A wander Around the Hot Sunny Top Half.....Warts and All ..Part One....

WOW! You have so much going on in your garden! Even with the lack of flowers on your roses & other plants your garden is still looking very good!

As for lack of rain we are the same here, not that it affects the balcony as everything has to be watered by hand, but all the grass around here is the colour of straw & people's gardens are seeing the effects of the lack of rain. 😪

Thanks for showing, Lincs. I was taken with your 'bird's eye view' as it helps to place areas that you talk about. You have a varied and interesting garden with lots of individual areas all with their own character. I sympathise about the lack of rain - our garden is absolutly parched and nothing (perennial-wise) is standing upright. We were cutting back and clearing a small section this weekend and I had to have OH to dig out some roots for me. It took 20 minutes for me to dig out a small spiraea yesterday - the soil is like dust. Despite this, your lawn and flowers look pretty good to me!

Thankyou Balc, I don't envy you actually, if I remember correctly your balcony gets a lot of sun, it must be baking on there at the moment.
I have been pouring waste water on the top lawn, Friday I'd had enough so I checked on Anglian Water pages and discovered we are allowed to use sprinklers despite our lack of rain, mine came out once the sun had gone down....

Thankyou Anget... The birds eye view photograph was taken in March, you can see the Daffodils in the Photina Bed...
I'm so glad I moved some of the shrubs into the garden in the spring, it was hard going at the time but nothing like it is now, I never would have kept up with their need for water if left in the pots, I know how hard it is, whilst doing my planting I've taken the hose with me and puddled the area before even trying to dig any holes, you have my sympathy Ange...

Thank you Lincs, I dont see any warts in your garden. I like your last birds eye picture.

Thankyou Siris..
I keep meaning to take a photo from my daughters bedroom window, that way I won't have to do it at an angle, it was quite a rigmarole getting my camera underneath the frame of the open window to take that, LOL....

Thank you for the tour of your garden. I too like the overall view, it allows us to see the whole garden & it’s layout. Your roses look fine to me. I like the pic of your right side path, 2nd from the last photo. Grass like straw round here, but the Pelargoniums are thriving.We will all have to grow tropical plants in the future.

Thankyou F'few, thats right tropical, cacti and prairie ones are it seems the way to go...I remember about 4yrs back saying I was tempted to try growing rice as mine was like a Paddy Field.....

I love your garden Sue. The mingle of different plants is right up my street. We've gone from pouring rain which puddled at the bottom of the garden to scorching hot and gasping plants. I resorted to using the hosepipe the other night. I'm now battling with mildew. Oh the joys of being a gardener!

I just love your garden Sue!!
So many different areas and lots of unusual ornaments.
My roses were in full flower, but in May instead of June because of the hot weather. Now they are having a rest and hopefully in a few weeks will be flowering again.
I have long since stopped worrying about the state of the lawns !
Like you said..at our age, why take on jobs that don't need it!
When the rain does come the lawns will green up again, but my garden borders are more important to me than perfect grass!
I like the view from the upstairs and it is quite big, isn't it!
Enjoy the summer and make the most of it to relax !

Wonderful part 1, Sue! Looks amazing, you’ve soooo much going on in your garden, lots of variety and interesting plants and ideas too.
Think the heat and lack of rain has ‘sent all our lawns to sleep’…they’ll soon green up when the rain comes back!

Sue, this is a lovely look around your garden, all warts very acceptable and necessary for a gardener!

I am not growing Tomatoes in the greenhouse any more as we have found a lovely Italian nursery about 2 miles away where they grow the best tasting veg. and herbs, far better than a supermarket.

Michael has been mowing the grass without collecting the cuttings in the box and it seems to have improved the condition no end. Well, until this hot weather decided to brown it all!

I just read a local news story about many dead fish being seen in a large lake in a park not too far from us. The current heatwave deprives the water of oxygen so the Council and the Fire & Rescue service used a high powered pump to recycle the water and jet it over the surface of the lake to improve oxygen levels. Well done to them!

Hi Shirley, that is heartbreaking, I topped our wildlife pond up last night, it had dropped lower than its ever been in over 30yrs, unlike the fishpond it only relies on oxygenator planting to sustain it, we have newts in there and even though they have eaten all my taddies I'm still looking after them , we have two filters working in the fishpond but even then we still have to be very alert in this heat, poor fish will suffocate if the air stopped , thunderstorms are very dangerous for a pond as the conditions caused can very quickly suck the oxygen out of the water, obviously what happened in the lake near you..
Our fire service were working just outside town yesterday afternoon also, a combine harvester exploded, nobody hurt thankfully, the smoke was horrendous, we're just up the hill from where it was, thankfully it blew away from the town, diversions had to be put in place right at homecoming time for the schools, not surprised in this heat are we Shirley...Take care xxx

Sue, I just saw a news report from Boston, Lincs., and it's so worrying how tinder dry the land is. Stay safe.