We’ve got Rag, Tag and Bobtail in our garden tonight chasing each other around in circles then stopping to eye up my plants.
The white one we named ‘Bunny No Mates’ (he seems to be an escaped domestic rabbit and the brown ones won’t play with him) has reappeared suddenly from behind the log shed – we thought he was definitely a goner and had perished during the freezing winter months. I am quite glad he made it – I was a bit sad thinking he had come to an abrupt end.
In between the weeding I went down to the beach. Since the flood took away the little wooden bridge that went across the stream our neighbour has made these little steps to get down the banking. I think they fit in very well and I love the Daisies growing on the treads.
Today I was in the garden at 9 o’clock to weed in the trellis border whilst it was in the shade and before the sun moved round – this is the very dry border as from ten o’clock it has the sun all day and is far too hot for me.
At the end of the summer last year we visited the Elizabeth MacGregor Garden and Nursery (click to link through to her website) in Kirkudbright and she gave me a whole tray of Valerian for my garden that she was getting rid of and for which I am so grateful. Her nursery has some wonderful cottage garden plants all grown at Ellenbank and you can order them on the internet from her extensive catalogue.
I really like the look of the Valerian against the grey stony ground in the patch facing out to sea and hope it will seed around the sea-side garden. I dug over a small patch and then had to accept defeat and move to a shadier part of the garden down in the jungle. I will try again tomorrow and show you the results another post.
It is actually all looking a bit of a jungle at present – the result of going away to Italy at the exact time when we would normally be spending a lot of time in the garden before the summer. But we wouldn’t have missed the wedding for anything even though we are struggling to get the garden back into shape now. I have pulled out Campions that are 7 feet tall today. I swear I can hear them growing as soon as I turn my back.
After lunch there was a welcome mass of cloud appeared in the sky– I haven’t seen clouds for days…and a breeze. It certainly helped cool the air temperature down a degree but the patch I was doing before lunch now had midges circling ready for attack – so I had to move yet again.
This time over to the Pine tree border. There is a slab of concrete just under the largest Pine tree which is the base for the old greenhouse (before the gales of 2010 demolished it). We really must break it up one day and remove it – the tree roots have lifted and cracked the slab and the pine needles collect into a suitable compost that the Campion love to seed in.
It may look pretty but believe me I have learnt that in this garden you cannot leave Campion as pretty as it might be it will seed everywhere and then it chokes out the plants I have bought and planted. I do have some wild areas but this border is not meant to be one of them.
This is after the clean up – I had almost forgotten there is a path there. I filled eight bags with weeds and sweepings for the tip just from this patch which is no more than about eight feet square!
The Foxgloves are allowed to stay – in my eyes Foxgloves are like the cows in India – sacred. No matter where in the garden they decide to grow it is OK with me as they are one of my favourite flowers.
And (just for my follower Mary) these pictures below are older ones so you can see what it used to be like when we had a greenhouse. To the left is the border with the three Olearia shrubs, newly planted, in front of the wind break – now the masss of Olearia is the wind break!
I remember this white patio table – it was last seen in 2014 floating out to sea after the flood!!
where the journey takes me 2 
I couldn’t decide whether the steps to the beach are on your side of the bank.
If not will you be tempted to copy them?
Valerian is lovely but here it grows like your campion so we treat it like a weed. It looks wonderful growing out of walls but has a really thick root system which can force the rocks apart.
Are you having time to get your paints out? We take ours away but they often reurn home unused!
Perhaps Billy no mates might pose for you!
Sue
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The steps are on our side but our access to the beach is not from our garden as there is a strip on land between us and the beach that belongs to the caravan site owner and they are on his bit of banking. This bank of steps goes down to the stream and onto a bit of the farmers land opposite then you can get directly onto the beach. Or once down the steps you can cut through the opening to the right as my 5th photo shows but if the stream is high then you would have to paddle. At the moment it is quite dry. A lot of walkers and dog walkers use this access to get off the beach if they walk along from the village. After this there is no means of access because the land rises up and the banking is to steep to climb. You would have to walk all the way around to the next bay to get off the beach.
I must get around to doing a plan of our garden so it makes sense to my readers!
I think we might have a day out sketching tomorrow or Wednesday. The second week always goes faster doesn’t it. We have done the same – packed the paints and not used them.
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Thank you for the before and after photos! Amazing at the changes in the garden, and not just the destructive ones caused by the flood which were devastating, I know. One my sons lost his home to a hurricane about six years ago – a neighbor’s tree fell lengthwise across it and crushed in the roof, then 13″ of rain and wind took care of the rest. But as your photos demonstrate, nature abhors a vacuum, and will overrun any spaces quite quickly (e.g. Campions, etc.). A lot of very hard work to clear that area in the heat and midges, so bravo.
PS – Glad “Bunny No Mates” made it through the winter, too.
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Sorry to hear about your son’s home – I hope he has recovered from it – financially too. At least this was not our full time home but it has delayed our plans and it makes you nervous when you hear of any adverse weather conditions coming over the Atlantic!
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New to your blog but glad to know I’m not the only one moving around the garden to try and work in the shade. Midges alone are the reason I could never reside in Scotland, they love me but my body hates them, I can’t even holiday there in summer which as a walker is a real shame so many hills I’ll never get to explore.
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Midges not usually this bad down here on the mull. We use that well known stuff Avon Skin so Soft oil spray – for some reason the midges hate it!
I had a quick peek at your blog – some of your problems are almost the same as ours. I have written about our neighbour problems on my previous blog (linked in sidebar). We also get a lake now when it rains because our neighbour layed tarmac over all his front garden which slopes down to ours!
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