Early June in the Garden

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This short compilation was stitched together in a hurry, to coincide with our talk on June 17th on Noel Kingsbury and Annie Guilfoyle’s Garden Masterclass Thursday teatime chat at 6 pm. The limitations of Zoom means sharing videos clips on such a presentation doesn’t seem to work.

So this is an attempt to demonstrate that experiencing a garden or hay meadow in West Wales in early June, is far more multi-dimensional than still images and words can convey. And indeed, that the whole experience is hugely influenced by much more than just the plants – light, movement, insects, birdsong all have a big impact on how one reacts to the space.

When you’re able to walk around the garden, also significantly affects what you perceive.

Please excuse the sometimes shaky hand held camera. I really should use a tripod, but with a now trailing microphone, at a busy time of the year, and our first small batch of semi-manual haymaking completed, time is of the essence.

Anyway this short clip gives a good feel for how vibrant and busy the garden and meadows are right now, in what’s turned out to be quite a benign month for us here, so far.

10 thoughts on “Early June in the Garden”

  1. The video let me see the incredible richness of your garden that even your excellent photographs have difficulty in projecting. The garden is a mass of colours but much better than a painting as it is living. I saw that the bees are enjoying the cotoneaster and the beautiful blue aquilegium. Amelia

    • Hello Amelia, and thanks for the really nice comment, which from someone who’s stuck with my ramblings for so long, means a lot – since this is exactly what I wanted to try to communicate – and indeed in our talk. That a garden experience can be so much more than just a flat, still image. Which I know you’re well aware of!
      This year’s been a revelation for which flowers the bees have visited in June – the Cotoneaster always being phenomenally popular in spite of its tiny flowers. One wonders whether the bees are getting anything other than just sugars in the nectar, they seem so excited, verging on manic when it’s in flower. And the bumbles adore the Aquilegia, but the other fantastic plants for both are the Geranium phaeum and macrrorhizum.
      At least we can now switch off from focusing on the zoom talk, and I can go back and leave some comments on your last 2 posts!
      Best wishes
      Julian

      • I have the same experience with the same flowers just now with the bees. I am always interested in learning about more bee plants. I have a G. macrrorhizum that is prettier than the herb Robert and is spreading quite nicely covering all manner of untidiness. I find them easy to uproot if they spread where they are not wanted and the bees love them.

      • I quite agree about G. macrorrhizum – it’s the best we grow, and here it works just as well in quite dense shade, but the great thing is how easy it is to uproot, as you say. Herb Robert along with another similar flowered G. lucidum we now regard as weeds – they never seem to get insect visitors here, though I guess they must do, and quickly end up everywhere, although again at least they’re easy to pull out!

  2. Thank you Julian for posting the video….a picture paints a thousand words! It’s a beautiful piece and pleases the senses! Thank you for sharing. Wonderful! Hope the teatime chat went well today. Best wishes.

    • Hello Marianne,
      Thanks for that and glad that you enjoyed it too – although it takes a long time to put something like this together, given its shortish run time, it does paint a much better picture of how dynamic the garden experience can be at this time of the year.
      The talk went as well as we could have hoped and we got some really nice feedback, so it’ll be interesting to see it again when Noel puts it online and see if I can spot Fiona shaking life a leaf next to me as she delivered her half impeccably! A real star!
      Best wishes
      Julian

  3. Hello, what a wonderful environment you have created; thoroughly enjoyed Early June and the Garden Masterclass presentation. Wonderful. Thank you.

  4. The video compilation was a great idea, a wonderful way to see the garden.

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