Ground Force

I have been feeling rather down about our garden recently - the grass is looking a bit scraggy (I refuse to water it), and the chickens went on a rampage last week and flattened lots of plants. I have also been neglecting the beds a little bit recently (working and doing a PhD doesn't leave much time for gardening!) and we are planning on building a pergola so it feels a little bit in limbo.

In order to make myself feel a bit better me and my mummy went plant shopping at the weekend - spending some of my birthday money from grandma.

A lovely Hibiscus ("red heart") - with big white flowers with a dark red centre, which I have put near the back and hoping it will fill out nicely over the next few months and years.

I managed to find a white Hollyhock which I was delighted about, being one of my favourite flowering plants. It's gone in at the back in the hope that it will spread and get nice and tall in future years. Katy has also given me a pink one which she has grown from seed from one of her plants so hopefully we will get some nice big spikes of flower next year to add to the "family"!



The most gorgeous Delphinium (Guardian Blue) with flowers which look blue but are actually a mixture of blue and purple. Again, at the back, and there are plenty of buds which I'm hoping will open.



Coreopsis (grandiflora Sunfire), which has amazing yellow flowers with a red centre, and has tonnes of flowers, which I am hoping I can keep going by deadheading and picking for cut flowers - the bees seem to love it!



Next to the bright yellow sunfire, I have a Catanache (blue), which has silvery foliage which lots of purple flowers on tall stems. They close up in the evening so I don't have a photo, but they are very pretty and make a lovely rustling sound in the wind.

I also got some little plants to go at the front of the bed - a lovely little yellow poppy, which again has lots of buds which I am hoping will open. It looks everso delecate so I am hoping I don't kill it!



Also at the front is this very pretty Sanvitalia (Inca), which has tiny yellow daisy like flowers. I think it should spread nicely under the larger plants.



Finally, these lovely evergreen bedding plants (Lysimachia Aurea), on the right, which has beautiful light green foliage which looks like it will spread across the ground and provide some nice winter colour.



The produce that we have in the garden is also doing really well. We have some cayenne chillis in the greenhouse, which has HUGE chillis on them. I've done so much better this year at watering and tending them and it really shows. I just need to keep it up now! The tomatoes, which I hadn't intended to grow but just popped up out of mummy's compost! I'm glad they did though, and hopefully August will be sunny enough to ripen them.



All in all I think the garden looks a lot better. Not perfect, I still have a lot that I want to do, not least build the the pergola. I would also like to fill it with more plants including some climbing up the fences on either side to make it feel more lush.