After the biblical weather....

........the sun SHONE, for the most gorgeous weekend at last in the garden. Sitting in the quiet garden with a cup of tea and Mirabel Osler's beautiful book, ‘A gentle plea for chaos,’ was utter heaven, before some fierce candlelit croquet at dusk yesterday evening. It’s the best way to play; with a glass of wine and the falling light there are lively discussions about whether the balls actually make it through the hoops or not.

 The middle of the day is too hot for gardening, and I must remember how that feels, but when the heat is a little less I have been clearing the out of control strawberry bed where, for every plant I keep, about 6 others attached umbilically to the parent plant must be thrown away. It would be better to give them away, but for now they’re all going on the compost heap. This year the whole bed has been a rather pointless exercise as the squirrels ate ALL of the strawberries. Throwing most of the weeds over the fence, they are devoured by our very greedy sheep; they love the sow thistles, fat hen and groundsel. In fact every time I go down to the kitchen garden I’m spotted and they race up to the fence in full cry.

my beautiful bertie

Lovely Bertie and I have had this great thing going. If Angel, Dipstick or one of the other cats catch a mouse, and I happen to see in time, I would send Bertie off to bully the cat into dropping the mouse, which he would grab, and bring back to me, gently delivering it to my lap, safe if a little damp, for me to release into a pile of logs somewhere. Except for last week. Angel had caught a mouse, and Bertie was dispatched to the rescue. He deploys a wonderful and simple technique. He swings his head at the cat, hitting it, which always makes it drop the mouse. Carefully picking up this one, as he has countless times with others before, he raced over to me, the tail of the mouse sticking out of the side of his mouth.

‘Good boy, Bertie, give it to me,’ I held out my hands. Except this time he seemed to be unable to give it to me.

‘Come on Bertie, quickly, give me the mouse!’ I insisted, worried it couldn't breathe in there, while he sat in front of me, the tail of the mouse still hanging from his mouth, his mouth firmly clamped shut.

‘Bertie what are you doing!!’ I put my hands around his mouth to open it but defiantly he clenched his jaw.

‘Bertie, drop it NOW.’ And on my last command he threw back his head and swallowed it!

Whole!

little magical one

Little Magical One, is the beautiful and poetic Arabic name for Alchemilla Mollis.The leaves of the plants collect sparkling jewel-like beads of water which were considered by alchemists to be wonderfully pure and containing great healing properties. It is perfect for edging paths, it likes the shade and makes wonderful ground cover, is amazingly resistant to rabbits, and the frothy chartreuse green flowers make the most fantastic and long-lasting cut flower filler. Known here I'm afraid by the more prosaic nickname, Alcoholic Molly, notice how the glistening beads of water cling to each point of the serated edged leaves. Delicious and yes, magical!

raindrops keep falling on my head...

No wonder the British are obsessed with the weather; last month was officially the wettest June since rainfall records began in 1910. But as Sir Rannulph Fiennes said, ‘there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing,’ and I’m afraid we gardeners just have to agree; we never know what to expect, and we just get on with it.......

My favourite colour combinations this year are purple mauves mixed with the purest of greens. This year I've grown beautiful purple podded peas, vibrant fresh parsley, exotic fast growing kohlrabi, and purple veined brassicas. And what could be more romantic than stepover apples, interplanted with lavender, carpets of fragrant thyme, and soothing spreading sage, easily achieved within a border only 2’ wide. Absolutely perfect for edging paths or lawns, productive and pretty, what more could anyone want?

happy days

What a wonderful day, not sunny but soft, damp and warm, the most perfect growing weather. A beautiful day to be in the garden, don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t possible to move peonies, it is! These came from the long border last year, to be looked after in the kitchen garden. Bella has been sorting out the compost for me, and look who I spotted in the orchard! Oh and it’s a wonderful day for a birthday!! Picnic anyone? Xxxx

border control

Gorgeous weather today; summer has crept up softly, warm and fulsome, smiled all day upon us, and I have spent hours in the long border pulling out the sweet rocket which is going to seed, and planting the last of the potted dahlias, more cosmos and pink verbena. I staked everything earlier this month with lengths of hazel bent into arches over the young plants, and the taller things seem to be largely still upright, so it seems to have worked. Alongside the rocket which comes back every year, however ruthless I am, there are masses of lovely tall white agrostemma, Swanlake, also self-seeded from last year, rubbing shoulders with cerinthe, foxgloves and galega, all back without anything to do with me. It is beautiful.

it must have been an angel

Well, there was hardly time for it to become a raging debate here, and now it doesn't matter if they were red or grey squirrels, because Angel has eaten them. I wasn’t the only one to be transfixed so compellingly by my little squirrel friends. I have to report, to my horror, I have found three squirrel tails left at the back door and I’m afraid all blame for this is levelled at our beautiful tabby cat Angel, mostly because I caught her eating one of them. She’s normally very good at feeding herself on rabbit, although maybe she was bored with the same food, and thought, oh no, not rabbit again, and maybe it is easier to catch a squirrel than a rabbit! Although I would have expected a squirrel to put up more of a fight than a rabbit might. A quick word of caution here. While it is lovely to have a cat and then have kittens, and we had all the fun of playing with them until they went to good homes, it leaves the mother constantly wanting to provide. So Angel decided to hunt then not only for herself, her brother Dipstick, and Uncle Mo, but us too! Her mother Millie was the same. In one memorable week she caught the complete range, rabbit, mouse, rat, mole, squirrel, blackbird, all neatly presented to us on consecutive days, fortunately outside. But today Angel is now officially the smuggest and fattest cat possible, and there may be strawberries after all.