Time to reveal the "reveal"

Actually, this is probably going to turn out to be a big anticlimax. I like to work really fast in the garden when I'm doing a new project, but the weather here has been so bad I've only been able to finish reshaping in the lawn in slow and laborious steps, rushing out in between downpours.

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But here it is, a nice, neat zig-zag instead of a rather indeterminate curve.

I'm very happy with it. What's interesting is that now I have a shape I'm happy with, I feel I want to take things away, rather than clutter it up. I guess that tells me I'm a great one for hiding problems rather than solving them.

You may remember that I started this by creating a little peninsula around one of my cordylines, below, which for various tedious reasons was growing in the middle of the lawn.

I think I now need a bench in the far right-hand side. But let's not go there right now, because I don't have time for any more makeovers. Shame, because this is a good time to buy garden furniture at reduced prices in the sales...

Here's a day lily, 'El Desperado'. My day lilies aren't really in the right place, so they flower in a rather sulky, well-OK-if-I-really-have-to sort of way. When they do, however, they look spectacular.

I love this combination of colours - created here with a coleus (OK, OK, solenostemon, but coleus is a darned sight easier to write) and Euphorbia characias wulfenii. The coleus is 'Trusty Rusty'. Here it is again with a yellow-leaved maple.

I'm much happier with this bed too (For mini-makeover earlier in the year, see here). I used to have green and yellow striped cannas here, with the yellow crocosmia and agapanthus and Verbena bonariensis. The red-leaved cannas (these are 'Durban') are so much more dramatic.

I was inspired to use this combination after seeing a picture of a garden with yuccas and red-leaved cannas. Sadly, I can't remember whose it was, but thank you very much!

Next to them, but out of shot, is a buddleia. I thought I'd bought 'Nanho Blue' but it turned out more like 'Black Knight' - a really rich purple. It looks wonderful with the dahlias, which are 'David Howard'.

Could I just say, I'm sick of the weather this July. It has been a complete wash-out - the sort of English summer we get teased about. Endless rain, endless wind, temperature down around 16C (which oddly enough is 61F). So I'm jolly glad I'm off on holiday this week.

Yes, I'm off to Seattle on Wednesday! Where the weather is, ahm, rainy and windy, and the temperature is down around the low sixties. I know I'll get a really warm American welcome, though, so I'm really looking forward to it.