The westering sun can be merciless on long summer evenings, as many a scorched busy lizzie,fuchsia and begonia has found to her cost. Shade loving plants do well on that side of the house, but need some protection from the evening sun until they have adapted to life outdoors. In this picture the impatiens on the shelf behind Robins head have just been uncovered after being hidden under a layer of non woven white row cover material for three weeks. One big surprise was that the piggy back plant I forgot to bring indoors one autumn not only survived a particularly harsh winter, it even managed to thrive and stay far healthier than its sisters indoors who all expired under attack by red spider mite in the hot, dry, centrally heated air. The shady spot is where the teensy ornamental water fall is located.
Every oasis needs the sound of running water.
The birds love it, and the dog thinks it is his special bird flavoured drinking bowl. Using rain water in the waterfall prevents it from happening, but spring and early summer can be very dry, and most years the topping up is done with water from the hose pipe. Climbing plants are a good way to cram as much as possible into a small garden. Clematis do well here, the combination of sun and shade is perfect for them and they like the rich lime soil. So far there are four varieties of them flowering at different times of the year, an alpine clematis with its nodding little blue bells comes earliest, happy in the permanent shade of a fence, next to appear is the exotic 'Niobe' who is so dark red that some of her flowers seem black, and after her the free flowering vitecella clematis 'S dert lje' and 'Mme Julia Correvon' take over and flower until late autumn.