My garden in August

It’s been a tough month for the garden with more heatwaves arriving in what seemed to be more often than the buses. I jest we get buses once an hour most of the day here, but it seems that the heatwaves have been never ending doesn’t it?

There has been a steady stream of ripening tomatoes through the month which has been tasty, some have been an odd shape but that hasn’t detracted from their taste. I suspect the yields are lower than perhaps they might have been other years, but we’ve had plenty to keep us going, and I’ve appreciated the slow drip approach rather than having a glut.

We have tiny olives on the new olive tree in the bit pot, and we’ve even got our new garden furniture out and sat in it - it’s comfy, but thankfully we’d put it away before the big rain later in the month.

There’s some plant woes this month despite the regular watering. The alstromeria in flower below had a wobble but recovered enough after some time in a trug of water. I lost the agastache that I bought earlier in the summer, which was a shame but was one of those things.

The daisies were doing well until they weren’t, despite watering and the rhubarb has only a single stem on it now. I’m less fussed by these though as I’m hoping these will be back in earnest next year, and I know that the daisies will benefit from getting out of that pot - actually most of our plants will.

I didn’t have much joy with my salad growing either. The second batch germinated but then we were away for a few days and they looked a bit crispy on our return, and if you look at the photo above you’ll see that something had taken a liking to one half of the seed tray. Well, at least I helped out a hungry creature or two while I was trying! I’m hopeful that next year I’ll manage to get growing more consistently again, fingers crossed.

The cosmos - in pots too - have done consistently well over the summer and are still in flower today. I’ll be collecting some of their seeds as they seem happy here, and I’d be happy to have more of them - let’s hope that doesn’t come back to bite me!

My other success of the summer is this lagerstroemia, which against the odds - it looked like a dead stick much earlier in the year - has developed into this. It’s probably as surprised as I am I’m sure.

In warm summers we move this indoor plant outside as it loves the heat. And it’s really loved this summer, in the warmer weather it develops the red edging to its leaves which is just joyful, and when I looked more closely it’s also throwing up some more stems. When the weather cools I’ll give it a quick once over - and a dust - and bring it back inside to it’s more regular spot on the windowsill for the winter.

A lot of this post is about the heat, but as the month went on the heatwaves lessened and rain in the middle of the month must have felt like a milestone - as I took this picture. Now looking back it doesn’t seem that much, but it was probably the most significant rainfall we’d had in quite a while.

This second rain picture was just ten days later, and that was quite a bit more! So much more that our outside sofa had puddles on it, but it was much needed and I don’t think I’ve heard so few people moan about the rain! Though it added a new job to my list, and that was to make sure these two saucers were emptied when the rain had stopped, I could manage that though!

My garden still has plenty of gardening left for me to do, and I’m grateful that the days are now cooler so I can get out and tackle this, though clearly that’s better on dry days - and days where we have free time. The joys of gardening, hey?

My garden in July

It’s about eight weeks since we’ve had any proper rain here, and the garden knows it. We’ve had a few spots and the threat of rain, but nothing that’s really been of any use to my plants. I’ve been looking at posts on Instagram this last few days of people sharing the rain they have, still waiting for it to arrive here. I’m sure when it does arrive properly there will be a deluge and too much for the hard baked ground to deal with effectively, I’m sure that’s the story though in many areas this summer.

But there have been high spots, and plenty of photos so let’s get on shall we?

The month started with the rowan berries the palest of oranges, and throughout the month their colour has deepened. The lavender that was doing so well last month, hasn’t lasted as well and most of the flowers have now gone and it will soon be time for their annual trim. Thankfully though the bush that looked as if it’d failed, where we removed all the outer rotten stems, has survived in its skinnier version, so maybe we’ll be lucky and it’ll spring back.

The cosmos were doing their best to flower, they’ve actually been a really good indicator of how our plants are doing as they quite visibly droop without water, then spring back after a good long drink. I know the feeling cosmos, really I do.

This was taken early in the month while the lavender was still in flower, and to have these roses flower alongside it has been the most glorious scent filled space. Our roses in pots are still doing well, the paler Claire Austin less so, but that has spent most of this summer recovering from crispy leaves sustained in the hot spell in April.

It’s not been all sun though, it’s been windy too. And this now named ‘lightweight light’ has needed to be corralled on more than one occasion to stop it blowing about the garden. It’s name is twofold - lightweight for it’s ‘easily blown’ nature but also because for the size of it, it gives out the most minuscule amount of light. MOH tells me it’s mood lighting, but I disagree it’s hardly any light at all - it’s just as well that I like its shape, or otherwise I think it would be having its marching orders.

