Summer flowers, summer food but definitely not summer weather!

June, almost half way through the year and our open season already! How is that possible? The weather of course continues to challenge us, with sun, rain, wind, cool temperatures for the time of year. the plants and us don't know whether we are going forward to summer or back to winter! The rain has however meant less stress about keeping the plants watered and makes for pretty photographs. 

Iris 'Silver Edge'

Iris 'Marlyn Holmes'

Iris 'Berlin Tiger'

Iris crysographes 'Black Knight'

Digitalis purpurea

Euphorbia lathyrus

Salvia sclarea

Spotted orchids

So many changes! The first picture was taken in the first couple of weeks of owning the nursery and the second this week. We discovered a few plants had been planted up the side of the track but were completely choked with weeds, so much that they were completely smothered and invisible. The sacks you can see at the right of the photo turned out to contain plants! Then there's the weed covered track and the entrance to the sales area. A snapshot of the beginnings of Quercus as you know it now and of course I've planted so many more plants in the his border, we've removed all the leaning weedy willows and created the shady border and the woodland garden.

Looking good in the track borders that take you up to the sales area this week. Early Sanguisorbas, ox eye daisies, aruncus and Polemonium.

Simply a Rosehip

Sambucus 'Black Lace'

In the garden at home this week

Rosa 'Veilchenblau'

Rosa 'Cardinal de Richeleux' and 
Geranium sylvaticum 'Album'

New on the farm..... This weekend the new Whitmuir Farm Shop opened its doors, offering another great place to visit and shop here at Whitmuir. Lots of great artisan and locally produced food and an amazing butchery by Gillespies Family Butchers. Jams, chutneys and veg grown and made on the farm here at Whitmuir too. I can see we'll be frequent customers as I had to prize David away from the pies and scotch eggs

There is now a big overflow car park so if its busy there's plenty parking and don't forget the farm walk too.

The farm shop and cafe are open 7 days, 9am to 4pm and here at Quercus we are open Wednesday to Sunday 10 am to 5pm.

See you soon for plants, gardens, garden sundries, advice and chat, good food, coffee and cake

We are big into recycling as much as possible here at Quercus. All our green waste and old compost goes into the compost heaps and after being turned twice over a year it goes into the nursery garden bottles. We build things out of pallets, old wood, turn farm and garden tools into features and so much more. As our climate and the weather changes and we have more very hot days and weeks of no rain in summer (I know not this year so far! But the last two years have seen up to 12 weeks of no
rain and that leads to a lot of stress keeping all our plants watered sufficiently to keep them alive). We are always looking for new ideas to make the nursery more interesting for visitors and to address all these issues. Last year I had to put a land drain in on the top terrace as the area was saturated and plants
dying, I know, too dry, too wet, can’t win. So…. We put in the land drain and the water was dissipating into the bank below. Then last summer I was struggling to keep the herb garden pots watered and thought, all that water is coming out that pipe when it rains or we have the sprinklers on in the stock
beds, so why not capture it to water the herb garden. We installed the dipping pool last summer and it has worked so well, not only does it look great with some pond plants in it, it attracts damsel flies, we are recycling water and I can keep the herb garden pots well watered. All it took was a length of galvanised guttering connected to the land drain pipe in the bank and a cattle water trough from the local farm supply business. I think it looks great and serves a very important purpose too 😊

We enjoyed a lovely evening in our garden, dinner and reading after a busy weekend at the nursery. Every one was out enjoying the sun and warmth

Summer and its all about the strawberries and good fresh food. The strawberries are from the plants I used to have in my last garden which I've moved around with us over the past 10 years. They are offspring of the plants that my boys grew up pinching strawberries from, they made strawberry icecream for Jamie and Dan's birthday parties in July and many a great pudding for tea. The variety is 'Cambridge' and tastes as sweet as I remember them form years ago.

Sausage rolls and scotch eggs for lunch on Monday from the Whitmuir Farm Shop at the weekend. Now open 7 days, 9am to 4pm on the farm :D Looking forward to sampling more from the shop.

#rural #countrylife #countryliving #cottagelife #antiquecottagescenes #interiors #scottishborders #independantretailer #smallbusiness #localbusiness #independantplantnursery #uniqueplantnursery #hardyscottishplants #scottishgarden #gardeningontheedge #scottishborders

 If you to see what's new and looking good at the nursery like our Facebook

  Quercus Garden Plants

Find out more about the nursery here - our web site: www.quercusgardenplants.co.uk

Follow us on Instagram @quirkybirdgardener and Quercus Garden Plants