Welcome Back to the Jungle

 Dateline: Cattaraugus County, western New York state

Well what did we expect? Back just in time for the weed growth spurt. And thanks to my game leg I'm limited in what I can do about it. But I'm determined to do a small amount of weeding each day - which is just possible, perched on my gardening stool.

(Hubby insisted on taking the photo, against my better judgement. Claiming the scene  looked French and romantic. Or something.))

  But I'm heartened by the new trend back in Blighty called rewilding. You want rewilding? We've got it. (Although it might be better named still wilding.) And as we haven't been able to get the grass cut yet, 

we can enjoy our very own wildflower meadow

It's sad that the manic mowers with their pristine lawns are already at it.  They don't know what they're missing. 

I'm also heartened by the garden that won Best in Show at this year's Chelsea Flower Show. A nice mixture of flowers and weeds, a little stream and a beaver dam (they must be nuts - don't they know what beavers do to trees? There's only one thing they do to beavers around here and it aint pretty...) But the main point is that it's a wild garden - rough, shaggy and unmanicured, just like mine. Once I've licked it into shape that is.

Some things are bravely getting underway. Like the irises, which are always too early at the party and look lonely.

Too late for a photo of the big lilacs but here's the little one. 

And hubby's favourite wildflower - dame's rocket - has a few outliers in the back. They make a glorious display on the wooded roadsides around here. 

And wonder of wonders, the rhododendrons in the back actually bloomed. Well there's one bloom so far. But it's progress. The cage around them kept the deer out for once. 

Sadly the mountain laurels weren't so lucky. We found the netting halfway across the garden and one bush well and truly scalped. The other likewise - the deer had managed to kick a hole in the netting. As for the rhododendron by the house. A tragic shadow of its former self is all I can say.

To be continued - watch this space for an interesting new visitor.