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Today Summer has returned in the form of a hot sunny day.
I’m no entomologist, so my identification of the bee-like insects flitting from bloom to bloom should be taken with a pinch of salt (which, traditionally should see off weeds). I am, however, confident that this one on a geranium palmatum is really a bee.
This is probably a hoverfly using fuchsia Delta’s Sarah as a landing strip;
and another approaching a pale pink poppy;
more likely a wasp lurking behind this white antirrhinum;
and a couple more sampling these new poppies
towering in the herbaceous border,
where delicate pink Canterbury bells now stand alongside the deep blue ones,
and roses like the flaming Ernest H Morse
and the gentler Dearest are thriving.
Unfortunately this herbaceous border, between the Back Drive and the back fence recently erected to keep out invaders from the North Breeze jungle, became the source of my major gardening task. An attempt has been made by an even bigger beast to eradicate Jackie’s recently planted red rambler rose. There was a label giving the name of the rose, but it’s probably been eaten by whatever dug its way under the fence, tearing at the roots and demolishing a large ornamental poppy.
We decided to be subtle about creating a barrier. To this end I transported two concrete blocks from the other end of the garden,
extended the hole behind the rose, and popped in the concrete. The subtlety lay in leaving the hole to the left of the rose, so providing the animal with an alternative route. The stem in the foreground of the last of this series of pictures will be tied to its support.
Here is a current view of the Rose Garden showing, from front to back, Absolutely Fabulous, For Your Eyes Only, and Love Knot, flanked by tall pink foxgloves;
and another from the eucalyptus to the Compassion rose on the arch spanning The Dead End Path,
which received the bulk of Jackie’s attention today. She pruned, weeded, raked, tidied, planted, and
propped up the rather unstable bench with bricks which I helped transport from elsewhere. It can now take my weight without wobbling.
Recent plantings well settled in include the begonias in the foreground of the picture of the Head Gardener at work; these petunias and cosmoses in a tub nearby;
and osteospermums and nepeta in the Oval Bed.
Eventually Jackie was satisfied that her day’s work was fit to be photographed,
and she could sit back and admire it.
This evening we are off to Danni and Andy’s home in Shirley where Elizabeth will join us for a meal at the young folks’ local Indian restaurant. Since it is only my niece who has expressed sleepless distress at not knowing what I had for dinner, and she will be well acquainted with it, I assume that the rest of you won’t mind if I report on this tomorrow. With apologies to those who will be on their breakfast.