I N E X P L I C A B L E
D E V I C E
Yes, it's finally my turn!
I'm sure you mean our turn, hmm? After all, whose hands and body - not to mention knowledge and bank account - is used to maintain our garden? If it was left to you, the Hexenhäusli Device gardens would be a prickly, poisonous wilderness of brambles, apple trees, hemlock, and foxgloves!
It would save having to go out on the increasingly unsafe Broom to gather ingredients. Besides, you like those plants.
Yes, but not just those plants as a garden!
Oh, fine. You can get on with the captioning and the like as you're the "expert"!
I will, then!
Oh, good. This is turning out well, as usual.
Wake me up when it's all over.
Right. Now that Witchface and the dratted SubCs have shut up, I'll continue.
You may have noticed that we've been decidedly absent from the blog this year, which means that there were rather fewer garden updates than usual. A consequence of that is a glut of garden and allotment photos that are all being dumped here because they haven't yet seen the light of day. I've tried to include mainly plants that haven't featured in the previous couple of years, and I've smushed some together to make sure this post didn't wear out your scrolling fingers.
It may be rather dull and overlooked usually, but when in flower (such as here in early May), I think laurel is quite lovely.
From May and August (and it's still flowering now! - albeit rather feebly), water hawthorn (Aponogeton distachyos) in my allotment bathtub. I find its alien/sea slug-like flowers quite fascinating!
June is foxglove season! Other than loganberries, foxgloves are the main "crop" up at the allotment at this time of year.
Gladioli up the allotment (left and right) and in the garden (centre) in June, July, and August.
Looking much better this year (I remembered to water them), Gladiola "At Night" in July and August. A couple of the blooms starred in the Terrifying Triffidery poster back at Hallowe'en.
The first flowering (in July) of the waterlily I bought The Mother for her birthday last year.
After two or three dismal years, 2025 was the Year of the Greengage! The tree was absolutely laden with them throughout July and August - there are still some in the freezer now, I think. (The big European plum tree did well, too.)
Agapanthus "Royal Velvet" took up the slack in August when my other pale blue ones only put up two flower heads between the four of them!
Clashing colours in the August East Border from lavender, snapdragons, montbretia, roses, and toadflax.
A couple of years ago, there was only one bulb in this pot. My Eucomis comosa "Sparkling Beauty" is a prolific offset producer! (I'll need to split up these thugs in the spring.)
To prevent Bitey trampling & digging everything up, I used upturned cheapo hanging baskets wedged in place with canes. They also served to support and contain some of the taller leaves and stems.
(From left to right, photos from March, May, June (x2), July and August)
The South Garden (from atop a rather wobbly Broom) in April, June, July and August
And finally, a selection of blooms from throughout the year. From left to right, top to bottom: Dog's tooth violet/fawn lily (Erythronium californicum) - April; snakes head fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris) - April; iris (first seen here) - June; peony with Device cronefingers & thumb - June; Morning Glory (Ipomoea purpurea) and hoverfly - July; double day lily (Hemerocallis somethingorother) - also July; Gladiola "At Night" - July; Fuchsia "Blacky" - July; passion flower "Violacea" - August; and a crinum of some description - also August.
☙❧
So there you have it, the final garden of this year's Infomaniac Garden Photos Event, but not the end of the show. Pop back in a couple of days time for a look back at this year's gardens (and the half-naked, nubile young Hexenhäusli Device Woodsman) along with some highlights, trivia, and observations.
Oh, and I hope you've been keeping your eyes peeled for thumbs and bums throughout the Event?
See you on Wednesday!
OMG! Bravo Mr. DeVice!!!!!! I think this just might be your best spread yet!!!! So much variety and a colossal color explosion all over!!!! Many of the sights took my breath. I was especially in awe of the new showing of the water lily...a perfect specimen and the water hawthorn. I can see why you like it. I had to scroll twice to take it all in.
ReplyDeleteNow my dear, come into the gazebo while the garden goers take in all your amazement. Sit right here next to me, and let me massage and give you a nice soothing release of a rub down........
Why, thank you, Maddie! I almost missed the waterlily as it was surrounded by that feathery pond weed. The Mother had been grumbling that it was Year 2 and there was still no flower, so I moved the weed aside to pop my hand in and feel for a firm bud, and there it was!
DeleteHow kind of you to see to my shoulders. And back. And... Oh!
*moves further down*
DeleteWhy Mr DEVice! Speaking of firming buds.
*blushes furiously but allows continuation of "further down"*
DeleteI like laurel flowers, too - and they're beatifully scented. Both the pond and the allotment look so abundant this year - it was such a good Spring/summer...
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of summer, that's a helluva mixed August border (clashing or no) - and you really have grown a variety of blooms all over the garden! My faves? Agapanthus, those lilies, hemerocallis, ipomoea (we really must remember to plant seeds next year!) and crocosmia.
Hard work pays off! Jx
Thank you, Jon! That August border is not the result of planning, rather "oh, just put it there until I know what to do with it."
DeleteI'm very pleased the lilies came back as strong as last year (with only a little top dressing), and the hemerocallis did well in the garden (free from the mouths of deer up at the allotment).
I have LOADS of ipomoea seeds, so if you - or anyone else - want any, just let me know and I'll pop some in the post.
Take gun next time. Venison's lovely!
