A WEEK IN MY GARDEN - 27 JUNE - THE LONG BORDER IN JUNE

After my midweek marathon 'All you wanted to know about the old roses, then some', I promise to keep this one short and sweet.  We will have a little look at what's going down in the Long Border, whilst Glastonbury plays in the background (on the TV).

Here's a view along the border looking rather dry and hot.  We could do with some rain - a lot of rain. Lets take a walk.

Nearest are the blue aconitum, which have done quite well this year, throwing up a few spikes of their poisonous flowers.

Then we reach the white lilies.  Some are Sweet Surender and some Regale.  I did top up the bulbs in the Spring as they do dwindle after a couple of years.  I'm assuming heavy clay isn't really their soil of choice.

Representing the deep yellow section is this plant that I received from a friend.  Luckily we have a big garden as I tend to find I'm gifted big things.  Strangely people don't seem to want to pass on their little treasures only the monsters.  (I am always grateful though).  I believe this is Inula magnifica. Edited to add I now think it is more likely to be Telekia. With those large daisy flowers it's no surprise that it is popular with the bees.  It's fascinating to find the natural habitat of the plants we grow in our gardens.  I spotted this plant growing in the lower reaches of the Carpathian mountains in Romania last year in glades among the trees.

Moving onto red as the border heats up, we come to Lychnis chalcedonica.  This plant struggles a little here, but is self seeding in the rose garden where it is a very happy if decidedly unwelcome visitor (among the pale pinks and whites).

More lilies come next.  This is 'African Queen' and what a stunner she is.

More red, a deeper shade this time, comes from the Hollyhocks.  This give some welcome height to the border here

From this point the border cools down.  There's a big group of pale blue Campanula lactiflora with Achillea 'Double Diamond' in front.

White Verbascum chaixii album seems to be going over far too quickly in this heat, but I managed to find one to photograph.

So that's the end of our little stroll for now.  Just one more thing before you go.  We ate our first home grown tomato this week.  Obviously I picked it and then thought, 'Oh I should have taken a photo' so here is a photo of some tomatoes that we will eat next.  The variety is Stupicke Polni Rane.  I've not grown this one before but its supposed to be heavy cropping and we get through a lot of tomatoes chez Bailey.  On first try I wasn't overwhelmed by the flavour, being more on a par with supermarket ones.

That's all for this week.  Thank you for reading.  It's going to be hot out there this weekend, so take it easy.  Mr B and I will be.