And relax.......

It's been a manic few weeks with work and other stuff so I have neglected answering comments and blogging.  And now I'm heading off for a few days.  In the meantime...I HAVE taken time to enjoy the sunsets and have a cup of tea in the garden now and again.  So here are some photos of flowers!  A few years ago the garden was just a sheep pen (will post links to those posts on my return) and it's a slow process developing such a big space.  Mostly I just have 5 foot wide borders around the outside for now. I've tried various shrubs but they haven't done well so instead I'm going for perenialls and deciduous trees/shrubs that drop their leaves in winter when the worst of the gales blow.

The bees just love the garden.  I put this photo on one of the Orkney Facebook nature pages to ask which type of bumble bee it was - it's a carder bee.  And apparently an aged carder bee as it looks a bit "tatty round the edges" - know how THAT feels!!  This one is sitting on a cornflower

I love columbines (aquilegia), and they do well in the garden. This is a new one and one of my favourites.

I go in for the "chaos" style of gardening ;-)  Mostly I try and keep the weeds at bay and try and ensure there isn't a monoculture and then the garden has to fend for itself..... So here is some sweet rocket, more columbine and some hawkweed, with some Welsh poppies thrown in for good measure.

I also like ornamental grasses.  This stripey pyjama grass (um...not the real name!) is rather lovely and makes a gorgeous rustling noise in the breeze.  MUST get more of that planted.

And I love this Libertia - it almost looks like an orchid from a distance but MUCH hardier - it grows out of very spikey leaves so there's colour all summer.

Along the outside of the garden wall is rosa rugosa a very tough plant - quite invasive if you don't keep an eye on it.

My personal favourite is this scabious - I just love the pom poms dancing in the breeze!

In the corner is a weigelia, with lovely ruby red flowers. This does quite well sheltered in the corner, though it's a bit overwhelmed by the sweet rocket this year.

The lawn is huge so I'm trying to break it up a bit, but it still needs to not take too much work.  So, I'm started with some wee trees, planted by the lovely Mrs Orkney Flowers.

This corner gets lots of sun and I planted it with some wildflowers last year which seem to be quite happy here, if a little over exhuberant!