Perfumed Posy.

The flower  gardens are full of summer colour now, each day there seems to be something else in bloom, a lot of which I had forgotten I had planted,

A poppy with peony pretentions.

or in the case of some lovely lilac poppies that have appeared by magic, maybe they had been laying dormant for years, or maybe the fairies have been at work, however they got here they are a welcome addition, I hope they self seed.

The Delphiniums are looking truly magnificent and very regal, they are all over six feet in height, these plants were from a plant swap,

Blue with a hint of purple.

one is a lovely pale shade of blue and the one next to it promises to be a pale purple,they look lovely with the foxgloves which have also grown to over six feet,

White Foxgloves.

the foxgloves were all grown from seed including the lovely white ones.

Deep blue Delphiniums.

The dark blue Delphinium is a plant that I bought.
The Rosa rugosas are also looking lovely,

White rosa rugosa

I love the white one, again these were all grown from seed.

Yellow loosestrife on the right.

The yellow loosestrife was a gift from a friend, it's a great plant for flower arrangements.

 The Dianthus were all grown from cuttings from a friends garden,

they are just about the easiest plant to propagate this way.

I think my dream garden would be bordered by Dianthus and Lavender, I am working towards this aim!

So much scent.

The little posy is full of scented flowers straight from the garden, roses (David Austin) Dianthus and Honeysuckle, it smells heavenly.

I love this little vase.

The little vase that they stand in is a studio piece, picked up in a local charity shop for just two euro, I love it and it matches other pieces that we have, possible from the same studio which is not far from here.
The back garden is planted mainly with roses, mostly again David Austin as they specialise in old fashioned perfumed varieties,

A perfect rose.

this beautiful yellow rose came as part of a special offer from an Irish gardening catalogue, they were doing a special offer of five David Austin roses for fifty euro, but you didn't know what varieties you would receive, we weren't disappointed, and they are all well perfumed.
The vegetable garden is also full of food , we are spoilt for choice, but does it all have to come at once? Tonight it will be broad beans and calabrese, followed by yet more strawberries. these are the outside ones, we are picking 750g every other day.

Cambridge favourite.

When I bought these plants I did a bit of research to see the best type to grow in our climate, good old Cambridge Favourite came out tops, we haven't been disappointed either by flavour or the production of the plants.

Pineapple weed.

One of the hen paddocks has been taken over by Pineapple weed, Matricaria discordea, again this seed must have been laying dormant for many years, you can use it in salads or to make tea but unfortunately the hens don't seem to like it, but it is hardwearing and it defiantly gives of a strong smell of pineapples.

Arnold taking his two favourite girls for a walk.

 I suspect the fact the poultry don't seem to like it explains why Arnold our Muscovy drake decided to take two of his wives for a walk around the garden today no doubt looking for grass, Daffy and Dilly have always been his favourite girls and he is very protective of them.