Six on Saturday - In the garden at the end of August

 It has been mainly cool for August with a little rain, and this week  we have sunny days and some quite warm weather and more rain too.  The birds have only just returned to the garden, with the usual crowd queuing up to have a bath with different tits, robins, blackbirds, and gold crests most common.  They seem to land in the Mirabelle tree and queue there. It was due for cutting back and being removed in the next few days, yesterday I  pruned it and it will remain just as a bird landing tree.  It has had so many blackfly and with the squirrel eating most of the fruit before they were ready, I was really despairing, but seeing the birds love it, it is staying for now.

That was the bonus bit, and I am hoping that Jim who leads this weekly get together will overlook this.  He is a kind and helpful chap with loads of gardening and horticultural experience.  Many similar people join in each week, and nuggets of tips, information or must have plants are shared over on his post.

My Six this week: 

1. We have finally had the arboriculturists deal with the overhanging branches of the Holm Oak and I have been busy tidying up and planning a few changes.

I carefully overturned all the empty boxes and recycling bins over some of the shrubs, and was surprised how large some of the branches were when they were down on the ground.

Some of the larger branches were just too large to be shredded, but from the smaller ones I had a useful amount of chippings to top up the paths, though I had to lift the stepping stones, then place them back. I kept a few short lengths about as thick as my forearm as I like to have a few lying around to rot down and provide some shelter for different wildlife that live in the garden.

2.  I love patterns  and form and how lovely are these leaves as they emerge from an underground tuber after many months dormant beneath the gravel

Cyclamen graecum subsp. candicum

I've just placed my order with the Cyclamen Society for seed, which won't arrive till around the end of the year. As one has until the end of August to place the orders, and if you are keen on growing different cyclamen, then may I recommend it with annual membership of £10, and a small admin fee for the 10 packets of seeds, amounting to 50p per packet.  There are some wonderful varieties and loads of information about growing cyclamen.  I only grow the hardy ones in a very amateurish way. 

3. Earlier in the year we could pick up a plug plant to grow on at the gardening club, and this Fuchsia won a 'prize' at the summer party, when we were take back the grown plant to show. This is how it looks this week, not bad fa few months growth.

Fuchsia Coralle

4. In the gravel garden there was a battle between two plants.  It was completely my fault, I had sown some seeds a few years back of an Eryngium which I had received from the HPS but they failed to germinate and only germinated this year. Because I had given up on their emerging, in that t area I planted a lovely little pot of one of those plants that just caught my eye during our visit to Beth Chatto's garden.  You can guess it: the Eryngium was far too close to the Limonium. I dug up the Limonium bellidifolium removed the blooms and divided it up and replanted all the bits in one pot.  Whether the plant will survive or not only the spirit of the garden can tell at the moment. since advice read after I carried out the work says it is difficult and should be done in the spring. As it is in a pot, I can move it into the shed for the winter or even a 'luxury convalescent conservatory' situation' where it will be protected from excess rain. I shan't tell it that it has undergone precarious surgery, and maybe in the spring I shall have several good strong plants.

Limonium bellidifolium divided and now potted up

5. It is the sharp shoulders that helped me identify this shield bug seen during the week.  It is quite distinct from some of the others in the garden, and this is the first time I have seen it.  Pentatoma rufipes or Forest Shield Bug also has other characteristics that help to identity it. We do have oak trees close by.

6. Eryngium 'Silver Ghost' has been feeding so many flying insects, it is a biannual and here there are six or seven plants.

I just wonder if fewer will visit now the neighbour had a large wasps nest 'dealt with'.

It had been chucked over the wall into the cemetery, and I wanted to see  inside.   The various sections were so interesting with the cells arranged in combs and the combs linked in the middle by a stalk.  I've spent a few minutes looking up details about the nest and the wasps that built it.  From the description and the position of the nest I would say they were Median Wasps.

There will be plenty of seeds of this Eryngium shortly, so if anyone would like seed let me know. They are best scattered where you want the plants to grow rather than transplanting them, but Jim says that he sowed some seeds of another Eryngium I sent him and transplanted them successfully from pots.