My Little Garden 5th Sept 2020
It’s been a funny old week. We started off looking forward to the end of local lock down restrictions in Trafford only to find the government doing a last minute U turn as they came under pressure from local councillors and the increased testing figures. Quite why they are bothering when there doesn’t seem much evidence of certain groups even attempting to adhere to these rules is beyond me. Anyway, it seems that I would have to start a new career as a nanny if my sons want me to look after the children. Maybe there could be a free antibody test for those of us who think we had the virus in the ‘pre testing’ days and then an ID card to allow us exemption to some of the more daft rules and regulations. Just a thought!
Ok, rant over and lets talk about that calming place that is the garden. Here are my Six on Saturday.
1.The start of September has bought the Red Admirals as it often does, and the achillea is proving very popular again. It’s always interesting to see how the butterfly numbers vary from year to year. In my little garden, Commas and Painted Ladies have been missing, but Small Tortoiseshell numbers have increased.
2. Numerous Small Whites are also around although this one was looking a little battered. The verbena bonariensis is their meal of choice.
3. As I’m still mostly ignoring the fact that September has arrived, he’s a shot of one of the longest flowering geraniums in the garden, namely Ann Folkhard. I’m reliably informed that Geranium ‘Anne Thomson’ is even better and I bought one this year to compare. The former is one of those geraniums that just weaves it’s way around other plants but you can’t quite see where it starts. Perfect!
4. My favourite aster is very nearly open but it’s a little late this year. It usually flowers from late August until the first frosts though so hopefully I have quite a few weeks left to enjoy the beautiful purple flowers. It’s a really large plant so it definitely needs dividing up now. Spring is usually the time to do this and it will be good to establish a clump in my front garden too.
5. I’ve no idea what variety of Japanese anemones these are and I’d be tempted to get rid of them, but……
……. they pick up the colour of Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ perfectly so they may get to stay. I’m not as keen on the Anemone ‘Pamina’ in the header photo and unfortunately that’s popped up all over the place this year. It’s days are numbered!
6. And as a nod to autumn, here are are the crab apples on my one year old tree. It hasn’t grown all that much in height but it has a good crop of golden apples and looks great. It’s no longer dwarfed by the sunflower that bit the dust last week and probably all the better for it.
And that’s my Six On Saturday for this week. Links to lots more ‘sixes’ can be found on the blog of The Propagator who is the creator of this weekly collection, and there are many more excellent photos and blogs on twitter under the hashtag #SixonSaturday
https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/
Wishing you a great weekend - it’s probably a bulb buying one for me!
