The monthly update on my garden went somewhat awry due to a family emergency in early July which meant my being away from home for most of the month. Arriving back in early August with the invalid in tow I found that the slugs and snails had once again decimated the few vegetables that I had growing (dwarf beans, broad beans, courgettes), bindweed had clambered over everything on the shady side and everything else had shot up! Luckily the OH had been good and fed and watered the tomatoes which have been a roaring success this year although I had far too many plants due to a ‘Manager’s offer‘ of 6 plugs for a £1 in late April. I bought 6 ‘Gardener’s Delight’ and 6 ‘Sweet Million’ both of which have produced tons of fruit and are so sweet that I often picked them to eat straight from the vine. I also have several basil plants, most coming to an end now and seven chilli plants of various varieties and colours and heat. All in the conservatory.
Raised / vegetable beds: Currently these are a mixture of vegetables, strawberries, herbs and edible flowers. Not edible are the sweet peas and poppies! Though perhaps you could use the poppy seeds.
It’s odd being here with three of us and I have spent much of August in a state of anxiety. I am pleased to say that my son’s recovery has been much better and quicker than any of us expected and he has turned a corner¹. Despite eating like the proverbial horse he is still underweight, but at least doesn’t have that gaunt look any more. He gets tired and naps a lot, but that is good for him. We try to get out a couple of times a week to explore the county and give him somewhere different to walk and hope to do more once the school term begins and the roads are a little quieter and car parks less crowded.
Sunny Side: After much weeding and pruning (again) I managed to summon up sufficient energy to finish off my new ‘gravel garden’. I am quite pleased with how it looks, but suspect that more lawn may disappear over time!
Hardly any of the new plants I had in mind for planting this year have been bought due to being away and it is too late now to sow any flower seeds; the one bed I did manage to seed before I left is now full of bee loving flowers. I shall attempt to grow some winter lettuces and other autumn sown veg in the other bed which could be a complete waste of time. Next year I will use these beds to plant a couple of shrubs. Maybe a Callistemon and a Grevillea if I can source some dwarf varieties. And some agapanthus.
Nothing much has changed along the woodland side. I pulled out all the Herb Robert plants when they stopped flowering as they spread everywhere and so far I haven’t got around to planting the ground cover I envisage for this space. The Fatsia Japonica has been drastically reduced as it was blocking the path to the patio. Now we can actually use that path again. The foxglove, hardy geraniums and white daisies have all finished flowering so I have made a note to plant some late summer flowers along that border, just need to think about what will be suitable. I have several fuchsias that might enjoy being a little higher up as currently the flowers trail on to the ground. However, I am not sure they will enjoy being in the shade for a lot of the day.
New plants: During a visit to the nearby Sculpture Garden last week for lunch I was tempted into their nursery which mainly stocks succulents and other Mediterranean plants. Of course I couldn’t resist a couple or three.
The Patio: Not much different from last year as I didn’t get around to buying the new pelargoniums I had promised myself. I also want a large pot in which to plant my ornamental cherry tree, that should restrict its size as I think it is going to have to be placed on the patio (I can’t see any room for it in the garden!) My Zwartkop aeonium are doing well from the cuttings I made last year – unlike Monty Don on Gardener’s World last week, I also cut my stem into pieces and they also rooted and developed leaf buds.
Notes for the future: Next month I shall order and plant some dwarf narcissus along the ‘woodland’ border and also some muscari armeniacum (Grape hyacinth) and anemones in the gravel area to give it some colour in early spring. The two raised vegetable beds will be recreated next year. One will be planted with herbs and flowers that are white, the other will be planted with aromatherapy herbs. I am hoping they will attract pollinators and not slugs and snails and provide interest and fragrance. I really need to look at my colour scheme too as I have a lot of clashing colours going on: orange, purple, pink. My garden is a rainbow!
Cornwall in Colours 
The great news is your son’s recovery, of course. What a nightmare you survived, Jude! I do like a trip to Mrs. Well Contented Gardener 🙂 🙂 We’ve got the Fatsia and Mick is espaliering it (if that’s the technical term 🙂 ). I’m not fond, but a friend likes it for her flower arranging. Good looking toms! I was so desperate in the power cut yesterday that I peeled tons of apples. Just tried the apple and blackberry crumble but my crumble-making is rubbish. I ate it though 🙂 Happy Wednesday!
