6th August 2023

Welcome to our garden

The rain has arrived and the temperature dropped and the plants are adapting as best they can!! In the Vegetable Garden we are still digging potatoes and harvesting salad crops and picking Beans and Cabbages. The Herbs are flourishing as is the lavender and the sweet peas are still flowering. The American Pillar rose on the Pergola lining the Moat is ready to be dead headed and tidied away but around the garden other roses will have a second flush.

This is a good harvest time in the garden- not only vegetables but herbs need drying/freezing or bottling, the lavender wants picking, fruit stored, seeds collected and cuttings taken. And of course along with the rain come the weeds, so a busy time!!

The Buddlea along the Moat edge, all grown from cuttings, are attracting masses of Red Admiral and Peacock butterflies.

The purple spikes in the middle of the Bog Garden is Thalia Dealbata

The path beside the stream has had the flowering spikes of the Hemerocallis and Hosta removed and we can now use the path.

The large green shrub against the front of the Hall is Magnolia Grandiflora and the pink lily type flowers beneath are Crinium.

The West Lawn has had its first blaze of colour and we are waiting for the autumn asters and Dahlia to flower. Geraniums were cut down and are now reappearing. The bed against the wall has Ginger or Hedychium Gardnerianum, and we cover these and leave them in the ground through the winter. We have lost one but the rest seem to be doing well? The Canna in the long bed are dug up and taken inside for the winter then re-planted and are waiting for some warmer weather!! We lost both white and very dark Agapanthus in the winter but one small shoot has appeared and so there is hope.

Romneya is the name of the Poppy type plant under the Urns and if you look across the Moat the tree with white flowers is the Indian Bean Tree or Catalpa.

Oleander are the plants flowering in the large pots on the gravel.

We woke the other morning to 2 Heron standing on the bridge surveying the Moat and this morning saw a Cormorant. We still have House Martins, rabbits and Muntjac. We Have seen an animal larger than a rabbit and found chopped vegetation in the flower beds -possibly the Otter may have returned?

Stay healthy and good gardening

Lynda Tucker