Cobaea scandens

Have just come back in from picking a surprisingly big bowl of blackberries and autumn raspberries.   The latter are so tall I am having to pull them down to reach them!   The only problem with this fruit picking is remembering also to pick all the spiders off myself before I bring them back in the house to join all the others who have taken up residence.   There are so many at the moment, strung between every other stem or twig.

The garden is actually quite dry and I am having to water the pots.   But it is proving to be well worth the effort.   The fuschias are doing really well this year and so are my potted climbers but I am especially pleased with the Cobaea scandens or Cup and saucer plant.   I had my first two flowers last week and there are plenty more to follow.   They open white - a good 2-3 inches across - and gradually turn to a rich purple over 2-3 days, staying so for 2 or 3 more before neatly just dropping off.   At last, some more unusual late-summer colour nearer the house!  

Thunbergia success

The heat of the past week has been something of a shock but at least the days being slightly shorter has meant things haven't dried out too badly and it almost seems like summer has finally arrived.   Had my first (and probably only) good feed of French beans, more little Sungold tomatoes, one disappointing (small and not very good texture) Marmande tomato and the first blackberries and autumn fruiting raspberries.  The latter have grown to at least 7 feet this year but are producing huge tasty fruit so it's worth the stretch.

Pale orange Thunbergia has taken off at a surprising pace in a slightly shady spot

In terms of flowers, I am pleased with the colour for the time of year.   The dahlias are beginning to get into their stride - a gorgeous deep red one and some stripy magenta/whites are the most striking so far.   But I am really pleased with a couple of climbers which promise to produce interest over the really difficult period coming up - one cobea scandens which I managed to over-winter (the ONLY one!) is scrambling about well into the arch nearest the house and beginning to form flower buds and a vibrant pale orange Thunbergia (Black eyed Susan) has taken off at great speed since I bought it from one of the "sheds" a couple of weeks back.

The roses are all over - or "resting" but there is some lovely colour taking over around them from self-set fennel and the faithful clematis Heiraclifolia as well as a mass of late bloom on Cl.Etoile Violette and the white perennial sweet peas.

Of wildlife interest I have seen meadow brown and common blue butterflies in the garden.   The many swifts seem to have disappeared, unlike the wretched squirrel who is now digging holes in the grass to bury this years's cob nuts.   That tree is going to have to go....

Crazy spiders

The garden is suddenly full of cobwebs - something I usually take as a sign of late summer as the light begins to turn more golden.   It's also easier to get up at dawn and enjoy the freshness of early morning - but with it LOTS of spiders!   I found this extraordinary apparent double web the other day.   In fact it's 2 cobwebs that have been made within about 3 inches of one another.

You need to look carefully!

Changing places

"Julio" by Diana Roles in pride of place behind vibrant red Crocosmia "Lucifer"

After the best part of a day spent pruning and tidying this week I finally found time to assess the siting of my lovely new piece - and decided it looks a bit too hidden!   So I have swapped Julio with Feuille to have a think about it.   Not sure I've got it right yet as they both deserve a prominent position (also Julio is slightly less tall so from the house it is in some visual conflict with the bird bath behind it) - but it is fun changing things around and I am enjoying the new, more colourful vista.

A bit of a jungle but I like the way Julio and the bird bath complement one another seen from the house

Feuille in the shadier spot - for a while...

  Quite a lot of colour in the garden just now - I am surprised!   My first dahlia has opened - a vibrant red.   Pity something seems to be eating it already so I have put up a few straw-filled flower pots in the hope of catching out the odd slumbering earwig.

A couple of trips to local garden centres provided some cheerful gap-fillers at discounted prices including some ever-endearing violas, blue salvias and a black-eyed Susan which I am hoping to over-winter.

Picked my first cherry tomatoes - very good - and a small crop of French beans is nearly ready.   What a rich, lush place the garden is this August - one must be grateful to the rain for some things.

Welcome "Julio"

"Julio" my new ceramic sculpture by Diana Roles

We have just had a short but fairly impressive thunder storm with some more torrential rain - so no chance to cut the grass or trim back the rampant wisteria, vine and clematis that are all growing like mad into a great tangle in front of the green house, not to mention the golden hop.   I have never seen so much growth in July.

The sun we had has given the dahlias an incentive to start budding up and at long last Cl Etoile Violet is showing its first signs of colour.   I even have a few Sungold tomatoes ripening and some french beans setting in the grow bags by the kitchen.   I have been feeding them regularly so it will be interesting to see if it proves worthwhile.   I have also been feeding my clematis with Growmore on alternate weeks and they are beginning to look healthier....

