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Yesterday evening, whilst having drinks on the patio, a steady chugging overhead made me feel rather queasy. It took me back to Cumbria in the 1990s.
As we were promised several hours of rain this afternoon, Jackie spent the morning watering the garden, and I took some photographs. The rain arrived just as Jackie had finished.
I’ll write that again. Because she is going away for three days with her sisters The Head Gardener spent the morning watering the garden. Although rain was expected it does not penetrate the soil in pots and hanging baskets.
My day was largely administrative, involving contacting Environmental Health about next door, visiting the Care Home on the other side of North Breeze to discuss this; arranging for delivery of the greenhouse; and having a meeting at the bank.
I rarely focus on the happy proximity of planting that we enjoy in the garden. Today I will begin with a view that meets us as we open the kitchen door. The erigeron in the foreground has, with Jackie’s midwifery, spawned offspring all over the garden. The petunias and geraniums in the various pots sit pleasingly together, and the tall verbena bonarensis, as it does everywhere, towers aloft.
Across the other side of the patio, petunias, cosmoses, and geranium palmatums blend well with the distant spirea, The contrasting bidens, like every other one in the garden, is self seeded from last year.
We are led back along the Kitchen Bed to this corner from verbenas, geraniums, cosmoses and bidens, through day lilies and more.
Various day lilies lurk behind more suspended blue and white petunias in the Dragon Bed,
pink and white varieties of which share their berth in the herbaceous border with blue and white lobelias,
and purple ones swing on the breeze in the company of bright marigolds and geraniums at the western end of the Phantom Path.
Others produce a white theme with marguerites, with dappled blue and white examples beneath.
A pink display is provided by more petunias, geraniums, and lobelia, more of the first two in the background with the red Japanese maple, rosa glauca against the fence and palmatums in the foreground.
Here, pink diascas are backed by the strident red bottle brush plant.
When the next two poppies open they will have something to say to these phlox.
Verbena bonarensis sentinels surround this Star of India clematis,
whereas Madame Julia Correvon cartwheels across the dead prunus pissardi towards phlox and penstemon.
Petunias hanging near the Brick Path repeat the purple of another Star of India.
This vibrant potted hydrangea reflects geranium palmatums in Elizabeth’s bed containing equally powerful day lilies.
A similar hydrangea takes the eye through red geraniums to a fuchsia Magellanica, with ferns, lobelias, and verbena bonarensis joining the party.
Further along the bed a cooler note is stuck by a paler hydrangea and geranium palmatums.
Two different begonia and lobelia combinations hang over the Brick
and Heligan Paths.
Jackie is particularly pleased with these California poppies grown from seed spilling over the rocks among the grasses on the Cryptomeria Bed.
The red and white of Super Elfin rambler and neighbouring snapdragons contrast like the emblems of Lancaster and York in England’s fifteenth century Wars of the Roses.
Further along the herbaceous border one can rest among poppies, petunias, lobelias, and verbenas.
Clematis Margaret Hunt frolics among verbena bonarensis in the Back Drive barrier.
As I reached the conclusion of this tour I came upon a surprise scampering among the shrubs, pattering across the patio, and hopping under a hole scooped out of the soil under the North Breeze fence. Was this The Beast that burrows into our garded? If so it will not be alone. This prompted my call to Environmental Health. They have already been alerted to the vermin. They are interested in rats. They are only interested in mice if they are indoors. They do not do rabbits.
This evening we dined on Mr Pink’s fish and chips with our own pickled onions and gherkins Jackie drank Hoegaarden.
The rabbit has good taste 🙂 Tastes good, too.
Nice one, Mary. Thank you.
I learnt more flowering plant names here than I knew before.
Thanks very much, Ellen. Most information courtesy of the Head Gardener
A very well read horticulturalist… I believe.🙄
🙂
I loved the pics and so many beautiful vibrant flowers
Many thanks, Shalini
Where oh where is Mister MacGregor when you want him …. 🐰
Nice one, Osyth. Thank you.
I’m back on WordPress just in time to see the bounty of your garden! Beautiful:)
So pleased. Many thanks, Elena
I’ll take rabbits over rats any day. Gorgeous photos, Derrick! I love the purple and yellows!
Thanks very much, Jill
Tomorrow’s post should end “This evening we dined on Jackie’s delicious hosenpfeffer.”
Nice thought, Oglach. Many thanks
Not good calling Beatrix Potter in to deal with the rabbit. Get Enid Blyton’s Famous Five – far more practical and they make a good rabbit pie.
Forget about watering the plants…. no food for Derrick for three days!
You should see the enormous pot of lamb jalfrezi and pan of savoury rice the Culinary Queen has left me. Thanks a lot, Bruce
I looked back at your old post. I would have let people label me chicken. 🙂
The tour of your garden was wonderful, Derrick–and now I imagine the flowers dancing and frolicking when you aren’t watching.
This seems to be quite a year for rabbits around here. We see them hopping about our yard all the time, and our daughter and son-in-law have them at their house, too. She was very upset when their dog got one.
Thanks very much, Merril. We have yet to learn how large the family is.
So many lovely flowers and plants! It is just amazing the variety!
Thanks very much, Lynn
Pesky bunnies. I hope it is alone..
Instruction re chicken wire plant cages can be provided if necessary..
Thanks very much, Jessica. We’ll remember that, should it prove necessary.
