Six on Saturday – Page 13 – Notes From My Garden

The Unexpected Heatwave

Published on July 8, 2023August 5, 2023 by Catherine25 Comments

When I packed my cases towards the end of May and headed off to visit my family in Washington D.C. never did I think that home would be in the grip of temperatures almost as high as they were in D.C. – with barely a drop of rain. This is Scotland after all, and I thought any problems in the garden would have been caused by wind, rain or a late frost. That was not to be, and although my son had dutifully watered the garden weekly as I requested, it just wasn’t enough.

I’ve been home for a couple of weeks now, and busy with family, the garden, and life in general. I could ramble on all day about the damage the unexpected heat and drought made to the garden, but instead, I’ll share with you, a few of the photos I’ve taken over the past two weeks of…wait for it…torrential downpours, strong winds and (for July) ridiculously low temperatures (Highs of 14C (57F)! Quite the opposite of what I returned to such a short time ago.

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Purple, White and a Splash of Orange

Published on May 20, 2023July 29, 2023 by Catherine27 Comments

This will be my last Six on Saturday for a few weeks. Next week I’ll be busy doing final preparations and starting to pack for a trip to the US to visit one of our daughters and her family.

The biggest job will be in the garden – trying to get the remaining plants into the ground, moving potted plants from their sunny areas into more shady areas, and leaving loads of instructions for various family members on how to look after everything.

Here’s my Six for this week.

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Farewell Tulips – you’ve been amazing.

Published on May 13, 2023August 5, 2023 by Catherine17 Comments

I couldn’t let the tulips leave without posting at least one final shot of my absolute favourite of the year, Tulip ‘Ballerina’. She looks as though she will last for another few days, after which she’s being planted into the ground. I’ve been really pleased with all the tulips this year, but I should have bought some more late flowerers to keep the show going a little longer. Lesson learned.

We’ve had some great weather this week, with only one day of wall-to-wall rain. There’s been an isolated shower or two, but otherwise, it’s been warm enough to discard jackets and change out of my gardening sweatshirt into a lightweight shirt. That’s great for mid-May in our area.

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The Crab Apple v The Wind

Published on May 6, 2023July 8, 2023 by Catherine19 Comments

The crab apple, Malus Evereste is a delight to behold every May. It’s Spring – the days are getting longer and we can finally feel warmth in the afternoon air. April winds tear through this little garden at a ferocious rate, then ease off at the beginning of May, I was happy and relieved that the old crab apple hadn’t flowered too early this year.

But the reprieve from the wind was short-lived as once again it tore through the trees, the bushes and the flowers at the start of the week. The blossom was just opening on the Malus when the grass below started to turn white. Our littlest grandson had gone into the garden to play and returned within minutes calling out, “Quick Gran, come and see this”. It’s becoming a regular cry when he discovers something new. This time he spotted the petals strewn across the grass. I stood him under the tree and shook one of the lower branches. The blossom came tumbling down on his head and he squealed with joy.

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The Two Ballerinas

Published on April 29, 2023May 20, 2023 by Catherine24 Comments

The garden is currently getting a good watering from above. The wind (thankfully) dropped earlier in the week and the rain arrived on Thursday. I’ve had to take the hose to a good number of plants this week so I’m happy to see the rain as the garden was parched. Now I’d appreciate if it would kindly pause for a while to let me get on with some essential garden jobs that I’d love to tackle today. I’m fairly optimistic that will happen later today.

Moving on to the subject of this Saturday’s post, the first ‘Ballerina’ is the lovely Tulip ‘Ballerina’ that has made me very happy this week by flowering. T. ‘Ballerina’ is a beautiful, elegant, lily-flowered tulip with petals of orange, flushed with red and yellow. To top that off, it’s perfumed. I’m smitten with this one!

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