garden in August...

I have been trying to take a photo of the garden on the 15th of each month, just for comparison through the year. If I'm honest, I've kind of fallen out of love with this idea and am slightly bored with it - they've just made me realise from a distance, with the exception of the trees, my garden looks pretty same-ey all year!

However, I am a creature of slightly obsessive habits and I can't not finish the year now I've started - especially now we are over half way (actually, that's a bit of a scary thought - at risk of sounding like my mother, where on earth is this year going???!!). So here goes, my back garden in August...

Up close there is a bit more colour again now, having gone through a bit of a 'green' phase last month. Lots of 'shouty' flowers in the pots... 

The window box, R planted earlier in the year but most of the others are rejects he has collected; he works at a private school and, can you believe, they plant up loads of tubs for the school open day then they are neglected afterwards! The pots will go back at the end of the season but in the mean time we are 'looking after' the plants! 

I'm loving this bright lobelia...

And these pretty pale-edged sweet peas...

And in the flower beds, dwarf sunflowers...

...I'm taking the au naturelle approach to gardening this year - hence the weeds and slug damage! But still enjoying these aptly named flowers.

Clashing colours...

My Mum's always been one for 'themed' flower beds - you know the kind of thing, a 'hot' bed, a 'cool' bed, one with 'pinks' etc etc... Don't get me wrong, her garden looks fab with drifts of coordinated colour but mine's a bit more random than that! Lots of it has put itself where it wants to be - I may have planted things over the last 18 years but most of it has upped sticks and shifted to a different bit of the bed or even the garden! (quite a few have just 'left home' altogether but we won't dwell on those, I'm guessing some plants can't manage my level of neglect combined with R's passion for hefty pruning...). R grew the Coleus plants with the pink centres to the leaves from seed in the greenhouse and ended up with loads so planted them randomly all over the place and the orange crocosmia have just grown through them. I know orange and pink is a bit 'ouch' but actually I quite like it!

Can't remember what this pale pink flower is..?

Yarrow, maybe? (think the proper name is achillea?) Anyway, even though its flopping all over the place, I think its pretty.

My little apple tree is covered in fruit...

...even after trying to shake a fair number off to reduce the crowding a bit. They are not the biggest apples but very crisp and tasty.

There are shiny berries that the birds love on the honeysuckle...

Tomatoes in the greenhouse...

I haven't bought tomatoes in weeks - fantastic!

And loads of crab apples on the tree...

I'm amazed that this tree has done as well as it has this year, given that it clearly has some kind of lurgy (these were the leaves earlier in the year...). There are still quite a few dead looking branches and several leaves with odd looking red patches on them but there is masses of fruit and most of it looks pretty unblemished.

I'm not at work today, and meant to be studying, but it is son 3's A level results day today and I can't quite settle to anything so am going to faff about with crab apples instead... so far, thinking crab apple and chilli jelly (prompted by several people out there in blogland who say its delish), crab apple schnapps (I wouldn't want anyone to think there is a booze thing going on in this house but just was very tempted by the recipe!) and crab apple juice... will update another day!

Thought I'd just show you another view of the garden...

I don't know if you can just about see a bench in the far corner in the first photo? Well, there is a sheltered sun-trap in that corner first thing in the morning and I love to just sit with a cup of tea when I get the chance. And sometimes I get joined by one of these...

Ok, need to stop prevaricating now and get on with something useful...

Til next time

Sx