It’s rained this month which has been good for the garden even if the month ended with the lawn looking stressed again. Ah me… my ideas to capture the rain off the roof are moving forward, though. The top lawn, more stressed than your average relegation threatened manager will be replaced this autumn by a dry garden. In digging out the grass and creating the new hard base we will lay a pipe from the down-pipes and capture up to 20,000 litres of rain water which we can use on the garden including my lawn without the guilt of a sprinkler using perfectly good potable water (the Textiliste who has camel blood, refuses point blank to countenance such a waste).

Meanwhile the long bed that looked like this in February
and this in March
now looks like this (pictures show how it has developed over the whole month)
It’s a true potager bed with veg – the courgettes of the title mingling with chard, onions, beetroot, mange tout, french beans, tomatoes and corn, next to calendulas, cornflowers and sunflowers. I’ve also harvested the gooseberries – 2.7 kg!

Around the rest of the garden, the abundance of tulips, poppies, daffs and geraniums are now being replaced by lilies, sweetpeas, dahlias and the aforementioned calendulas and cornflowers plus many other staples such as loosestrife and roses.
We also had a mini Glast-no-bury for the Vet who, with her girlfriends couldn’t go this year so I knocked up a rustic bar and the Textiliste a tee-pee and they decorated the garden, had a noisy, socially distanced (sort of) few hours imagining a pyramid stage and a headliner.
And of course, Dog was ever present…
It’s looking glorious!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Scrubs up quite well, doesn’t it?
LikeLike
Indeed!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Many folks would pay good money to visit a garden as fine as this one! Well done. Also, nice to see the handsome dog there too. xo
LikeLiked by 1 person
He’s never out of shot … and thank you for the kind words. We are lucky to live somewhere that allows us to indulge our love..
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, gardens and Dog. You inspired me to start my own potager. I see I didn’t plant enough peas! But I’m learning from study your yard and watching Monty Don. My courgettes are beautiful, my perennials are first-year and yet working on getting established and my lemon queen sunflowers are going to be bigger than I thought. And I have watermelon radishes coming on with the happiest nasturtiums on earth. They are smiling, I tell ya!
LikeLike
I love a smiling nasturtium… my brother and I had seed wars after they’d flowered as small children. I can still recall those ferocious battles
LikeLike
What a lovely garden!!! Obsessed with the flowers in the shoes. Congrats on a beautiful bountiful harvest of veggies.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you Brandy. I agree about the.shoes as long as I’ve finished with them!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow! The new potager bed is very impressive Geoff. You will be very healthy with all that lovely homegrown crop. I also love your poppies – beautiful.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Those popies have been the best and we are getting some great meals!
LikeLiked by 1 person
A splendid garden tour with impressive produce. The irrigation project looks awesome. I wondered a couple of times whether you might be considering a “Where’s Dog?” series.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think hunting out nugget is more fun…!! And thank you for the kind words
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
At a lot of work goes into making your garden looking so lovely, Geoff. Our sweetpeas are still only about 18 inches high and quite a while away from flowering so you are well ahead. It’s amazing the difference.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, maybe there’s luck as well as geography in there
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is stunning what you made of this “little” part of your garden and I am amazed how it all grew! Such a lot of work!
We remodeled the whole garden, beginning last fall. More flower beds, plants which grew to big removed and put to a different spot, a herbal garden, and even a little brook with waterfall. As soon as I have some time (maybe I even make it his lifetime) I will post some photos. Looking forward! Thanks for sharing your beautiful pictures. So inspiring!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Please do it will be delightful to see what you’ve had done
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yay 😃
LikeLike
Beautiful. Your potager looks good.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It’s been such a pleasure. We might do it again!
LikeLike
C’est magnifique! Many days of labour and much skill.
The veggie area is particularly wonderful to me.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Its been hard work but it is a joy
LikeLike
Isn’t nature wonderful! With a lot of help from you two, of course, and I’m sure Dog did his bit. Simply stunning,
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dog waters his favourite plants
LikeLiked by 1 person
Are those be-geraniumed boots real? 🙂 … glorious, as is Dog, of course! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
They are!I’m lucky if i get my feet out in time
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh … dear! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your hard work is paying off! Lovely.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve watered it with sweat this year
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha!
LikeLiked by 1 person
May I visit your house, and never leave?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds like a plan…
LikeLike