Six on Saturday 28/09/2019

Six on Saturday - 28/09/2019

Since my last Six on Saturday post there has been a huge change (and loss) in the Dizzy house, my beautiful daughter and her OH who have been staying with us for a couple of months since all their belongings headed north back to England finally followed said belongings, taking with them the crazy granddogs and “bump” our future granddaughter who is due in mid December. It’s suddenly very quiet and to say I’m missing them is a huge understatement!

Other than that, the days are much the same, it’s still scorching hot and the gardens are still desperate for their waterings but we have fruits ripening (and being eaten by various bugs), flowers still blooming and a hope that it’ll soon cool down a little as the nights are drawing in and it’s dark by 20.00hrs now.

Anyway, here are my six for this week and if you want to join in pop over to

https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2019/09/21/six-on-saturday-28-09-2019/

see what others are posting and contribute yourself, you can also comment and leave a link here.

Hope you enjoy mine this week!

1. A friend in the garden: I startled this poor little guy whilst watering dahlias in pots at work, he jumped from the pot onto my chest, ran down my arm and came to a halt on my hand where he was happy to just sit. My no.2 fraggle is bug and animal mad and was desperate to have him/her on his hand, Monsieur Gecko seemed happy to oblige.

2. Someone is having a feast on this rose! This rose is hidden amongst the agapanthus in one of our work gardens so it tends to get overlooked, but I noticed it had a case of blackspot on it, I took my neem oil in so I could make up a spray only to find that there wasn’t much in the way of leaves left as they had been eaten. I have no idea what’s eating it there aren’t any bugs visible, a gardening friend on Twitter suggested leaf cutter bees, he has a similar nibble pattern on his roses and was lucky enough to get video evidence, but the lack of a visible culprit here is frustrating.

3. Talking of bugs, I don’t mind sharing my fruit, veg. and flowers with the bugs, just as long as they play nice and actually let me enjoy some of the fruits of my labour (pun intended). This year is not one of those where the bugs are playing nice, both the peaches in a client’s garden and the peaches in my garden have been completely ruined and not one has been edible. It makes me so cross, especially after I went to so much effort to successfully prevent peach leaf curl this year, next year I’ll have to think of a bird friendly way of protecting the fruit after pollination; pesticides are a no-no as I garden organically.

4. Campsis Grandiflora (Chinese trumpet vine), Not the best picture but I love this plant and see it everywhere here, I think this one in a client’s garden has been cut back a bit harshly as it was a bare twig when we took the garden on 12 months ago and has struggled to put on any growth, it’s now shooting well and has flowered (sort of) but it needs to be fed, sadly I can’t get to the base of it to feed it as it’s coming up through a wood/iron walkway and I don’t know exactly where under the walkway it is!

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5. Ripening fruits, I absolutely love watching the progress of fruit ripening! Pictured are a few of the things currently ripening; limes (other citrus we have are lemons, clementines, oranges and grapefruits, along with a few kumquats as we’ve not long since finished picking those), pomegranates and figs. Lots of the figs have ripened but there are still loads coming.

6. Visitors, these little guys were in my plant pot storage spot under a table in the garden but clearly thought being inside with us (me, my OH, 2 grown up and very noisy fraggles, our very large German Shepherd, my daughter and her OH along with their collie and Rhodesian ridgeback X) and all our noise was a better option. Three dogs and not one showed any inclination to chase or catch them even when they trotted across the floor in broad daylight! 

It took several days of them getting the food I left in the little traps without getting shut in before I finally wedged cheddar at the top of the clip so they had to pull to get any. The first little chap we caught on his own on Saturday night and I stuck bedding, food and water in with him as I knew we weren’t going to the woods where I planned to let him go until Monday morning, I chatted to him when I was in the kitchen and he took food from me quite happily (confirming the OH’s hunch that I am in fact bonkers). On Sunday night the other trap I’d set went off whilst we were watching TV and the other two had gone in together! They too were given bedding, food and water for the night then on Monday morning we took them a few miles away and let them out in the woods so they could find new shelter during daylight hours. I was quite sad to see them go off but on the other hand glad not to have them running riot around the house going through my cupboards. Letting them go some distance away ensured they wouldn’t find their way back. 

Six on Saturday

Six on Saturday 25/08/2019

Aug 25, 2019

So Saturday is here (and almost gone) again, it’s doubtful this will publish before midnight so it’s more a Sunday six. The rules are simple to Six on Saturday, it must be six things in or about a garden, maybe your own, maybe a garden you work in or have visited. That’s it, simple! If in doubt the man who wrote the rules explains them here https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/ but I seriously doubt he’ll hunt anyone down for a breach of said rules. 

I am so, so glad that August is nearly over, it’s a horrible month to be living in the “Golfe de St Tropez” thanks to A) the searing heat and B) the obnoxious, rude and ignorant tourists who flock here during the French holiday month. Anyone with half an ounce of sense leaves for August, but that’s not possible when you have to work and don’t have the luxury of being able to take a month off. Tourists during the rest of the year are a pretty ok bunch and don’t come under the obnoxious umbrella. 

So here’s to September, slightly cooler weather and politer tourists. 🥂🍻

No 1 - Blue (work).

