Day lilies final fanfare

The last few day lilies are in bloom today and by the end of the week they will all be gone. Their glorious trumpets will fall silent for another year. I've loved sitting in the garden as the evening draws in and the bats skit and scat around. In the darkness the orange/yellow lilies continue to glow when everything else fades into the gloom.

The last day lily of the year

Its been a good show this year with the first of the lilies to flower in early July. This is the time of year when everything starts to change with the autumn moving closer. While the poppies and hostas have also finished, the heuchera continue to attract bees to their tiny flowers and the sedum will soon burst into colour.

Over the last couple of weeks I've not seen any bee activity from the nest in my bathroom wall. I'm not sure when they would naturally leave the nest but it seems a bit early in the year. I suspect that they have struggled with the location. On only slightly windy days I've watched as each bee would make numerous attempts to get to the hole in the wall and perhaps that has exhausted them.

The first day lily of the year

This morning I was greeted by the lovely sight of the first day lily of the year; a bright yellow jewel singing out to the summer. My day lilies always start to bloom at this time of the year but it is always wonderful to see the first one.

The garden has gone through a bit of a transformation this year and I have been a little concerned that some plants wont do so well. Thankfully, as the season progresses it looks like everything is doing fine.

Early this spring I began to move established plants forward to make space for taller, bushier new additions. The day lilies were part of that transformation. The clusters needed splitting but that meant I had a huge amount of plants (in a small garden). Some plants have been moved closer to the path to allow the leaves to spill over the edge. The rest had to go into pots and they are doing also doing really well. The pots have two advantages; they add a little more height and can be moved, meaning I can change the arrangement in minutes.  

I have noticed a few malformed flower head on the day lilies though. I'm not sure why they would grow like this and there is always one or two each year. 

Finally spring is here and on the weekend. It's warm and sunny and just the kind of Saturday morning I want to spend in the garden. Last weekend I dug up and split the day lilies but I had to squeeze them into pots that were not big enough. So today's task was to re-pot them into bigger pots they can grow into.

There is a slight problem though. My next door neighbours have a dog which is left in the garden when they go out. While they are away the dog barks at anything that makes a noise and that includes me. I've told them about it a number of times in the hope they will do something to change his behaviour but on today's evidence nothing has changed.

I won't say any more about it but I will share a few minutes of my gardening/barking experience with you in this film.



To get back to the gardening, my second task of the day was to start planting hedges along the new fence. Hedging is at the heart of the new look garden. I've realised that I've planted low growing plants at the back of the beds meaning I am limited for depth. I want to fill the whole left section with plants so I am bringing the low growers forward and planting taller hedging plants at the back.

Today I have bought 3 Ribes Aureum (golden currant) hedges, with their roots bundled in soil by plastic. The roots were soaked for a while but maybe I should have removed the soil too? Anyway, these 3 hedges have been planted closest to the house about 50 cm apart and this group will hopefully create a nice big, thick cluster.

Shaz is back

Its been almost two years since my last post to the Garden of Shaz. Far, far too long but now I am back and raring to get into the garden and share my adventures.

To be honest I've been in a bit of a gardening doldrums, stuck in a rut thinking the garden was fine one day and it needing to change the next. I just couldn't work out what to do, so I did nothing.

But that is about to change. I have finally got a plan and I've already been out in the garden all weekend in a wonderfully cold, strong wind digging up and splitting the day lilies to move away from the new fence. Its really boggy mud and heavy going but it was so worth it, especially when I spied a single snowdrop nestled between the hedges.

I have also starting to clear the shed. Its leaning more and more to the left and will eventually collapse. So I'm throwing away what isn't needed and moving the rest indoors. I cant see this shed lasting another winter so I plan to get a new one installed this summer.

Until next time...Its great to be back.

The loneliest tadpole

There is only one tadpole left in the Garden of Shaz. Its been on its own for a few weeks now and I cant help thinking how lonely it must be.

