A Horse Chestnut sun-catcher, as spotted on the old railway line below the Linden Walk. Such a cool and bosky spot on warm summer days, not that we have had very many of those. And we’ve certainly not had ‘flaming June’ except for a couple of windless days when it was warm enough to eat out in the upstairs garden.
All the same, those few warm days did seem excessively hot to those of us still clinging to our winter underwear and especially to the MacMoo lads in their shaggy coats. They were driven to the shadow-margins of the Cutlins meadow to try and keep cool.
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While out on the Linden Field, human lads stripped off for a spot of football practice.
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In Townsend Meadow behind the house, this year’s crop of field beans is thriving. Early in the spring the plants struggled mightily due to lack of rain, but June’s cycle of showers and intermittent sun and cool temperatures has seen them shoot up and burst into flower. They are a variety of broad bean that produce masses of pea pod sized pods, each packed with several haricot sized beans. In Britain we mostly use them for animal feed and the bulk of the crops are exported to countries like Egypt where they are in great demand for human consumption.
Maybe as a nation, we should be rethinking this. The plants grow well in lacklustre weather, though wind can be problematic. And although the beans are fiddly to pod (I’ve grown my own good crop at the allotment), they are delicious, nutrient rich and only take a minute to steam or boil. The only problem was, this year they were ready all at once, and while I was hoping they would precede the main broad bean crop, the broad beans started cropping early. Upshot: eat the broad beans, freeze the field beans for making refried beans later in the year. But just look at the flowers. Aren’t they extraordinary?
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In the Farrell garden all is getting above itself – especially the cat mint. I don’t know what’s got into it this year. It’s the sort of plant I tend to ignore, nice enough as a wafty foil for more showy plants in summer borders, and that’s about it. But now it seems intent on taking over the upstairs garden, and what with the blue geranium joining in, Graham is having to fight his way through the encroaching undergrowth to reach the shed.
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Meanwhile Rose Teasing Georgia has been and gone. Lovely while she was with us looking in at the kitchen door. She should flower again later in the summer:
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Over the garden fence in the guerrilla garden where all the late summer bloomers are busy putting on stems metres tall, Geranium Anne Thomson is fighting her corner. She’s such a worthwhile garden plant – flowering her socks off all summer:
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And on the downstairs terrace the ruby red Centranthus has been the main June attraction, along with Penelope rose who this year has been growing us huge single stemmed bouquets, now sadly past their best. She’s a lovely sweet smelling rose – a shrub variety that can be trained to be a climber on shortish walls.
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At the allotment, beans and peas and spuds and beetroot are growing well, tomatoes and salad stuff in the polytunnel, but I’ve not taken many photos apart from ones of the flat-pack cat and the wildflower plots of moon daisies:
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Oh yes, and this evening view of the town as I’m heading home to make supper:
The Changing Seasons Ju-Lyn and Brian are the hosts. Please pay them a visit.
Tish Farrell 
Penelope and beetroot, with a few beans for nutrition. I think I could cope, Tish 🤗💗
Good girl!
, 🤗💟
Penelope is a beauty. My shrub roses haven’t done well this year, but I think that is because they are being swamped by other things. Now, do I remove the roses or the other things? Nothing is ever simple in the garden..
That’s a hard one, Jude. Roses are lovely but their flowering seems so brief – apart from Iceberg it seems.
HI TISH! EVERYTHING BLOOMING THERE IS JUST SO BEAUTIFUL 🙂 WHEN I HAD MY GARDEN (DECADES AGO NOW) I HAD 32 DAVID AUTIN ROSES, I GAVE UP GROWING TEA ROSES ONCE I DISCOVERED DAVID AUSTIN!!! YOUR WEATHER THERE SOUNDS ALMOST IDENTICAL TO WHAT WE ARE HAVING IN VIRGINA. TODAY, RIGHT NOW IT IS CLOUDY, PLEASANT & 83F! NOT A TYPICAL JULY DAY, USUALLY AN UNBEARABLE 90-100F WITH 100% HUMIDITY(NOT COMPLAING ABOUT THIS WEATHER AT ALL!!! 🙂
Hi Mitch. Yes lots of blooming going on. David Austin Roses isn’t far from us. Teasing Georgia came from there. The gardens are a wonder for rose lovers. As to your 83F, we’d faint if we had that kind of heat.
Broad beans, field beans, love ’em all. But they’re not so easy to buy these days – we don’t have an allotment. That woodland shot is wonderful. So evocative of those perfect English summer days we’ve had so few of this year.
It’s a shame you can’t buy beans. I imagine it’s because it’s uneconomical for producers to get them picked for home markets.
Maybe. Broad beans seem to have a limited season, and field beans? Not so much as a week.
There’s no actual reason why the season should be so short for broad beans. Overwintered plants produce early and often prolifically, and then the spring sown ones come on through the summer. My autumn sown field beans ripen over a few weeks, starting with pods fattening at the bottom of the stem. However, there does seem to come a point when the remaining pods all ripen at once as happened last week. I think the sudden bouts of rain after the spring drought might have had something to do with that. Meanwhile over in Townsend Meadow the field beans are only just making tiny pods. They were sown at the end of winter. Maybe you could persuade your walled garden owner to have a patch of field beans. The bees love the blossoms.
How lovely everything is, Tish. For some reason I’m now physically hungry although my soul isn’t. 😍
I think you are a woman with a good appetite – for all things good 🙂
I am so in awe of how beautiful the gardens are Tish. Best of all you included a coo 😀😀
Happy to include a coo, Brian, and thanks for the appreciative words.
Great post and images.
Thanks, Pete.
Tish your garden is amazing. It looks wild and manicured at the same time. The perfect cottage garden of my dreams.
I like that description, Marsha – wild and manicured 🙂
I could have added colorful and beautiful 🙂
Aw. That’s so nice.
Lovely!
Thank you, Jennie.
You’re welcome, Tish.
Some flames in June here with heatwaves and fires. Looks very green for you.
Good to hear things have cooled somewhat with you. We complain of the heat when it’s only low 20s as it is here today.
Such lushness & loveliness! Appreciate you sharing your June in all its glory with The Changing Seasons.
I hope you are coping ok with the heat that has swept through the UK. My London aunt said it was quite frightening for a bit with the soaring temps!
I listened to a podcast about beans on BBC4 – it did mention as you have, that much of the bean crop in the UK is used as animal feed. I wonder if that will change soon.
So happy to be part of The Changing Seasons, Ju-Lyn. The media has had a field day with the temps, the highest measured near airport runways like Heathrow and miltary jet bases.