Guy and Mary's garden

Things are moving on apace; the garden is two or three weeks in advance. Peonies are over and again in the wrong place ! They are yellow and became surrounded by orange Geums!

I can't move the peonies, the Geums will be moved in the Autumn to swap over with the blue Salvias, nemorosa caradonna, which I have teamed with Salvia nachtulinder.

Two Gladiolus communis came out in May, whilst their mates should be out in Jul/August.

One of the Podophyllum, spotty dotty is flowering, no flowers on the other , are they male & female ?

Interesting having three sorts of catmint. The best seems Nepeta Hills Grounds with really lovely dark blue long racemes. Nepeta faassenii is shorter and there is a really interesting ice blue one, Badachshanica.

In the front the Cottage garden theme is working well. Rose, Scarborough Fair is wonderfully Floriferous, but the flowers are very heavy, so I will prop them up with metal hoops.

Interesting to read Glenys's blog about sparrows - we now have a hanging bird table made by Wild Sussex, lots of sparrows, blackbirds, thrushes, two goldfinches and a squirrel! 

A small flock of Sparrows descended on the lupins & roses, really fat greenfly have been cleared. 

Are we getting a natural balance in the garden?

On the stand the Regal Pelegoniums which survived under sacking all winter have now replaced the Auriculas, which flowered for about 4 months. Amazing.

Cuckoo spit has come three weeks early. Not dangerous to plants, it is the defensive foam to deter predators produced by the Nymph of the common meadow Spittlebug. It will develop into harmless frog hoppers later. They are not very sightly towards the top of my Asters, so more excuse for the "Chelsea chop".Do hope everyone is keeping well and finding solace in their gardens and surroundings.

Guy