A flavour of Sizergh

Sizergh as in Tizer....

We visited Sizergh Castle in mid August but it is still not to late to go there - just about an hour and a quarter from Bury so not too daunting for a day out.

The house/castle is decidedly interesting and is very 'lived in' which makes it probably more interesting than many which can be very sterile and museum-like.  There is the usual National Trust eatery and gift shop - so ice cream and cakes and a rootle round for some presents for folks is not a bad way to spend a sunny afternoon.

This is just a handful of photos to whet your appetite...

my favourite fleabane doing its thing

the reflecting lake

wonderful veggies

showing the companion planting

It is beneficial to plant flowers with vegetables if you have the space (companion planting).  There is a raft of information about it if you Google it.

I do love a stumpery - done well

The Front Garden in July

My front garden does have something flowering in it pretty much the whole year but I do love July when the crocosmia Lucifer is doing its thing and the hanging basket is beginning to flesh itself out.

The front garden is north west facing - just about the worst for gardens - and is always pretty much in shade so I like to have all the hot colours on this side of the house.

Apologies for the grass needing cutting - pleading too much rain......

Pelargonium (geranium) making a mess by the front door

Just about getting into its stride

Crocosmia Lucifer - one of my all-time favourites

looks better in real life - mass of clematis

Hemerocallis (day lilies) and small yellow kniphofia (red hot pokers)

Lucifer to the front

this is a work in progress

coming round the corner on one side

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Any excuse for lunch....

I had lunch yesterday at Summerseat Garden Centre .  On their website it says the garden centre began in 1984.  I am fairly certain I shopped there for many years prior to that when it was just a nursery.  As I am still going there forty years on it must be a testament to its worth.  Admittedly, being an old fogey, I sort of regret its success as it has now transformed into pretty much any other large garden centre.  Hey ho....

 I stopped to read the notice board on the way out, as I usually do, and saw these.....

Click on a photo if you need to enlarge it to read it better.

These are just the things that drew my interest. They do a lot more things, such as trips to garden shows, so seek out their site by clicking here Summerseat or pop in for a rummage or something to eat and read the board as you leave.

Summer routines

Just a quick note to share my regular summer schedule with you.  Summer goes from April through October!

• Frequently keep on top of weeds and cutting lawns

• Every week I scatter slug pellets (very thinly) to try to keep the snail and slug population down.  When you meet one huge one five feet up a wall you know you are not necessarily winning.  Most weeks I feed hanging baskets and pots.
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• Every two weeks, I treat my magnolias/camellias differently to the rest of the garden - three are in pots and one planted in the border.  They are watered with a sequestered iron feed.  I use Miracle-Grow but, again, any feed suitable for Camellias and azaleas will do.  The box says use from March to September but being this far North it is probably better to stop at the end of July (ish) as they can be too weak and sappy when they are fed  to stand any cold snaps which will turn up quicker up here. They need to toughen up a little. This is definitely needed if yours are looking in any way spindly or the leaves going a paler colour.  Two doses and my wan camellia is a third taller, full of leaves and they are dark green and glossy again.

• Monthly - scatter a general purpose granular feed pretty much every where.  I use Growmore or Phostrogen - it doesn't matter what, just a handful of 7:7:7 strewn thinly will keep the garden fed. The numbers just mean it has equal proportions of nitrogen, phosphate, potassium so it is a general all-purpose fertiliser.  You can buy a specialised one for pretty much everything- like one for roses, or shrubs, or perennials, or clematis, etc etc etc but, unless you have loads of money and time it probably isn't worth it.  Ideally, of course, we should all be doing a Monty Don and smothering our borders with home made compost.

• A couple of times in the season the lawn could do with a weed and feed treatment.  After the first one you will need to scarify the lawn to get out the (now) dead moss and last year's debris.  You might want to treat the lawn to another session some time later in the summer.  Again not too late so it can toughen up ready for the winter.

