A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF THE GARDEN

Before I went on holiday for a week with the family, I took images of the garden from all four angles to see how much it would grow in seven days, at the height of summer.

I’ve done it because this unusually wet and fairly humid growing season has given plenty of healthy growing flora, but not given us much chance to enjoy it, apart from glimpses through a window as we shelter from the rain!

The first angle is towards the front of the house and the beautiful hanging baskets that Sarah creates every year. This year they were put together a couple of weeks late due to the weather, but they’ll still be great throughout the next couple of months.

As you can see from the first image they are growing well and the sunflower is growing well. The tomato plants of the right and left of the image had flowers so I was hoping for little green fruit upon my return.

As you can see from the image below, the sunflower has grown and started to show its flower, the wall climbing plant is providing even more shelter for small bugs and insects, which in turn is attracting the returning post-moult small birds and the hanging baskets are growing well.

The rose bush, which was showing flowers when we left for the holiday, has taken a couple of years to grow to its current state and plenty of pruning at most times of the year.

It provides a haven for the small birds that visit the garden to shelter from both weather and danger, while also feeding on food gathered from my offerings, or that of the garden itself.

As you can see from the image below, some of the flowers have faded, but others are coming to replace them. The most notable difference is the lawn, which has a carpet of daisies, perfect for small insects.

As my daughter started to wander around the garden I decided to slowly fill in the small pond and grow from seed, plants to fill the gap in the rockery.

The result is a sea of colour and a micro wildlife haven, with plenty of insects making it home. The good news is the pond lining is still there, so it can be resurrected in the future.

As you can see from the image below, the lawn has again shown it's growing power in the wet conditions, while the changing colours of the flowering plants is proving to be a great place for nectar hunting insects and bees. I planted most of the current flowers as seeds in March, so it's great to see that work coming to fruition.

Earlier this year I drastically trimmed the honeysuckle bush as it was mainly dead branches and I wanted the bush to provide shelter but not overhang the patio.

At first I thought the bush wasn’t responding positively to the trim, but slowly it began to show new shoots and green leaves. It had grown into what I imagined before we went away and would provide a great place for insects and birds to watch the garden.

But as you can see it had come back to life before the Cornwall holiday and I was making sure it created a thin, but sheltering hedge, rather than the overhanging shaded area it did before.

As you can see from the image below the honeysuckle has grown even further to start start shaping up to what I envisaged it to be when I cut it right back this spring.

At the front of the garden the entrance gate has sunflowers each side of it, while a couple of tomato plants and small hedge bushes were planted a couple of years ago to make a barrier combined with the fence.

The sunflowers provide autumn food for some birds, while the fence helps provide a security from local cats.

It is now turning into a great entrance to the garden, while also providing shelter and food for wildlife, plus food for us.

The sunflowers are growing well, albeit not at the same rate!