We have been in and out all day. Think my hubby has overdone the digging trying to get my birthday trees planted. I just spent a couple of hours planting my salvias, sisyrinchium and verbascum into that bed. It’s all lilacs and blues and the hibiscus has survived and is hopefully going to add a splash of late summer colour. While I remember I might go and scatter the broken seashells over it to keep the snails and slugs off!

And that looks very promising! We dug in lots of manure, sand and gravel to the compost. These plants were all drowned by the rain overnight. It’s seriously soggy and some plants have been squashed. This does feel like Scottish summer to me! Not the sultry summers of the last few years. And it’s confusing the plants. Friends have described how everything has been smooshed together. While my peonies and acquilegias are over, another friend has peony buds and acquilegias to flower; we can’t be more than 40 miles apart.