Can you espalier a Fatsia? Mine was very big, but we’ve hacked it pretty hard. I need to make a blackberry and apple crumble and possibly a cake as we have a load of blackberries to use up. No apples though. Shall have to buy them 🙂 Do you have apple trees? I wouldn’t mind one, but nowhere to plant it 😦
Yes, it’s worked quite well because it was spreading all over the shop. I bought the blackberries in Aldi. Next door have an enormous apple tree that overhangs ours (and throws heavy shadows on MY lawn at this time of year 😦 ). They don’t like apples so I get bags of the darn things. You’ll have to pop up. 🙂 🙂 I meant to say that our garden has started to look quite drab now it’s Summer colour has gone. Yours looks lovely.
Shame we don’t live next door to one another then we could share the apples AND the blackberries.
What a beautiful post, your garden is indeed a rainbow. Tomato, chilli and basil – watch out! We’ll all be round for dinner some day. Also pleased to hear how well your son is doing.
Thanks Anabel. Must get some pesto made with the last of the basil.
stunning photos and garden flowers Jude, your garden is a pleasure to look at 🙂
Thank you. I’m happy that you enjoyed looking at it.
The pleasure was all mine Jude 🙂
Hi Jude, Doesn’t it all look fantastic? You’ve got your Cornish garden at last! I seem to have lost the blogging bug and filled my days with multiple other activities hence I’ve only just come across your comment. So sorry not to have replied earlier. I’m so out of touch I replied to your comment by commenting to myself on my blog! Duh! Must put the light out now. Will investigate your new garden more soon. Good to hear from you. Carol x
Lovely to hear from you Carol. I hope life in your new house is going well. I bet your garden is looking fantastic now. Maybe you could become enthused in the blogging world again and have a new one about your garden? 😀
Been thinking about it Jude. Have dozens of pics from inception of mud, brambles and bracken to lush and productive. Seem to spend all my time doing the garden instead of blogging about it. And we’ve just bought a motorhome so . . .
Oh, no, not another motorhome! Europe beckons?
Working on my French . . .
Your garden looks lovely and the gravelly bit is a pretty addition. Much as a limited colour range can look elegant, I increasingly like a riot of every colour!
I don’t think I will ever do elegant Gilly. I tried to stick to a colour theme in Ludlow when I only had pots, mainly blues and purples but orange is a nice lively contrast. I just didn’t think of placement when I took them out of their pots when we moved here!
I love all the colours, Jude and the garden doesn’t look neglected at all. Good to hear your son is doing well now.
Thanks Carol. Not too much neglect show in these photos, but the bindweed is everywhere! Lots of weeding, chopping and digging has been done to get it to this state. Now I shall just leave all well alone until the end of the month when I’ll tidy up all the dead and dying annuals.
Hi, for a relatively new garden it is looking great and productive
It was a fairly mature garden when we moved in, albeit a little overgrown in places, hence the watching for a year to see what appeared. There are a lot of local wild flowers some of which are thugs (hogweed) and others quite charming (yarrow). But it is full of slugs and snails so I am learning a lot about what plants are resistant!
Wild Yarrow is a beautiful plant. It was one of the wild flowers I recorded in my Tresco blog earlier this year,
Your garden is so rich and colourful! I’d be embarrassed to have you look at my sad patch of earth.
I thought your flowers were looking very good in your post.
I should have qualified and said my backyard! 😉
That post makes me yearn for summer! Your photos are gorgeous. I am growing borage for the first time, and after seeing your photos am super-excited. Am not growing calendula or Californian poppies for the first time, but we can’t grow everything every year, can we? That would be greedy. 😉
Just looked at it again myself. Quite a few of those plants have died, but I have ordered some replacements 😀 This time I shall be more colour co-ordinated! Oh, the borage self-seeds madly too – you’ll end up with it all over the place. I find it breaks quite easily in the wind.