It's a jungle out there!

Nothing like good gardening weather to put a halt to the blogging, and at last there was a smattering of such at the end of May.  So we went narrowboating...

I'm sure any gardeners reading this will be entirely familiar with that strange way that being away from your garden effectively messes with space-time.  While you're at home, plants grow in normal time, with little change from one day to the next.  When you're away, even if you don't travel faster than light speed, back home 'garden time' speeds up.

We left home about two weeks ago with the garden very much in mid-spring mode, with tulips and forget-me-nots the stars of the show.

Tulips - and not from Amsterdam....

On our return there was not a tulip to be seen, the forget-me-nots had run to seed and the aquilegias had made a concerted bit for world domination, taking over the front and back gardens and making aggressive forays into the vegetable patch.  Needless to say, there is not a trace of germinating carrots to be seen down there and the cats have decided that the cabbage bed provides excellent WC facilities.

Cottage garden chaos in the front garden

The arches and pergolas are festooned with long dreadlocks of disorderly new Clematis montana growth and the 'Sealing wax' climbing rose has sent up great long spiney shoots as if on a mission to keep Sleeping Beauty and her prince apart.

Overgrown arch and seedy forget-me-nots

So it's all in need of a serious hair cut.  Unfortunately, the weather has turned autumnal now; initial pruning was curtailed when it occured to me that up a metal step ladder wielding metal secateurs was a bad place to be with "thundery showers" as the weather forecast, but I'm glad I've managed to take some of the excess off with high winds now the forecast.

At least if it's rubbish weather for a few days, I should get chance to update the blog and put some more photos from Holland on.