Organic Fire And Ice

Sometimes the garden throws up beautiful combinations of colour, form, or both. The White Delphiniums were nearly flowering when I took this photo against the Gallardia. The Red and Orange is the fire against the Delphiniums icy white.

When the rest of the garden is starting to flag these two plants inject some colour and wow into the garden. These Gallardias are called Blanket Flowers because they resemble the colours of native American made blankets. They are as tough as old nails. To deadhead you need sacateurs!
The white Delphiniums came from the Walton plant stall in June. My Delphinium Pacific Blue flowered months ago. I do not know if the white Delphinium is a late flowering one.
I have been off work today and it has poured with rain. I watched a program about Prince Charles and Highgrove House in the Cotwolds, presented by Alan Titchmarsh.
http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/personalprofiles/residences/highgrove/
The estates gardens looks amazing, but visitors cannot take photos! I would not want to go without my Camera..
The gardens at Highgrove are gardened organically. The theory is the health of the plants comes from the goodness of the soil. There are no chemicals used at all across the estate. They have a gigantic compost heap that goes through four stages of decomposition and resting. After six months it gets dug back into the soil. It seemed to be thriving with a wildflower meadow, plentiful garden birds and wildlife, lush plants, and trees.
The allotment has a lot of people who use chemicals like weedkiller. I do not use any chemicals up at the allotment or in the garden. I think that if a garden is natural it will flourish.
My healthy flowers in the photo show that just adding compost to the soil can encourage masses of healthy plants. An organic garden will use natural selection to sort out the strong disease resistant plants from the weaker ones.
When we moved here the sunken borders soil was compressed, barren, and had very few insects on it or in it. The nectar rich garden has drawn in the wildlife in a short space of time.
The winter will be a good time to enrich the soil ready for next years growth. I planted mostly perennials so they should come back to flower next year.
I like the unexpected contrasts that work. It is always good to walk around the garden and look at everything that is happening. The changes are perceptible if you keep going out..