By this time, the Violas under the variegated Wedding Cake Tree had begun to knit together to form a carpet, although it wouldn't be till the following season that they would seed into the centre circle beneath the branches of the tree as I anticipated -
Other restored and replanted borders that I haven't shown yet had filled out too, in the next case with deliberately unassuming largely shade-tolerant specimens. Unassuming, maybe, but still contributing a feeling of filled sumptuousness the garden never had before -
My serpentine mowing by now had started to thicken up texturally and had developed into a place where children would have fun running through the meandering lines of different lengths of grass -
I'm not going to show you the roses at this stage, because their first flush was past and they were resting, gaining strength for their next burst of exuberance. The kitchen garden, on the other hand, comprised primarily of vigorous annual plants desperate to flourish and produce seed, was romping away almost faster than I could handle. I have lots of photos of this, so I am gong to have to be selective to give you an idea of the aspects which I thought most important -
First, this one above. The hawthorn hedge around the Holiday cottage garden had been cut by this time. I haven't mentioned up to now that there was a border in front between that and the box hedge on the other side of the perimeter gravel path. I used this for growing all our soft fruit, including Gooseberries, Redcurrants and Blackcurrants. There were also a few regularly spaced tall wigwams ten feet high to carry thornless Blackberries, which I trained in tight spirals to the full height of the canes. It all looked a picture.
The annual flowers in the central circle, little over a month from sowing were now a substantial presence and eager to burst into bloom -
As was my wont, in order to introduce colour into the produce, I used multi-coloured beetroots, chard, cabbages and cauliflowers, and sowed rows of lettuce in contrasting foliage hues -
Above you can see that not only did I have the salad crops for colour, but the runner beans in three different flower colours contributed to the effect, as did the French Beans planted at the far end behind them, in purple, yellow and green forms. In the foreground, on mini wigwams in tandem with the courgettes, I was also growing dozens of Sweet Pea plants for cut flower. I had so many of these that I used to hand them out to staff in uncharacteristic fits of generosity. I also took plenty home in view of the huge surplus. At the awkward curved and pointed ends of the beds around the central circle I sowed Calendulas in the open ground to add vibrant orange and yellow edible colour in a fairly compact form. It was a little paradise in there. And you could eat it! Note, too the highly productive blocks of sweetcorn on the left just past the Sweet Peas and the colourful windmill to discourage birds.
I have photos of the kitchen garden from every angle in this batch of early July photos, but I don't want to bore you, so I will only show one more, which I will call Notre Dame des Fleurs -
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