My garden in August

August was a busy month in our garden, and I know that because I have lots of photos to choose from for this post! It was one of mixed weather and the month that we took delivery of our new log store which MOH started to build in the garage, thankfully it wasn’t too heavy for us both to move into position, alongside the bins. As well as storing logs, it has a really handy side cupboard which is ideal for storing bags of compost, bark, grit and gravel, which aren’t exactly the nicest things to look at are they.

It is now finished, and I’ll include the finished picture in next month’s update - but here for chronological order and correctness it is under construction. In our old house we didn’t have a garage, so didn’t have a space like this to act as a temporary workspace - it’s been a godsend though, as it also has level flooring and I’m told that assembling this on gravel wouldn’t have been the thing to do. Thankfully there was agreement that the patio wasn’t a suitable place either!

Anyway onto things more pleasing to the eye…

We had another spell of roses flowering which was most welcome, and it was great to see the spots of pink from the patio and out of the window. The roses will idc find more permanent homes, but not just yet.

Elsewhere in the garden it’s been about sunflowers and produce - peaches, tomatoes and chillies mostly.

Towards the start of the month the sunflowers were still relatively small, they’d grown a lot, but they hadn’t reached the top of our garden wall and peering inside the flower heads weren’t formed yet. Keeping a close eye on them over the month meant tracking their height and progress, and it wasn’t too long before they were level with and then taller than the wall, which acted as a good measure for my informal tracking.

By the end of the month both of them were taller than the wall and the main flower head was starting to form. Phew, though there was still some way to go if we were to get flowers, and hopefully a bit more summer too.

Our outside border had really grown and so one morning I took my secateurs out there for a workout, the result was much lower bushes and a better view up the road from the window. The lavender has also gone over already so that’s another job to add to the list, trimming the eight or so bushes we have throughout the garden - at least it’s fragrant work, if not a little slow going.

It’s great to see the lavender in full flow though and is a great waymarker for people trying to find our house!

My £1 chilli plant continues to do well and has produced more chillies since we’ve picked the ones it came with. Not bad for a £1 and a very fruitful walk back from the pub one evening. I am concerned about what I’m going to do with it when the weather turns, but for now it’s happy on the garden table under the crab apple tree.

We’ve had quite the success with our peaches, from the nectarine stone that dad planted some years ago. I think they must have reverted to peaches as the skin’s definitely furry like peaches, not smooth like nectarines. We had three fruits but one we lost fairly early on, leaving just two to develop into peaches that look like proper peaches.

This one dropped off towards the middle of the month and looked to have some kind of rot on one side. I’m not sure what the cause of this was, but as only one side was affected we tried a couple of non-affected slices (and have lived to tell the tale) - and it was so, so sweet we had high hopes for the remaining fruit.

With the warmer weather appearing most days, or at least for some of most days, I took advantage and moved my sun loving indoor succulent onto the garden table. It wasn’t long before the edges of its leaves were tinged red, a sign that it’s happy I think, rather than sunburn.

The crab apple is doing its thing too - we don’t have as many fruits this year, so they may be heading for an autumnal wreath rather than a jam jar, but that’s to be expected I think as we pruned it last autumn and I think it would prefer a spring pruning - something to note for next spring.

The tomato plants, in pots again this year, are fruiting and I’m hopeful we’ll have a fair few cherry tomatoes for the kitchen. They seem to have been green for quite a while, so I may need September’s sun to ripen them.

But there’s always something to do isn’t there? We have three or four Ceanothus or Californian Lilacs and they take up a lot of room in the garden bin, so I’ve been spacing out pruning them. I’m done now, but having my own compost heaps in the future will help I’m sure, though I think these would need to be chopped more finely beforehand or else they’ll still be there, fully formed, the next year!

But that’s something to think about another time.

My garden in July

The roses from last month, continued to flower and I’ve spent a good morning or two deadheading this abundant rosebush in between showers - but it was so, so worth it as the rose bush has continued to flower throughout the month. The potted roses have also repeat flowered so if you’ve not been convinced before about deadheading, definitely do it!

