For me, the garden in August is always a time for reflection. It's a little less heavy in terms of regular jobs, so you can look back at what has already flowered in the year, and see the promise of what is still to come. You can see what has worked well and what needs a bit of tinkering with to achieve what you're aiming for. Because gardening is a never completed job - there's always something that you want to tweak here and there. So please forgive this post for it's lack of pretty pictures - it's more a reflection on what I want to improve next year rather than what's gone well this year!   Cottage Garden vs. Natural Planting My ...

It's fair to say that June was more a month of recovery for us after the flood disaster back in May, but I'm hoping that July will bring us back on track. I feel like all the work in restoring has put us way behind in the day to day maintenance that a garden needs though, so July certainly needs to be a month of lots of weeding! But the thing I've been most excited about has been the ability to sit outside and enjoy the garden properly! We've dusted off all of the furniture, and even managed to eat outside which Max thought was a complete novelty! There's something a bit magical and holiday-like about eating outside, isn't there?     I love ...