End of Month Review - June 2014

What an extraordinary growing season it has been this year.  The winter was mild and the spring warmish and wetish.  June has also been very warm at times and (thankfully) provided rain when it has been needed.  Everything is growing like, well, like something that grows really well.
The Knot Garden has been trimmed and looks a lot better.  The box really is forming little hedges now, as long as the blight stays away from them this remains a part of the garden I like a lot.
The lavender that lines the path is a bit over grown really, but it smells so wonderful as I walk through it I cannot trim it back yet.
The pots on the front door step are looking good too, I have quite a few pots this year around the garden and they make me happy.  The intermittent rain means they are not too much of a chore to water at the moment either.
The Gravel Garden is doing well, the washing line vebascum, that sits under the washing line when it is out, it also growing well.  I can see that there is at least one seedling to create next year's verbascum already making itself known.
I do not water the Gravel Garden, it has to live or die by its own volition.  This year it is looking quite good I think.
Around from the Gravel Garden is the Rosa Maidens Blush.  I love this rose very much as it is directly in front of the kitchen window.  The scent from it is incredible and even though it has a tendency to be a bit manky it is growing really well this year.  I feed it regularly with liquid seaweed and it seems to like that a lot.
Past this rose is the path into the back garden.  I like the view with the Rosa Hyde Hall hedge to the left and the Pond Border to the right and how it leads up through the pergola.
The table that used to hold one pot now holds many pots.  On quick glance you could be mistaken into thinking I had decided to have a display table, I assure you this is just a random collection of pots.
The coal bunker is a clue that this is the Coal Bunker Border.  This back view shows the Rosa Claire Austin standing proud.  She is a large vigorous rose with great creamy coloured flowers.  The cardoons are also in bud, they will be flowering soon.
The Courtyard is making me very happy, it is definitely a bit pot-tastic at the moment and that is what I wanted it to look like.
The view over the Conservatory Border is also looking good and shows how blousy the garden is at the moment.  Lush is the best word I think to describe it.
This is the view from the front of the Conservatory Border, I like how different the border looks depends which side of it you stand.
The Coal Bunker Border also looks different from the front, you can see the Rosa Alan Titchmarsh quite well.  This is rather a good rose and I am probably fonder of the rose than I am of who it is named after.  Maybe if he lived in my garden I would feel differently, but then if he lived in my garden he might live in a tent and make a mess.  I need to move on from this line of thinking.....
Now that the Burtonesque Curl is getting planted up I am loving how the formal lawn moves around under the Bramley tree to who knows where..... well, I know where, the garden isn't that big, but from this view point humor me, who knows where....
The Pond Border is looking very full, I keep removing nigella to allow for more planting.  I tell myself it is a good weed-suppressant.
Under the Bramley tree the concrete planter has been planted up with largely Thompson and Morgan trial plants.  It is starting to look rather colourful.  The nicotiana at the front the planter were planted last year and lasted over the winter, they are a flowering joy now.
The Spring Border, which was extended last Autumn, is getting slowly planted up.  I am not in a hurry to do this.  It needs a mix of shade-loving and sun loving plants depending on where they are placed in the space.
I took these photographs after some heavy rain, the Prairie Borders look suitably flattened.  The echinops are getting really quite big now and you cannot see, but there is verbena bonariensis threaded through the borders now and that will soon be flowering.  I am yet to decide whether this was a good, bad or just pointless idea.
The Prairie Borders lead into the Bog Garden and Woodland Border, I like how they move from one area to the next.
The Primulas are dying back in the Bog Garden and the ferns and euphorbia are making themselves known.
The Wild Garden is looking a bit flat too, apart from the trees/shrubs planted through it.  The Catalpa and the Tulip tree are doing very well in particular.
The Tree Lupin Border is looking quite green at the moment, the dahlias, ricinus, tithonia and zinnias are yet to get flowering, but they will.
The Four Sisters are also doing well, the Philidelphus 'Belle Etoile' is flowering well, the Carol Klein acer is recovering still from late frost but new leaves are appearing.  The Edgeworthia is still, I repeat still, alive.  All is well.
The veg beds are quite full, the sweet corn is looking short.
but the peas are beginning to look full.
The 'Tomtato' has definite toms, cannot tell about tato yet.
In the greenhouse I interrupted Bruce mid-wash.  He is the guardian of the greenhouse and supervisor of all that happens within it.
The greenhouse is less full than it was, but there is still some planting out to be done.
and the pond?  Well I'm a bit ashamed of the pond in reality.  It is choc-a-block with parrot weed at the moment.  I really do have to clear it once the tadpoles and dragon-fly larvae are finished.
Thanks as ever to Helen for hosting this meme.