After the wettest summer in 1800 years, the rain suddenly stopped. In time-honoured fashion, I checked that the floods had receded by first sending out a raven and then a dove, which returned with a bay tree stem in its beak, so I knew it was time to go out and do something about the weeds.
Sadly, very little renovation has taken place this summer. I am hoping we will have a dry September so that I can catch up with the maintenance that needs doing, and then when the garden goes to sleep in October I may have a chance of making some actual progress. In this entry, I am going to report on some of the things I have tried this year.
Firstly, the annual border. To be fair to the poor thing, it didn’t have much of a chance, being situated in quite a shady part of the garden and then being subjected to the least sunny summer for 2100 years. I wouldn’t bother with cornflowers and night-scented stocks again, unless, in the case of the cornflowers, I was making a wild-flower meadow. I might plant poppies in amongst a herbaceous border. The larkspur and the lavatera were lovely, and I would definitely sow them again. But the real winner has to be the alyssum (the white stuff). It was the first to open its flowers, and it has just gone on and on and on. What a hero.
The honeysuckle is recovering well after the slaughtering I gave it earlier this year.
There was nothing to discover on my Discovery apple tree, but Charles Ross has put in a good effort. The apples look a bit small to me, but perhaps they will grow enough to be worth eating. You might think that the wooden raspberry frame around the tree looks curved because of funny perspective, but it really is that wonky.
At the front of the garden, the grass that I sowed in April has taken well. I mowed the entire area to the same height about two weeks ago. The new grass has grown several centimetres, while the old grass has done virtually nothing. The moral of this is that if you don’t like mowing the lawn, don’t dig out the rubble under it. However, since I don’t mind mowing the lawn and would rather have healthy grass than sickly stuff and moss, I think I will try to renew another patch of the old lawn in the spring, and keep going until I have done it all.
My efforts to take cuttings of lavender, rosemary, elaeagnus x ebbingei and photinia have been a failure. That is, I am still in with a chance on the lavender and rosemary, as they haven’t all died or gone mouldy yet, but the elaeagnus and photinia are as dead as doornails. I know I tried to take them too early in the year at first, but I have kept trying since then at approximately monthly intervals. I have checked the books, and the only thing I have done wrong is not to use hormone rooting powder, so I could try that another year. I have nowhere to put the elaeagus so I am not sure I really want one – I just wanted to see if I could manage to grow one. Many years ago, I did succeed in taking a photinia cutting, and I am wondering whether it would be worth digging it up now, even though it is quite mature, since I seem to be quite a lot better at digging up plants than taking cuttings of them (see later in this post).
My poor tomato plants all died of blight. I got a few tomatoes from them, but it was another failure caused by the wettest summer for 2300 years. And the fact that I didn’t spray them with copper fungicide like I usually do. Well, it would have all washed off. The corner where they used to live is possibly the part of the garden that looks messiest, but never mind, because that’s where I am going to put the greenhouse.
However, the wettest summer for 2400 years has been just heaven for my portable herbaceous border, which looks absolutely fantastic.
The portable herbaceous border could well lose some of its members soon because I have been continuing with my digging of the side border to the front of the house. This is not on the Plan, since it is the front garden rather than the back garden, but I decided that I didn’t need a Plan for it because it is only about 1 foot wide and 33 feet long. I estimated the length by counting the fence panels, of which there are five and a half. One fence panel gets masses of sun, but then the border gets shadier and shadier until it is almost totally dark at the other end. I have a range of plants which could be put along the border, and I have been thinking, while cycling to work, which plants I should put where. Pulmonaria is a good bet for the dark end, and vinca minor would probably also do well, with ajuga reptans in the middle, while I have some geraniums and oriental poppies that might enjoy the sunnier end. I could put a hebe in the sunniest part, and that would look good as long as I remember to keep it trimmed and not just let it get all sprawly like I usually do.
I have been incredibly successful with digging shrubs up. Not one of my transplants has died. I am slightly worried about my Hibiscus Bluebird, which shows some signs of rotting at the base of the stem, but it’s still bravely produced a few flowers. The magnolia that I pruned hard and dug up is sitting proudly in its pot putting on new growth. I have had a near 100% success rate with perennials too. It just shows that if you have a plant you really like that is in the wrong place, it’s worth having a go at digging it up.
