Monday...with Yellow Canvas Beauty

This is the second of four posts showing some of the process and images I shot for Australian based Canvas Beauty who asked me to create some unique table photographs for them...

I had so many shasta daisies over the Summer that I decided to work on two yellow themes...

As the daisies are bold, I tried to soften them with honeysuckle, ferns, marjoram, fennel and seeds whilst reflecting the yellow centres with the lemons...

As Canvas use loads of natural products I wanted to include at least a few edible and aromatic flowers too...

( although these beautiful hand made wooden boxes used for storing oils smelled amazing anyway! )

As Canvas is based in Australia I found a couple of vintage maps to include in the composition...

( you can see the other one here and here... )

Canvas Beauty pride themselves on their products which are full of wonderful herbal extracts and unique essential oils harnessing natural power as well as a natural healing therapy.

Follow them on Instagram @canvasbeautyau and on Facebook where you can see more of my photos

* this is a sponsored post 

Tuesday...Garden Round Up

This last week has been so hot here in Brighton, that I’ve barely been out in the garden during the day. It’s South facing so everything gets scorched...even if there are thunder storms at night.

So this army of cans provides not only the garden with water but me with good weight lifting exercise!

I’m going to be away for a week from tomorrow and although there will be someone here to keep an eye on everything, I’m sure things will look different on my return...

So I wanted to do a bit of a garden round up before I leave to do a bit of a compare when I’m back...

I really hope these dahlias will survive the snails...

...and hopefully there’ll be lots more Japanese Anemones in flower too

The bronze fennel I rescued from a crack in the pavement last year is completely fantastic and hasn’t been attacked by greenfly like the other normal fennel...

...but this Cow Parsnip or Hogweed, which came from a seed head from the side of the road is amazing...

I’ve never grown this before, although when I was younger my mother and I nabbed some Giant Hogweed seed heads from the side of the road and she then grew one which was well over 6 ft high! 

It has a very strange smell which seems to constantly attract hover flies, bees and ordinary flies but a sneaky spider has cunningly made a thick web underneath the flowers in this one...

...I also found 2 strawberries this morning!

The Sedum may possibly flower while I’m away, but the flowers will last for ages...

I bought some stems from a florist last year and had them in the house all through October and November. I had kept them in water for such a long time that they'd rooted... so a complete bargain!

These are the Heuchera I re-potted a few weeks ago ( the ones I’d rescued from the tip ) which are recovering really well...

...and my favourite bud of the moment: Chocolate Cosmos

Also when I wrote the post about saving seed heads a couple of weeks ago I had also just scattered some Calendula seeds in this pot to see if they would grow and now I’ve got 3 seedlings ( they’re the ones with lighter green leaves...I don’t know what the other one is yet )

This nasturtium leaf which I’ve had in a jam jar of water for a few weeks has mysteriously rooted!

I really don’t understand how that can happen especially as it has been devastated by black fly, but I’ve potted it up, just to see what happens...

...and I’ll keep you posted of ‘looking about me' while I’m away too!

Friday...

A complete madness of nasturtiums this morning!

It’s so true that the more you pick the more they flower...

my son and I were both arranging this morning...I was very impressed by his Temple of Heaven...

...and as he sees me playing with flowers every morning I never expect or receive any compliments, but this morning he looked over and said " ooh, I like that Mum! "

I was so surprised...and consequently have left all these little arrangements amongst the Temple of Heaven today!

Thursday...

With the shasta daisies just starting to come out this week it’s been way too tempting not to start picking them...

...even though loads are still just in bud ( I leave those ones...)

they’re such brilliant floral punctuation, particularly with giant purple buddleia...

and they’re so tall this year, that I had to stand on a chair to snap them...

( which I then found quite useful for a view up the garden path with the budding Japanese Anemones !)

they'll last much longer than a stem of buddleia will, so they always get moved around a lot and put in loads of different arrangements...I’m going to keep a note this year of exactly how long one flower lasts...

...The Shasta Full Stop!

Tuesday...

The shasta daisies have finally opened as has the montbretia ( or Crocosmia )!

The daisies are pretty hardy and will hopefully now flower throughout the summer; I have to pull up a lot of them as they spread like mad, but I am really happy about the montbretia, because some years only a few appear.

I think because we had a lot of rain earlier on in the year, followed by some beautiful weather recently, they’ve been a lot happier, and they always remind me of The Lake District too, where I spent a lot of my childhood...

The tin of Lakeland Pencils ( Cumberland pencils were very famous in their time ) is also a sentimental reminder of the Lakes as they belonged to my Grandparents who lived up there...( and which have now become one of my most useful props for the table! )

Although the garden is blooming, there are also lots of plants experiencing their exciting twilight days...

I’m amazed that these poppy heads I’ve picked are already shedding seeds...

This is the first year I’ve grown these purple Opium Poppies, so I don’t want to demolish the whole plant just yet...

...these Nigella seed heads are probably my absolute favourite pod at the moment ( I think I even prefer them to their flowers! )

and this little weirdo is, I think, a Chive...I say 'I think', because other Chives I have, always grow flowers and then drop seeds, but this seems to be growing more chive plants from the actual seed head!

I will watch and learn...

I’ve been a bit remiss with the picking of the Calendulas, so there are only a couple of flowers left at the moment, but loads of seed heads...

I have been picking a lot of sweet peas though, and only left a few seed pods on the plant. They seemed very fat this morning so I’ve risked picking them...

and the Californian Poppies have so many seeds appearing that I only save a few of the pods having picked loads...

I usually let things just self seed, but as I have so many pods and seeds already this year I thought that I’d try the brown paper bag method of putting them all into paper bags and letting them dry out over the next few months...

...I’m also hoping that over the coming weeks the recovery table will look a bit better, although the succulents are doing really well; producing their mini succulents on what had appeared to be dead stems...

So, many seed pods in the garden making me happy and being very productive...

...unlike these many gastrpods who are making me nervous and still being very destructive!

Wednesday...