About 4 weeks ago it had two companions, both well developed froglets and nearing their time to leave the pond. One of the two froglets had a very under-developed back leg and I didn't think it would make it out of the pond with only three limbs. But it has, its gone and I can only hope that it has survived with its back leg continuing to develop.

I noticed that the last tadpole started to develop its back legs last week. That's a good sign because now it should start to develop its front legs very quickly and then be able to leave. The worry with this tadpole becoming a frog so much later than the rest is that it has a shorter period of time to grow into a strong adult frog before the cold weather arrives.

I've been trying to make the garden frog friendly since the froglets emerged from their ponds. I've not weeded at all to avoid disturbing them and to keep more of the garden shaded. This last month has been very hot so shade has been important to keep them cool. The wide but slug ravished hostas and bushing day lily leaves should provide a dark and cool environment. The day lilies are in bloom now with the first flowering on the 20th July.

I've also made little hiding places with large stones and lumps of mud.  The birds are probably their worse nightmare and I've seen a blackbird darting into the foliage and coming back out with what could have been a little frog in its beak. I cant help lifting a few stones to see if there is a little frog beneath. Sometimes I'm lucky and its great to see the frogs growing larger.

I cant be sure but I think the frogs might be able to adjust their skin colour to suit their surroundings. I found two frogs on either side of one of the ponds. One was under a stone in the grass and was light brown. The other was under lumps of mud in a dark muddy area. This frog was much darker brown. However, I had also noticed a difference in colour as some of the first few were leaving the ponds for the first time. At that time they were mostly living in the pond so there was no difference in surroundings but there was already a difference in the shade of brown. So why would the same family of tadpoles look so different?

Day lilies in bloom - at last

Our grey and miserable summer continues to dampen all things in the garden, including my enthusiasm. But all that might finally be about to change with the first day lily in bloom in the Garden of Shaz.

And according to my own records of the past few years, this years day lily bloom is about 14 days later than  usual. Confirmation, I think, that even the plants and flowers have had a miserable summer too.

This years day lilies have also struggled to produce flowering stems and some of those that have made it, have been distorted and weird. I'm not sure what this distortion or lack of growth is caused by, but I suspect a combination of insect damage, such as beetles or ants, and the poor weather.




The slugs and snails have been having a great time munching on the hostas, but have only affected the smaller plants and those in the dampest areas. The largest hosta is thriving so well that its flowering spear rivals the apple tree for height.

Im glad the see the runner beans in flower providing something at least for the bees to get up for. I do wonder if the delayed flowering of many plants is having an effect on the bees. Might I predict a shortage of honey next year? Perhaps.

The last day of the day lily

The eighteenth of August see's the last of the day lilies shrivelled and wilted. That means the day lilies flowered for over six weeks this summer. The demise of these flowers however brings with it the realisation that summer is nearing the end and autumn is slowing creeping closer. Its been a strange summer weather wise this year with the best of the sunshine in Easter and the summer being warm, but often wet but more often cloudy. Ive not had to water the garden as much this year and when I have its been because the wind has dried the potted plants rather than the sun.

So while the day lilies fade away the garden is still bright will pink and purple fuchsia, bright yellow Rudbeckia and and the small red blooms of the runner beans. Ive had a great crop so far from the runner beans and given the amount of flowers still displaying there is still loads to come. The hosta's have bloomed and have now set seed, their huge leaves showing the first signs of dying off. Ive also had a good crop of garlic this year with the bulbs now dried and hanging in the shed.

There is the first hint of the ice plants tiny flowers starting to bloom and I would expect a brilliant display in a week or two attracting the bees back into the garden.

Lastly the four apples on the apple tree are doing well. Three of the apples are really growing well and developing a lovely red glow but its still some time before they might be ready for harvest. One of the apples is on the disappointingly scrawny side. Its tucked low down beneath the nearby hosta's and has probably missed out on its share of sunshine. Its an odd shape and what amuses me most is the strange way it is attached to the very end of the branch as if its just been stuck on as an afterthought.