August in your garden...

Well into another month of the gardening year... and the weather has been much better.. plants are flowering strongly and the the rain has helped keep it all lush and green.. how is everyones else's going so far in a year that has not seen good weather for us all.

Here in the Fens everything seems to be about a month late. Only just finished Broad Beans, normally can compost plants at end of June. Runner and French beans look frankly pathetic. A few tomatoes are ready but none of the plants look very happy. Ther will be 3 pears this year (50 kilos + last year) and the same for quinces, but there will be Damsons and have just picked the last of the Gooseberrys (2 x green ones and 1 x red) and black currents all huge and v. sweet. Flowers have been vast; Delphiniums towering over me and Verbena Bonariensis. Roses are producing blooms, which then get hammered by the rain and turn into papier mache. Pelagoniums also don't like heavy rain. Strangest gardening year ever for me.

that is al sounding very good artjak.. better than our veg plot.. half our swede were lost.. foun dout due to too much rain.. but our pes and carrots have be splended this year, french beans are now producing and had some today very nice too.

everything else in garden is doing well. rudbeckias are coming out to their full glory.. will take a picccie tom) yearh weather has been wierd this year.. thou last few days very hot and humid.. supposed to get rain tonight.. i can believe i am saying this but hope so to refill water butts,

Bees on Hollyhocks...

Bees on Heleniums...

Seven bumble bees on one Buphthalmum...

Various lilies...

Cannas...

Despite the awful Summer- the garden has held up well. Could do with some more sun to finally coax, the cosmos and scabious into flower. I've had 3 measly cosmos flowers all year but the plants look very healthy.

My self sown snapdragons have been my favourite so far, started them off indoors in January. Also learn't that dead heading is another full time job!

Taken on the weekend.

 This morning when the sun was out, briefly and before it started raining......again.

 Good to see this back

 Not sure what this called,but looks very similar to the yellow plant that Gary Hobson has and is definatley an insect magnet

@holllie hock.. your snap dragons are great... i sowed some again this year but once again they have failed to grow bigger than 5 ins tall.. i am giving up on them and will be buying htem at morrisons next year tray of 20 for 1.99 much easier.

@gary .. lovely pics there looking stunning. we have had drizzle rain today until lunch time then the sun came out.. hot.. we are due sune for next fews days.. thou must admit could do  with some heavier rain as our butts are nearly empty here..

@gardeningfactic- Thanks, I'm so pleased with them. It was my first year of growing them from seed.

Went out in the garden earlier and the scent from my night scented stock was all over the place.

Lovely pics - thankyou for sharing your gardens  Must check to see if my Cyclamen has appeared I can smell your night scented stock just by seeing your pic Hollie- Hock and your  Snap Dragons are great

I love all the Bee pics Gary

Pam x

well have a nice hot few days.. thou only managed to dead head and cut back as ground is rock hard.

my neoplotan cyclamen have just started popping their heads up... i have got loads of one year old ones i grew from seed.. does anyone know how long before they flower.. they should be white ones and pink ones.. they come from the seed pods of my grandma one which is now 32 years old and going strong..

Hi all. I've not been on here for a while (combination of traipsing around the country and it actually being nice enought to be in the garden! ), so I hope everyone is well. My garden has absolutely rocketed in the last couple of weeks with the warmth. Will be doing a photo update on my blog in the next couple of days, but here are a few of the best.

 The view from the back door

 The view in the other direction

 Monstrous Nicotinana (allegedly lime green, but not really, smells divine), Dwarf Sunbflowers, Bidens (smells like honey) and Oxalis

 Lavatera, Crocosmia X Crocosmiflora (I think), and Hydrangea

 The more recently planted replacement for the veg bed (aka swimming pool...)

 And last, but certainly not least, Nigella. My new favourite flower.

@Gary Hobson and @Holie-Hock - some beautiful flowers there. Love the Heleniums!

gret photos everyone.. rob.. ,y nicotina have got huge this year too.. here is some piccies of my garden at mo

 these are my rudbeckias. doing very well with all the rain we had.

