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Meadows, summer cutting and planting combinations for the hardy gardener

greencubes garden:

Our meadow is in its second year and we have enjoyed it tremendously, although it looks a bit ragged currently having had the summer chop by Mike with the petrol hedge trimmer and a tidy up by Gemma. We planted thousands of bulbs in the autumn and reaped the reward with some great additional colour and seasonal interest throughout early spring to mid summer.

Here are a few images captured in the last few months:




Here the allium mount everest are looking majestic above the froth of the ox-eye daisy.




allium seed heads glowing in the evening sun


and of course nature doing it's thing, adding self seeded foxgloves in strategic places!


and now its had its summer high cut to hopefully secure some additional flowering in late summer and early autumn before I add another thousand bulbs to add even more colour for next year.



Meanwhile in my kitchen garden I've been harvesting potatoes, rhubarb, courgettes, radish, herbs, onions, garlic and mixed salad leaf. the espalier apple trees are also having a good year



I have tried a new combination in my prairie planted border this year, its not for the lazy gardener as there's some some seed sowing annually. A mix of Cosmos 'Purity' (grown in my greenhouse and planted out after last frosts), Agastache 'Blue Fortune, Erigeron annuus (an annual erigeron that self seeds for the following year) and Thalictrum delavayi 'Album", another annual that will potentially self seed. 




having the meadow has brought an abundance of meadow brown butterflies, here's one feeding on the agastache 




I also visited my clients in Stansted recently, a young professional couple with lots of spirit, hard working ethos, incredibly resourceful and budget conscious. I designed their garden back in February 2014 and they took on the project themselves, picking flint from the farmers fields and building the majority of the garden themselves between office work and caring for their young children.

Another successful meadow was sown in this garden which featured in wedding photos, with a marquee installed it became the venue for a member of their family's wedding.

Garden includes flint to tie in with the cottage, granite, green oak, and balau decking. Well done Anna and David! you did a great job.









and their bold 'kamado joe' to grill, smoke and sear in style



we came up with a bit of fun way to screen the trampoline



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