the only good part of hurricane preparation...

...is cutting lots of flowers for the house....but I really don't need an excuse.

Joe Pye--before he met Irene...

I won't see 'til Friday how their date went.  I did cut lots of mopheads to take into the house, using  Irene as an excuse--sorry, bees...

meanwhile, back at the ranch.....

Here's the small patch in back...the mini-thyme lawns are over, the Etoile Violette is over,  the daylilies have been cut back, the rudbeckias are in fine shape, and as usual, the perennial lobelia is taking over the show cuz it seeds itself everywhere.   Happily, the white anemone is coming into its own after having been planted, oh, 10 years ago, and hiding for 6.  But, just as I relax with a beer---d'oh! --- Irene is popping over for a visit.  More to come.....

I didn't buy it!

now perfect

Thank you, Pink 23 and Leanne! 

have a seat, part I

Here is my cherished stone bench, which is really my garden "folly" in the traditional as well as literal sense, since one cannot sit on it!

have a seat, part II

This is the camomile bench at Sissinghurst.  It inspired the lovely, mossy pile of rocks behind my own garage.  Neither bench can be sat upon, but mine at least does not sport signs.  I wish I knew how to airbrush those little signs out of what would then be a perfect picture.

Here is a sigh-worthy, classic shot of "English Garden In Summer," courtesy of Renishaw Hall Gardens, the dark horse favorite of my travels here in the Green and Pleasant Land.

another pyrus salicifolia pendula pruned far better than mine

This willow-leafed weeping pear tree is from the gardens of the unsung and utterly ravishing Renishaw Hall.  Also in Derbyshire, and home of those wacky Sitwell Siblings, Osbert, Edith and Sacheverell. (Try pronouncing that last one.)  So famous and celebrated in social and literary circles in the 20s to the 50s, now they are just known as oddballs.  The grounds combined classic elements with blowsy perennials, and has many little nooks and garden "rooms."  I think this garden is now my favorite of all the famous ones I saw!

visiting Chatsworth garden...

we walked the footpath from the town, a 30-minute delight

a mossy wall along the way

Capability Brown's handiwork comes into view...

fab rustic fence

one of the undergardeners needs to take a chill pill!

peonies surround the foundation of the long-gone original conservatory; inside the walls, the lupin garden is over for the year

serpentine twin hedges-gorgeous

Then, as we approach the great house--uh--where is it?   Under renovations, draped as if by Christo, possibly due to (1) there's a new Duke, and Debo has moved to a dower cottage, and  (2 )  they want things nice for the Olympic year?  It's a tad disappointing not to see the majestic pile from the lake and emperor fountain, but we came to see the gardens, anyway.

Animatedly sheared yews

Now, that's pollarding by experts

It's all very idyllic, if feudal in origin!

decoding Piet Oudolf in Hyde Park

Inside an architect-designed black box on temporary view in Hyde Park is a small, enclosed jewel of a Piet Oudolf garden.  I arrived shortly before opening time, to ensure some quiet contemplation, and found my dearest late-summer love, Joe Pye. 

And there was a planting diagram available, and a plant list.  I was delighted to study it for on to a half hour, making furious notes on the back of a newspaper.  This is probably not in Oudolf's own hand, but I do not know...

 close-ups of the diagram

A long view

Here are my notes, where I am trying to discern the movement of the planting design. Quite a "private lesson" from the premier garden designer du monde!