My weekly blogs

The first day of my open Day went well enough with over a hundred visitors attending. The next five pictures are of some of the visitors enjoying the garden.

I have added five more plants to the garden this year The first is a Nephenthes. God only knows how I will overwinter it. The next is a Stokesia laevis Klaus Jelitto. Then a Coreopsis limerock dream and two Monaria or Bergomot. one red and one white. I will try and catch up and write up all the individual pictures as soon as possible, but time at the moment is short as my Open days are upon me now.

As I pass through Walthamstow I see many gardens that are worth viewing The first picture is a garden about five minutes walking away from my house and is in Colchester Road. The next is in Church Lane next to St Marys Church. The next is in Essex Road at the corner with Gregs Close. The next is again in Essex Road at the corner with Colchester Road. All these gardens adds to the effort of Waltham Forest and Walthamstow village in the London and village in bloom competition. The last picture shows the county's effort at the corner of Lea Bridge Road and Markhouse Road.

The bird feeder is proving a great success many small birds are visiting it to feed. I have seen Blue tits, Starlings so far when I am in the garden. The sound of bird chirping can be heard all day in the garden. I managed to caught sight of one of the Wrens using the bird bath. Unfortunately I had the jacuzzi cover on the post which was covering the bath. The Corcosmia lucifer is now flowering and as I had the topiaried conifer next to it the red colour really showed up. As I come out the back door in the late afternoon to evening I bet a waft of scent from the Hostas which is now in bloom. This adds to the scent from the relatively new Honeysuckle planted a couple of years ago.

As the temperature has been quite low for the time of the year I have had problems with plantings. The Daffodils had not fully died down and I needed the space to plant my African Marigolds. To date the marigolds seems to have stuck and grown very little and I am worrying that they will not be in flower in time for the show. My water hose was not turned off properly and it leaked water on the pathway which a Robin Redbreast started to use to cool down on a couple of sunny days this month. This gave me an idea for a birdbath at the bottom of the garden where I was looking for a special plant to fill a gap. After hunting around for a while for a suitable statue to turn into a birdbath. I went to Columbia market to Stone and Plastered (see May blog). Mr Kip the cast maker had an indoor statue that fitted the bill. He made me an outdoor version with a hole down its length which I turned into the Birdbath. The next three pictures show the Robin enjoying the water. And the last shows the new bird bath and statue.

Several plants are flowering at the moment although many of my semi-tropical and tropical plants are struggling to grow as the temperature is somewhat low. The Epiphyllum has produced a few flowers. The Gazania and Coryopsis have started to flower as is the Centaurea or Knapweed. I have recently bought a new Geranium oxonianum that is producing a nice, but unusual flower for a Geranium.

It has been a long time since I have updated this website. this is because the garden has taken up so much of my time tin order to get it ready for the shows starting on the 28th of this month. I have started off this month with a small selection of the roses that are blooming in my garden. I particularly like the Orange Rose, but the colour does fade quickly after opening. The A few of my roses are the old varieties which are scented. Most of the roses were planted by the previous owner of the house and are still growing strongly. The miniature Rose at this time looks great. It is a pity that several of the Roses may not be flowering on the open day as the second flush will not be in flower until later.