In hot weather:  I am currently frazzling in 28 degrees of heat so it is a good reminder that any pots or hanging baskets need daily (and sometimes more!) watering in very hot weather.  Any new planting, especially trees and shrubs, need frequent watering whether the weather is hot or not.  By the same token if your garden is reasonably well established don't worry about watering it - the lawn and garden will spring back quickly as soon as it rains even if it is looking a bit dry right now.

Flaming June

As I write this flaming June is living up to its name -  ten o'clock with bright sun, 25 degrees and rising!

I did my morning stroll round the garden with my tea to check what new 'faces' have appeared in the border - as I was armed with a camera I thought I'd share...

this is the centre of a clematis which drops its outer sepals after a while and leaves these lovely centres for ages - might be Viennetta 

blush noisette from Peter Beales years ago - it is lovely doesn't get too tall, covered in flowers all summer and smells glorious

lovely little white shrub - if anyone can identify it for me I would be very grateful

Fleabane (Eirgeron) - unassuming but one of my favourites

my three most used herbs just outside my door

Garden full of poppies right now this one is 'Mrs Perry'

love little geraniums this one is 'Elke' makes great ground cover

'James Galway', a David Austen rose

Poppy in among the roses, 'Prinzessin Victoria Louise'

another clematis, sorry not sure what it is

this is the double form of the one above - get both type of flowers on the same plant

Tea plate size flowers on this clematis, 'Warsaw Nike'

'Bowles Mauve', perennial wallflower - flowers all year

I won two of these in a competition four year ago - finally come into its own, 'Elfe'

The absolute last sort out for 2016

We got a gap in the weather a week or so ago, so we were able to go out and get the last of the tidying up done.

This was smothered in two clematis and a yellow rose for the season but it wasn't too bad to clear away.  I cut through the stems about a foot up from the base of the clematis and then teased out the tangled mass from the trellis..... then trimmed back the rose.

the trellis in June

I have three little pergolas in the garden that have clematis growing through them so, again, they need a trim a few inches above ground and the rubbish pulling out.  I like these as they add a bit of structure and something to look at in the winter.

All I did in the front borders was cut back any overhanging vegetation so the pavement was tidy again and nothing was flopping on to the lawn.  The rest can take care of itself.

I have eight (four pairs) climbing roses on some trellises in the back garden.  They were very badly massacred to allow the new fence to be put up last Christmas and they did almost nothing this year - very spindly, unhealthy growth with a handful of flowers.  This is one of the pair of white roses on the side which wasn't replaced and they did reasonably OK and have cut back for the winter in the usual way.  That said they hadn't been disturbed and still weren't great (???)

This (below) is one of the New Dawn pair which looked just awful this year.  New Dawn is as tough as old boot so I am surprised.  I really don't know what to do for it.  I didn't have a single decent lateral to tie in and trim back to.  This felt like the best I could do.  I may leave it at this and see what happens next summer after a rest and good feed or, the other thinking is, I get really brave and cut every stem down to a foot above ground and see if we can start again.  I would welcome opinions if anyone has sorted out an old unproductive rose.

Our first snow came early this year - 18th November.  It was only a smattering and it got rained on but because the temperatures stayed low it lasted a couple of days in our neck of the woods.

At the same time as looking out at that a couple of my plants were still doing their thing beautifully inside the house.

This orchid has been flowering since August.  Its last bud has just opened and I have 32 wonderful flowers smiling away at me in the sitting room.  If there is a downside it is that it simply does not look real.  I assure you it is and I am very proud of it.  This came to me as a nice enough little orchid from Tesco which did its five or six flower thing quite quickly. I cut back the stem and parked it on a windowsill expecting the leaves to die.  It got a teeny bit of water now and then and that was it.  Gradually it grew to this.

This little goer is a common enough -a Christmas cactus which thinks Christmas comes about four times a year - it is off again.  You really need to get up close and personal and really look at how wonderful each flower is.

So that's a wrap for 2016.  Have a lovely Christmas however you celebrate it and I wish you a healthy and happy New Year.