Month's end

It's been a tough few weeks round here as I've been struggling a lot with anxiety and the side effects of that. This weekend started no differently but we managed to turn it around with a bit of medication (anti-sickness before a meal helped me break the cycle I'd got myself into), and lots of garden therapy plus no small amount of love, hugs and patience.

geranium bank

As August drew to a close we pottered around the back garden yesterday. We cut the rosemary hedge and lavender bushes, cue the most wonderful refreshing and calming scents wafting around, cut down most of the gone-over hollyhocks saving a few for the birds to munch on the seed heads and saving a few seeds for sprinkling on the community border at the top of our road. The last of the blooms also ended up in a vase J made me a few week's ago. We used some new plant supports to tame the aster and loganberry plants that love to smother everything in the border. Next job was pot shuffling, exchanging some dahlias for the sweet-peas from the front garden as these have now largely done their stuff and were looking really tatty. One pot got cleared and the used up compost used as a mulch for the front borders, the other is propped up in the back garden border as it may have a few blooms left to share with us. We cut back and cleared the last of the pansies and J sorted out the grotty weed bin (our council green bin but we don't put it out for the council). This gave us a lovely big trug full of mulch for the front garden bed and has now been refilled with the un-composted stuff and a new batch of brambles and bindweed. Last job was to plant out some lovely little geraniums given to us by a friend - 3 on the pond bank to join Gran's geranium and 5 dotted around the front under the roses. 2 little scented leaved ones are now in a pot on top of the water butt - they smell like Turkish Delight so that's a new joy to look forward to every time the pots need watering.

Last of the sweet-peas?

Hollyhock seeds

Hollyhock bloom