Old plants and new

I have a new link on the side bar to a Gardening by Letter project started by Anna of flowergardengirl blog.Those of us who have joined send her a card a month for 12 months with little gardening gifts included, Anna then sends them out to the recipient for that month. I am Dec so I am looking forward to my cards arriving. The project began in march, you can read about it by clicking on the photo.
More of the past weeks back garden make over. There is one central flower bed which I have kept in the middle of the gravel. This is a patch I have tried to grow vegetables on by bringing in top soil and emptying compost on over the years.I gave that up when we started on the allotment. It had got overgrown and neglected last year so this year I redug it and added new compost. These are two of my old faithfulls which come up ever year through thick and thin and a blanket of weeds! A variegated Hosta and an old fashioned Peony Rose.

In the clearout I came across this which I thought was a grass but its plant tag was buried in the ground next to it, it is actually a red hot poker which I had bought early last year plonked in the ground and forgot about. I apologised profusely to it while cutting back and tidying it up and hopefully it will forgive the oversight and bloom this year.

Another donated flower trough ,it has been backed with a trellis and there is an ivy and sweet pea planted in it to cover the bins at the back. I have also put in some lettuce as it can be functional as well as decorative!

The trellis in place with the sweet pea just in last sat.I bought these in Atlantic Homecare, they were crowded into little pots with about 12 plants for 1.99e

The original view of the water barrel and compost bins which I am trying to beautify before D.Michelle gets married in late August.It is a time of year when most things are past their best so any ideas for blooms for August would be more than welcome.