This month the oxeye daisies have also been one of the stars - I just have a single pot of them, but look how well they’ve done. Last year I had three flowers, but this year so many more. I’m looking forward to getting them into the ground at some point so that they can really maximise their potential. My garden plans are starting to form more in my mind, but my challenge is to get those down on paper.

Our previous garden was best in the early spring, but here it’s definitely a late spring/early summer peaking garden, or rather the side border is. I’m loving the flowers on all of the hebes.

What has really stolen my heart though are the european smokebushes - we have this green leafed variety, and the darker burgundy leafed version; they are both delightful and well, just, frothy!

The buddleia is full of flowers, and full of butterflies. Despite being cut down much earlier in the spring, it’s regrown and then grown some more. I’ve discovered that the main stem has a label so it was definitely planted on purpose, and not the self-seeded plant I first thought.

The flowers on the Lady’s Mantle are a beautiful yellowy-green, and also frothy. They have tumbled over the edge onto the gravel.

The two surviving sunflowers are thriving next to the wall, where they are as I hoped enjoying the warmth from the sun and the wall. It’s been great to measure their progress as they grow brick by brick, edging ever closer to the top of the wall.

Elsewhere in the border there is more colour - the orange berries on the rowan tree, and the pink fuchsia flowers whose stems are also a beautiful pinky-red.

Ah yes, the burgundy european smokebush - isn’t it a beauty?

The sunflowers aren’t the only plant that is hugging the brick wall on the boundary - the foxglove flowers are hanging on, and I’m sure there’ll be more to enjoy next year.

Edging towards the top of the wall…

The outside border has grown and got a bit wild, so I’ve spent some time out there pruning and squishing as much as I can each fortnight into our garden bin, priding myself at my ingenuity at packing quite so much in. Instead of a usual robin companion, I’ve been enjoying the company of the butterflies which are regulars at the buddelia.

I found an unwanted and leafy tall shrub, which after some googling I classed as a weed. I cut its leafy branches off, then as it looked to have enough space around it I decided to get the root out.

Mission accomplished. But quite a mission it was.

What better to end this post on though, with the raindrops on the leaves of the lady’s mantle.

Herbs by the back door

A while back I bought some herbs at one of the local plant fairs thinking that I’d pot them on and that would be that. Well, it wasn’t - for ages they were just nestled in one of the grey oblong planters that we brought from our old house, and which previously edged our greenhouse. The weather did nothing for my inclination to garden, and even if I’d planted them where I’d left them, I wasn’t sure that was the best place for them, so indifference won.

I knew I needed to do something about them as when I tried to move them I realised they’d rooted through the pots and were making themselves at home, and then inspiration struck - herbs are most useful when they’re close to where you want to use them. Having them close to the kitchen bi-folds didn’t work, but I did have a spot, that got the sun, right by the back door.

And so a plan was formed.

The herbs were detached from the home they’d made for themselves and left to soak in a trug of water, and the planter was cleaned up and moved into place. It’s a heavy old thing, and I’d emptied some of the earth from the three of them before we moved, partly to make it easier for the removal team but also so that my pots of tulips could easily nestle below the top and the pots could still be stacked without damaging them.

It wasn’t long before the soil levels were topped up, the plants were planted and small gravel was added to the top - to finish it off, and as a mulch to prevent weeds and encourage water retention, well that was the plan anyway!

I’d also spotted some pretty ceramic plant labels on Etsy by the Florentine Cottage - aren’t they fab?

They also help MOH identify which herb is which - though I realised that I had two mints in my planter, and I had no label for coriander, which although I had no plant yet, it’s a herb we regularly use.

The rosemary remained in a separate pot, as I’ve a feeling this one will grow much larger.

I also realised I had a separate pot of thyme which I moved close by, but which also didn’t have a label.

The labels were so good, I ordered more - for the missing coriander and thyme, with extra labels for thyme and basil which I’m likely to have more than one pot of, and ‘more mint’ for the second mint in my main herb planter.

I’m not sure of the varieties of the mint I have, but now they’re mint and more mint!

And today, the herb planter is thriving. I’ve even squeezed in some coriander, it’s a brilliant place for our herbs and reusing the grey planter couldn’t have worked out better. I’ve plans for the other two too, but that’s for another day!