Garden Update

 

I don't seem to have done a blog post on the garden at home for ages!

Climbing Hydrangea has put on a wonderful display this year. The flowers are covered in bumble bees, solitary bees, hoverflies and flies.  Strangely we hadn't seen any butterflies on them until a Painted Lady appeared! You can see how much pollen the flowers produce from the top of the greenhouse!

I used to grow sweet peas every year but for some reason the last few years I haven't got round to it so this year I made a determined effort!

Years ago (over 45 years now!) when we first got married and bought the house B created a large vegetable plot and we also had a fruit cage at the top of the garden.  We grew vegetables for years but once we had the children we found it was hard to find the time - not so much the growing but the freezing and making jams and chutneys. So B in the end turned the area into a wild flower meadow and mini woodland. I seem to remember I gave up making wine at the same time - it was just far too time consuming when you have a baby and a toddler to look after! In addition, I never managed to make wines as good as my father's were! 

When we were last on the Isle of Wight (2018 I think) D was given a free tomato plant and this awakened an interest in growing vegetables especially when we had the first covid lockdown. So these days he grows a lot on the patio in pots and in the lean to greenhouse.

The pots in the centre contain cut and come again lettuce which is a brilliant thing to grow and in front we have radishes.

The first strawberries are forming.

Shallots, pumpkin/courgette and beetroot. 

Garlic which was planted last autumn and which is nearly read to harvest, another pumpkin and courgette and two pollinator plants one of which is Borage.

In the green house ready to be potted on are a chilli pepper, sweet pepper, sweetcorn, aubergine and tomatoes plus sunflowers.

Looking forward to what flowers come up in this!

Lemon Balm - never grown it before!

An overgrown pond! Somewhere in there are Cuckoo Flowers, plus yellow irises and loads of Water Mint which the bees love.

Speckled Wood on Choisea.

Common Carder on Lavender

Sunflowers

Mint in its own pot!

Herb Pot - parsley actually survived the winter. The new addition is Golden Sage.

We were planning on going to Herefordshire this week. I really wanted to see the flowers in St Leonard's as they had a Flower Festival last weekend.  But yet again I have gone down with cellulitis - I have been given some antibiotics but have been told to try not to take them unless it gets worse! I should try ibuprofen first to see if that helps bring down the inflammation.  My last blood test revealed I am slightly anaemic which I think can cause recurring bouts of cellulitis. I have another blood test next Monday. I am glad now we made the effort to go out more in the last few weeks while I could walk! 

Photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera except for the Painted Lady butterfly photo taken by D with the Canon SX50HS bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).

First week of June

Another week passes - I really must make the effort this week to try and go out into the countryside for a walk although the weather doesn't look promising.

A few pictures first of garden flowers - apologies again as this post is going to be much the same as the previous ones!

The white peony in the herbaceous border is now flowering.

Canterbury Bells - we have white ones and blue ones.

Pot Marigold or Calendula

I am sure someone in the past has named this plant for me but yet again the name eludes me!
Edit - Thanks to Bovey Belle I now know this is Yellow Loosestrife

Mock Orange

Foxgloves

Red Valerian which always reminds me of holidays in Cornwall. I bought these plants hoping to attract Hummingbird Hawkmoths and in the past they have visited but not so far this year.

Geranium

I seem to have lost my "Ladybird" poppy but this white one has survived and now has buds.

Pale pink fuschia which forms a deciduous shrub rather than the plants of the red, maroon and pink variety.

A new hoverfly for the garden - Dark Wasp Hoverfly - Chrysotoxum festivum

Tree Bumble Bee on Water Avens

A few moths from when I put out the moth trap last week

Common Carpet

Edit Thanks to Edward Evans for correcting my id - this is Spruce Carpet

Straw Dot

Speckled Wood - the only butterfly species I have seen round the garden in the last week.

I've noticed bees on the beech hedge a lot recently and think they are searching for honeydew from aphids. This Tree Bumble Bee on a shrub in the back garden was doing a weird waggle dance and I think too it was eating honeydew.

B and D have been busy gardening - mainly vegetables. Tomato plants are now in pots and the remainder will go in hanging baskets where they did well last year. Runner Beans, courgettes and potatoes are planted and here we have some cabbages and swedes.

I forget to mention in my last post that sadly none of the Blue Tit chicks survived. As far as we could see only the female was visiting the nest so yet again it appears something happened to the male. She just could not seem to find enough food to feed them.




Blackberry Flowers

Broad-leaved Willowherb

Herb Robert

Cats Ear in the lawn - unfortunately no sign of the Fox and Cub seeds germinating.

The small area of woodland at the top of the garden is looking a trifle overgrown! Still it will be good for wildlife.

Recent Reading

This was the best Midsomer Murder Mystery so far.

I enjoyed this book a new author for me as it was "different". If you like reading about bees, badgers, scarecrows, walks in the countryside, witches knickers (you will have to read the book to find out what these are!), cats and eccentric families etc. etc. you may enjoy this book.

Baking

Gingerbread House and biscuits made with the left over dough.

Choc Chip Cookies made by E.

We have put the flowers we pressed from the garden earlier in the Spring in a book.

Journal - have more or less at the moment given up on the drawings!

D and I have gone through some more old family slides. These are Dad's from an Isle of Wight holiday in 1960 so I would have been 7/8.

Carisbrooke Castle

Osborne House

Whippingham Church

Winkle Street

Me in the sea at Shanklin. Can anyone else remember those awful swimming hats and bubble costumes we used to wear as children in the 1960's :(

Me and my brother at Blackgang Chine

Me and Gnomes also at Blackgang Chine

Mottistone Manor

The Arch in Freshwater Bay which has now collapsed into the sea.

St Agnes thatched church Freshwater

Yarmouth

Mom and me Shanklin Beach

My grandfather and me again at Shanklin

My mother, paternal grandparents and me at Shanklin.

Out of all the holidays when I was a child the Isle of Wight ones are the ones I remember most. I am pretty sure we visited in consecutive years staying in Shanklin and Ventnor. I was hoping we might get most of the slides done while D was on holiday but there are still dozens of boxes and to be honest going through one box a day is enough as Dad's are in metal boxes that he used to slot into a slide projector and we are having to remove the metal mount off each slide so that it will fit in the scanner :(




I am hopeful we may be able to go to the static caravan in Herefordshire in early July. The first visit though will need to be arranged as we still haven't got the keys for it and will need to "meet" the site owners to get keys, pass for the site etc. I shall be glad to go there if only to get rid of the boxes and bags full of kitchen and bed items that are still littering the house! In view of this I really have to start making the effort to go out walking more away from the house and garden.


I hope everyone is staying safe and well. Take care.



Photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera. Slides of Isle of Wight taken by my father - from memory he had a Koday Retinette 1A? camera.