End of the month view -( a bit late) ...

Not entirely on time with this post and in fact a day late, but the spirit of the thing remains the same ! You will find similar posts  on several other blogs (including 'The Patient Gardener') as it can be interesting to see a snapshot of different gardens with different plants in flower, micro climates, styles of planting etc.

I started at the bottom of the garden and walked up, taking photos as I went, of anything which I thought may be vaguely interesting. Please note artfully arranged hosepipe, watering can and wheelbarrow !

This is the wildlife pond, now fizzing with tadpoles and newts ! Marsh Marigold is out, as are primroses and Cowslips. You can see the house in the distance (the garden is long and thin!).

There is something very satisfying about newly planted spuds - until the weeds begin to grow again ! We are just growing 'Maris Bard' this year, so here's hoping the blight stays away this year.

Soft fruit - black currants and red currants, with the beech hedge in the background, still clothed with last year's leaves.

This is part of the sub-tropical garden, which is just beginning to wake up. The more tender members of this garden are still snuggly warm in the greenhouse for a little while yet.

This is the 'Bus Shelter Garden' (come on, you can see why ...) and I lovingly grew 400 grasses from seed 2 years ago, tore out all the planting and planted it up completely with grasses. It lasted a season before I tore about 350 of them out and restored my mixed planting! The grasses looked absolutely fantastic for about a month, and a bit rubbish for the remaining eleven. The Festuca edging to the island bed did get a reprieve, as it stays looking good for much longer !

The ornamental pond, with emerging ferns and Marsh Marigold in flower.

Island bed containing all sorts ! You can see an Angelica growing in front of your very eyes, next to a newly re-planted Eucalyptus Gunii. In the foreground is Viburnum Davidii, with an unclothed Buddleia directly behind it. It also containg English roses, delphiniums, lupins, ferns and hostas ... and possibly lots more which are yet to surprise me when they pop up !

This was taken in 'Helen's Garden', a new garden which is semi- formed.  We still have lots to do with both hard landscaping and planting. It is in memory of a very dear friend. It is one of this season's projects. Prominent plants are the red primrose and the young tree Magnolia Stellata, which is at its peak.

This is one of the mixed planting beds, which are heavy on the cottage garden perennials and roses. Aconitum, one of my favourite plants, is pushing through strongly to the left of the photo, and there are Lychnis, Lupins, Delphiniums, English roses and Euphorbia in there somewhere. The bright yellow shrub is Euonymus. Daffodila and Hellebores are fading, whilst the Pulmonaria still burns bright.

The pots of pansies provide a splash of rich colour and I wish I could say I grew them ! I did grow some, but my doves got peckish and demolished them about a month ago, so these are replacements bought from a local nursery.

Same excuse for these I'm afraid - 'the doves ate my pansies" sounds nearly as implausible as "the dog ate my homework"!

So that is a brief over view of how the garden looks at the moment. I took loads of photos and tried to be selective, so there are still lots left in the 'album' ! Funnily enough, they are the ones which happen to feature a large dandelion, or some naughty nettles !