Shadows and Dragonflies, Courtyards and Gardens and rather a lot of pics

We're grateful for the garden shadows now

. It's too hot to garden in the afternoon at the moment but pleasant to  listen to a blackbird relentlessly scratching under the hedges for bugs and the soft chimes of the church clock from the village telling the hours from a shady spot. As the hot days continue  I idly watched a newly hatched dragonfly as it suddenly appeared dressed in its bright brief livery of life before disappearing beyond the next  hedge a brief memory of an impossible bright blue flirty with the hot air.

One of the half moon peep holes that now allow longer views
 through into the adjoining lawns in the Italian Garden

Evening light on one of the newly planted Agaves

Spud enjoying the cool of the evening above a
newly planted bed of Agapanthus

Our guests are enjoying the heat of course and every day i get out an Ordinance survey map  and point them towards those secret beaches and coves that are off of the tourist trail. I suppose I really should write a blog about it but I'm frightened to tempt the weather with a "Fabulous secret beaches for hot day" after all my "What to do on wet days" has worked so brilliantly that we must have had the driest summer for years here! Maybe I'll wait until it starts to rain  - that would be the safest thing to do.

Our courtyard garden is enjoying the warmth and the geraniums think it is "just right" for them and so I'll leave you with a few pictures from the other morning as the sun crept its early tendrils across the parterre and again in the golden light of evening as it rested supine after the day.

Early morning in the courtyard garden

Evening light in the courtyard garden

The raised upper terrace

The tempting side courtyards

A view across the former farmyard

Fountains and Palm trees

Geraniums sitting on the wall to the raised upper terrace formed by
excavating the sloping former farmyard

Those Geraniums!

Contrasting cool green foliage below

The upper terrace to the front door

Tucked in a corner by the lower gate the mood changes
with white Hydrangeas and a banjo Rubra  and Echiums
of course - lots of self seede Echiums
that I must sort out!

As every gardener knows a glass of wine at the end of the day
with a quiet companion is just perfect

Find us at www.ednoveanfarm.co.uk

My goodness it's hot!!

So hot again today but the Agapanthus that have self seeded in the garvel are loving the heat. They've spread their long star like root out under the unpromising stonas and all i can say is prospered. The first blue and white plants have cross pollinated and and spread in drifts with a surprising discipline of colour, softening the formal elements of the box balls and enhancing the old stone walls

The terrace has developed its own independent personality now

Formal mets informal

The Blue room looks out onto this terrace - I choose simple yacht
wires to define the private balcony so that it didn't interrupt the view

The lawn and the Italian Garden entrance beyond

A table for guests outside of the garden room

So just a quick note and a few pics tonight - hope you're having a good day too. Check out our website for our address - it's been playing up a little bit of late but I think it's been fixed!

The July garden at Ednovean Farm

A statue in dappled shade in the Italian Garden

In fact we had to admit there was far too much dappled shade in the long gravel border that flanks one side of the Italian Gardens. The  energetic privet hedges that we planted because they were already growing in exposed positions on the farm and we knew would withstand winter gales, had settled down to take over the world now that it had a buffering line of three other hedges.  The once hot gravel border was cast into nearly permanent shade and the burgeoning succulents that used to grace it were but a distant memory. Ww set to work with a trusty length of used baler twine and a pair of our neighbours loppers to reduce the hedge by three quarters of its height - quite a task when you remember that the Italian garden is using the site of the old sand school which in turn was sixty metres long. It seemed to take forever to lower the hedge and then cart the debri away to a bonfire but slowly slowly we won and the plants of the border picked up by the day as the sunlight flooded back into them. I added a Trachycarpus Fortunei to the already lofty cordylines and then found a great collection of agaves that had outstayed their welcome at Kennegy Nurseries that are now enjoying the newly created oven that is once again our hot gravel border. We'll have to look again to see if the hedge should be totally removed this winter but this is a  safe compromise for now and as a final flourish I planned big dramatic scallops to lower the side hedges as they butted up to the side one and allow tantalising glimpses back into the lawns and statues.

A big scallop in the return hedge allows a glimpse
through to an Olive tree

The sunshine flooding back into the border

The border still

Succulents ready to plant

New groups of Agaves

The discus thrower

A long view

forks and buckets in the sheltered heart of the garden

Moving back into the courtyard garden formed from the old farmyard I always find its harmonious geometry soothing to the eye and catching shadows with areas moving in and out of prominence as the days goes on.

A view over the Parterre to St Michael's Mount from
the Pink room

The steps that flank the courtyard passed the Blue and the Apricot rooms

Morning sun and a little feral stops by for his daily bowl of milk

The courtyards summer finery of booms in the early
morning

The soft evening sunshine

and then the ever returning topiary and wild informal planting

Steps from the car park

An old wine box holds tiny violas tucked under a wall

Ribbons of lavender surrounding box balls

A terrace looking over the lawn to the Italian
Garden

Pretty Pelargoniums
enjoying the sunshine

The golden light of evening on the old stone walls

July days race by for our B&B

looking back over the last couple of weeks

My we've been busy!! Changing the rooms for new guests and keeping the garden up together, not to mention the daily shop to look for nice fresh ingredients for the essential Full cooked Breakfast. Some days i begin to think I'm a professional shopper. We splurged on a nice new carpet for the Apricot room this month - is it me or is there something deeply satisfying about the smell of a new wool carpet and feet sinking into the soft depths?

A new soft squidgy carpet for the Apricot room!

That is probably all of our hushold news except maybe that I finally managed to track down a vintage bookcase for our guest sitting room to hold the DVD collection that had long outgrown the lovely old apple basket and various other containers. I was never a fan of the modern cabinet that I bought first of all, so must find it a good home where it's modern dimension will be more loved. free to collect locally If anybody would like a sort of wood column with a hidden door in faux mahogany (I had intended to give it a paint finish but never did get around to it!

At last "The bookcase"  really will give it a distressed
paint finish over the winter!

Early morning in the courtyard garden

And our garden bursting full of light and fresh leaves; bees and butterflies and just a delight to stroll through  (if you are not in charge of the weeding of course) But I am going to tell you about our garden projects on another day as I have a file bursting with photos ready to share as for now - off to buy more breakfast bacon! have a great Sunday our there - you can find our home here:- www.ednoveanfarm.co.uk