Late August garden

I love these 2 chimney pots, they are in the garden in front of the greenhouse, I swapped the right hand side one earlier this year, both now have begonia's flowering, it's a colourful use of these tall pots. I have also popped in some cyclamen for the cooler months once the begonia's die back.  

My clematis by our side door is in flower again, the plant dies back every year and the flowers only bloom at the top of the plant, so the base always looks bare. I do have a pot close to the base with my eucalyptus in. 

This bed created last year by our back door is again looking great, these begonia's are bedding plants and should have died last winter, but they are huge. I did plant a couple of coleus behind, they are still there but have not grown much. The geranium in the middle I cut back this spring, once the colder weather comes I have a cover for it.  

Storm Francis, did little damage in the garden, I did move the pots off the tables and we moved the olive trees along side the garage to shield from the wind. The old fence post nearer the house has been damaged, these fence panels have been here for over 11 years (our time in the house), so this winter I expect them to break. 

Rest of the garden is still looking good. 

 George had his 1st hair cut, daughter took him to the barbers in our village, he did Will's 1st haircut, she always uses him, he is so kind and gental with the boys. Will loves the man and always waves to him when we walk by. It's not the best cut but George wriggled all the way through. 

We spent time in the garden this week, just cutting back, picking soft fruit and tomatoes, on Saturday afternoon we had a small BBQ, it was SIL birthday, so he came with daughter, Will and George, plus his parents, my brother was here, we stayed outside as the sun shone, and kept distance from adults. It was great to have a normal gathering, just 7 adults, all of us have not been out much all of us feeling well. I keep saying normal life, simple things are the best, and they are, it was nice to keep our BBQ small, no friends or neighbours. 

I have done a bit of crafting, but most nights I have been tired, I did more to the second sock, but started making mistakes, so I packed it away. August is crochet Granny Square month? So it seamed a good point to start another blanket, I have a few large balls of Debbie Bliss 4ply cakes, which I got for my loom, I will crib them all into a bigger blanket, something simple in my hands at night. 

My brother is driving home today, hubby is out on his motorbike with mates, so I am going to get the sewing machine out, a nice day on my own, well both cats are curled up asleep, I can hear Purdy snoring. 

At the bottom of my garden.

We removed the arch, already there is so much light in this area, we will remove the perplex from the fence, it was there as a back to my original lean too greenhouses, as seen in this post. You can see my 2 tomato plants, which means they get more sunlight. 

I managed to dig out (with hubby's help) the passion flower shrub, I cut back most of the top growth as it was wrapped around the arch, I am not worried as the roots were great and this is a fast growing plant. I also dug out a clematis which had never grown strong, both are in my raised bed, in hope they will grow and fill the fence here at the bottom side of the garden. I have also taken 3 honeysuckle cuttings (after watching Carol on Gardeners World on Friday) in hope to get a plant to grow, this area could be very colourful. I do have other plans for the front of this raised bed, but they are for next year. 

In the corner I was able to remove the smaller square chimney, which was hidden and replace it with the matching taller chimney, both are now planted with begonias, and have enough height for the plants in front to look good. I have cuttings from the English lavender growing in hope to have a second plant on the left of this bed, not much grows in this section the ground is heavy clay. 

The square chimney is at the end of the raspberry canes, this geranium was in the bigger chimney here, I will later this week cut it back it has become straggly.  

Out side my shed, I have planted one of my new plants, and I have moved this triple planter away from the back corner, it can be seen now from the garden, my sunflower plant is growing but still not big enough to go into the ground. 

This spot along the fence outside my greenhouse is really pleasing, the triple acer which I have just popped into the bigger pot is doing well here, it's now full of flowers and colour, as before it was a messy corner.  

Looking towards the garden and house, this is along the steps to the back section, I have a Belfast sink next to my big acer, and a yew growing in the blue pot, the wall it is next to is the garage. 

I purchased this stand a few years ago, I have the idea to plant it with french marigolds, which looked pretty as seen in this post, but they only looked good for a couple of weeks, so I found another use for this, I do like pebbles around the garden, these came from the dried riverbed I removed from the greenhouse. At some point these will all be used and then I will have to find a new use for it. 

My rain chain which holds water I popped under the Magnolia tree, the small birds love using it, I always ensure there is clean water in each flower. I do have a bird bath here as well, just a plant pot saucer filled with water. We also have another water feeder near the back of the garden.

This rain chain, which is watering cans allow the rain to run through, the cans have no bottoms. 

I am really liking the garden without the arch, when we first put it up we had a climbing rose, which was always green but only ever a few flowers, it grew so fast I am sure it must have been a rambler, we took the rose away, and then in 2019 I added the passion flower, it was great, but the sweet peas I planted every year in the raised bed never grew, so the arch was never balanced. We can now see the whole of the greenhouse, it's does look much lighter, we did agree we would purchase another arch if we missed it, but I don't think that will happen, I am really pleased how the bottom of the garden looks. We did the work on Friday afternoon and I watered in everything, and was pleased as it rained through the night and on Saturday, allowing the plants to have a good drink. 

No other outside work has been done, we have had the most blustery few days, it's felt more like a warm autumn rather than summer, we sit and watch all our plants thrashing about, luckily nothing is being damaged, but I'm sure it can't be doing any good.

Will enjoyed being back at nursery, even if it has changed for him, he did not want to go, but mummy received photo's 10 minutes after she left him, he was happily playing with friends. Saturday we walked to the village and had an early lunch in our local Bistro, we were one of the 1st customers, it was great to be doing something normal, as said before I am happy to be in our village. 

Today daughter is bringing Will and George for the day, we have blue skies, so hopefully we will be in the garden, I want Will to help me pick blueberries and blackcurrants and check the raspberries. I also want him to see the tomatoes and cucumber growing on their plants. 

I have done some crafting, I will post photo's in my next post,  and I've started another book, reading from my kindle.