More seedy news...

It's August and all my seeded annuals are  blooming away. Not at all suffering from the  heat wave this week, unlike myself.  This is Salpiglossis'Kew blue' a dark velvet purpley blue, much darker in person. 

Nigella hispanica 'African bride' just now starting to bloom . 

My free packet of German catchfly , Lychnis viscaria , so lovely , so many tiny blooms, I 've tucked them into every available space.

Amaranth chinese giant orange not yet 8' , but getting there, which means I've planted it in the wrong place! 

Nicotiana 'Crimson bedder' and ' Miss Libby'

My favorite table companion Zaluzianskya  capensis  ( zal-oo-zee-AN-skee-uh) or just Night Phlox.
Yes...it was once again, worth all the mess and fiddly seedy business of trays and compost.

A walk along the border...

This is meant to be my hot dramatic orange, red , purple border. I've been planting and replanting for most of the seven years in this garden, it was one of the first borders I made. Which is probably the problem. I didn't know how dry the soil was, didn't know how everything would get blasted by cold and hot winds. But I'm learning...slowly.The tree at the center I'm thrilled with  Robinia'Twisty baby' newly planted . Will mask that ugly telephone pole! happiness ! and my neighbors conifers !  

Bittiness everywhere , messy Knifofia foliage, the blue Erynigium blooms will need to move...I don't what blue  here. I just what the Euphorbia 'Great Dixter' or is it 'Fire charm' to grow and make a huge orange clump. 

So many holes I've make this week , digging up sad plants . Tiny bits of orange and red here. Those drum stick Alliums ...they do get knocked about . Lots of seelfseeding ...but white.

More Alliums , bare soil , messy Knifofia , At least the Ceanothus isn't blooming BLUE !

Lupin 'Chandelier ' in the bottom left corner, never impresses, possibly ...a move. The row of Sedums , these where once one huge clump that I brought from my mother's garden, I had to dig up and pull it to bits to get Bishops weed out. These are moving over to another area ...soon. So much to do!

Naked foundations...

On my walk this morning I acually brough my camera. This always makes me smile.

I noticed this new  trend ... naked foundations . This one not quite naked , three box and a few Heuchera. This was a charmingly planted garden with two lovingly espaliered camilla wrapped flat against the corners of the front window. I guess the house painters convinced the new owners  to rip everything out. 

Then this house ...  completely naked. Just to paint the window frames ? I'm not liking this trend at all. 

One day I'm going to dig this sad Musa up and take it home. Can you believe someone planted it on a dry slope, It's been there at least three years , it's hardly grown.

More naked foundations, such a nice looking house. I can see an atempt at growing tomatoes or something in the...drive 

Sort of a rant post, but I've got it out of my system .

A pond upgrade...

What better way to cool off after a day of shovelling and dragging  gravel around  . Maybe a  pond up grade ?  Not really, not with temperatures getting into the upper eighties. At least we ( Philip) started early, before the sun was beating down .

The problem with the pond? The water level was always far to low , my fault for using these cement bricks to cover the pond liner, Then with  the wirevine on top ,  The water levelwas  a foot below gound level. 

So the project began, with me pulling out the bricks. Then Philip gave the Muehlenbeckia a good snip round. Then a good grab and out yanked  the old liner.

The two site Managers ever watchful 

This was Philip's expertise, the enlargement of the pond, I did the wheelbarrowing of the soil .

Now the fitting in of the stocktank ( no more tucking in of pond liner) . This took several attempts, If was getting HOT out!

Ahhh...

One of those Gravel filled days...

I don't know were all the gravel I spread around last time went, actually , I do know , those two watching in the back ground , they scatter it out of the paths into the plants . So now all the paths are bare and the plants are drowning in gravel. 

Now  this  area  needed a good layer of gravel , under the shorn Acassia .  With all that messy undergrowth gone ,  a more open space with  new low growing planting .

The sea of Sedum  got a thick sprinkling of gravel between the stepping stones , for easier wheel barrow pushing.    And so ended the  day , with still half the pile left.

Bejeweled.......

 

                              The most rampent selfseeder in the garden this year...' Grandpa Ott'

And below, the planting of Artemisia ' Powis castle',  Amsonia salicifolia , Zauschneria , Carex comans , Ruta graveolens 'Jackmans' blue',  Rosemary, in the most inhospitbale , dry, dog trampled , gravelly, never watered  patch is looking surprisingly fresh....

We have Plums , we have shade...

Last year we had just twelve Santa Rosa plums...this year many, many fat juicy fruit. And the perfect dappled shade for this looks like  being another scorcher .