 My huge white budlehia (spelling?) nver know how it.

 I took this from a cutting  2 years ago..

Has been lovely again today so out busy cutting back and deadheading.. tidying up ready for autumn doesnt seem to have spent much time in  the garden this year at all.. and now it all seems over adnflwoers are starting to finish before it seems they started.

Took a few photos for the garden diary today---water is getting a bit scarce here.

 Steps and lattice installed; work in progress.To the lower right will be a strawberry bed.

 the lupins I grew from seed turned out pink, not purple, as expected.

Tiger lilies are in bud

Only one bloom on this lily this year; needs to go in the ground--it's in a pot.

 This lily has 20 buds on it--the deck garden was heavy on the reds this year, but I quite like it.

 The deer's garden-beginning some planting with grasses I have moved from elsewhere. Future site of hellebores under the plum tree. Lavenders  and artemesia in the bed behind.

 Velvet Queen sunflowers with an Arbutus tree behind.

Lovely pictures, I love to see other peoples gardens.  I'm always peeking a look over hedges & fences to see what is going on , even when driving.

Hi Rob, I know exactly what you mean about the warm weather giving everything a boost, it's what they have been waiting for..........please lets have a little more?  The left hand bed at the side of the trellis looks really bushy & healthy.

I know Nigella as Love in the mist. I have some in my garden for the first time this year. Not really sure how I managed this as I thought they were going to be. Larkspur...........I do remember collecting seeds from a garden last year though.

gardenfanatic- your Rudbeckias look amazing, what a great show. I've grown these from seed for the first time and they have just started to flower. I am right in thinking that they are perennials?

Also really like the white Budelia, haven't really give this much of thought as my memories of Budelia are very tall, langly, blocking out the light Budelia. It looks like it doesn't  have to take up much room. Have you had a lot of insects visit it?

I'm with you on the not so slow changing  of seasons, I'm always optimistic for an Indian Summer.

Inkadog- love the door and the steps. look great.

Thanks Pam for your kind words, I am so pleased with my snapdragons and also my stock, both grown from seed. The smell of the stock if the air is right is amazing, fills the air

gardeningfanatic - those Rudbeckias look like Cappuccinos (though they might be something else). I love those. Some of the blooms this year are quite massive. And bees like them too.

@Gardeningfantic, I agree, those Rudbeckias are lovely. I'm hoping the show isn't quite over yet - a few more weeks surely!

@Hollie-Hock - Thanks, I'm particularly pleased with that one. It's definately one of the more developed looking bits of the garden.

@Inkadog - The Lilies look great. Mine have only just started opening up. They're orientals and they smell fab.

@hollie-hock.. no thes type are annuasl but mine stay flowering until end of nov if weather warm normally until first hard frost.. last year dug them up as plant looked rough but still flowering..  there is many in the rudbeckia family that are perennial thou.. they took while to get going this year but when they started no stopping them.. i love them grow them every year

the white budlehia is about 6ft tall now and about 4ft round.. i cut back the dead flwoers to encourage more lower down stem..by the time it is finished clowering it is back down to a hieght of about 2ft ready for the winter..

it has had peacock butterflies today as sun hot and very hot.. last time saw them was in may.. didnt get camera quick enough thou to get piccie..

@inkdog.. your wall is coming on grand.. it is going to look superb when finished.. your lillies are gorgeous and i bet the sent is amazing in the evenings.

@gary hobson.. no it stated just rudbeckias on the seed packet.. same as i get every year.. nothing to tell which kind thou.. they are gorg arent they.

@rob.. many thanks i adore them and grown them every year..

also guys.. today i saw a strange bee.. gone by time got camera.. it was about an ince long with borwn and orange stripes and longer thinner wings to normal bee.. and it had an orange face.. do any of you know what it is.. it s was feeding on the dark kinght budlehia i have..