Action shot

Thank you to Fenning for the action shot of Madame watering this summer.

From this distance everything looks a bit dry and parched. But the view of the mountains behind are stunning.

That shade cloth you can see in the bottom right hand side of the picture is now residing in the potting shed; with a cat wrapped in it.

Artur is delighted I have provided him with more soft snooze spots this September. He can choose between folded metres of fleece, a ten metre long shade cloth, a slightly prickly larger net… you name it, he is delighted.

Well, I don’t think you can see proper delight on a cat, but he was ecstatically kneading the shade cloth bundle when I went in first thing this morning.

And I popped in to check on him once every few hours all day. I was a touch busy to lounge around in the potting shed with a cup of tea and a cat.

I had 25 eragrostis grasses to plant.

Walking along the steep bank is a doddle now that I have created the little path.

In went the grasses with lots and lots of watering; and I’ll have to keep my eye on them all week. Warmer weather is predicted, so I might have to water them well every day.

I’ve only planted the top most row. I’ll save the main planting of the established grasses for the spring.

I resisted the temptation to water more than the newly planted iris germanicas in the calabert bed.

I had the potager to finish. This morning I knew that I only had the bean and cabbage beds to finish. But it was finicky work.   Most done sitting down and creeping in among the self sown verbena bonariensis plants.

The vbs will be transplanted in the spring behind the miscanthus hedge in the pool garden, if they make it through the winter.

There are still plenty of beans left, but I wonder how much growing season I have left.

The cabbages don’t look like they will be doing any more growing this year.

But I did manage to sew a seed in among all the beds: a mustard seed which I can use as a weed suppressant and green manure to add goodness to the soil.

There aren’t a huge number of areas in this potager where I could rake the soil. Most of the raking was done with the head of the narrow hoe. But I think I’ve covered most bare areas.

This too will need a gentle watering every day. I’ll have to factor that into my next day’s thrilling garden event: more weeding.