The Gardener's Boot

I think Bob Flowerdew (UK gardening personality who sports a large ponytail and gardens organically) coined this phrase on the BBC's Gardener's Question Time. He's right of course. Walk around the garden and take stock of everything. Sometimes you get so into the act of gardening that you don't see it. I've been doing exactly that. Needless to say there are hits and misses and like many, I'm already planning for next year.

The Cosmos 'Versailles Tetra' has seemed a little slow growing to me. Mind you, so has the Amaranthus 'Marvel Bronze'. Now either everything has conspired to leave my annual bed a little 'tardy or perhaps I'm simply being impatient. I'm pretty sure it's the latter.

This is Cosmos 'Purity'. It's a really nice white which just glows in the evening light. I'm hoping it'll get to four or five feet in height and really look impressive. Again, that can't come quick enough.

Overall I'm pleased with the gable end. The Catmint just billows and flops over the gravel under the yellow rose, a rose that remains nameless for now as it's easily over twenty five years old and was here before both myself and the previous owners. I'm going to have to put more effort into a positive ID.

The walk down into the courtyard looks pretty this year. The grapevine which shades the terrace to La Grande Maison is much healthier. I picked off a lot of moss that was clinging to the main stems and it seems to have helped matters. I guess there are less places to harbour disease.

The Clematis Jackmanii is flowering like crazy. This is it's fifth year and it has become a large shrub. If only I hadn't forgotten to prune it. The new flowering growth has toppled over the old woody stems but hey, I can live with it.

The Campanula muralis is a sea of blue at this time of year and frankly won't be happy until it's achieved world domination. It is SO EASY to grow! I literally pluck rooted clumps from it, stick them into the ground and let it do its thing. On the subject of easy propagation, you could do worse than visit Cameron's excellent post about Sedum. You may never have to buy another plant!

Geranium Johnson's Blue looks good with Campanula takesimana Elizabeth. I'm going to cut back this Cranesbill once flowering is over and see if I can get it to flush again later on.

Finally the planting along the pergola is starting to fill out. There have been one or two changes from my original plan. Notably the addition of Penstemon 'Mrs Hindley' which are both hardy and long flowering. All the rambling roses are healthy, disease free and are flowering. One slight problem in that they are all vertically challenged. They need to grow upwards! I guess they're settling in and next year they'll head in the right direction.

Sometimes it's nice just to step back, take stock and let your boots do the walking.