My Somerset garden, Day 6

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Hello Friends

I’m out of breath at this minute as i’ve ran the full length of the close chasing a lions club float with a Christmas tree and a live father Christmas for some pictures, I took one picture then the camera turned off cos of a low battery………I was LIVID!…. ha ha, but it was funny and freezing as i only had a shirt on, i think i might post the picture now.

I hear rumors that snow could be on the way later on in the week, seems a bit early, do you remember earlier this year? we had heaps of the stuff didn’t we, I think our spot was actually cut off for a day or so, it was great though and the garden scene was so beautiful, aha…picture no 2 I think!

I haven’t chatted about the style of planting i like, well it’s cottage style, i love it, Echinacea, rudbeckia, hollyhocks, verbascum, geraniums, lupins, geums, kniphofia etc, love them all, one of my star plants for the border edge is Veronica Gentianoides, i love this little plant, it has leathery like leaves that start to expand in late spring, then suddenly little flower spikes start to rise up to at least 1.5ft I would say with little gentian blue flowers on them, they are delightfull and well worth having, they like moist conditions and need a helping hand in hot weather but not a problem at all, grows to about 50cm spread.it has slight colour variation varieties too. that may be pic 3.

I wonder if i’m on my own on this subject but I say I want to relax in the garden but when I get out I always end up doing something, I cannot just sit, i think I have the proverbial ant’s in my pants!

Somerset is a Beautiful and interesting county, I am from east Yorkshire which I think is"sorry to say" not the part of Yorkshire that most people conjure up images of, rolling hills and great lakes with dry stone walling for miles.

It is just very flat and to my mind and quite uninspiring, however I know that not everything is for everyone and some people really like that part of Yorkshire too! I just like rolling hills and valleys,always have.

I grew some wild teasels from seed last year and planted a load beyond our garden boundary in the field, they got real messy so I cut them down, I did notice the other day that they have now seeded and are starting to form new rosettes which is great! a little colony. also there is a colony of Verbena Bonariensis I chucked over in anger! a couple of years ago when I didn’t think they had germinated, I was Raging, said a few swear words and threw them out muttering "bugger ya then "
a bit later on in the year they all started coming up, ha ha another unscheduled success.

We grew the blue cornflowers, can’t think of the name off hand, sure you know the ones! they seed famously, had those, but in bad weather they seem to splay out and it looks like a cat has slept in the middle! I reckon that you could cut them things back at least 3 to 4 times in a year, they grow that fast.

Echinacea are stalwarts in the cottage garden, a bit mean flower wise but unusual and beautiful, i love the way the flower heads form.

We have a lovely acer which I bought from Woolworths in Stratford on Avon, when I used to drive there with the coach, my passengers could never sit on the front seats for all this garden stuff I just couldn’t resist buying! the acer was a tiny thing, it’s about 4 years old now and is starting to weep over into the sunken area, it’s a real success story and the trunk is starting to look very beautiful !

I have bought a lot of plants from shops such as pound stretcher and wilkinsons, I am selective in what I get, I bought some of the trailing pendulous Begonia’s, about £1.50 for 3, i tell you they have been absolutely gorgeous, but i put 3 in per basket , to tell the truth I should have put 1 in because they would have filled the basket i’m sure!

I am a regular down in Wilkinson’s Bristol center in the spring/summer,
Completely obsessed with it, I jst love looking at all the stuff, I love a bargain…ha ha

I’ll leave you with some pics, the veronica’s were taken at the Malvern flower show by the way.

Enjoy!

Regards, Micky.

Sorry, Santa pic a no go, boo!

• 15 Dec, 2009
• 13 likes

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