Welcome to my blog all about the things I love to grow and cook. You'll find a collection of seasonal gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan-friendly recipe posts, as well as a round up of my gardening throughout the year. I wish you good reading, happy cooking and perfect planting!
Hello there. What a glorious month to be outside in the garden. All the fine weather we had back in the spring has produced some fine garden blooms this year. Fortunately we have had some rain to revive everything and currently Mother Nature is providing us with a good balance of sunshine and showers which is helping keep everything fresh. The bank of blue geraniums and yellow day lilies is one of my favourite floral combinations at this time of year.
The bees love them too. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
Golden lilies. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
It’s been a great year for Campanulas. The wall variety is crammed with flowerheads and the taller varieties are popping up all over the garden.
Scottish blue Campanulas. Images: Kathryn Hawkins.
The old rambling rose in the back garden has been a victim of its own success this year. It has grown so tall and produced so many flower heads it is too heavy on top for its stems underneath and has to be tied back. The scent is as wonderful as ever.
Rambling rose bush. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
More delicious scents in another part of the garden, from the peonies, also popular with our little winged friends.
Perfect, petaly and perfumed. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
Amidst all the rainbow colours in the garden, these bright white Delphiniums are putting on a lovely show this year.
Ice white Delphiniums. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
One of the more unusual plants in flower at the moment is the Phlomis with it’s tufty flower heads that remind me of tiny pineapples.
Fabulous Phlomis. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
My sunny Sunday garden. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
That’s all from me for now. I hope you have a great few days and are able to get out and about in the sunshine. Until next time, thanks as ever for stopping by 🙂
Half way through the year already. I can hardly believe it. It’s also just over a year since I published my first post on this blog. What a year it’s been. So many flowers, plants and recipes. So much colour and flavour.
The last week of June has been a turbulent one here in central Scotland. After several days of warm sunshine, suddenly the winds got up and the rain came down. The flowers and shrubs certainly received a bit of a battering, but most have recovered. I have two Kalmia bushes in the garden. When in bud, the bright pink tightly closed flowers remind me of pink icing piped through a star-shaped nozzle (you can see a few in the picture above). As the buds open out, the unusual pink flowers turn into little lanterns or fairy-sized lamp shades. As the petals begin to fade and fall, it looks like someone has scattered pink confetti over the lawn.
Blue Campanula and pink foxgloves; golden Phlomis. Images: Kathryn Hawkins
Mid-June to early July is probably the best time of the year for colour variation in the garden. There are a lot dainty blue and white Campanula all over the borders as well as different shades of foxgloves – these both seed themselves year after year. I have two clumps of yellow Phlomis, with small crowns of flowers that remind me of little pineapples. The velvety, sage-green foliage comes up in mid spring and lasts long after the flowers have bloomed.
Lilium martagon (Turk’s Head Lily). Image by Kathryn Hawkins
I discovered this small lily underneath a rhododendron in the front garden a few weeks ago. One by one the individual blooms have opened, and finally yesterday, I managed to capture them all open at the same time. It is like a small tiger-lily, so pretty and dainty. I can’t remember planting it, or even having seen it ever before!
Iris Foedissima. Image: Kathryn Hawkins
This fine fellow was new in the garden last year. Actually, it had probably been in the garden for a while, but it was hidden away in an old compost heap. When the compost was distributed, it sprouted up. Given a more prominent position in the garden, it started flowering last summer. This iris is one of only two native varieties in the UK; it is not the most colourful, but certainly interesting, and it has a rather unfortunate and unflattering common name: “stinking iris” – but this one doesn’t seem to smell at all!
My last image to share this month, is a plant not strictly in my garden, but something I am proud to have raised given the climate here. It is a small Oleander bush. I have kept it through the winter months, swaddled in fleece, in my unheated greenhouse, and this spring the flower buds started appearing. On warm days, it does stand outside for a few hours, and brings a hint of the Mediterranean to the more traditional flora and fauna.
My Virtually Free-from Kitchen 