July in our Brittany Garden...

You are never short of surprises in a garden - each day often producing new ones - plants that have just come into bloom, new bird visitors, a hidden bird's nest discovered and it goes on!  It's been a busy month work-wise with some complete extremes of weather to deal with but was so grateful for the week of rain we had about 10 days ago now and plants & trees have really been given a new lease of life with things looking surprisingly green for this time of year but then with temperatures due to go to 25 degrees next week it is probaby just as well!

As well as some beautiful blooms in the garden - one of my favorites being the Black Peonie Poppy - seeds were sent to me very kindly from Cheryl - they are quite stunning (big thankyou to Cheryl and hope you're having a good summer too)  but I'll be honest haven't found them easy to grow here for some reason... practice makes perfect!! 

Swapping seeds is a great idea and if anyone would like to swap seeds from their garden I've quite a lot of Aqualegia seeds and Oriental Poppies too as well as other cottage garden plants...  let me know if you're interested!

A friend over here who runs a similar type of business had mentioned to me that he'd spotted a Cirl Bunting recently - having never seen one I looked it up in my book and literally 2 days later we ended up with this little chap in the garden - I'm pretty sure it's a young male Cirl Bunting - anyone know?

Also very excited to see this young Green Woodpecker in our garden too - we get plenty of the Great Spotted but have recently had the pleasure of the daily company of this one... and such beautiful colouring too.

 This was one of the Delphiniums that I grew from seed a few years ago and faithfully comes up every year - for some reason the slugs seem to leave them well alone! Curious!

 These are the fluffy parts of the seeds from Cotinus Grace - commonly known as the Smoke Bush... the dark leaves make a fantastic contrast with the vibrant blue of the Delphiniums and the lively red of the Oriental Poppies earlier in the year.

 Anyone know what this little insect is which I spotted on some Mayweed - not one I've seen before... do let me know.

The seed head from one of the large Oriental Poppies - even without the petals they do add something to a border!

 Astrantia - one of my favorites.

 I wouldn't be without all the Geraniums which never stop producing flowers for most of the year round.

This golden leaved Cornus (Dogwood) is a must - it's planted with Cotinus Royal Purple - very dark leaved and they go very well together.

Out on a walk through the lanes around here this beautiful Meadow Brown butterfly on the bramble flowers caught my eye - think this year will be a great year for Brambles as well as all the other fruit... I do wonder if this is a sign of yet another v. cold winter as the berries and nuts are in equal abundance here.

There's loads of Purple Loosestrife in the ditches along with Meadow Sweet too - so pretty. 

 Going down into our woodland area is a lovely cool place at this time of year but home a good variety of  wildlife - I make a point of not using any chemicals in the garden and I've no doubt that this helps keep things in equilibrium on our plot.

This is the area of woodland where we've started to coppice the Hazels - what a lot of lovely wood we've got just from one clump... great too for bringing more light in and for giving a good natural habitat for such animals as Dormice and the Wren's love it too!

Last but not least the gateway back to the house... and time to go and take the dog for a walk now so hope you've enjoyed your little taste of what July has offered here in Northern Brittany... take care and enjoy the summer - x

Our garden in Brittany - a sanctuary for birds...

Wow - what an amazing weekend for bird spotting here - I wonder what other people have experienced this year in terms of numbers of fleged birds around, as there seems to be an increasing amount of both Blue and Great Tit fledglings but yesterday was a real treat... whilst taking a break from some gardening I was sat on the grass below our Walnut tree with my camera and within the space of a couple of minutes had the wonderful company of a young family of Blackcaps, followed by an adult Nuthatch and two very fluffy babies, then a couple of newly fledged Robins (they have no colour on their breast but can be identified by the characterstic "bobbing" action that Robins do so well).  All quite gorgeous and if that wasn't enough well, a Tree Creeper arrived - it wasn't the time to start trying to get them on film but a time just to enjoy.... The female Blackbird in the photo was definately enjoying the cherries :-)

I did manage a photo of the baby Robin but not v. clear. 

The Great Spotted Woodpeckers have been very active in the garden and gobbling up all the peanuts that I've put in the feeders - more expensive than during the winter!!  The baby is rather cute don't you think!

I spent most of the day gardening yesterday especially in the light of today's forecasted (correct this time!!) rain, and rain it has done... but to be honest it's great news for the garden as it is desperately needing it and the rain is still pelting down now.

Hope you enjoy the photos of some of the plants out in our garden at the moment which I'm sure will benefit from a really welcome soak today - sadly - I'm sure the weeds will also benefit :-(

Have a fun filled week!



Everything arrives early in our Brittany garden

Since the beginning of 2011, I cannot believe how difficult it has been to find time to write my blog... following my back injury last year where I managed to herniate one of my lower discs I had a good bit of gardening work both here and for clients to catch up on.

In many respects the weather has been very kind to us this year and we've more recently experienced one of the driest periods at this time of year I can remember - until.... this weekend arrived!!  We've had quite a wet day today which has been SO welcome and to be honest would love it to carry on a bit which it's forecast to do but you can never tell from the forecast... even in France!

Everything this year had been early - the Lily of the Valley was almost over by the 1st May when traditionally in France you give bunches of it to your friends and neighbours to wish them well for the rest of the year.  So following on from that everything else has come early too including nesting birds - the quantity of fledglings this year so far has been incredible... loads of Great Tits and Blue Tits and not to forget our regular visitor - a rather gorgeous baby Great Spotted Woodpecker with its' parents!

I can also report that we've had our earliest fledged swallow babies too and more on the way I think!  Despite the reports of swallow numbers being down we seem to have more nesting here this year which is fabulous.

With Mummy!

So cute!

Being fed at last!

Note the little one at the bottom..."Me.. me...what about me?"

I couldn't resist this one of one of the faithful Blue Tit parents - this large family fledged some weeks ago ... just waiting for the next brood to arrive now!  This box has been used every year since this box was put up on our Walnut tree.

The garden this year has done well but with the dry weather was starting to suffer a bit for lack of water - I can see I shall be out there this week getting things planted whilst the soil is damp again and filling in the gaps in the vegetable garden too.

The lovely Rosa Jacques Cartier which a friend gave to me before I left the UK.

Rosa Madame Hardy - another favorite.

This is a beautiful rose and this plant was grown by one of my clients and given to me as a gift - Rosa Sourire Orchidee.

This is our wonderful resident toad - he's set up home among my Box cuttings which had been recently potted on - he'd been burying himself in the lovely compost - I guess he realised how well disguised he was in there...  however, imagine my surprise whilst watering when he climbed out!!

I do hope that it wont' be too long again till my next posting and that I'll have even more to share with you by then, but hope these photos give you a brief update on my garden here... have a great week and much look forward to having some time to rediscover all my favorite blogs that I know I've somewhat abandoned over the last months - I've really missed the contact with other like minded people and hearing all the wonderful stories from far and wide... a bientot! Miranda