DeleteI think we already have loads of ipomoea seeds. We just need to remember to sow them... Jx
"Have Bitey, Will Travel" Or in this case, will go tearing after any muntjacs and bark at them if they stop and turn around.
DeleteI'll set up a reminder for ipomoea seed sowing in the spring!
I love your Lilies!!! Your garden is so pretty. We have tried to get the Crocosmia to grow this year - hopefully it will do something next year. I'd love a round paysho.
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting the event!
Sx
In my experience, Crocosmia/Montbretia settles quickly so, yes, hopefully next year it will start seeing off your ground elder.
DeleteAnd thank you, Ms Scarlet!
Your low-hanging fruit look delicious.
ReplyDeleteYou've outdone yourself, once again, both in your own garden and allotment, and as host of the Garden Event. Bravo, Mr. DeVice. Bravo!
My low-hanging fruit are the most delicious I've ever had - even if I do say so myself! (I have to be a bit of a contortionist to reach them all, though!)
DeleteThank you, Very Mistress, for continuing to grace us with your presence and for your kind words. The GPE is a task that I look forward to each year, and I love putting it all together.
Wow! Fabulous! Those peach daffodils! I must find me some! Daffodils grow well here. So are Logan berries like red blackberries? I've never seen them here. Why does America hate Loganberries? How odd! I know the story behind the currants snub, money. But Loganberries? I agree with the Mistress too, because of course I do.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to your end of season post. We were a bit lacking in creativity as a group this year. There were no magic bathmat rides, but alas, who can blame us? Real life takes priority. I think my new year's resolution should be to "Do more art this year."
Ah, thank you, Melanie! The peach daffs are rather fabulous, aren't they?!
DeleteAs for loganberries, they are an American invention, accidentally bred in 1881 by one James Harvey Logan in Santa Cruz. Their British cousin is the tayberry, but neither are good commercial crops which is why they're not very often seen in shops etc.
I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do about the end of year round up post. Particularly as I haven't actually been around that much to know what needs rounding up. Any attempt may be more like rounding down...
It would be nice if we could find some time for an adventure, though. We'll see...
P.S. Yes, "do more art" is on my list, too. Good luck to us both!
Ah, Madam A, thank you! Hold back on your amazement, because this year I don't feel like I have had time for anything other than the garden and allotment. And Bitey, of course!
ReplyDeleteI think I only managed to sit in The Gardeners Retreat with a G&T once this summer. I'm determined to do more sitting around next year!
I doubt that I have some cromosomia to grow, tah !
ReplyDeleteI very much like to look into Your garden - and the allotement too - and watch for changes, as small and subtile, or big and unmissable, as they may be, grab a berry or two.
I do not know whether there is a grande finale still to come, but I already want to thank You for hosting the Infomaniac Garden Photo Event : You spend a lot of time and effort, from herding the participants to cropping photographs ! You make everyone feel welcome.
Thank You IDV !
The net would be a dull and unfriendly place without You and the beautifully hosted
Infomaniac Garden Photo Event,
and all its participants !
I second that emotion! Jx
DeleteWell, thank you most kindly, dear Mago - and Jon. As I mentioned upstream, I love putting the GPE together, and it's made all the more exciting when photos from a new or irregular participant (like your good self) land in my in-box. I'm very happy to host this wonderful event - The Very Mistress set a high standard to live up to.
DeleteSpeaking of, I also find putting on my 'Very Mistress Boots' to issue reminders and tellings off quite thrilling!
There will be a Grand Finale in a couple of days time - hopefully first thing on Wednesday, but I might have to delay it a day as it's not quite finished and I don't know if I'll get to finish it tonight, now...
Hear! Hear! What Mago said. Yet another triumph.
ReplyDeleteI say if you're going to grow crocs make them Lucifers and not those vulgar orange varieties, the last outing I had to the garden centre I saw the fabled pink ones in pots. I love the water lily too I even toyed with the idea of sinking a bucket in the gravel path in the front garden to grow one in, but thought better of it. The south garden (August) foreground are those Echiums?
Do you wash your low hangers?
Ah, thank you, Mitzi! I've already got ideas for next year - have you got plans for your new garden? A water feature for a waterlily, perhaps?
DeleteShhhhhh! Don't let Ms Scarlet hear your comments about orange crocs. Or The Very Mistress for that matter - she may get the wrong idea...
And there are pink ones, you say? What an age we live in!
Yes, those are Echiums. I'm hoping we have a mild winter that they get through without being frozen to death, as they look like they're going to be quite spectacular when they flower. I had two MASSIVE ones up the allotment a couple of years ago, but we had two separate week long periods of sub-zero temps that finished them off before they had a chance to bloom.
And, no, the low hangers don't get washed. They just go straight in one's mouth!
I tell a lie. I did wash one because it looked like it had bird poo on it.
I'm a tad late, but once I landed here (if I could get my hands on one of those magical flying bathmats, I'd REALLY be there!) I kept looking and salivating. I'd love to go all-out in this garden, but it's not all mine; there's a resident dog and visiting grand-sprogs...but I do have some plans. And I blogged this morning!
ReplyDeleteAh, dogs and children - ruiners of gardens everywhere! Still, where there's a will there's a way, and we know you have the will. Now looking forward to seeing your way!
DeleteIn the meantime, I did see your post - and nabbed my first "Yay! First!" comment for AGES. (Even though I neglected to say "Yay! First!")
P.S. Magic flying bathmats are the future of transportation!