July’s Cottage Garden Gallery

July’s Cottage Garden Gallery
in Blog Posts, In the Garden 513 Words

In our July cottage garden, summer flowers in pots are coming to their best now, despite our present drought. I also take a look at ‘No Dig’ gardening.

Cottage Gardens

Here in Southern England we are coping with weeks without proper rain. But here are some well watered plants in pots that have managed to put on a show:

Bunch of spring garden flowers

Before looking at our present gallery this impressive bunch of flowers was grown in my son’s garden in May and June. There’s everything here to remind us of fresh early English summer flowers mostly grown from seed.

Click on the photos to enlarge. (Best viewed with Desktop)

July gallery

These Ammis have been very good this year. Sown indoors Feb 17th.
Lavender buddleia with pink roses
Lavender buddleia ‘Lochinch’ with pink roses with Stipa gigantia stems relishing the heat.
Garden sweet peas
Another essential – a few Sweet Peas for cutting. But now going over
display of bright coloured zinnias in pots
A bright display of zinnias with bronze fennel to greet visitors.
Display of pastel shades of flowers
Pastel colours with ammi, nicotianas, salvias, echinaceas and tall Verbena bonariensis
Patchwork of shrubs with coloured leaves
Who needs flowers for a colourful display? Fennel, Rosa glauca and variegated Euonymous.
Tall golden oat grasses
The Giant ‘Golden Oats’ Stipa gigantea along with bronze fennel are revelling in the warm weather
Pelargoniums and lobelia are the staple of any greenhouse.

Earlier this month:

Mixed flowers in garden border
Yellow Anthemis ‘Wargrave’ and Achillea ‘Moonshine‘ with campanulas and scabious
Geranium ‘Patricia‘with spikes of blue Veronica and white Anthemis cupaniana

Hollyhocks yellow and pink roses
No cottage garden is complete without hollyhocks and roses!

Our Shady Back Garden

On sun scorched days as plants struggle to survive, the back garden offers welcome shade. This catalpa grown from seed is very happy in this heat. Its other name the Indian Bean tree explains why. The more sensitive shrub sheltering under the catalpa’s shade is Cornus alternifolia. This was Christopher Lloyd’s favourite shrub. It’s mine too.

Trees creating shade in garden
Pond with waterlilly
On hot days who can resist being drawn to the pond. Now in its second year it has settled well into the garden landscape.
Large vine covering a gazebo
Vitis vinifera smothering our gazebo. Some serious pruning is called for here!
Soothing ferns against the north wall.
Soothing ferns against the rear north wall. Dryopteris, Polystichum and Osmunda regalis with variegated Phalaris arundinacea.

Vegetables grown in tubs
Every cottage garden has room for a few veg – here grown in space saving tubs.
Runner Beans in tubs
Runner and broad beans do well in buckets so too do mangetout peas. Here are beetroot in a bowl.
Row of leeks in vegetable plot
Multisown leeks in my first attempt at a ‘No Dig’ bed. See the youtube channel of Charles Dowding, the ‘No Dig’ guru.

No Dig Gardening

Recently, I’ve been watching some of Charles Dowding’s youtube videos on vegetable growing using the organic ‘No Dig’ techniques. Charles has become a guru on the subject and is attracting much attention in the veg growing world. His results are very impressive without digging, spraying or using any fertilizers.

I plan to sow yellow rattle seed in late summer when the meadow grasses have been cut and cleared. Plugs of my own sown mixed wildflower seeds have been waiting to be added as well. Meadows are not easy to establish, but I am hopeful.

A garden keeps changing and moving on!

5 thoughts on “July’s Cottage Garden Gallery”

      1. We have had a very wet year so far. I think we are getting everyone else’s rain. Our top temperature in our very brief heatwave reached 25 degrees for one day. Today it is warm, sunny with a cooling breeze.
        Have a good summer.
        Sue

        Liked by 1 person

  2. Wonderful flowers dear uncle, it’s great to see the colours and blooms flourish, the weather is cooler now and flowers and plants need a bit of breeze and rain, hope you are all very well, Tina xx

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