We are very fortunate in having a beautiful borrowed landscape. Our garden actually ends where you can see the fence but there is part of an ha-ha (built when it was all part of the rectory next door) at the end of our garden and our garden appears to go on for ever. The immediate field is only used for sheep but the fields beyond have a variety of crops on them. Sometimes wheat when the colours go from green through to gold at harvest time, sometimes rape seed when we are surrounded by a sulfurous yellow when it flowers in May/June.
This year all the fields turned blue.
This is a crop of Flax (also known as common flax or linseed), Linum usitatissimum, is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is a food and fiber crop cultivated in cooler regions of the world. The textiles made from flax are known in the Western countries as linen, and traditionally used for bed sheets, underclothes, and table linen. 
The fields are a stunning crop of small blue flax flowers. 
Through the day the flowers open up and close in the evening resulting in the field going between blue and green. When the wind blows it can look like a huge lake.
Art in the garden
At least once a year the local Hoby Art Group spends the morning capturing the different aspects of the garden. This year we were very lucky to have a sunny and warm day.
Glebe House Garden
It feels like a race against nature at the moment. There are two parts of the garden where some significant replanting is required. There are still many pots waiting patiently to be located. And we have people coming around a week on Wednesday! To make matters worse it has started raining! So its getting up with the sun and very long days. At least one person was very upset I had missed the following table out of my last blog as she was keen to see how many hours we had done! The table is for week beginning May 27th:
| Gardening Hours | ||
| Week beginning May 27th | Total since June 19th | Average per week |
| 59 | 914 | 18 |
Always a pleasure to see what you are up to. I’m sad not to visit England this year, as I was in Holland and Belgium last month, but am planning a trip to your area that will coincide with the 2018 Chatsworth Flower Show. Good luck with your open garden!
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Thanks Marian. The Chatsworth show will certainly cause some traffic problems. The roads around there are not great and I understand the numbers 20000 a day is likely to be an issue. Get there early!
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Lovely shots of the blue fields of flax! We have a native flax here in the American Pacific Northwest, Linum lewisii (named after explorer Meriwether Lewis), which I grow in my garden. I too feel like I am in a race against nature right now.
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Thanks Alison, This time of year is one of the busiest. I am planning a blog on my hours through the year soon.
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Your borrowed landscape is beautiful, and I love seeing the beautiful blue flowers of flax growing; it is often grown in Somerset where I visit fairly regularly.
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Thanks Christina. Flax is less common around here but it has been lovely this year as there was so much that we could see from the garden.
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Lovely of you to have the Art Club group over as your garden is a beautiful scape for canvas☺
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Actually I am also one of the members of the Hoby art group so it is only natural that they come round.
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👍You paint too!!! Excellent! Hope to see the group’s art pieces soon. 😊
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your borrowed landscape is superb and how wonderful to look out over a sea of soft blue. I grow Linum perenne ”Blue Sapphire’ which is a gorgeous shade of blue.
I love the idea of having artists in the garden enjoying it and recording it for posterity.
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Thanks. It was one of the factors that convinced us to by the house and although mots of the ha-ha is with the old rectory, the bit we have gives a great view.
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How interesting to see the flax, it’s beautiful, and I’ve made a note of the one Chloris grows in her garden.
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Hi Kate. It is not uncommon but this was the first time there was so much planted.
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Your blue, borrowed landscape is lovely, Steve! And, again, what an inspiration your garden is for the art group (I believe I left a comment on last year’s art day — not realizing it wasn’t a recent posting.) I know what you mean about a ‘race against nature.’ My first tour group visited my garden this past weekend and I was barely ready for them. Fortunately, they didn’t seem to notice what I hadn’t done. Continue to enjoy the gardening season. P. x
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thanks Pam, Just got up and the sun is out and it looks like a great day. Just got till 12.00 to finish those jobs that never get done then hopefully people will start to arrive.
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