Swallows, Walks and summer flowers

Wandering into August wondering where on earth the rest of the year has gone already and August is set to be a busy month with a stand at the Peebles Show, our last charity garden opening of the year, David and I's wedding anniversary, my birthday, the prize giving for the Peebles garden competition, garden consultations and all the nursery work! Whew!

Great to finally get good weather to get the outdoor potting bench in use

I was delighted to be asked again to help judge gardens for the Peebles in Bloom garden competition so I was out last Thursday evening judging gardens with a wee glass of wine in the Park after

There is always lots of interesting plants looking good in the sales area for the weekend as well as all the plants in the stock beds, pots, compost and garden sundries.

The gardens are looking great, with lots of mid summer colour and foliage interest. Pick up one of our leaflets which points out things to look out for as you walk around the gardens.

We still have 20% off fruit and rhododendrons and azaleas.

Plants, treats and gardens to enjoy, sounds good to me

See you soon

All the colours under a sunny blue sky today in the nursery

The bottom terrace

The herb garden

Rudbeckia laciniata 'Herbstsonne'

Leucanthemum x superbum ‘Alaska’

We are getting on with the huge job of propagation, we do propagation all through the year, but this is when we assess what we need for the next couple of years, working through the database to make sure we miss nothing. We’ve also started gathering seed from the gardens. Both Fiona and Isabel have been working through the prop list doing cuttings and divisions, potting up rooted pieces of plants which will all go into the tunnels to root through for next year.

I have been working through the list of plants not yet planted in the gardens. We want to get to the point that everything we sell is planted and everything planted is for sale, it’s a huge work in progress but we are getting there.

The weekend saw me giving the gardens a quick tidy through and weed and cutting back plants growing over the paths. I swear those weeds grow over night. Now the Poached egg plant (Limnanthus douglasii) has finished flowering and died off I’ve cleared it all away as the seeds from this year will start germinating in their place soon.

We also have baby swallows! After dithering between two nests the swallows have finally had babies, there’s at least 5 crammed in that wee nest up in the eaves of the office. Its great to hear them getting excited when the parents bring food back.

I was asked to judge two classes in the Peebles in Bloom garden competition this year. Its always lovely to be asked and great to go round judging the gardens and chatting to fellow gardeners in the town. Looking forward to the prize giving evening next week.

Pots of cuttings to go to the polytunnel

Isabel doing cuttings

Tidying the gardens

Removing the dead material from the Limnanthus

Fiona gathering propagation material

Baby swallows

Propagation ready to go to the tunnel

Nymphea 'Joey Tomocik'

On our Monday off last week saw us walking up Maspie Den near Falkland. There was lots of lovely dappled sunlight and we managed to avoid all the rain showers. We parked in the Falkland estate car park and walked up following the signs. See a new blog post coming soon. Lunch and some shopping at Pillars of Hercules, where we shared the table with a cheeky robin and Maisie Mouse dog!

Under bridges

Through tunnels

under dappled leaves

Past waterfalls

Day off, walking Quirky Bird

Under waterfalls

Lunch at Pillars of Herucles

A sunset walk on the beach

Just my usual lovely Tuesday at home with the mouse dog while David is off flying. I really love my Tuesdays at home in my own garden relaxing and enjoying the peace and quiet of my own wee space. Today after tidying the front and back garden and cutting the grass it was time to deal with the path into the summerhouse. You can always depend on Maisie to show you your errors, lol. Having created a nice gravel path between the grass and the summer house she manages to spray gravel everywhere when landing there while catching her ball. I’m bored brushing it all back and picking it out the grass so a redesign was needed. We’ve plenty building materials stashed so I cemented in a couple of slabs and some wee pavers, continuing around the base of the bamboo to create a mowing strip for the mower. Job done. No more gravel everywhere.

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