Plant swapping Sunday

Can you remember I have written about the Green Plant Swap website before? It is a UK website where you can make your own page and list the spare plants you have for swap or sale and then arrange to meet other gardeners in your local area to exchange plants. Last Sunday I had my first plant swap! I signed up in April and put just a few plants for swap/sale, just as a tester, but have quite a few photos of my garden and I have written a lot of info about my garden too.

September beauties in my garden

It has rained in London the last week, a lot of rain, I haven’t really been out in my garden much at all. Between my hospital appointments and all the other things I have had on my calendar the last week I have just not been able to find many breaks in the rain to get outside. The last two days I have tried to take some photos for this post and it’s been almost a cat and mouse game with the weather – every time I think it’s safe to go out and take some photos it starts to rain again. Yesterday I just gave in and took some of the photos in pouring rain. I guess I am a bit of a sight out there, one crutch in one hand, the camera in the other hand and an umbrella carefully balanced on my shoulder. I am more afraid of my camera getting wet than me of course, and I was better at doing this balancing act when I had a point and shoot camera. Now I have a DSLR camera and it is a lot more difficult to take pictures with just one hand plus an umbrella. Oh well, the rain is good for my garden, it really needed it so I am not complaining, we should really have another week of it I suppose.

Let the sunshine in

It is still summer in London, Thursday the thermometer in my garden showed 30 degrees Celsius (86F) in the afternoon and although yesterday was a much cooler day with some rain, my garden really needed those showers and I was happy for the few free drops of water from above.

My fuchsias

Summer is still going strong here in London, it is Bank Holiday Week-end though and the obligatory rain will appear in a few hours time – in buckets apparently, and it is supposed to rain until lunchtime Sunday. A whole 36 hours of rain might not be so welcomed by the carnival goers but it is going to be marvellous for my parched garden, I hope we get as much as we are promised although I can do without the warned flooding, thank you very much.

Picnic and fireworks under the stars

I have just come inside after a lovely evening concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at their yearly ‘Under The Stars - Proms in the Park’ event in my local park here in East Ham. As many of you know, I am housebound and only leave the house to attend my hospital appointments so walking to the park and sitting there for 3 hours is out of the question for me – I haven’t been there for many years, but the park is so close to me so I can hear the music in my garden!

My August garden

It has been an absolutely wonderful summer here in London, best I can remember for a long time - although the weather has cooled down a lot the last couple of weeks and we no longer beat heat records. It is already middle of August and it’s time to join the Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and show you all what’s flowering in my garden. I have a lot to show you, as usual, so grab a cup of what you fancy, feet up, and let me guide you through my tiny paradise.

The most important room

I often say that the most important room in my house is my garden, and I use my garden as if it was one of the rooms in my house – all year round. I probably spend almost as much time there as I do in my bedroom on average and certainly more than I do in my living room. It was therefore about time I did a spruce-up of my seating area this summer, it has looked the same since I moved in almost 12 years ago.

My lilies

My oriental lilies are finally flowering! I wish scented blog photos were invented so you could smell my garden right now, it is like standing in the middle of a flower shop, with your face buried in a sea of lilies! All the plants in my garden has been very late to flower this year, thanks to the exceptionally cold spring we had, it seems like the delay has just continued and still is. I never thought I had to wait until August to get my oriental lilies in flower!