Mid-September finds me in denial about the end of summer. I do love summer. Let’s keep it going for just a bit longer with some wonderful Dahlias for my #SixOnSaturday. First up is a very simple one, grown from seed, that the bees love. Simple open flower, vibrant lemon yellow.

More beautiful in its structure and perfection of form, it is hard not to love a full orange cactus-style flower.

To really ramp up the glamour, I actually remember the name of this one: Totally Tangerine. Not sure the name fully fits, but the complexity of flower, stamens, shape, make this a very interesting variety.

Hard to know where to go after that one, so right back to the simplicity of a single coloured, pure white, and satisfyingly large flower.

This next one is a very cheerful type, I love the way the petals seems to flow from yellow through to red. Then there’s a lovey flush of both colours at the centre of the flower.

I think this next one is a new one this year, back to the simplest of flowers and a single strong colour. what a rich vibrant red.

I would challenge anyone not to love all these dahlia. I’ve been growing them just a few years, mostly in pots. They bring thrills and spills of colour and form to the late summer garden. Hope you enjoyed this week’s six favourites.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

After a week away cycling in the lovely Scottish borders, and then some urgent family commitments, I’ll have to make it a very quick #SixOnSaturday this week. It’s September, and I guess that mean the harvest, so here are some wonderful fruit.

First up, we have SO many apples this year that some of the tree branches really are breaking off.

Pears have not had such a dramatic year, but they are almost ready too, and they always seem to ripen in one huge clump.

Back to apples, I have a couple of trees of cooking apples, they are not ready yet, but ripening nicely in the Autumn heatwave.

In the greenhouse, this year’s crop of grapes are coming on rather well too.

yet another variety of apples makes for a lovely pale golden juice that isn’t too sweet.

And last, but very much not least, there are oodles of Autumn raspberries ripening.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

Wow, the last post for August already, the bank holiday weekend down in England, the expected cool and winder conditions. What to do? I’ll show you some hot summer colour to warm us all up.

Dahlia first, a wonderful bright bright red. Most evenings, each bloom seems to end up with a little golden bee attached for the night. Great spot to wake up for breakfast I guess.

I am a huge fan of crocosmia. This one is lucifer, though it does look a little orange. It may be a hybrid between lucifer and a smaller orange one. They are very vibrant and make an interesting cut flower, but rather thuggish!

Garden lilies have been decimated by lily beetle this year, especially the ones I grow in pots. Except for these, which flower much later. Maybe I need to invest in some later flowering lilies for next year: these are gorgeous.

For a few years now I’ve tried zinnia from seed. So few of them grow and flower, perhaps we just don’t have the warmth. But when they come through, the blooms are lovely.

Much better from seed, my cosmos are huge this year, some nearly 2m tall. They don’t last well in the rain, but if carefully deadheaded they do keep on blooming.

Last but not least, another really wonderful potted dahlia. This one is bigger than my hand. No bees, but a perfect flower.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

I know it is late summer now because my evenings and weekends are filled with harvesting the bounty of the 2023 growing season. This week I’m showing off some of my latest fruit and veg, soon to be prepped for drying, freezing and maybe even canning this year. BTW, I did win some prizes at my garden show last week. Take a look here: https://mastodon.scot/@julie3dharris/110877827848568978

At the very end of their season (and a little too late, some were too soft and shrivelled already) are my purple gooseberries. These will hit the freezer as there are not enough for jam this year.

I also cleared my broad bean patch in the last week. These have been magnificent this year, I’ve at least 3 boxes for the freezer, great to pull out for stir fries and ‘garden pasta’ dishes that will remind me of summer in months to come.

I suspect I’m mid-season now for tomatoes. I long ago gave up trying to grow them outside, we are simply too cool and windswept in this part of the world for them to thrive. But in the greenhouse, I’m very pleased with the results.

An all-year rounder that I’m very fond of now is the ‘walking onion’ (also called Welsh onion). This is a perennial, seems to avoid the white rot that attacks other onions if I grow them, and pops up with lots of lovely little onions at the top of the stems. I use these as ‘cut and come again’.

A fruit at the very start of the season are apples. I have 9 trees (legacy of past custodians of the garden), no idea of the varieties. These are always first, they don’t store well, but do make lovely pink juice.

