I’ve neglected Six On Saturday again – but there hasn’t been a huge amount other than weeding going on out there and it’s been very showery and grey for weeks up here in the North West of England. This weekend does seem to be marking a change though – lots of warm weather forecast for the holiday weekend so I’m hopeful that the garden will start to give me new things to photograph every week now. Come and join us on our weekly (for most!) sharing of six things in our garden. Our host Jim can be found here. The rules are simple. Share six things in your garden this week.
Starting this week with the rhodedendrons I inherited with the garden. These photos were taken at the beginning of this week. Sadly a lot of rain and wind has had a very detrimental effect on the flowers and I’m glad I took the photos when I did. I know the flowers are always shortlived but it’s sad to see it on such a large scale – previously I’ve only had small potted examples. It was quite shocking how quickly they have gone from this glorious display to two very bedraggled looking bushes.
Another plant that’s looking very different from one end of the week to the other. My beloved lupins survived another winter and although there is only one flower spike between four plants I’m so happy to see it. It’s opened up significantly in the last 24 hours. I’ve nurtured these lupins from 2 tiny little plugs bought in 2020, they’ve been divided and repotted several times and they are one of my favourite things in the garden. They also take a lot more work that many other things, having the tendency to flounce and take offence to the slightest little change in their environment. But I forgive them this quirk because of their beauty and the photogenic nature of their leaves with rain drops!
I’m growing vegetables on a much smaller scale than in our previous house where I had 6 raised beds available but I’ve got potatoes growing (first/second/main crops) in bags and they’re all doing well. I’ve also got strawberries and raspberries in pots too. We have big plans for the garden but the vegetable growing will have to wait till next year when we’ve decided how to divide up the space between growing and flower beds. But I do I love broad beans so I had to plant a few. I love the leaves and flowers and I’m pretty partial to the beans too. I have two pots with about 10 plants on the go. They went in quite late so I’m not expecting a crop for a few more months.
I swear this poppy appeared overnight! It’s on the front drive which definitely needs weeding, but I’ve been putting it off until the weekend, and I went out this morning and saw this beauty. You can just about see all the buds on it in the photo – there are several so it’s staying where it is and I’m going to let it go to seed so I can gather them and sow them in the main garden.
I know this is probably a very unpopular opinion but I really don’t like roses. Sorry! But I don’t like the way they smell, they’re pretty annoying if you get a really thorny one, and they’re a bit thuggish with runners and such like (I’m aware this probably isn’t all of the varieties but I’m scarred by a rambling rose that took me YEARS to eradicate from a garden I once owned). But when we bought this house last year I promised I would give everything a full year, and so this very large specimen has retained its position in a really awkward spot in the garden and it has now flowered.
I still don’t like roses.
The hydrangeas that are planted in the ground have started to flower. They’re the same colour as most of the ones I brought with me. And it’s a very healthy looking specimen so it’s definitely not in any danger from the one year ruling mentioned above. I have 5 or 6 in pots that seem to be a way behind this one in terms of flowering, and indeed this one has opened up a lot since I took this photo (see header photo).
So there you have it, Six On Saturday from my garden here in the North West. Come and join us and share your garden with us. #SixOnSaturday
The Garrett Garden 
We all have our likes and dislikes, you are my first rose hater, but it sounds like you have been traumatised by a previous rose! Lovely rhodies, I’m very fond of lupins too.
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