With garden openings over for 2024, my ramblings around the garden involve a combination of "this is gorgeous!", "aren't we fortunate?", "thank goodness that's over" and "how can I improve this?". Already thoughts have turned to potential 'tweaks', nothing major, and ways to improve things I don't feel have really worked - perhaps I will write a post on them in due course...
In the meantime, let's have a stroll around the garden and see what it's like at its prime, starting with the usual view from the back of the house (above). If you compare it with twelve months ago (below), you can see the impact non-performing clematis have made:
As shrubs and roses mature in the shrub border, adjacent to the streamside grass and the photos above, they give the impression of closing in on the path through it, and judicious and discreet staking and tying in is often needed at this time of year.
The woodland has been a welcome shady spot on recent hot days and it very much highlights the plants that thrive in such conditions, especially in the more recent 'path less travelled', where many were added after the path was reclaimed from the straggly hedge. At the end of the woodland is the bothy, from where you can look down over much of the back end of the garden. At the edge, Hydrangea 'Annabelle', a replacement for one ousted from the original snowdrop border, has suddenly ceased to be just a lanky stick, transforming itself into a lanky stick smothered in huge blooms.
From the back of the shed you look out over the main borders, climbing rose 'Strawberry Hill' against the fence and the clematis colonnade a little to the right. You can be under cover here, sitting on a bench with a table for your cup of tea and cake, admiring the view which really is a feast for the eyes at this time of year. Also in view are the bronze heucheras at the base of the Acer griseum, another success story, although there was a small gap to refill here earlier in the year.
Walking through the woodland edge border, viewed from both directions, we reach the grass border and the two bold borders, the latter really making an impact this year.
Through the gate to the cutting beds and the working greenhouse, most of the annuals and dahlias are now in bloom, albeit generally later than last year:
The blue & white border, in four separate sections, is always difficult to photograph, but has filled out well this year. The rose garden is not as successful, with roses elsewhere generally performing better, and needs a rethink. Walking through it we can pause by the clematis colonnade beyond and look up at the three out of eight clematis blooming there, before emerging into the main borders.
Heading back towards the house, I have tried to bulk up the obelisk border with spare annuals, but the border isn't really sunny enough for them to perform well. However, some of the perennials are beginning to make an impact, like Veronicastrum virginicum, Geranium 'Anne Thompson' and Sanguisorba 'Pink Tanna'. The two obelisk supports are sadly devoid of the clematis planted there last year.
Looking up at the gable end of the house, the wisteria blooms are but a distant memory, albeit untarnished by wood pigeons this year, whilst in the Coop many of the plants have suffered from a lack of sunshine and warmth earlier in the year and in the Coop Corner Clematis armandii continues to dominate.
To help you navigate our way around the garden, there is a map under The Garden tab above; actual visitors to the garden are also shown this map. The locations from where the photos are usually taken are also shown above, as well as the route of a video tour when it is available, as it is this month. Sadly, I can't promise you tea and cake when you finish the tour...
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