I said when I last posted that I had to wait and see happens next in the garden, having made some changes in the Spring. I have been away from the Fortnight Garden for seven weeks now and my goodness I am paying for it! I have come back to a jungle! The hedges need cutting, the pots are a mess, the viburnum has been shredded, and it just looks as though the plants need attention.





Hanging over the back gate is a gorgeous white rose, and about to break out are American Beauty and William Shakespeare. Graham Thomas is not flourishing and probably needs feeding, Roseraie de l’Hay is starting, and Canary Bird is nearly over and sadly I have missed most of her flowers this year.

An agapanthus is loaded with buds and the geraniums and nepeta are filled with bees all over the garden. Centhranthus is looking cheerful and reminds me it would look good in the City Garden too.




A single iris is gorgeous – but why is there only one? The pink paeonies are opening, with the red ones to come, but the red paeonies don’t seem to be flourishing – I wonder if I have been remiss about feeding, or perhaps they are just too crowded? And the sedums, those tough and usually relentless plants, seem rather stunted here; in the City Garden they are doing well on the other hand.



And I love the way the light filters through the grasses at the end of the day!

I can’t quite believe I have made this garden and somehow manage it on hard work once a fortnight, with a spurt of activity at other odd times. And it is productive, with cuttings spread around the village and in the City Garden!