A True Dry Shade Lover

In this garden, the regular foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) does not do well. It is, in fact, very difficult to grow, mostly because the soil is basic and too dry.

At the moment of writing this, at the end of July, it has been very sunny for the last two months, with perhaps three rain showers in all, which means that many plants only survive provided they are watered every day.

However the rusty foxglove (Digitalis ferruginae) is blooming generously, even if it has never been watered except for the little rain we got.

Digitalis ferruginae - the rusty foxglove, an easy xeric plant

Hardy Annuals

Most years I grow a fair number of hardy annuals. The point about hardy annuals is that they can be started from seed directly in the garden where they are going to grow.  They often bloom for a very long time and are inexpensive.

In fact after a few years of growing them, most hardy annual plants seed themselves or produce a lot of seeds that can be saved and replanted the next year.

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) - on the right growing with Dianthus deltoides

Summer Peak

Many gardening bloggers are talking about the great abundance of plants in bloom in the garden at this time of the year.  Here are some of the plants that have been blooming here recently.

Since early June we have had a lot of sunshine, but not a lot of heat, and the nights have been actually cold. This cooler weather is, no doubt, the reason why a week ago we still had a few peonies!

A Tale of Two Gardens

It  is not very common to have two keen gardeners living next door to each other, but it is even more unusual is to have these two gardeners share a garden!

This post is about two gardeners that have ignored the property line that separates their respective lots and created a single garden right over it.

Part of the shared garden

A Love Story

This post is about the misadventures of two rabbits in love. Destiny tore them apart but, do not worry, it ends well.

They are reunited at the end of the story and presumably are still happy together.

One of the two

Garden Open

In my last post, I talked about an excursion our local gardening club made. This last week, members of the same club were opening their gardens to their fellow gardeners.

In a month which has been very sunny and warm, the day it was our turn to open, rain was threatening, and it was just about 10 degrees Celsius.

However this did not stop people from visiting, and we had a very good day.