Got piccies this week !!

Yay - camera is back in the land of the living - actually the camera was always working, it was the batteries (fresh out the box) that were naff.So without further ado, here is the border from the potting shed first thing (almost) this morning

You can tell the mornings are getting darker as the flash came on automatically !! Anyway, today was spent mainly in the pursuit of more free plants!!

First off it was time to set about the various clumps of huge but seriously underperforming white geraniums that are one of the garden originals. These had been cut back last week and after chatting with Sally, it was decided to divide them up and plant them in a line just inside the border hedge - job done

Well not quite, there are two small clumps left to divide and replant but I ned to jig things about at the top of the border first.
I then split a couple more of the garden originals   - a hemerocallis which is now 5 hemerocalli (is that the plural - a bit like hippopotamus / hippopotami!) and one of the clumps of blue iris which now divided into 7.

The lifting and dividing of these plants has given me about 40 or so new plants and also gave me the chance to dig out some of the couch grass and ground elder roots that were enmeshed in the rootballs of these plants, I'm not daft enough to think I got it all but hopefully a greater amount was removed than remains!

I also potted up some more self seeded buddleia that I came across as I was working in the border.

Next I did some deadheading - mainly of the Scabious, Astrantias and Papavers, so all in all the clearing up of the top border should be finished and the border ready for bed next week. However, there are still some bright notes in amongst the dieback.

A couple of the climbing roses against the SF wall are still producing blooms

As are some of the Astrantia

And the Verbena bonariensis

The Bowles Mauve is doing what it does best and is still heavily in flower

And the Sweet Peas, although beginning to go over are still looking okay.

Add to these the various rosebushes covered in bright red hips, the odd oriental poppy, the lupins, and dahlias, and there is still some colour about the place, though we have yet to have a frost.

On the veg front, the leeks are doing well and the PSB is producing its first florets.

Elsewhere, the Savoy cabbage is ready, the last of the cucumbers were picked, the chard is still going strong, the tomatoes are still ripening though for how much longer remains to be seen, the lettuces planted below the tomato plants are now harvestable and there are still some carrots to be lifted.

The Petit Posy plants are looking healthy enough but something is eating the "posies" from the ground to almost three quarters of the way up the stem - mice are the probable culprits - and the garden isn't short of these critters - although I did see a wren today having a peck at the top growth - though it was probably munching a beastie as oppposed to the plant.

Anyway, todays harvest conisted of savoy cabbage, carrots, tomatoes (three varieties) Silver Chard, Lettuce,  2 cucumbers Pepita, 5 leeks and some PSB as well as a small bunch of Sweet Peas.#

And finally, if you remember the potting shed mouse eating the apple, well, to prove he/she/it has cosmopolitan tastes, here it is again this week - this time chowing down on a pizza crust.

And that's it for this week. :)

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