I nearly didn’t write this post as it’s been raining since mid afternoon, but after tea it was more of a light drizzle so I popped out to take some photos. It’s amazing how much everything has greened up over the last couple of weeks with a bit of rain.

I spent several hours in the garden today before the rain came, mainly trying to clear weeds from the front garden. I started my weedkiller spray regime, every three weeks, though after rain this afternoon today’s effort may be somewhat ineffective! I’m hoping this will beat the marestail and bindweed in particular. I’m planning to clear as much weed from here as possible before putting two layers of membrane down and a bark mulch on top, I’ll then plant shrubs and roses through the membrane, anything else which appears will get zapped! I made reasonable progress today – it’s quite a big area.

The hostas are all unfurling their leaves and looking glorious. The ones round the pond usually fare OK, but this one down by the garage gets eaten alive. It was only when I enlarged the photo on the computer that I spotted the snail sitting there bold as brass! I’ve just popped back outside and he is now residing on the back lane, where hopefully a thrush or a blackbird will have him for tea!

This hosta is next to the pond, it’s leaves seem yellow even next to the primulas.

Hubert the heron is on the other side of the pond, he is already disappearing behind Solomons seal and cammassias.

I’ve got quite a few clumps of cammassia now, they seem to like my soil, I love the way this clump mingles with a purple leafed honesty. You may recall I was trying to identify a plant about a month ago, well it’s this honesty!

Yesterday I was weeding down by the conservatory, it’s quite scary how fast the weeds appear, they’re setting seed before you know it! I’m going to have a bit of a move round in this bed as there is a very pretty hydrangea in the middle which is going to be moved. I say it’s pretty, it was beautiful when I bought it about five years ago at the Harrogate Show, one of those plants that people OOh at when you walk past! It hasn’t flowered since,not once! This is the second position I’ve tried, I’ve bought specialist feed…I’m going to try it in a large pot, I’ve been out and bought some lovely compost for it, fingers crossed!

The roses are all leafing up nicely. This one is Lady Emma Hamilton, it has the most beautiful copper orange blooms with a strong perfume. The leaves are tinged with a pretty shade of red.

This is my favourite view of the garden at the moment, out of the kitchen window, the white and blue border just in front is coming together nicely. The lilac just behind our garden is just coming into flower too. We get lots of birds visiting the feeders, they sit on the arch and then pop down for something to eat. This month we were really pleased to see a woodpecker on the nuts, we used to get one visiting the garden a few years ago, but we had to move the feeder nearer the house and we hadn’t seen (or heard) him since. They are very shy, we used to see him flying in from cover to cover, always positioning himself on the opposite side of the tree or the feeder from the house. We’ve also had a jay visit, I’ve seen them on the back lane but this was a first in the garden.

I’ve just been down to the garden centre and bought three wire obelisks, so hopefully next week I’ll be able to show you photos of them in position!