A little bit of randomness

I promised to show you the old wheelbarrow I planted up for the spring ~ golly, that seems such a long time ago now!  The barrow had been left in the garden when we moved in, probably because it's got a rather badly bent wheel so doesn't really work well for its intended purpose 😉  I have a bit of a soft spot for things that are galvanised, so decided to keep it.  I got Adrian to drill some drainage holes for me and I now use it as a planter.  I put in bellis, forget-me-nots, crocus, iris and little tulips.  It looked very pretty.  When the bulbs and plants were past their best, I moved everything into the kitchen garden borders.

I loved these dwarf iris, such a pretty colour.

I've seen this fella (or one of his colleagues!) quite often recently, chomping its way across my garden bench.  I finally had my camera to hand so I could take a photo.

Whilst I was watching, it turned around and proceeded to chomp back the way it had just come.  Said bench was also popular with the wasps when we lived down south!

I do like the colour of this achillea.  The stems are a bit on the wonky side as it had got rather smothered by the wild flowers that took over the border it was planted in.  Hopefully the stems will grow straighter next year. 

Yes, I know dandelions are classed as "weeds" by many folk, but I rather like to see their cheerful yellow flowers.  The trick to keeping some semblance of control, I guess, would be to nip off the heads before the seeds get blown all over the garden ~ but I never seem to remember LOL  What's that saying, something like "one year's seeds equals seven years weeds" ~ well, that explains a lot about the state of the garden this year 😄

The miniature waterlily has sent up a flower head.  Oh dear, I still haven't cleared out that blanket weed!

I've been keeping a beady eye on this hosta beside the pond.  When we lived back south the slugs made short work of any that I tried to grow.  There are a few little holes in this one but nothing to really complain about.  Perhaps the frogs are keeping the dreaded slugs at bay!

Alstroemeria are such delicate looking plants but they are obviously very hardy as they have a tendency to run riot in the more shady kitchen garden border.  I'm quite ruthless about pulling them out in most of the border, although I rarely manage to get the roots up.  I have left a couple of groups of them though, as they are very pretty.

Here's The Mayflower again.  She really is a beautiful rose.

A close-up of the shasta daisy, Banana Cream.

Rose of Sharon is another plant that I am very fond of...

...and the bees love it, too 😊