August Garden | 2013

by Badgertails - Monday, September 09, 2013

Hello there, and happy Monday everyone! I'm a little late (When did it get to mid September!???) but my August Garden photos are here. Since my July Garden post, I'd been expecting even more growth and flowering in August, but to be honest, not much more has happened. Everything has just been poodling along happily, enjoying the warm weather and continuing looking nice for me every day. The only flowers that have really improved have been my yellow rose and the fuchsias.

It's scent is of the most beautiful balmy, dewy, light and floaty notes ever. It is just heaven! The buds are a dark sun-yellow then as they open the flowers get lighter and lighter until almost white when the petals drop off.

The best thing about the garden now is how neat, tidy and 'proper garden' it feels. I've never completely felt that it was a real, nice garden that I'd be happy to spend time sitting out in, until now. I spent most evenings last week out there, enjoying the outdoors and trying to make the most of the last drop of summer.

You may well recognise the photo below from some old posts about the garden. This is the first photo I took of it right at the beginning last year.

And here it is now:

I dug a bed around the bottom of the tree last spring to try and give it more intent rather than being in a silly place. The pond has been filled in this summer and we turned into a rockery. (You can see the process of this here.)

I've moved a lot of the furniture around and am happy with where it all is now. Every seat in the garden makes for a nice view point and has it's own purpose throughout the summer. Rose corner at the back right, is where we sit with guests on a weekend afternoon while the sun is low in the sky. The table and chairs is where I eat my lunch on a warm Saturday or we have dinner after work. The bench on the left is where I perched last week with a cold drink while Roma chased the ping-pong balls that P was hitting round with a golf club. Everything is family orientated, one way or another.

You can smell the yellow rose when sitting on this bench, it's amazing how well the scent travels in the breeze.

I've been very aware lately of summertime running to a close, and realised that I wouldn't get around to my garden party that I really wanted to play with. So I decided that I'd still have some decorations and fairy lights to enjoy while I still could.

And enjoy them I did!

We had my sister and brother in law round on Monday evening for a catch up, so we sat out in the garden until it got completely dark and then some. We polished off my Blackberry & Apple Crunchy Pie while sitting beneath the twinkle of these fab bird cage lights.

Then I pottered about with my camera. They're all a little blurry as I was shooting at a sixth of a second hand held, but hum-ho, I don't mind!

I took a LOT of photos of these balloons! I knew it may well be my last chance to have garden decorations so I certainly made the most of it!

To make this day-to-night garland create a line with your fairy lights across the garden, hanging from fences or trees. Next, blow up some balloons (colour and quantity of your choice) and thread a length of cotton through the ends (after the knot) with a needle. (Or tie to a length of string). Spread the balloons out evenly along the cotton and wrap around the line of lights.

I actually used our retractable washing line as a support but this would work just as well without!

Thanks for reading today and I hope you have a wonderful week. I may not be about much towards the weekend but I shall miss you and will see you soon after!