A Remembrance of Things Past* – let’s hope for better things to come!

(*with apologies to Proust since I will not be mentioning madeleines!)

As we go into Tier 4 I thought we all needed a bit of a boost so I’ve decided to write about happier times, namely the garden from late spring into summer. Hannah put a lot of effort into growing vegetables for the table this year and we are just finishing off the last of the leeks, onions and garlic. The squashes, particularly my favourites, the butternut squashes, are still providing the ingredients for soups and casseroles. My ‘speciality’ though is flowers. Mostly inedible, although Hannah likes adding a few select flower heads to a jug of Pimm’s and her wedding cake featured a cascade of real petals, they are nonetheless important because of the rôle they play in providing nectar for bees (obviously essential for pollination of other plants), not to mention the way they have of cheering up the gardener and visitors to the garden.

Because we are nearly eighty metres above sea level our growing season is short. Our main problem is the wind which normally blows from the East and our house and land often sit in damp cloud and mist even when the town below is enjoying sunshine. The temperature is also a degree or two colder up here on the hill compared to that further down the valley. Unfortunately, this means that tender plants do not normally flourish and those that do make a good show in spring often get so battered by the wind that they invariably end up stunted at best if not killed off altogether. I have a lovely poppy (Patty’s Plum) in the back garden which starts off strongly, opens its beautiful plum-coloured petals and gets almost immediately felled by the wind. Every year I hope it will stay upright but it never does. I can’t find a photograph, probably because the flowers barely last a day before the petals are blown away so instead here’s a rose that seemingly cannot be killed despite me hacking it back to ground level twice as it is growing in the wrong place near the washing line, and rips the sheets with its thorns. It’s a vigorous climber, very beautiful and flowers prolifically throughout summer. I think the best solution is to move the washing line!

Finally, just to prove that I can grow non pink flowers, here is a spectacular bearded iris that steals the show in the back border in late spring/early summer.

Here’s hoping for a brighter new year for us all!