The most exciting recent development is my acquisition of "Julio", my new ceramic piece from Diana Roles.   I have yet to install it properly and am slightly undecided about its location but it is a huge delight and certainly adds interest to the dull corner which needed brightening - although I'm not sure the space does sit justice and am thinking about swapping it around with my treasured "Feuille 2" centrepiece.   Here is the space and the new piece in position inviting investigation....

The lilies suffered in the extreme heat over the past 10-12 days and went over fast but I will replace them for next year and maybe be a little more adventurous with some bolder colours.

But colours are beginning to heat up.   Crocosmia Lucifer is doing its stuff and contrasting powerfully with a gorgeous magenta Phlox.   I am even enjoying seeing them both in combination with my once white but now pink hydrangea.   Things are set to become even more "dynamic" soon as the dahlias start to bloom in their unnamed and hence unordered state....

View with L, Formosanum, pink hydrangea and he flaming red of Crocosmia Lucifr in the background

Effects of so much rain

Lilium Formosanum var. Pricei

I have been wondering if the wet weather might be responsible for there being a few more hedgehogs around - with all the slug and snail food available!   I saw a dear little hedgehog crossing my road the other night and there was a hedgehog dropping in the garden today.   I do hope they will come and frequent the garden again - I shall look out for "used" gaps under the fence.

L. Regale decimated by hungry molluscs!

The lilies are not so keen on the massive amount of slugs and snails and a lot of them have been horribly eaten.   But I am thrilled that in the garden centre* the other day I found a lily I have been trying to find for ages - Lilium Formosanum.   Unfortunately it is the smaller, earlier flowering variety L. formosamun Pricei but it is still gorgerous and spurring me on to find the taller, later-flowering variety.

The rain continues to make it difficult to make the most of the lovely crop of soft fruit which has begun rotting on the plants.  I have been picking off the rotten fruit and dropping it on open ground.   Hopefully some of the seeds might take.   The loganberry seems to reproduce its self well from suckers but in my small space I have a problem with the way raspberries "travel" and since the demise of my apricot tree I think it is time to completely re-think the soft fruit patch behind the greenhouse: a winter project.

Our hosepipe ban was lifted this week.   Eureka!

*Squires Garden centre - it was a matter of luck as they were otherwise totally useless on their plant knowledge!

Fruit picking in the rain

 Sometimes I might wish the garden wasn't quite so well-drained but with the rain we are having this year I am counting myself lucky.   Everything is growing like mad.   Happily during the last couple of days the seemingly relentless wind has dropped and the smells in the garden have been absolutely delicious.

Dodging the rain I picked my first fruit this week - raspberries enough to make a decent pie - and most of this years crop of redcurrants - scarcely a dessert bowl full.   What a comparison with last year.   But what I am lacking in redcurrants is more than amply made up for by a plentiful crop of loganberries and blackberries - the best ever.   Whether these balances are more to do with the hard winter or the warm March and wet ever since - who knows?

And here is the recipe for the pie:

Raspberry and redcurrant pie with shortbread pastry 

1 1/4 lbs fresh raspberries

1/4 lb fresh redcurrants, stalks removed

8 ozs white self raising flour

4 ozs cold butter

1 oz dark muscovado sugar

1 oz caster sugar + sugar for sprinkling

1 oz ground almonds

pinch of table salt

1 tablespoon cold water

1. Sieve together flour, caster sugar and salt into a mixing bowl.   Add ground almonds.

2. Add muscovado sugar, breaking any lumps with the back of a spoon.   

3. Add butter chopped into small pieces and rub into flour mixture with hands, adding a little water at a time 

until the mixture sticks together and moulds into a ball.   

4. Cover and chill for 1/2 an hour.

5. Pre-heat oven to Gas mark 5/ 375 degrees F/ 190 degrees C

6. Place raspberries and redcurrants in an oval pie dish.

7. Lightly flour work surface and roll out pastry until larger than the top of the dish.  The pastry is quite fragile so work carefully to try and avoid large cracks.

8. Using the rolling pin as a support ease the pastry over the fruit in the dish.

9. Trim off excess pastry with a knife and pinch edges between finger and thumb to seal and decorate.

10. Pace on a baking sheet in the centre of pre-heated oven for 30 minutes, turning after about 20 minutes to check pastry is evenly cooked.   It will go quite brown.

11. Remove from oven and sprinkle with reserved sugar.   Best eaten quite hot with icecream!!!

Note:  This is very rich pastry so I have not added sugar to the fruit but those with a sweeter tooth may!

copyright Sue Atkinson July 2012