Summer Flowers and Fun in the City

Echinacea in the garden at home

Summer is well on it's way, we've had brilliant sunshine, high temps and torrential rain in the space of a day. It is pouring with rain as I write this. I think my post on Facebook about our aquatic plants this week was very apt. The kids are back at school and it's back to early mornings and routine.

I re-discovered these the other week, ideal for coffee time in the office,
but oh too tempting, yum!

In the nursery everything is progressing well, work wise, customer and sales wise. The borders are looking really full and colourful and the stock beds are filling up with newly potted cuttings, seedlings and re-potting. I've very nearly finished working through the grasses, yeh, it will be great to have an accurate stock take of what we have and know it's all alive, potted and well looked after and all the rubbish is finally gone. Once the last of the grasses are done we can start our next garden plan on that middle terrace.

Gaura and Echinops in the Prairie bed at home

On Saturday we had a stand booked at the Peebles Agricultural show. Peebles is one of our local towns so perfect for advertising the nursery and hopefully selling things too on the day. Unsurprisingly there had been a lot of rain in the previous couple of days and being sited on a field we expected the going to be muddy .... but it was a mud bath, hippos would have been happy! So I ended up taking up a new sport at the show, Meriva rallying! Not to be outdone I made sure I co-ordinated with my car. Getting into the show at 8am was a nightmare, tractors and lorries had already churned up the grass so my car got stuck twice and had to be towed out twice before we finally got to the stand. Despite a rocky start and a slow morning because of the weather we sold plants and chatted to lots of people about the nursery and hopefully there will be follow up visits to the nursery. It was good to get home for tea and a relaxing evening after a long day.

My car ins't designed for rallying

I think I might have to wash it now

Our stand at the show

Not to be out done I made sure I
matched my car

The view from our stand

At home the garden is doing it's late summer thing. Because a lot of the plants are in pots and troughs and crammed in quite close together in their temporary homes I quite often give them a cut back at this time of year after they have flowered. This allows some of the smaller plants that are being swamped to get more light and air. It can sometimes encourage a second flush of flowers on some plants, especially Geraniums. Here are some of the stars in the home garden.

Echinacea 'White Swan'

Leucanthemum 'Esther Read'

Nigella, one of my favourite annuals

A gorgeous pale blue Nigella

There are doubles too which are very showy

Nasturtiums peeping out from under the alpine troughs

The prairie bed in the front garden is beginning to fill up

Triosteum pinnatifidum, an interesting oddity for the shade border

Bracken as nursery dog can never quite take his role seriously

Where has this been all my life?

Monday and the end of long lies as Daniel went back to school. As usual the council have changed school bus provider so it's always a lottery whether the bus or taxi will turn up or not. Unsurprisingly it was a mess, not just the first day as is usual but for two days arghhhhhhhhhh. The first day it was 45 minutes late having come down our road by chance as they were lost and they'd been given the wrong number for me so couldn't phone. Bear in mind the driver is suposed to do a dry run of the route before the first day, hmmmmmm. Second day, no taxi! Eventually a phone call to say they were lost and still had a pick up on the other side of Biggar to do and could I take Dan to school! Good job I was off on Tuesday then. So a trip to Lanark and back first thing in the morning which messed up my plan for a long lie as I'm exhausted and not feeling that great.

Colour and fun at the Ediburgh Fringe

Fortunately the day got better and better, the weather was amazing and we headed into Edinburgh to enjoy some Edinburgh Fringe fun and soak up the atmosphere in the sun. We did the park and ride again, saving money and stress by not paying for expensive city parking if we could even find a space. Getting off at Surgeons Hall we walked down to the Royal Mile to enjoy the street theatre. Because the weather was so good there were plenty people and performers to watch.

Tools of a performers trade

Juggling fire sticks on a pole as you do

Living statues

Balance is everything

I couldn't sit so still

St Giles Cathedral

One of many closes on the Royal Mile

We then wandered down to The Mound where we were entertained by acrobats and escapologists. An ice cream to refresh and then a relaxed and civilised coffee and cake in the National Gallery cafe terrace overlooking Princes Street Gardens.

Escapologist at work

View from the mound, look at that lovely sky

After coffee we wandered through the gardens, up Cockburn Street and back to the Royal Mile, up the bridges and onto the counting house where we chanced our luck with an unknown show. It turned out to be really good and we had a good laugh. If you get a chance, go see Bev Vyse, she's a funny lady. We ended our great festival day out with street food in George Square Gardens. We really enjoyed doing a bit of everything in our lovely city.