Blue adds a lovely coolness to the garden in the searing August heat, the Agapanthus are almost gone to seed now but there are still a few dotted around the big garden we care for daily, the Perovskia (Russian sage) is in full bloom and stunning at the moment but it’s one of those plants that looks amazing for a few short weeks then looks extremely messy for the rest of the year, it’s hard trying to refrain from cutting it right back immediately after the flowers are gone. The plumbago is the absolute star of the show at the moment and I love it, the frothy flowers look beautiful against the more rigid shapes of the topiary balls and cypress trees around the garden, and it flowers for ages.

No 2 - Green (work).

Lush green is not the colour of August here in the south of France, but the garden we care for daily is looking very green at the moment which is something to smile about. Some parts of the garden it August green splendour. 

 

 No 3 - Pink (work).

Ipomee, this lovely delicate pink turns to a beautiful lilac when the flowers mature. It’s hard to believe I nurture this yet it’s close sister, the dreaded bindweed gets ripped up and cursed for growing so profusely and strangling everything in sight at the other side of the house.

 No 4 - Orange & Yellow (home).

This Alstroemeria has been in full flower since June and shows no sign of stopping any time soon. That’s nothing compared to the Calendula which I brought over from England six years ago as a single flower in a pot from my garden, that one flower has self seeded and has produced flowers through summer and winter ever since, even in the snow, I also have plants all around my garden and a huge tub of seeds, now that’s good value. The Helianthus are my smiley flowers, they always make me smile, even though this year they aren’t the giants I usually grow, these ones are barely as tall as me.

 

 No 5 - Magenta (home).

The perfume from this Mirabilis Jalapa in the evening is wonderful, it sits next to our door, at the top of the steps to our garden under a huge bougainvillea and envelopes you when you come through the gate. I love how the flowers last for a single night then drop to be replaced by new flowers the next evening, and this goes on all through the summer. Absolute magic and with zero effort on my part!

 

 No 6 - Purple (work).

Polygala Myrtifolia, from stunning to dead with no apparent reason. If I didn’t know better i’d Say it had been treated with weed killer but we garden organically so not likely, and although they were there when the owner bought the house I don’t think they’re old enough to die of old age, even though they live a relatively short life compared to other shrubs. Who knows, at least i’ve Been able to take cuttings from the healthy ones still growing in the garden which will hopefully take and replace the dead ones. Gardening can be so frustrating at times.

 

Don’t forget to check out this week’s Six on Saturday from ‘The Propagator’ over here - https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2019/08/24/six-on-saturday-24-08-2019/

Six on Saturday 27/07/2019

Jul 27, 2019

So, after a very long time I’m blogging again, I still have zero time to spare but if I have to sit up until silly o’clock, then so be it!

For my first post in a few years I’m sharing something I enjoy on twitter, “Six on Saturday”, although the blogger who started it https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com will tell you I’m very rarely, if ever, on time! I do sometimes manage to get my six posted on a Saturday though, just 🤣

My Six on Saturday this week is dominated by the weather, believe it or not the French are more weather obsessed than the Brits. In this part of France the weather is always extreme, extreme heat, extreme rain and flooding, and of course extreme wind (the infamous Mistral). I suppose the only thing we don’t get the extreme side of is frost and snow, not unless you head for the alps. We get a little frost and/or snow around January, but it isn’t guaranteed.

 Anyway, on with the six! 

If you want to join in with Six on Saturday, pop over to https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/

have a read and join in. You can also join in on Twitter or Facebook, just use the hashtag #SixOnSaturday 😊 

 No.1

Sunrise at work - it’s been extremely hot here this week and working in the garden all day in full sun is a no-no, our way around this is to start work before the sun comes up and watch it rise whilst working. It’s beautiful and being outside in the gardens at that time of day confirms that it’s the best time of day, but unfortunately I’m not a morning person any more so it’s been a bit of a killer! 

 No.2

Our daily view after work, the view is from the top of the village looking down with the “Golfe de Saint Tropez” on the left, Sainte Maxime is on the other side of the bay with the Alps way off in the distance. it’s a stunning view and never gets tired.

No.3

This is how our sky usually looks, it’s this colour for most of the year and the reason this place is so special, the flowers are a few that are coping with the extreme heat; roses, two with names unknown as they were insitu. when we took over the running of the garden, the other is Pierre de Ronsard which is one we have many of, I added half a dozen more this year as they’re beautiful and heat tolerant. The others are perovskia and lavandula, both happy in the heat with a little water.

 

No.4

Another village, another garden and another view! My OH and my boys on pool and grass duty, it’s difficult keeping the grass healthy when you're fighting blazing sun, searing heat, chlorinated water and garden furniture patches but for the most part we manage.

 

No.5

The sky this morning! Oh my, not your typical day in July and a tell-tale sign of what was to come, at this point the temperature had dropped to 30°c and it was looking promising that it would cool further and I wouldn’t be watering my garden in the evening.

 

No.6

Well the temperature dropped! All the way down to 19°c, we haven’t had temperatures that low in quite some time, not even at night, but it was most welcome. The plants are watered and the air is fresher for a few hours, the one good thing about living here is knowing that even with storms all day our usual blue skies will be back within a 24 hrs or so. 😍