit brown too but I know that will quickly green up as soon as we do get some rain. I’m just watering new plants and pots every few days to try and keep them going. I’ve a dozen plants waiting to go in too, they’re sitting in buckets  and are probably more of a worry!  My pots and planters corner seems to survive OK, I think it’s maybe because it is a bit of a shaded environment, but also they are pretty close together and I think it makes a little micro-climate of it’s own. A new addition to my pot collection is a fatsia japonica, you can just see it tucked in the back corner. It’s a very shady corner thanks to the arbour, the fence and wall and then the sambuscus over the top! I needed a big bold plant as it’s actually quite a big area and fatsias are meant to love shade…fingers crossed!

The day lillies have started to flower, as the name suggests the flowers only last for about a day, but there’s fresh ones every day so the display lasts for ages. I’ve got three clumps, each one different, this one is in the AA garden.

Our summer flowering clematis is also just starting to flower, it’s called Romantica and has lovely deep purple blooms. It’s been there for years. It usually covers the arch nicely but this year it decided it would be much more fun to spread along the border instead, unfortunately I didn’t realise until it had tied itself in knots around the perennials. There’s a reasonable display up the arch  though!

I had a few good early morning session weeding and clearing around the pond this week, I cut down the Solomon Seal spikes, so now you can see the candelabra primulas just in front of Hubert the Heron. I trimmed the hellebore’s old flowers and pulled up lots of weeds. There’s still a big patch round the back but I haven’t worked out how to get there yet, I tend to plant pretty densely to help discourage weeds, which it does, but the ones that survive are the nasty ones which I then can’t get through to tackle!

Tucked away behind the summerhouse is a huge Inula, a friend gave it to me and it’s the only place big enough for it. Behind the summerhouse is a bit of a wild (as in uncontrolled!!) area, this helps to fill it and gives a lovely bit of colour.

The deep border by the patio is looking a bit wild at the moment, this is going to be one of the areas I tackle next year, at the moment I’m turning a bling eye to the weeds and enjoying the exuberance!

Here’s hoping for some rain soon…only not the weekend after next as I’m off camping with WI, 500 ladies in one campsite 🙂