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" The Moon and Garden "

Date & start time:    Various days in July 2019.

Location of Start :   By the red phone box, Loweswater, Cumbria, Uk. ( NY 143 211 )

Places visited :         All the photos taken in and around the garden.

Walk details :             Numerous walking activities, mainly round and round.

Highest point :          Relaxing once all the work is done and it looks nice for the day.

Photos with :             Ann and our dogs, Dylan and Dougal.

Weather :                    Hot, sunny, very humid at times.  Occasional thundery overnight showers.

© Crown copyright. All rights reserved. Licence number PU 100034184.

 

A few "other pictures" that reflect Loweswater life in between all the coming, goings, the events and the visitors. 

In Loweswater, fine weather and a few showers have helped the garden to its summer maturity

and after jobs have been done, there's time to relax and enjoy the garden, the view and the summer produce.

The view from the front window of the bird table and top lawn . . . recently mowed as it is fast growing at present.

Hot sunshine is all very well but hot and humid is difficult to get away from . . .

so a shaded seat under the oak tree is often a favourite place to sit.

After our week away to Suffolk and Sheffield it took me three days to 'garden' my way down to the pond.

With the lovely summer weather, each day was busy but a pleasure. 

Ann's picture here was taken after most of the work had been done.

An Australian Bottle Brush plant had survived the winter and is now in bloom next to the pod.

It seems popular with an English bumble bee who can be seen sitting on the top of the flower.

The grass had grown two feet by the time we came home and eventually it got cut,

all but the small patch surrounding the wild Michaelmas Daisies . . . which were just too good to decapitate with the mower.

- - - o o o - - -

 

In the vegetable plot I found four cauliflowers,

All the more surprising as I have never had great success before.

 

A word of warning, if you grow them, they only stayed in this good

condition for a few days.  They "went over" before the last one was eaten.

 

- - - o o o - - -

The early planting of onion sets have come to fruition . . . but we'll not photograph the poor courgette offerings for danger of embarrassment.

There's more onions to come . . . but not as large as these . . . so I'll leave the later sets a little longer.

Other produce included lettuce, rocket, sprouting broccoli and recently the first runner beans and first red tomatoes.

In the space vacated by the onions I've planted some spinach seedlings, started off in the greenhouse, before we went away.

The extended fruit cage has been a great success . . .
. . . the best ever year for loganberries, good for the other soft fruits too.

The cage encloses blackcurrants, raspberries, these loganberries, new gooseberry bushes and a double length row of beans, all protected from the birds.

The beans technically don't need protecting but there was space inside the cage and I needed to rotate the growing position of the beans this year.

The Nasturtiums are flowering faster than we can eat them . . . yes edible flowers !

All those years of Dad growing them in the corner of his garden just to look colourful and nothing else !

The previous planting of spinach is just starting to grow well . . .
but the latest seedlings seem to have been eaten . . . and not by us !!!
   
By the end of the month the tomatoes were just starting to colour.
Mustn't forget some flowers in the old hiking boots.
   
Talking about colour . . . our Crocosmia Lucifer
. . . more Bottle Brush flowers
. . . and deep red Dahlias.

- - - o o o - - -

Down in the paddock the vegetation has gone wild.

The water weed is engulfing the edges of the pool and the grass on the far side is as tall as the reeds.

The Marsh Marigolds have given way to Hostas and Irises and the two Willow trees are doing really well.

Sadly the "flower meadow" under the trees is so overgrown that if the dogs go in there you lose sight of them.

So much for flower meadows . . . it's all grasses, docks, nettles and green meadow plants and very little colour.

Reading up on the subject, it seems that if you have fertile soil and existing grass it will usually outgrow and smother the wild flowers.

The answer to creating a new meadow is to kill off the grass by spraying, black plastic or de-turfing and then start again with a good mix of flower seeds.  

The little patch on the left is an attempt at the de-turfing option.   We'll see how it goes.

I have gathered all the remaining wild flower seedlings and garden oddities, scraped out the last of the unused packets of wild flower seeds

and planted them in the new section of "bare" ground.  If it works we could extend the principle next year to a much bigger area.

I will also cut wider paths amongst the trees to try and control the out-of-control grasses so as to give access to the fruit trees themselves.

Colour by the pool . . . Hostas from the garden centre
and wild Crocosmia . . . just as it starts to rain.
   

Grand thoughts of spreading wild flower seed and sitting back and watching the flowers grow is turning out to be a lot harder work than I anticipated !

- - - o o o - - -

 

The idea of flowers and leaving parts of the garden wilder

is to encourage the birds, bees and wildlife in general.

 

Sadly we don't see our red squirrel on a regular basis any more

though one did pass through the garden a few weeks ago.

What we have had, for the second year in a row, is a hedgehog.

He (or she) is a regular evening visitor

to the foot of the bird table.

 

Occasionally we even have two . . . as this grainy photo shows.

The first is at the foot of the pole,

the second hog has run off into, you guessed it, the hedge.

Stands to reason I suppose.

 

- - - o o o - - -

Another notable event of the month was the partial eclipse of the moon on the 16th July.

It rose already partially covered but was at its best at about 11pm.  A gradual build up of cloud hid the view of the later restoration.

Still, I did manage this close up of the earth's shadow obscuring about forty percent of the moon's surface.

- - - o o o - - -

We rounded the month off with a birthday.

After our children had travelled over to Loweswater, stayed for a few days, then departed (pictures to follow)

it left us with a select band of four for a small celebration for Dougal . . . savoury birthday cake and a candle for his first birthday.

Dougal, on the left, was one year old on August 1st . . . but Dylan was keen to muscle in on the photo.

Was it that Dylan thought it might have been his birthday or was he just keen to have part of the bonus food on offer ?

Either way, with birthdays now in January and August, dog celebrations can now span the full Loweswater year.

Dylan and Dougal on the left in January . . . Dylan and Harry in April last year on the right.

Card kindly sent by Sophie and Chris.

- - - o o o - - -

 

Technical note: Pictures taken with either Ann's Panasonic Lumix TZ60, or my Panasonic Lumix Gx8 Camera.

Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder.

This site best viewed with . . . a spare gallon of petrol to re-fill the various bits of garden machinery.

Go to Top . . . © RmH . . . Email me here

Previous walk - 24-25th July - Hot Mellbreak, Dee and John

A previous time up here - 20th July - Wildlife, Stars and Garden

Next walk - 28th July - Family Weekend & Swim