Fingers Crossed, the Mitcheldean Garden 2021
Heat Wave Part 2

This page is part of a series of garden blogs from 2021. Click here for the index. Click here for part 1 which covers the lower garden between the road and the patio.

Apart from the churn between the spring and summer plants, almost everything in front of the house and down to the road is now on a 'care and maintenance basis' which means trimming, watering and cutting the grass with a little bit of weeding. However, we do have a newly prepared dahlia bed which looks likely to be a more attractive debutant than I anticipated. Anyway, this part covers the upper garden

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Looking up these two David Austin roses looked very happy, but in general the banks proved not to be a great place for roses. We have a new set which are finding their feet and I feel I have to include at least one close up, this orange bloom being particularly attractive. 

Things really start to get fun these days approaching the only part of the upper garden which is anything near level. On the left is the old swing festooned with Yuehong's hanging baskets. Behind is the white bush which never got pruned last year, an internet search suggests a spiraea but I'm open to suggestions, it's one we inherited.

Yuehong's new star turns are sweet peas and nasturtiums in the blue pots. In the bed, the permanently resident fuchsias are yet to show but the first of the gladioli is out, in front of them are some red salvia, B&Q giveaways. The red plants on the wall are 'bargain basement' begonias, but there is nothing cheap about their performance. At the back is the regular dahlia bed, some kinds did not winter well and this summer there will be less of a mixture. The backdrop at the other end is the honeysuckle which has now totally colonised the gap between the leylandii hedge and the summer house. When the fence behind goes rotten then the first we will know of it is when the wild boar use it as a gate into the garden. 

I think Yuehong has started dressing as an overgrown schoolgirl to please me but she claims they are hand me downs from a friend... Her lily bed has stuttered a bit this year, I think it's taken a while to  recover from the cold winter but there are yet more treats to come...

Some years ago, in blind ignorance Yuehong installed some crocosmia bulbs in the lily patch. They promptly tried to take it over. A couple of years ago we gave the bed a makeover and ejected most of them. Now not only are they back in strength but they are taking over the vegetable patch and the upper peony bed too. Last year, I exiled some to the top corner of the garden and now they're growing furiously there too. 

For me summer really starts when the dark dahlias start blooming, as usual they form a border with the vegetable patch. Traditionally I front them with African marigolds but as I cocked them up this year (I know it's difficult), we have some bargain snapdragons to do the job instead.