Some trees are beginning to get their autumn togs on already, but there’s still quite a lot of flower colour going on in my garden. The sweetpeas haven’t been great this year, I grew them from seed and they took ages to get going.
The rudbeckia below has been flowering for a long time, it’s definitely good value, especially if you get it dirt cheap from Morrisons as I did. The bees love it.
Every Scottish/Celtic garden should have a rowan tree (mountain ash) in it, to keep the witches away of course!
The striped grassy plant at the front of this photo is gardeners’ garters, so called because old gardeners used to use it to tie around their trouser legs to stop anything from shooting up there – like a rat! It grows very rampant, so I’m keeping an eye on it in case it decides to mount a take-over bid.
There’s a plethora of plants in the photo below, a rose, fuchsia, pieris, lychnis and all sorts.
Although I’m not crazy on exotic plants (the kind you have to tie blankets around to get them through the winter) – I do love acers, they’re hardy here in the east of Scotland and grow well despite being so delicate looking.
Peggy yells rainbow every time she sees one, that was quite often when she was in Scotland anyway, and she had to get a photo of them. Apparently they’re quite rare where she lives in the US, I thought I would copy her and take a photo of this one from my house, they are not rare here of course!
It’s about ten days since I took those photos and since then I’ve had to have a bit of a garden tidy up and cut things back, but it’s still looking fairly decent.
I’ve been having a battle with ajuga, another plant from Morrisons, it cost me all of 99p and before I knew what was happening it had covered a third of my rockery having crossed over the grass to get there. What a monster of a wee plant it is, worse than mint! Don’t plant it whatever you do.
Lovely plants in your back yard, Katrina. The rainbow picture is great.
tracybham,
Thanks, a garden is never finished though so I have plans for improvements.
Everytime you see a rainbow now you’ll think of me?
PS. We don’t get the rain you get there so we don’t have as many rainbows. But the other day I saw a half a rainbow and it had not rained! Still scratching my head on that one!
Peggy,
Hmm – half a rainbow is better than none – weird though. Yes the rain does have a silver lining via rainbows I suppose. When the boys were wee we used to make artificial rainbows using the garden hose!
Peggy,
We will!
Your gardens are gorgeous. They give me something to strive for.
Jennifer,
Thanks. We gardeners are never completely satisfied though.
“Rowan tree and red thread” – I think I heard that quoted in an episode of Dr Finlay’s Casebook back in the early 1960s.
I love being able to pick sweet-peas for the house: they’re on my to-plant list for this coming summer. My own garden is full of daffodils at the moment.
Valerie,
I hadn’t heard of the red thread, or don’t remember it. I did watch Dr Finlay’s Casebook back then but don’t remember much about it. The newer version was filmed in Auchtermuchty, close to where I live. I love the scent of sweet-peas but this mix has some red blooms in it and somehow I’m not so keen on those ones. I almost wish we were in daffodil time now as I’m not looking forward to winter.
The colors of your acers are lovely. Ajuga, yes, ‘grows well’, code for ‘will take over your garden, your house, etc.’. I think rainbows are special, too, so I agree with Peggy.
Joan,
It sort of annoys me that such thuggish plants are sold – it’s a menace. I do love rainbows but whenever I see one I always sing to myself – Somewhere over the rainbow – weigh a pie!
Like in the Beatles song, I used to sing ‘Some day you’ll look to see a gun’! I can never get the lyrics right.
Joan,
Yes, and what about – Just scratch my knee before you leave me – baby! (Angel of the Morning)
Beautiful đŸ™‚
Sandra,
Thanks, it’s certainly an improvement on what it was.
Your garden is looking gorgeous! And you even got a rainbow!
Stefanie,
It was a lovely day but it has turned autumnal now, chilly, windy and grey. I’m glad we’re going off on holiday soon for a bit of heat!
I finally, finally need to tell you how I have visited this blog post over and over. Just now, Ken and I viewed it together, with me exclaiming how all of it has come to this fruition in just a very few years. Actually, I must confess I don’t know how many, but it’s less than a handful, right? I am in ecstasy when I view these photos. I can get lost in them. I am a garden appreciator par excellence, especially considering I’m too lazy to do all the work, for true work it is!
Judith
Judith,
We’ve been in this new house for two and a half years and there was only a sea of grass and one wee tree in the garden then, so it is filling up and a lot more birds are visiting the garden now as there is plenty for them to perch on and scrabble underneath plants looking for juicy beasties! It helps keep me fit I think!