End of May

Russian Vine grew all over the front of the house when we moved in.  It is appropriately nick named 'Mile a Minute'.  I pulled it down and planted a honeysuckle.  It took sixteen years to grow big enough to reach the top of the door ... but it has gone mad in the last two years.  I am so pleased with it!  It is going to smell lovely. The one at the back of the garden has been flowering for weeks but we don't get as much sun at the front of the house. 

The London Pride and a couple of creeping plants at the edge of the small pond have done well this month but the star of the show has to be the Aquilegia.

Forget-me-nots are still looking good but, if I want the same show next year, I will have to live with a messy bit for a while as they go to seed before I can pull them up.  The red Oriental Poppies are out in force; the pale pink one is late this year.  It usually blooms at the same time as the Honeysuckle, pink Aquilegia and pink Lupins. They look great with a back drop of pale striped grass. Hopefully it will pop open in the next couple of days.

The Robins have fledged. We woke a few days ago to the sound of baby Robins on the Lane.  The loudest birds at the moment though are the Blackbirds.  They have been nesting in the eves of the house next door, hidden in a massive Clematise.  Unfortunately the Magpies found them so we have had full ariel warfare!  The Blackbirds are winning through at the moment!  I watched the male fly across our garden swearing loudly and looked up expecting to see him attacking a Magpie but he was chasing a Sparrowhawk.  Neighbours from Hell! I think they will be looking for a better location if they brood again this year!   

I was thrilled to see a Bullfinch fly in for a quick visit.  Only our second sighting of one in the garden.  It landed on the rose arch just a few feet away from me.  Brilliant view!

The frogs are still around but they are a lot quieter now the mating is over.  The tadpoles will be busy eating everything they can find (including each other!) in the pond.

This pond iris bloomed this morning.  There are three flowers on it and about twenty buds.  It was so heavy last year it fell over - I hope it is anchored properly now!

The garden and weather are so nice right now the cat is refusing to come inside.

See The Patient Gardener blog for more EOMV posts.

May Days

Defra (Dept for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) have decided to spend thousands of pounds of public money to destroy nests of Common Buzzards.  Apparently some wealthy landowners claim the Buzzards are killing their Pheasants and spoiling their Shooting parties.  The Buzzard is a protected species; Pheasants are bred to shoot.  Surely they should just breed more Pheasants!  There must be thousands of people like me who love to see this beautiful bird soaring in a blue sky.  Defra should save the money and leave us with the birds!

Here is a link to a petition if you agree with me:  http://www.change.org/topics/animals#search/buzzard

May Days

The garden is full of Aquilegia at the moment - one of my favourite flowers. 

Easy to grow, self-seeding and lots of colour.  What more do you need?



Aquila is the Latin name for Eagle.  The petal was thought to resemble an eagle's claw hence the name Aquilegia. 

The Oriental Poppies and Peonies are opening.  The Honeysuckle is so heavy it pulled the trellis away from the fence. 

The renovation work has moved on as we have erected two lines of trellis towards the front of the garden.  I wanted to screen the main garden from passers-by.  One line of trellis would have worked but I preferred to stagger it by placing one line at one side of the path and the second line on the other side of the path.  I'm pleased with it so far.

Andy originally put the Greenman head at the top of the pole, which I quite liked, until he pointed out it looked like an executed criminal!

Anyone got any  suggestions for a scented, quick climbing plant for a West-facing trellis?