This week I’m using the Six on Saturday post to have a look at a few light and dark areas of my garden. Each of these has been a joy or a puzzle to me. I’ve enjoyed playing with the light and backgrounds and these images are unedited this week. Straight from the camera. I know a few of you have been asking about taking images and I promise I will pop together a post on how I do that a little later this month.
Roses
I inherited this rose when I moved into the cottage. It’s strong and has these beautiful lush flowers. I’m trying to figure out if it’s a climber or a rambler. From memory, I think this rose only flowers once but I’m using these posts to figure out if that’s true. I wish I knew the name of it because that touch of delicate pink is elegant and striking against my cottage walls. The Rhapsody rose above is doing incredibly well. It’s lush blue flowers are almost covering the entire bush now. It’s only in its second year but it seems to be much happier in its new home in the back garden.
Zinnia
I am so proud to see these little beauties flower. I grew them from seed as a test batch to see how they would fair in the garden. I thought with storm Hector that I wouldn’t see any of these flowers and I was wrong. I am so happy to be wrong. Their bright petals can be seen from inside my office as I look out at the back bed. A beacon of beauty in those darker days.
Chamomile
One of this week’s sighs. These are all over my garden. The chamomile flowers seem to have seeded themselves readily between my front and back beds. They are appearing everywhere even amongst the newly planted Yew hedge this year. I have a mind tomorrow morning to go out and collect them all into a pot so that I can have one magnificent display.
Apples
My second sigh of the week. I have never seen an apple tree have 3 stages of blooms, especially as it already has set fruit weeks ago. I’m assuming it’s the weather and I’m starting to wonder about having these trees in pots. As I mentioned in earlier posts the apples are grafted onto a rootstock which is happy in a container for patio gardens. Each year I have had wind problems removing the fruit from the trees and this year we have a terrible harvest. I have fleece for these trees for the deep depths of winter in the hope of protecting them and increasing fruit production.
Currants
They are almost ripe. My shining jewels in the foxglove bed. I imagine the birds will get to these before we do but the currants appear to love their new home. The receive the morning light right up to midday before the shade starts to creep over the bushes. Hilariously, these prefer being out of my back garden where the stron direct sunlight was too much for them last year. The foxgloves also appear to be shading them from the birds so I’ll let you know how this progresses. I was a little unsure about planting them in the same bed but I have seen others do it I’m just not sure about eating the fruit.
Munstead
My final addition this week is the gorgeous lavender. It seems to be loving its new home along the greenhouse and I love that it attracts the bees both in and outside the greenhouse reducing the effort I have to put in to make my plants fruit. I’m not a huge lover of the scent but you can’t help but marvel at these stems; the soft blue toned green foliage is a striking addition between the river white stones either side. I’ve rather enjoyed watching the flowers open and tracking them with my camera. After much thought, I really am glad we added this to the garden this year.
That’s it from me this week apart from the above macro shot of another Zinnia because I just love how happy they make me each day and I hope it makes you smile too. Do make sure that you pop over to The Propagator ‘s page to check out more wonderful gardening posts and why not search the #sixonsaturday tag on twitter too to fill your feed with beautiful blooms. There is also a participant guide here if you would like to join in too.
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