My next door neighbour’s photos (posted ten days ago) were kindly selective.  In reality the shaggy lawn grass was spilling into the borders, the Ox-Eye Daisies had collapsed in a tangled heap and the Jacob’s Ladder had turned black and furry.  It’s been good growing weather for weeds in Berwick recently.  After most of a day spent weeding and mowing the garden was fit for a less selective photo.

 

 

The sturdy yellow marigolds came from a single packet of seed, sown optimistically in March.  I spaced out the poppy seedlings on my last visit but I don’t know where they sprang from.

 

 

The Pictorial Meadows seed mix is a beautiful pool of colour now with tall, graceful stems moving in the slightest breeze.

 

cornflower blue

 

Cornflower blue is the dominant shade with a lighter blue purple from a small Echium.

 

 

Between the tall stems of the cornflowers there’s a lower layer of pink Silene armeria (sometimes called Sweet William Catchfly) with some Clary Sage and Stitchwort.

 

 

The gentian blue Phacelia campanularia, which was the first plant in the mix to flower, has almost given up the ghost.  Hardly surprising when you learn that it’s a Californian native, commonly known as the Desert Bluebell.   The long, cool summer days of Northumberland, with alternating sun and rain, provide ideal growing conditions for many species but Berwick is a long way from a desert.