Counting the losses

Looking at the calendar, it's time to count the losses. We're more than month past midsummer. There is no point anymore to sow seeds or to plant out those seedlings that were forgotten after pricking out. For example this lot of nicotiana and snapdragons are unlikely to ever flower. And if they do, it isn't going to be very impressive. The weeds that have come up in the homemade compost will probably do much better!

I have tried to grow more than I could handle, but then it is always difficult to estimate what is feasible. (Family)Life is difficult to predict and so is gardening, the first often influencing the last. Slugs have been absolutely terrible this year and have caused me a lot more work through having to resow. Then of course I also embarked on some silly ventures, like thickly sowing papaver somniferum and then deciding to wait and see what happens if you do not thin them out. The answer is nothing as none of the flowers have the space to grow into a decent flower!

Other experiments have worked. The flower garden that we planted up a little more than a year ago after taking down a dilapidated garage has got some wonderful plants in it. It isn't well balanced out yet in terms of shape as some plants have taken over a bit (and will need proper stakes in place before they grow wild again next year!) whereas plant like the roses are still relatively small thus leaving some gaps. Nevertheles, the cone flowers (echinacea) and buddleja are terrific and have ensured that the garden is literally buzzing with wildlife. 

I did use some of the buddleja and cone flowers in bunches for friends last week, but my mood isn't flamboyant so for this week I decided upon something smaller and more delicate. I picked some flowerheads of Hydrangea Annabelle, another plant that really needs to grow a bit more into its allocated space. I combined it with Verbena Bonariensis.

And I'm happy again.