The small pink rose has excelled this year, and seems to have loved having its branches upright - it’s amazing what a steel plant support can do, and it’s probably the first year since we’ve been here that we’ve really seen its potential.

The cosmos flowered! Actually both pots have flowered more than once, which given the conditions I’m both pleased and surprised at. I’ve been continuing to pursue growing some lettuce in a cut-and-come-again style and have found that my best tool is a small watering can close by to where they’re growing. Which means there’s more chance that they’ll get water when they need it. The second batch of seeds has germinated well, and even looks like lettuce, and then something found my seed tray and decided to help themselves, with a whole section quite clearly munched. But at least they left me some, which of course I still need to pot on and tend for.

The real star of this month though has been my pineapple lily which I bought at Gardeners’ World Live last month. I spotted the tiny ‘pineapple’ flowers and then needed to check them daily to see how they’d progressed.

And progress they did.

We’ve been out watering our pots most evenings, or every other evening if we can’t manage every night. We only water pots, and thankfully we don’t have a hosepipe ban here, but the later evening waterings has given me time for some later evening photos, and I love this one of the rose with the lavender and street light behind it.

On days when the weather is cooler, or where plants are in the shade I’ve been taking the opportunity to fill up my green bin. There’s still a lot more to trim and take back control of but the inside border is starting to look a little less unkempt, and in places even tidy.

The prolonged warmer weather meant that it was time for us to get out the garden sofa, and that meant plenty of time for some pot faffing. Or pot scaping if you must. Ever since MOH said that when the sofa was there on its own it looked like it’d been dumped, we’ve had pots surrounding it. This year I think I’ve excelled myself as I’ve added a side table for the santolini and pineapple lily which brings a bit of height too. No doubt next year I’ll do something different!

And then there are the thirsty tomatoes, which are starting to repay us with their fruits. When I planted these I wondered if the terracotta pot or the plastic pot would fare better, and in truth I’ve seen very little difference.

I’ve still much to do in the garden, but cutting the grass isn’t one of them. Not only is there no grass to cut, MOH has reclaimed this task as his own - which is absolutely the best news, as it leaves me to potter on elsewhere!

My garden in June

Gardens, or rather watering or lack of, is always a worry when I’m off on holiday, and I ended last month doing as much as I could to prepare my plants, especially those which hadn’t been planted out of their garden centre pots, for my time away. I don’t know if my plan of digging the pot half into the flower beds would work or not, but luckily for my plants it rained a fair bit while we were away, so when I got back everything looked quite healthy. Phew.

When I’m back from holiday I do like to have a walk around the garden and see how everything’s coped. I wasn’t disappointed, well apart from the weeds. Not only were there more weeds in my lawn (note it’s now my lawn since I’ve been tasked with cutting it!) but they had the audacity to flower!

The amaryllis with the hollowed out stem produced another flower, but still needed the wall for support. It’s amazing how battered and eaten it looks, but how it’s still programmed to flower. Hopefully I’ll have more luck with them next year, and less bugs.

The lavender throughout the garden, but especially in the outside border, really came into its own. Apart from the lavender bush that didn’t.

That’ll need dealing with, as no amount of positive thinking is going to bring that back!

The phormium, also in the outer border, was still flowering. These didn’t seem to open any further before dying back, so I think that’s what it does, apart from looking very dramatic and beautiful that is.

The tomatoes were all doing well, and there were signs of the teeny-tiniest fruits starting to form - I told you it had rained a fair bit, and while I was glad I’m sure most people weren’t.

The dahlias had also formed small flower buds, and I was looking forward to seeing what colours the four plants would bring - would they all be the same, or would I be lucky and get different colours. The colour reveal is coming later on in this post. The roses needed dead heading, and the bees continued to enjoy the lavender wherever they could find it.

The rhubarb which I planted last month was thriving, no doubt making the most of the rain and its shady spot. The plants in pots I’d dug in (some are visible above the rhubarb) also looked healthy, though the one on the right had greener leaves than when I’d left. They had previously been a dark purple, so I’m not sure if they need a sunnier spot to perform that trick - I’ll need to read the label again.

The dark flowered iris was just about hanging on, and as ever the lady’s mantle was looking glorious with its raindrops. I needn’t have worried, but I think it would have been a completely different story if the warm weather (let alone the heatwave) had continued while we were away. Typically the first few days we were home the weather wasn’t that great either, but I could see there was plenty to be done in the garden, but I was hopeful the rain would subside.

It did of course, and I managed to snap a couple of almost autumnal looking photos in the next few days, it was only the middle of June so I hoped autumn wasn’t closer than it should be.

Since we’ve been back from France I’ve been surprised by my pink jasmine, which we brought with us from London. It was originally a very small plant that I’d ordered from the Gardeners’ World Magazine way before I’d even thought about visiting a Gardeners’ World Show, let alone run competitions for them.

