Much as we enjoy the hot weather it has meant a lot of watering of both the vegetable garden’s young plants and the lovely new border made by our HSBC volunteers. Both are coming along though, I will post a picture of how they are filling out soon. Speaking of filling out I had a busy day on Saturday artistically trimming back overflowing borders from the paths while trying to maintain our beloved style of country garden abundance. I think I succeeded, I am hoping when I am back in the garden tomorrow things have not grown quite that much in 24hours!

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Gorgeous hardy orchid Bletilla striata in the topmost bed of the terrace.

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Kniphofia or red hot poker plants are now coming out on the terrace surrounded by Globe artichokes, golden oregano and mounds of catmint in the background.

On a sad note we lost our Champion tree in the Gentlemans arboretum this week. The largest Sycamore in Ceredigion had sadly become extremely dangerous due to an enormous amount of rot and had to be felled. Much of the wood has been left to lie to provide a habitat for insects.

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The small amount of healthy wood left is shown in this photo, not enough to keep a 4′ wide tree safe.