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Garden Diary – June – New Border, Roses & Strawberries
June means summer flowers and the produce properly getting going. Roses in full bloom scenting the air, the taste of our first strawberry and my one and only peony coming out, after me worrying it had died over winter. I like June! Campanulas have been popping up in the wilder border but more surprisingly in the opposite woodland border, where I certainly didn’t plant them. That’ll be my little wildlife friend’s. We had the first two ripe strawberries at the beginning of the week, but by Sunday we had a proper dish full for breakfast. I can’t believe, that neither the many squirrels or blackbirds haven’t spotted them yet. Long…
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Garden Diary – Heatwaves to fleeces, roses and DIY!
Well, that’s the end of May, and what a funny weather month it’s been! I think we’ve had every weather type accept snow. At least we’ve ended on a hot note. It’s a long time since we’ve had a bank holiday as warm as that, great for all the families on half term! Unfortunately we spent the whole weekend inside, as we’ve finally had our new kitchen delivered and we were attempting to work out what went where! As it happens, it was far too hot to be gardening anyway, accept of course for the seemingly endless watering. I don’t mind normal watering every few days, but the greenhouse needed…
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Garden Diary – Time to smell the roses, but mind the new fly!
Monday 4th May 2026 Lots of yummy strawberries on the way 🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓 Just need to keep squirrel Nutkin off 🐿️🐿️🐿️🐿️ #kitchengarden #growyourown #Homegrown The Rhodo down in the white garden, against next doors Bramley (yes scrumping does go on), at the beginning of the bank holiday weekend 🌿🤍🌿🤍🌿🤍 Wishing you all a super bank holiday Monday 🌞💦 #bankholidayweekend #whiteflowers Tuesday 5th May 2026 After a big chop last year, I’m relieved my rhododendron has survived & is still flowering 🌿💜🌿💜🌿💜🌿 The sun finally came out around 6 last night, this seems to be so often the way ☀️ #TuesdayBlue #rhododendron Wednesday 6th May 2026 As ever, the first rose to…
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Garden Diary – Wake up & smell the roses
I do wake up & smell the coffee first, but then watering has become a daily necessity and so smelling the roses comes a close second. The roses are now in full swing and I feel there are more blooms than usual, which I guess is down to all this marvellous sunshine. Isn’t the weather extraordinary, and not just for the time of year, we would be over the moon with this in mid summer! Although… I’m not keen on watering, firstly it’s quite time consuming and secondly, my primary school did a good, brain washing job on us about not wasting water. We do have water butts, but it’s…
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Last week of May
Moths & Butterflies – Welcome and not so welcome I saw my first ‘Mint Moth’ this week, of course I didn’t know what it was but as I managed a quick snap shot it enabled me to come in and google it. Not surprisingly they like mint plants! As well as thyme and other herbs. It’s only small about 2cm across and it’s unusual in that it flies around in the daytime. The downside of beautiful butterflies and moths is at some stage they have to be a caterpillar and caterpillars eat plants. With the exception of the cabbage white caterpillar eating my brassicas, I do just tolerate plant damage.…
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The Joys of June
I’ve finally come down off cloud nine after my brief appearance on Gardeners World at the beginning of the month. I think I’m now at the end of all the teasing about wanting my autograph! What strange weather we’ve been having. No wonder us Brits never stop talking about it! The coldest rainiest May followed by a super hot dry June – until now….. The flower borders are loving this hot spell especially the roses, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen looking so good As for the veg garden’s all over the place, some things doing well – like the rhubarb. All that rain followed by this warm sunshine…
