Hello! I didn’t mean to disappear there . . . As I’m sure you can imagine (especially if you are part of our Summer of Mystery club) we have an awful lot on at the moment. I’m very, very busy, and it’s all good, but there’s something that is really helping me to relax and take a bit of time out away from work – – our new garden.
We have inherited our new garden from someone who really knew what he was doing. I felt it was important, this first year, to just watch what was growing when and where, and to really pay attention to how the garden worked. So apart from starting a small herb garden, and bringing on some cut flowers from seed (sweet peas – there must always be sweet peas) I’ve not planted much, but have just tried to really pay attention to what’s happening, while keeping on top of the weeds.
What is here has surpassed all my expectations. It is obvious that this is a garden that has been very, very carefully planned for weather conditions and plant positions, bringing colour in every single month of the year. In February, there were snowdrops and hellebores, then in March, different varieties of narcissi and anemone started to appear. By April, trilliums and tulips popped up . . .and May – well, May has been extraordinary!
This is a garden with several different areas. There’s a beautifully curving bed at the top of a steep bank that sits above the river. In early Spring, there’s no tree cover here, but by May, this area sits in shade.
This damp, shady area is planted with gorgeous primulas . . .
many of which are of the beautiful candelabra variety
while in the middle of this woodland area there are aliums
. . . camassia
. . . and plume thistles
. . . . all of which stand above a beautiful meandering carpet of bluebells and star of Bethlehem.
At the front of the woodland area there are columbines (one of my favourite flowers)
. . . and geraniums.
Which cascade over the stone paths and soften all the edges. Elswhere, there are many colourful trees and shrubs – a glorious acer, Norwegian maple, fuschia, hydrangea, japonica, flowering dogwood, rhododendron, camellia – while against the wall of the mill, several clematis climb (there are different varieties clearly planned to flower at different moments). Round the back of the building, near the roadside, roses are now coming into bloom.
Other parts of the garden are more sunny and quite sheltered, and here it seems that every day in May brings a new floral delight. Watching this iris emerge from my desk while working on club newsletters has been pure joy. . .
. . .rivalled only by the appearance of these extraordinary big, blousy poppies, which I just love.
The RHS app on my phone tells me that this is papaver “Perry’s white.” What a treat for the eye it is!
I’m a gardener with only limited expertise (if it is a root vegetable, an edible leaf, or a sweet pea, I know my stuff, but am otherwise very inexperienced). I’ve found the RHS app really useful for identifying different plants and their varieties (many of which are not at all familiar to me) and keeping a handy record of what is what and what is where. In addition, the mill’s previous owner kindly left me some fabulous gardening books, which are full of advice and inspiration.
I’m so looking forward to seeing summer unfold through the colourful lens of this glorious new garden.. . .
. . . and learning much more about it in the weeks and months to come.
I have always wanted a colourful garden with a feeling of abundance. Kintyre has a very temperate and flower-friendly climate – abundance is most definitely abundant here!
I feel I have been given an extraordinary gift, in this beautiful space sitting just outside my door, in which I can spend time every day.
I intend to make the most of it!
What are you growing this year?
These are all in one garden!? Wow! And what color and pattern inspiration!
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What a delight: to have one’s new old garden reveal itself in such glory! Here in western Canada spring is very slow to come. Just now we can be fairly sure we won’t have a killing frost.
We are in a ground floor apartment and have geraniums and nasturtiums ready for our pots. Across the way I can see peony clumps that have broken ground. Each year they come up in glory, followed by yards of sweet peas. I’m so lucky to live across from a gardener.
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How beautiful! I live in my grandfather’s old house in New York’s Hudson Valley, and I still have many flowers he planted. The back garden is shady, and there huge ferns and hosta, plus rose geranium and yucca from my mother. In the front, there are peonies, Siberian and bearded irises, and lilac. I created a red garden around my mailbox, in memory of my father with flowers transplanted from his red perennial border. There are poppies and red peonies, so huge now, and I put in some geranium this year. I also have a bed full of lamb’s ear, which is fighting for dominance with the mint. And a small herb garden. This time of year makes my heart sing whenever I go outside.
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A garden full of meaning, memory and delight!
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What a blessing to inherit a garden done by someone who was so talented to place things as they need to be to be the most happy. I have returned to my gardening whole heartedly this year and it is such a peaceful thing to do after a stress-filled day…listening to the wind rustle plants and birds singing and huge bumblebees to keep you company.
Thank you for sharing such beautiful colours.
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What a beautiful garden, Kate, and so many different varieties of flowers. It’s almost winter here in Tasmania so they’re are not many flowers about here at the moment but my beautiful deep red geraniums are still blooming in their pot on the back deck and when the sun comes out I can pretend it’s still summer when I look at them.
