Editing by drought and the tyger in the pot

-
Dear reader,



You may have given up on reading this blog - I have felt like I may be speaking to the ether again but nevertheless I continue to write, perhaps because it helps me to understand who I am.

I used to panic about losing plants - but this drought has helped me see that nature edits. I may not agree with the editing but there is precious little I can do about it. The drying has killed off the weaker and diseased shrubs, and opened up spaces that I had forgotten about. The lower end of the garden can now be restructured in the autumn which was needed anyway - it just makes my task of clearing easier.


I also need to rethink succession in the main block of planting in the middle of the garden - I was late in planting some of the annuals - which have yet to really flower among the perennials.




I have been waiting for the rudbeckia to flower with their cheery yellow- and at last they are beginning to open.

I have one tiger lily burning brightly - the others seem to have succumbed and the scent this evening from that one flower filled the garden.



This is still a work in progress.


Paul.

Comments

  1. Marigold Jam27 July 2018 at 09:08

    I haven't given up on reading your posts - you so often have something to say that resonates with my thoughts/views. I miss writing sometimes as like you I found it helped me to realise what I thought and who I was. Maybe I should get back to blogging sometime.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Diana Studer27 July 2018 at 19:57

    Despite the drought your garden looks green and interesting.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pity the cabbage white

-
Image
Dear Monty, Having seen you protect your newly planted cabbages from cabbage white butterflies - it made me realise that I haven't seen many this year. Despite warmth yesterday - a brief interlude with blue sky and a light wind there was a dearth of butterflies in the coal tip garden. There were honey bees, bumble bees, wasps, hover flies, a gangly legged wasp, one hedge brown, one speckled wood and a common blue - that is all. Oh and a frog sheltering in the shady hosta and a silent peregrine falcon swooping overhead. What has happened to all the insects ? What has happened to all the aphids this year ? Is it just me that is missing them ? I have seen no ladybirds or ladybird larvae - because there have been so few aphids - was it the birds that have snaffled them ? I worry about the lack of insect numbers. We walked through a wild meadow full of meadow cranesbill and meadowsweet with the purple haze of knapweed in the grasses and yet there were one or two meadow br...
Read more

Letter to Monty Don 48

-
Image
Dear Monty, I know that despite these rambles being addressed to you, they never reach your eyes or heart, but this question is most certainly directed to you : Can nature be ugly ? I am pondering this question sitting in my cupboard of a 'studio' where I am putting the finishing touches to paintings of  British native orchids, pollinators and butterflies for an exhibition next weekend. Now I believe that you understand perfectly well the response you may get when you make statements on GW - including the one about spent buddleja flowers being 'ugly'. I too have always deadheaded my buddleja for the same reason, and as you said to promote new flower spikes. But this ugliness is an intrinsic part of nature - it sets seed to create the next generation, the flowers last but for a few days. Is this ugliness a kind of acknowledgement of the frailty of 'beauty' .... and the cutting off and tidying away a kind of denial ? ( Perhaps I think too much.) I ...
Read more

Monty, where does the road take us ?

-
Image
Monty, I see you have returned to France. Your film reminded me of my visits to Paris as an art student between 1981-83. It is a city that cannot fail to make an impression with its wide open streets, avenues of trees, the river and public gardens. I particularly remember Versailles with its long canal. At that time I was not aware of having a particular interest in gardens, but the gardens at Versailles were astonishing. I saw them in early morning light, when there were not that many people there. I also remember being intrigued by the garden at the Musee Rodin. Strangely for an art student, it was not the sculpture that caught my attention but the garden with pyramid shaped topiary. Perhaps what I was responding to was the sense of order, balance and harmony. It almost feels as though I was meant to visit, and that the encounters I had which were sensually intense, were pre-ordained. There is one incident, which has great significance only to me perhaps, but which was of ...
Read more