Last, but very much not least, I’m attempting to grow Trombochino squash this year, as recommendation from the “Gardeners World” TV program. I don’t know if these plants are hardier than other squash (most of which have sulked/died already), or if I just gave them more care, but they are looking fabulous so far. Apparently these can be eaten like courgettes now, or left to left sweeter and browner into Autumn — I’m planning to try that with some of the fruit.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

I’ve chosen very simple sample of garden loveliness for this week’s #SinOnSaturday. Today is my local village Annual Flower and Produce Show. I’ve entered mostly in the fruit and veg categories (plus one big bunch of flowers), here are some of my favourite entries.

I hope there’s a good chance for a prize for courgettes this year. After watering and gently singing to them this week, I’ve managed to collect 3 decent fruit, all about the same size. Fingers crossed.

Tomatoes are good too, though 2/3 of these have little blemishes on the bottom, so I’m not sure if they will be be up to scratch. From the top they look so good I just had to enter these 3.

There’s always a ‘veg not in schedule’ category. I have entered a handful of achocha, a Peruvian vine, related to exploding cucumber. My plants do very well in the greenhouse, and not badly against a south-facing wall in the garden. they are great chopped and used like bell pepper.

Although the rhubarb path got a bit exhausted back in dry June, it has been revived by the July rain. I am rather pleased with my offering for this year’s show.

The last veg on show today are my chillies. The variety is “Nigel’s outdoor”, supposedly hardy enough for outdoor growing in the UK. This seems to be holding up. Two of these fruit came from plants in the greenhouse, the other from an outdoor one. Looking good, but maybe not similar enough for a prize this year?

Last up, I won first prize for raspberries last year, this year it was hard to find 12 fruit on the plant. There are plenty of fruit, just not ripe. I did manage after some rummaging around.

Wish me luck, this lot and more have been delivered to the village hall now. The show opens at 2pm and I can go see how I’ve done.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

August is the time for harvesting veg, feeling chuffed about the successes of chilli, toms and beans, wishing I’d got more radish in, and wondering why beetroot just didn’t grow at all. Also, a week to to until the local Annual Flower Show, so need to sing gently to my plants. here are 6 of the best so far for #SixOnSaturday.

Nothing nicer than a courgette flower, except a flower with fruit behind (this one isn’t).

Brassicas do SO well in eastern Scotland, especially in a year like this, with low butterfly numbers (but I do wish there were more…it is too cool and damp). Cavalo Nero is a favourite, with gorgeous texture and colour that it retains when steamed or stir-fried.

In the greenhouse I’ve realised that less is more with fewer chilli plants, in bigger pots, giving me more chillies. Now a little bit of sun to heat them up would be great.

I am looking forward to Queen of the Night ripening up. She’s a rich purple-black tomato, medium sized. Hoping that the promised black-to-red interior colour will appear as the seed provider promised.

Back in the garden, it has been so cool this summer that spring-planted chard hasn’t bolted, each plant is growing strong, will be a great autumn crop.

Last but not least, a much more transient garden joy: runner beans, looks like we’re going to have a huge crop this year.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

As summer rolls on, I am still struggling to choose from a huge range of options to show here every Saturday. I have once again chosen a colour theme. This week I will focus on white flowers, often overlooked by those of us who love bright bold colours, yet these blooms glow right into evening and provide great contrast for cut flowers. Here are six wonderful white’s for my #SixOnSaturday.

First a patch of oxeye daisy winds its way through a narrow border near the garden path. Each one has a neat form, and a whole swathe is so bright and cheerful.

A lot less exuberant for my second choice. Yet potato flowers signify tasty dinners to come and have a delicate scent (which can be overwhelming en masse….near my home grow huge fields of tatties that offer a musky heady smell on warm windy days. Notice the tiny fine hairs across each petal and down the stems.

I didn’t realise that the mixed zinnia seeds I’d sowed would give me white blooms. Given the trouble needed to make these exotic beauties grow in this part of the world, I’m not sure this is my favourite variety, but is it one of the few that has made it past cold rain and hungry snails.

I am fond of astrantia. This is the closest I have to pure white. The tiny details on every flower are breathtaking.

Making its own way into the garden is a native mallow. Pretty, although can get in the way as it likes to pop up right along the path boundaries.

For my last this week, the cool weather is keeping sweetpeas happy. This one is highly fragrant, almost perfect white, with a tiny hint of lilac along the boundary of each petal.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. Join the sixes on Mastodon or other instances in the Fediverse via #SixOnSaturday, we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

So many lovely flowers all around the garden. We wait so long for summer and it flies by so fast: already we’ve reached blooming time for my favourite flowers of the year. Let me show them to you: this is a dahlia special for my #SixOnSaturday this week.

