"The great advantage of speaking the truth...

is that you do not have to remember what you said"

An anonymous quote

The garden group are slowly getting on top of the rapid growth spurts in the plants following the gentle rain and the warmer nights.

The blog starts with the discovery of a new bee to the garden which was found last weekend by one keen eyed member.  It was the Wool Carder Bee (Anthinium manicatum)  It is one of the largest solitary bees and the male of the species is very aggressive in defending the territory.  All species are chased away and the male has persuasive spikes at the base of the abdomen to assist him!

Wool Carder Bee

Some friends of the garden who regularly help out at open days have kindly donated a table and six chairs.  This welcome gift will be re-invigorated with teak oil and then be able to be enjoyed by all.

our new table and chairs

In the Jurassic Garden the Chain Ferns are finding their feet and the stunning tetrapanax tree has made a lot of rapid growth over the past week.  This tree has the most bizarre downy leaves as they emerge

 

Jurassic Garden view

the huge tetrapanax leaves

A new leaf

New leaves emerging

The vegetable patch is doing well and the carrots and the turnips will need thinning out next weekend.

The Pak Choi grow very fast but the pigeons love them!

Flower Sprouts

Some of  small  echium plants last year set seed and they are themselves now flowering.  The bees were quick to find them

Echium

Pink Gaura

Corncockle

Clustered Campanulas

The blue bed

 In the greenhouse the papyrus plants have been thinned and transplanted into bigger pots.  We need a lot of warm weather now to make them grown into giant size plants!

Papyrus plants

Venus fly-trap plants doing well

 

Rogersia in flower

Clematis

Fruiting buds on the Amelanchier bush

Finally on a more sombre note the anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme has taken place.  In our barley bed the poppies have flowered.  Time to reflect and a reminder to us all of the horrors of war.

Poppies in the barley bed

The  garden will be open on July 9th in conjunction with the Friends Day at the school.  Do pop up and see what has been going on since last year.  The Jurassic Garden will also be officially opened.  We look forward to seeing you there.