Dry.

In the morning it wasn't clear if we were going to have sun or rain but then out came the sun and we've had quite a nice day.

I spent a happy four hours down at the zoo. I planted mind-your-own-business to cover the muddy soil now visible after I cut back a large hollyhock, some knautia seedlings in a flower bed by the entrance and a pheasant grass in an empty planter. Then I set to work to clear the gravel patch by the wolf-dogs. It's roughly 8ft x 50ft with just three metal planters on it. I put pheasant grass in one and lemon balm in the others last year and they have done well. I like clearing the gravel but as I worked a thought snuck into my head - wouldn't this make a lovely gravel garden? When the grasses I'm growing from seed are a suitable size I'll see if the owners would like me to pretty that area up. Quite a few of the plants that do well at home are toxic to one animal or another; marjoram, aquilegias, pinks, crocosmia and feverfew but I've taken more cuttings of artemisia and santolina as I think they would do well in the gravel alongside ornamental grasses.

Off in a minute to Pilates, tonight for a change we will be using either a kettlebell or a dumbbell which will be interesting. 

 

The recent sunny weather seems to have brought on an extra flowering in the front garden, including the lamium being visited by a hungry bumble bee.

The 7ft tall Verbena Bonariensis.