For the first time since we moved, it flowered. It’s been in a pot for a while, even for a while when we were in London, so I’ve really no idea why it was grumpy following our move, but it seems to have come to terms with Nottinghamshire life and has treated us to the prettiest pink jasmine flowers. I haven’t quite told it yet that at some point it might move out of its pot…

Both of our olive trees were also in flower this month, and they’re not shy about it either. Neither of them, perhaps MOH will be able to think about his olive oil production after all?!

After spending time nosing about gardens both in France and in the UK since we’d returned I got an urge to sow some seeds, which I haven’t had for quite a while. I don’t have a greenhouse space but I quickly realised that our old garden table could provide just the space I was after. And so far it’s worked pretty well, with an adjustment or two.

The first dahlia flowered and it was the most gorgeous cerise pink, what joy. That flower died back, only to be replaced with two more blooms from the same plant. The others look like they will flower soon, so now I’m putting my money on them all being this gorgeous colour, but I may be wrong.

I’d noticed that the hellebore was self-seeding into the gravel, and I wanted to keep as many of these as I could. MOH was banned from weeding this section of the gravel, and I could see him itching to tidy it up, so one afternoon I set myself up with a kneeler, a seed tray and had an enjoyable afternoon transplanting these small plants. Not all of them made it into a seed tray, as not all of them had what I deemed sufficient roots when I pulled them up, but I’m hoping those that I did will provide plenty of free plants. What’s not to like?

I also filled another seed tray with some self seeded lady’s mantle and a few lavender plants which were also happily growing away in the gravel. The weather warmed up again and I realised that my makeshift seed table also came with a built in shade provider so when the weather was at its warmest - thanks heatwave number two of the year - the seeds and the transplanted plants spent their time underneath the table.

One of my succulents has been enjoying the hotter weather more than me and has treated us to a pale yellow flower, which is both delicate and peculiar at the same time. It’s also grown out of the mother plant by about six inches so struggles to keep itself up, so you have to duck down to see its flower.

Our peace lily houseplant, which was a moving in gift from one of our new neighbours, was looking rather sorry for itself so I decided to repot it. Then once it was out of the pot, I decided to cut it in half and make it into two plants. The roots were really dense, and it’s the first time I’ve needed to saw a rootball to split it. Both halves seem to be doing well, and let’s face it they have a lot more soil than they’ve probably ever had, so hopefully in a month or so they’ll be back to their best.

This smoke bush has made us smile many times this month. It’s just a large ball of fluff, which from certain angles looks like it really could be one of those poodles with the fancy clippings.

The buddleia has grown and grown and is almost back to the height it was when I trimmed (/hacked) it back a month or so ago. It’ll need another cut before the end of the summer, but not right now as it’s bringing all the butterflies into the garden. As is I’m sure my two beautiful dahlias!

It’s amazed me to see just how much the newly planted rhubarb has grown in a month - this is it mid June, and since then it’s got proper blush rhubarb stalks on it. Sadly we won’t be eating those this year, we’ll let them die back naturally so that the plant can retain its strength, but next year will be crumbletastic.

We’ve got the promise of a strawberry or two on the new plants which I picked up at the Newark Garden Show back in April, whether or not they’ll come to anything who knows, but the promise of future strawberries is good enough for me right now.

Every so often this month I’ve poked my head into the small crab apple tree to check on progress, and there are apples so that’s good. There’s also a lot of growth from it’s hard trim, so I think I may need to give it a trim every year, just not as much, rather than leaving it to alternate years.

Oh, and that lavender bush that needed dealing with? We dealt with it. Most of it was very dead, some of the stems at the base were rotting and others snapped as they were so dry, so it really wasn’t happy. It’s odd as part of the bush had managed to do its thing, and the centre part I left hopeful that it will survive.

There were two other sections which while it looked dead in the centre had flowers and fresh growth. They looked a bit daft left on, so we cut those off too and quite a lot of the flowers ended up in a vase in the kitchen, and some more will hopefully provide even more free plants.

I’m also hoping that the free plants from the gravel, whether that’s the hellebores or lady’s mantle, or even some of the lavender will grow on enough to help fill in some of the gap above - though they have a bit of growing to do yet.

And if I had a greenhouse I could do more pottering, seed sowing and bring more cuttings on - and so I’ve taken the plunge and ordered a small greenhouse. I’ve pondered over it for quite a while, and while its ordered it’s on a six month delay which quite honestly suits me just fine.

I’ll leave you with this top down image of one of the sea holly’s which I hope will flower soon. Hopefully there’ll be an update on what it does in next month’s update, but before then no doubt I’ve got some weeding to do.