Burgeoning growth revisited...and the great 'cut-back' commences...

Ok, I've had my strop and sulk and my gardener's natural optiminism (fatalism?) has returned.

The hail-damaged plants haven't died yet... so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will laugh in the face of their attacker and grow even more lustily.

So time for a quick round up of the ridiculous burgeoning growth around the garden, which both delights and threatens to overwhelm me at the same time!...

Charlotte potatoes finished flowering - I've dug just one plant so far and got 4 meals' worth!

Broad beans 'Green Windsor' cropping better now the rain has come, though the pods often look enormous, the beans inside aren't so big.  Ms Raven's Asolo lettuce mix about to go over...

E's precious 'Blue for the Bees' bed - the first time I've ever managed to enjoy a cornflower from seed

Looking down from the 'Blue Bee Bed', past the carrots and onions, towards L's pumpkin wigwam and general sunflower heaven

Onions 'Snowball' and Carrot 'Nantes 5' doing nicely

My favourite - Perpetual Spinach - I'm building up for my first pick this week, even though the leaves were quite battered by the hail, I know this is one plant that will shrug it off!  Takes more than a bit of hail to kill these...

Tomato plants already reaching the (admittedly quite low) roof of the greenhouse

With tomatoes on! Though not ripe yet...

Second cucumber so far

Raspberry and redcurrant overload

Dahlias flowering now, but I'm still trying to identify them

I love this unknown variety Day Lily - looks very much like the usual 'Stafford' but that's fine with me! Just the right colour against my favourite purples and blues.  

This clematis is actually more of a pale pinky-mauve than it appears here... lovely, but for some reason hiding round the back (east) side of its support, so you have to climb into the bed to see them..

It's neighbour, this gorgeous velvety character, is doing the same.  I wonder why?  It could be more sheltered I suppose, away from the prevailing westerly winds, but still, you'd think the flowers would seek the afternoon and evening sun rather than the morning sun which is dappled through the trees?

Sweet peas flowering at last

Couldn't resist another pic of this beauty!

Lots of ideas are starting to formulate in my mind's eye about the shape and direction I would like things to go in in the various beds and areas....I hope I can manage to translate them into words properly in my little 'plans and ideas' notebook, but we have at least made a start on the 'big prune back'....There are lots of places where very mature shrubs and trees desperately need crowns lifting, or odd overhanging branches removing back to the trunk to let essential light in below.  It's going to be a big, ongoing job, some of which I can tackle myself in the daytimes, and some requiring the assistance of the Engineer and his toys:

There he is! Shortly before getting the chainsaw stuck in the tree and having to take the chain off to extract it (with very poor grace)

It's amazing how much material just 2 branches produces

 Of course, pressing action of this kind is needed all over the garden...but I had to start here, the ash tree is overwhelming the old apple tree, and crucially, seriously overhanging my washing line!  Priorities, ladies...

I've earmarked the next candidate for the 'big boy's toys' action aleady - these very low hanging branches of the big copper beech, which have resulted in very odd growth in this otherwise very promising bed.  Once the light can reach in underneath more, I can prune here and start reviving these plants.

And here's the same offending branch busy being detrimental of the other side....

A visit to the library last week gained me some lovely garden design books which I have devoured with enthusiasm.  In particular, several photos have helped me start to capture my feelings for certain areas which will hopefully prove useful later when I try to keep my desired ends in sight over the winter:

I soooo want the circle bed to look more like this!!!! (At least I have the alchemilla mollis there making a start...)

This is the most useful picture I have found, making me realise just how far thick a wall grown pyracantha should really be, as opposed to 2-3 feet thick and threatening to depart from the wall! The ferns growing along the bottom associate really well, though of course my pyracantha wall faces south, but shaded by the big copper beech which is opposite, for most of the morning. 

I want my shady areas to look more like this...That clematis is astoundingly beautiful, it makes me want to cry (especially as i have no idea what variety it is)

I saw these topiaried cones of different sizes here, and thought - that's what the circle bed needs, much more evergreen backbone.  I always thought my preferred 'style' of garden wouldn't allow something as formal as geometric topiary...I would definitely say I'm not a 'formal' style person (though I love to enjoy it in other's gardens)  but interestingly in this picture, mixed with the relaxed forms of the japanese anenomes and the grasses, I started to wonder if I had been too hasty?

I'll finish with my 'Plant love of the Day', a hydrangea in the north west corner of the circle bed that is almost hidden underneath the spread of the magnolia (not for long!!!).  It caught my eye in the evening light and I was entranced.

The flowers are very white, much purer white than the different, but vaguely similar hydrangea right next to it - the outer flowers are like triangular stars in comparison to the more typical rounded shaped of the other one.

Perhaps someone might know what it's called?

xxx