Ha, a Beastly Bunny! Good luck with taming that Derrick! I was quite relieved when you rewrote your second paragraph – I did wonder for a moment if you two had gone a little bonkers…… As to the opening paragraph, it’s a brave person who feels the fear and does it any way! The garden looks fab!!
Thanks for the lovely comments, Pauline.
Seeing these photos makes me so happy, flowers are always so charming. I nearly forgot I was looking at a computer screen! It was much needed break from the day’s tasks.
Very many thanks, Raw
What!? Skipity hoppity cottpn tail a vermin? Noooo. Too cruel. Mind you mum would have it in a pie as quick as you can make it into a glove
Vermin was meant to apply to the rats and mice. I quite liked the rabbit, but Jackie is concerned about what it and its family might eat. Thanks, Geoff.
Trey enough I can see Jackie’s fears…
What lovely blooms as always and I love those colorful Petunias. the Hydrangeas are beautiful too.
Thanks very much, Arlene
There are many things I enjoyed here today: “equally powerful day lilies” was one– it was an image mentally and a feeling evoked that I loved. And the commentary about the Environmental Health folks and what they do and do not do.” And why does it seem so English to me a restaurant is named Mr. Pink’s Fish and Chips? But I got a great image in my mind! And , of course, the flowers. I can’t say my potted flowers on our balcony are half as happy as yours!
Very many thanks, Cynthia
I am quite sure the beast is something much more fearsome than a rabbit, though … the results of a lagomorph occupation can seem those of a fearsome beast. It’s possible the rabbit has found Shangri-la. I would certainly think so if I had dug under the fence and had a look.
Lovely comment, Lisa. Many thanks
Beauties and the beast! Of all the places on the earth, he (or she) has chosen your garden to nestle in. Plus it seems to have stolen Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak! Perhaps it is emboldened by Jackie’s planned brief departure.
I read about your misadventure in the microlite plane. I was too reminded of a ferris wheel ride. I am sure the Almighty didn’t wire my brain for things like that. I can of course relate to your plight! It seems to have left a lasting knot in your neural pathways, potent enough to be triggered by associated sounds and smells.
(From my phone’s Reader, WordPress doesn’t allow me to post comments or like the pages visited through a link. Reminds me to buy a microlite laptop for early morning reading…)
Many thanks for reading and for such an eloquent comment, Uma
Beautiful gardens’ Derrick and Jackie! So you have a resident rabbit? We see one here on occasion, but there appear to be too many predators about for them to become a problem here. There is a fox out back now, he or she watches us garden from safety of the edge of the woods.
Many thanks, Lavinia. Jackie is afraid of what the rabbits might eat. Fingers crossed.
You carried out your CEO duties splendidly, and deserved something more sumptuous than chish & fips with pickled onions
Thanks a lot, Brian. You should see what Jackie has cooked up for the next three days 🙂
I can hardly wait 🙂
By the bye, thanks for the correction; Bruce really doesn’t suit me. The War Office thinks that Brute might.
The trouble is you are both wits, and Bruce really should be an Aussie with that name
You need to get a trailcam, Derrick. You position it and it takes a photograph every time there is movement, even at night. That would solve the puzzle once and for all.
Thanks, John. But I might yet get more material out of the mystery 🙂
“June is bustin’ out all over…..”
🙂 Thanks, GP
A place of beauty. And no, doubt, nibbles to a rabbit.
Many thanks, Laurie. There’s unlike to be only one 🙂
What a beautiful garden, and thank you for the gorgeous photos. I love gardening this lovely display of nature’s colours is inspiring.
Many thanks, Ivor
my pups love bunny wabbits…..wasckally little things 🙂 nice views Derrick, you all have too much energy….I alas have a black thumb…..I can kill a cactus 🙂
Each to their own, Kim. Thank you very much
Such a fabulous, colourful beautiful garden 🙂 And now the rain will penetrate all the deeper for Jackie’s watering.. Hubby watered the allotment still yesterday for 2 hours despite the weatherman saying we would have rain.. He also said we would have rain on Monday but it never arrived.. However now 24 hours in and still raining.. The garden is looking refreshed and getting a good drink.. 🙂 as I hope your plants now will last the three days Jackie is away 🙂
Sending Love your way and wonderful photo’s Derrick.. 🙂
Many thanks Sue. X
🙂 my pleasure
The plants look so refreshed after the watering and the rain. Such vibrant colours and variations…I really wish I could visit your garden!
Wishing Jackie a grand holiday with her sisters… 🙂
Thanks very much, Maniparna. If you are ever over here you would be welcome
Thank you!
Derrick,
You have the loveliest garden. 🙂
Very many thanks, Micheline
The garden must provide a welcome respite after a day of doing grown-up administrative work!
Sure does, Kerry. Many thanks
Wonderful to enjoy these beautiful flowers! 🌸
Just found this in the Trash, Amy. Thanks very much
Absolutely gorgeous snaps!
Many thanks, Sumith
Awww, I happen to love rabbits! 🐇🐇
We had them as a single Mom of 3 animal loving kids in a hutch along the side of the house with an overhang to give some shelter. We had gerbils, guinea pigs and Jamie had a rat (like your rat pack on the swing! 😉 )
Many thanks, Robin. I was delighted to see a rabbit, until Jackie pointed out what they eat. I saw one again yesterday, but no apparent harm done.
I must admit I was expecting something more fearsome – a badger at the very least. If it’s any help, we were infested with rabbits on the farm but although we had to fence off the vegetables we never had trouble with them eating flowers.
That is very good to read, Quercus. Many thanks.
🙂