My Little Garden 12th August

3 min readAug 12, 2023

You can tell it’s August when all the Japanese anemones are in full bloom, even the pale pink one called ‘September Charm’ which by right should wait until the appropriate month. I don’t grow that one, but I do have a couple of other pinks, plus some of the ‘Swan’ varieties and also a ‘Frilly Knickers’ (just because I liked the name). They are my mid to late summer staples, joining the garden party at just the right time.

When I got home from a hectic week in Norfolk last weekend, you’d have thought that I’d been away for at least a month judging by the length of the grass and the growth spurt that many of the late summer flowering plants had put on. I can only deduce that it rained ‘up north’ far more than it did in Norfolk.

Since then, I’ve spent the week juggling gardening with some photography and writing work and looking after the grandaughters for a day. We took all four of them blackberry picking on Thursday morning and made blackberry flapjacks with the results of our foraging. Very scrumptious and not at all calorific (hopefully).

It’s been a bit tricky to pick my six ‘things’ from the garden after a week off, but here’s my contribution to the Six on Saturday extravaganza.

Anemones

I feel I must refer to ‘Frilly Knickers’ as ‘she’ but is that politically correct? Who knows, but I wish she/he/it would get a move on with the flowering.

Pamina is doing a little better.

2. Eurybia × herveyi

aster (syn. Aster macrophyllus Twilight). What a name, but such a pretty aster.

3. Achillea ‘Pretty Belinda’

In general, ‘easy to grow and can’t go wrong’ achillea don’t do well in my garden, but ‘Pretty Belinda’ is making a valiant effort.

4. Astrantia

This has been flowering for absolutely ages. It gets morning sun but is shaded later in the day, and the location suits it well. It makes a nice contrast to the hydrangea behind.