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Thank you so much for you sharing this beautiful flowers of your garden! I have peony, irises, roses, pansies, salvia…in my garden. It’s a true therapy for me to go and sit for few minutes and look the flowers every morning. It’s very relaxing and recharging. I wish you much health and all the best in everything!💐🌿🌼
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Amazing pics of a fabulous garden. Enjoy, enjoy.
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Kate, it was grand to see each and every one of these blossoms from your “inherited” garden. What joy each month brings is very apparent! As someone who lives in a city apartment without a garden beyond my window sills, it is a complete treat to vicariously see and share what’s going on elsewhere!
Cheers from NYC…where I am reading lots of Margery Allingham novels borrowed from the truly wonderful New York Society Library. xo
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I once had my bag snatched in a pub in Leith, and the police officer who I told about it was very surprised that I didn’t care about the money or the other contents but was most upset because it contained my reader’s card for the NYPL. New York’s libraries are so wonderful!
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Thank you for the beautiful colours they gave me joy and hope. They also made me focus on the beauty of our autumn colours against the grayscale of a wet day in NZ.
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The garden is so beautiful. I envy you. I love my garden but I am no garden designer and I don’t have colour all year. I also tend to have too many examples of my favourites. Oh well. Do you have delphiniums and I am sure you know the wonderful poem by AA Milne about the dormouse and the delphiniums. I hope Bob is behaving himself. Take care
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geraniums (red) and delphiniums (blue)! Bob is being Bob (there have been a couple of visits to the vet) but he loves Kintyre.
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Oh dear poor Bob. He reminds me of my naughty black cat. We are on the frantic fives. We had the terrible twos, troublesome threes and fiendish fours. The other beautiful A A Milne poem is The Invaders. Take care
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Kate, you need to plant some Campions in your garden to celebrate the club! Rose Campion, lychnis coronaria, silver foliage with a compact deep pink bloom. Almost furry leaves work well with woolly lambs ear and lady’s mantle. Deadhead through summer into autumn. Let it go to seed and watch it ramble through your garden year after year. Massed, they create a soft grey pool with vibrant pops of pink. Fingers crossed that they will thrive in Scotland.
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my grandma grew that exact variety of campion in her garden, and I absolutely love it. I saw some thriving the other day in a local garden, in fact – so I think it will do well here.
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what an absolutely glorious garden. We are coming into winter,, it’s very dry Autumn leaves are finished and bare trees. I look forward to walking my 3 dogs, cooking warm comfort food and lots of knitting 💗
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Gardening is such a joy. I’ve been working in mine all day, until our much needed rain started late afternoon. I’ve got many of the same plants as you have, though I’m envious of your lovely candelabra primulas, my Morayshire garden is sadly much too dry for them. Irises are very happy here though, and among them is one that is the very same variety as yours. If you know its name, Kate, I’d be very grateful if you could tell me !
Time to put my feet up now and read some Margery Allingham, I’m on the fourth now, Dancers in Mourning. Thoroughly enjoying all of them. Happy gardening!
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Absolutely stunning … there is so much joy in a garden!
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what an additional blessing to you and Tom. The flowers are amazing❤️
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You truly won the lottery! I am thrilled that you are the mistress of this beautiful space and the former owner must be pleased with your enthusiasm and joy. So exciting, month after month!
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Kate I am so surprised to see so many plants that I have in my garden growing in yours. I live in Northern California! The Iris you showed looks like the one my grandmother brought with her when she moved here from New Mexico in 1949. I hope it smells as good as mine.
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Love it. I grew up in a garden rich in flowers, including many varieties of Iris, bearded and dwarf included, and many varieties of primula. later in the year came all the dianthus, with such beautiful perfume. I no longer have a proper garden, but can look back on my parents garden with fond memories.
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You have been given a gift! How lovely! Here on east coast of USA, my peonies and poppies are in full bloom (no white ones). Clematis and irises are too.
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Oh what a gift that garden is! And what joy you will have watching it reveal itself to you over the next year ❤️
I live in Kent and have just attended a course on how to plant a dye garden. Currently waiting for Woad, Dyers Chamomile and Golden Rod to germinate. Hoping to get some Indigo and Coreopsis in too this week 🤞 A very long term project for my small garden.
I am Scottish so love to see what you’re up to 😉
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I live in Vermont. Â The trees are almost all out now. Â Lilacs just bloomed.This photo is from 2 weeks ago. The daffodils were amazing! Â And saved my sanity.
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The promise in that peony bud!
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Thank you for sharing the lovely flowers from your new yard. They are a treat for my eyes this morning and I hope your new garden continues to bring you joy
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Stunning! Thank you for such beautiful pictures.
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Geraniums – and more geraniums!
such lovely flowers
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there can never be too many geraniums!
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Joy!! It’s been such a treat being “down south” (as we say in the arctic) for May this year, and introducing my kids to all the spring flowers. It’s such a gift to move into a place where that work already has a good start.
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Oh, how lucky you are to have inherited such an amazing flower-filled space!!
please send all the pics all summer!
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