Six on Saturday

I’m an avid reader of other peoples blogs, be they about photography, gardening or wildlife.  A recent find has been Six on Saturday, a blog written by Jim Stephens, who is based in East Cornwall, at the opposite end of the country from this neck of the woods. 

I know a lot of the old Plot 29 gang from Allan Jenkins much missed Grauniad column visit this blog and one thing that was often said in the comments on AJ’s column was “we wish we could post photo’s of our own plots”, that prompted me to write my own blog and the beauty of Jims blog is that you can, and are actively encouraged to, add a link to six photographs from your own plot, be they from facebook, twitter or indeed a blog of your own. These are my Six on Saturday, a half dozen favourite summer blooms, three of mine, three of Jacqui’s (aka the Head gardener 😉)

A favourite of Jacqui’s, Thalictrum black stockings, the Meadow rue, a leggy five foot tall plant that in late June tops its black stems with a candy floss of flowers. For this garden, with its regular summer gales, it needs a discreet stake or two. Great in sun or part shade

This one is a happy accident, we make our compost with liberal quantities of seaweed collected from the shore and the Mayweed seeds probably came home with a load of what’s locally called tang & ware. It’s said to be a perennial but for us it’s quite short lived and is best seen as an annual. The upside is that it self sows freely, the downside is that should you be inclined to use it, its latin name is virtually unpronounceable.

Geraniums do well here and are pretty much a mainstay of the garden. As the caption says this one is Summer snow. Of all the varieties we grow, it’s the easiest to overlook. It’s not a clump former, is leggy and, if I’m honest, a bit scrawny. It has tiny flowers, no bigger than the nail of your little finger, but it’s a favourite because, like the mayweed above, once planted it will self sow like a poppy. It appears wherever it chooses, often getting a leg up from taller plants, at the moment we have one growing through a purple leafed Elder.

This is really a joint favourite, the Schilling spurge, another one that in this garden needs to be staked. With its bright yellow flowers held on green leaved stems it’s one of those plants that can be put anywhere, this one is growing with Astrantia roma. It looks good whatever companion you give it and is also a great foil for dark leaved shrubs.

In our old south facing, sandy soil plot in East yorkshire, to grow meconopsis would have been an act of plant cruelty, here, with our cool and often wet but relatively free draining soil, they’re a plant that does really well. We’ve no idea of the name of this one, a lucky survivor, found by accident when we cleared the garden of chest high brambles.

Last but not least comes a Kniphofia “fiery fred”, a red hot poker. We’ve tried a few pokers here and fred by far has proved to be the best. We grow it in both sun and semi shade and for me it looks best when it’s backlit – at this time of year we have a late evening magic hour in the back garden, when everything is lit by the “about to disappear behind the Hoy hills” sun. A favourite time for taking photographs. Named after the Yorkshire cricketer, “Fiery Fred Truman”.

Jim’s blog. https://gardenruminations.co.uk