What a difference a week makes...

 Last Sunday we woke to snow - the first of this winter! But by the evening it had all melted away and the garden looked none the worse for it.

The daffodils were still standing...





the new leaves on the clematis still growing..




...even the new, totally unseasonal, shoots of montbretia looking ok



and these couple of feverfew flowers still somehow hanging on from summer

This week we've had some sharp, white-over frosts which have made the bergenias look rather ragged but these last couple of days Spring seems to have arrived with buds on snowdrops, crocuses, polyanthus and daffodils.

 It feels like any day now the garden could suddenly explode with colour - as if it were March rather than January!

Picked this week

It rained so many days last week that I thought that this might be all we could get to pick, but Friday was lovely and sunny so we managed to get a 'few' more things...

more raspberries, a couple of blackberries and strawberries







 mouldy peas

 Clearing the greenhouses so ... green tomatoes

 small peppers...

 red tomatoes....

 chillies and jalapeno






 baby-sized cucumber and courgette from the cold frame





 spinach and a few kale leaves







radishes

and a brief trip on Sunday, when this mixed batch of veg were found while digging up weeds



 and a couple of tiny cabbages were picked

and a few allotment 'weeds' - love in a mist and feverfew

July in the Garden - flowers

 I don't 'do' bedding plants so at this time of year my garden tends to looks a bit dull with lots of floppy greenery hiding the flowers.


They're still peeping through here and there though

  and the lavenders are still trying to take over the path!

lovely scented roses

red hot pokers

path? what path?

sweet william

feverfew

sunflowers reaching for the sky

hardy fuchsia

'rescued' lobelia starting to flower

Midsummer Flowers

Midsummer's day has been dry and warm, not as hot as recent days and with threatening clouds this afternoon - rain would have been nice in a way as a lot of the garden is starting to look dry.
Ideally it's a time to sit out in the garden, enjoy the flowers and their scent - if only I had time! I did at least manage to nip out and take photos..... though not brilliant ones as they're off the phone.

The 'back of the garden' shady spot with pink and blue geraniums

Foxgloves still towering over the other flowers


























Lavender trying to meet over the path

Sweet Williams (left) and feverfew at the bottom of the garden path

July in the garden - flowers

 The small patch beneath the front window is now covered in flowers - hardy geraniums at ground level and pyracantha blossoms above.

Feverfew  - which I started growing as a herb but quickly decided its flowers were pretty enough to be a 'flower'.









more colourful and heavenly scented flowers on the sweetpeas

stunning lilies - and no signs of lily beetle this year.

a pot of marigolds - not really that unusual but it's often difficult to get them to grow here as the slugs and snails eat them too quickly

 Sweet williams flowering for the first year - it's a long while since I last had these in my garden and they're lovely.

full to overflowing borders - dominated by foxglove spires

 pink scented rose

 and the creamy one being encouraged to climb the birch tree

one of my garden centre rescues doing well