"The hum of bees is the voice of the garden."

Hello, goodness the weeks are whizzing by! I cannot believe we are in June already and halfway through the year and our open season! Where does the time go? I try not to wish my time away but we are awaiting some very important news at home and its taking weeks! I am trying so hard to just stay in the moment but the stress of waiting on a decision that will change lots of things is excruciating. Fortunately I have more than enough work to do in the nursery to keep me occupied. Sam and Isobel have been working hard on propagation and potting so we have lots of plants for next year.

Camassia in flower

Camassia leichtlinii caerulea in the herb garden bank amongst the wild flowers. I love the combination of the blue of the camassia and the yellow of the Cowslips. We still have plenty cowslip plants and seeds for sale and camassia bulbs will be available in August when our bulbs are available for sale. Meanwhile visit and enjoy them growing in the nursery gardens.

In the sales area this week, lots of colour and great colour combinations, lots of lovely trees, plants for shade, shrubs, blueberries with flowers on, annuals including veg are still available. Stockbeds are full of plants and more coming out into the stock beds every week.

We still have some of our own collected seed packets half price.

deciduous azaleas in flower

Pieris and Heuchera make a lovely combination

Rhododendron 'Artic Tern'

Rhododendron 'Blawws Pink'

Some of the plants planted in the nursery gardens are unavailable for sale, yet. By planted them it means I and you get interesting gardens to enjoy and I get healthy stock to eventually propagate from when the plants are big enough, or seed to harvest once they've flowered. My dream is to have every plant available for sale at some point in the year. Sometimes it can take a while for a plant to be big enough to propagate from, but we get there eventually.

After all Mother nature does things in her own sweet time and us mere humans must learn patience and in the mean time enjoy the plants and gardens and the joy they give us

PS just to note, I am not a patient person

Some highlights form the nursery gardens this week

Adiantum aleuticum 'Imbricatum'

Chaerophyllum hirsutum 'Roseum'

Clematis 'Miss Bateman'

Dryopteris wallichiana

Epimedium 'Spine Tingler'

Geranium sylvaticum 'Mayflower'

Papaver orientale 'Coral Reef'

Primula japonica  'Miller's Crimson'

It doesn't matter how small your garden you can be creative about where and how you grow veg. We created this vertical planter back in the first year of the nursery to break up the top terrace and give some height and structure. From May onwards it is home to troughs of different veg providing an interesting, colourful back drop to the seating area and is edible too!

This year we are growing:

Bean broad 'Drima'

Bean french 'Cobra'

Bean french 'Purple Tee Pee'

Carrot 'Bambino'

Kale 'Uncle Bert's Purple'

Leek 'Musselburgh'

Lettuce 'Bronze Arrow'

Lettuce 'Brown Bath Cos'

Lettuce 'Northern Queen'

Lettuce 'Red Salad Bowl'

Pea 'Victorian Purple podded'

Radish 'French Breakfast'

Veg can also be grown in planter, pots, raised beds and so on so even if you have a small paved area you can fill it with fifferent veg at different time of year

Hope you all enjoyed the gorgeous weather today, we might have been working in the nursery but it was lovely to be working in warm weather and the sun. Maisie was doing customer meet and greet in her usual enthusiastic style

The gardens are looking amazing and I'm getting there working through the stock beds with new plants coming out the tunnel every day. Lots of new and interesting varieties are in propagation. It's all go. There will also be exciting news about whitmuir very soon

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend from team Quercus x

My wonderful husband David and Maisie 

The Quirky Bird Gardener

Crazy Maisie is settling in as nursery dog 

Those ears are in a different position every minute of the day 

As dog owners we know how great it is to be able to visit somewhere with our furry friends, especially in summer when the weather is warmer. Dogs are very welcome in the nursery on a lead, we have a water bowl and can supply poo bags if you have forgotten yours  All we ask that they are kept on a lead and you clean up after them.

  

Looking forward to seeing you and your doggy friends 

A day of domestic chores, grass cutting and clear outs balanced by a lunchtime walk along the river and back through the woods, painting, baking and an evening walk along the Tweed at Innerleithen.

Stitchwort

Caraway cake

A colourful dinner

Magnolia study

Tuesday morning at the hairdresser, some highlights for summer then off to the Yarrow valley to visit Sarah and Andy to collect some plants. Lovely to sit in their garden for a chat and a cuppa while enjoying the sun and their fab pond. Spot the frog, newt and damsel flies

Oh well back to work for a rest on Wednesday ha ha D

Damsel flies

Can you see the newt?

Damsel flies

Title quote - Elizabeth Lawrence

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