I will get started with one of the fancy ones from a posh online provider. Wonderful detail in the soft peachy petals, fabulous flower centre with red and yellow stamens, a real treat for hoverflies.

I am also very fond of the more traditional varieties, although these do turn out to be a struggle for insects to enjoy too. Here is the biggest, boldest red one I have, blooms are bigger than a large hand.

This one is quite probably a ‘Bishop’s children’: they can be grown from seed or from tubers and each tends to have a slightly different colour to the petals.

This one was chosen a couple of years ago for the name: ‘tangerine dream’. The actual colour is not particularly convincingly tangerine, but rather lovely to look at in any case.

Smaller flowers, traditional type again, WHAT a sumptuous rich colour. I could look at this one for hours.

To top the lot, I’m very pleased to have managed to winter the tuber for a wonderful, almost perfectly white cactus type. The plant is 1m tall, the flowers elegant. Apparently resistant to rain damage too.

That’s my #SixOnSaturday for this week. I feel so fortunate to live in a place that (so far this year) has not suffered from horrible heat, or splattering storms. There are few t-shirt days in a Scottish summer, but that is beginning to look like a huge advantage for the garden lover.

Join the sixes on Mastodon via #SixOnSaturday, but we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

Roses are universally popular, but I’ve never been sure. The blooms are gorgeous, yet the foliage and thorns can be a bit mmhhhh. This year though, the hot dry spell followed by cool rains have boosted their growth. I’ve chosen, perhaps for the first time ever, a rose theme for #SixOnSaturday.

First up is a non-fragrant shrub rose that I keep because there are always so MANY flowers. So many this year that the branches are weighed down to the ground. I’ve cut lots for vases, and there are lots more.

Against the west wall, in the teeth of the prevailing wind, a peachy little number loves the breeze.

Nearby, a rose is busy trying to grow through a forsythia that really needs a good prune. Not sure about the raspberry ripple colours here.

Hard against the west wall of the house is a climber that I need to keep tying into supports to stop it thrashing around. It rewards me with sprays of pure white blooms, these a little pock-marked in purple by the rain.

I love this new one. A David Austin rose, possibly Strawberry Hill. the blooms are fist sized, full and smell slightly spicy. Only knee-high this year, but I think this one will reach 1-2m.

Last, yet very much not least. This looks like a very old rose, clearly been here for many many years. Old fashioned, huge thorns and massive blooms (an out-stretched hand’s width). They have a really classic ‘rose’ smell. Perhaps I’ll save the petals and try to make rose tincture, tea, or syrup.

You’ll have seen from the water drops that our weather is….Scottish….I guess it is a relief that we’re not having the 40 deg C heatwave that is plaguing countries a bit further south. Great weather for growing kale, not sure about my squash…hold your breath for a veg-special coming on a Saturday soon.

Join the sixes on Mastodon via #SixOnSaturday, but we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot

A mixed bag of gardening weather this week: cool and rainy has resulted in some sulking in the veg patch, yet lush growth elsewhere. The heat is back this weekend, along with storms, so hoping that the garden isn’t flattened by winds and rain. In the meantime, I’m faced with the luxury of wondering what to choose for #SixOnSaturday. I went for orange.

Having never had much luck with California Poppy, a few have popped this month. I do hope they self-seed this time.

In shadier spots, euphorbia have faded to a pleasing restful delicate orange.

Not so the nasturtium, who face the world with the hottest boldest orange they can muster.

Even in my dry cool Fife garden, it is proving to be a wonderful season for roses. Here are some surprisingly lovely orange roses in the evening light. They are sneaking a peak over the garden wall.

Back to bold and beautiful with a scattering of tall lilies in the flower borders. I usually grow many in pots, and most have been devastatingly nibbled by lily beetle. these have snuck past their gaze.

For my finale, I’m not sure if this dahlia is orange, but it IS called Tangerine Dream. It’s the first (of many I hope) to flower this year and is loving the hot dry sunny corner its pot has landed in.

Stay safe, take care out there, and don’t forget to follow the crowd on various instances of the Fediverse. Join the sixes on Mastodon via #SixOnSaturday, but we need a few more folk to toot on the topic: come join us. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. Also on twitter @JamesLStephens. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot