Dry at Last

It has not only been dry it has been very hot. I managed to cut the big yew hedge at Milborne Port but the effort was soaked in sweat.There are loads of little box topiary features which are taking me an age to trim but they do look brilliant when they are done.I am amazed at just how quickly the muddy ground turns to hard dry soil and just how quickly the plants catch up. At Wincanton I have grown quite a few pumpkins which have sulked for weeks but now they are romping away and with a bit of decent weather should catch up very quickly.

The alpines that I managed to get for our garden are now beginning to grow and with a bit of time this weekend we will get planted.

Summer at Last

It finally stopped raining on Wednesday.I had a clearing up job to do at one of Linda's friends whose daughter is getting married on Saturday.It poured with rain nearly all the time I was there.I had the luck of cutting the grass first before it got too heavy.It looked great when I had finished and the weather has been superb this weekend.
I am suffering a little from a hangover this morning as we had our first outside supper this year. The shorts got an airing and I made some homemade pesto and linguine and a nice bottle of French red hit the recycling box.We watched Bradley Wiggins clinch the Tour de France which has been brilliant this year and plotted and planned our garden for the umteenth time.I managed to get quite a few alpine plants from a cottage garden I have been renovating that is going up for rent so they wont miss them.We are planting these on the steeper bits to tie in the edges.Sedums ,houseleeks and some lovely phloxes.At last I was able to get out with the weedkiller and tidy up some of the dandelions that make up fifty percent of the garden.

We went to the Sherborne Art Club exhibition but there was nothing there we were desperate to buy apart from a Purbeck scene that had already sold.I think we have buyers remorse after spending so much on the Fiona Gordon Abbey painting that is sitting in our lounge.We have derived so much pleasure from it after admiring her work for years and cannot believe that we have bought one of her originals.

The weather has improved so much the hot air balloons are overhead again lets hope it stays the same until December.

I think it is lack of motivation that is making me so lazy in posting blogs.This is entirely due to the weather. I have been moaning about the cold and damp and the slugs but the weather has made the actual day to day working pretty miserable.
Yesterday I went to Wincanton to discover that the potatoes had blight - the most widespread and bad as I have ever seen. At Rimpton the roses are really suffering from mildew and at Milborne Port most of the roses have not even flowered going straight to that brown papery stage.

Last week I went to the RHS show at Hampton Court and quite frankly was underwhelmed - it was the only fine day and the plants were not used to it and were wilting under the pressure. I also think that economic pressures meant that only the biggest (and less interesting) nurseries were exhibiting. The show gardens were a bit uninspiring (or was it me) I think all the effort had gone into Chelsea and had now run out of steam. David Austen put on a good show and I think all the other rose exhibitors in that marquee were also rans. I think if I see another 'outside room' I will scream. I saw some interesting plants though the 'verbena rigida' will bee one I will try and there were some very unusual colours in the achilleas.I just love the gladioli in the picture - I have already ordered some.
I cannot grumble really as the trip to Hampton court was a present from a client and I have just added a lovely new client right in the centre of Sherborne with a very pretty walled garden. I just have to find the time to fit it in on a regular basis.