Month: August 2008
The weather is so disappointing. I managed to get a photo of this lovely Peacock before the rain started again. Also a fine clump of Sidalcea. I must try and get Sidalcea’ Elsie Heugh’. I saw it at Bloom and it is gorgeous!
Peacock
I live in a semi detached house backing onto the river Nanny. I have lived here for the past 20 years. I love pottering in the garden. The most colourful time in my garden is the summer as I have lots of hanging bastets, wingdow boxes and containers.
Our two little streams, that in a normal summer sometimes dry up completely, burst their banks at the weekend and flooded the lower part of the garden. This sometimes happens in winter, but not twice in the same ‘summer’! The water receded quickly and my gunnera, rodgersias, lobelia cardinalis and other water loving plants suffered no damage. The leaves and flower heads of the alchemilla mollis look very dirty and sad on the riverbank, but the waterfall looks and sound brilliant!
Elsewhere in the garden it’s such a bad year for cosmos! I grow them every year from seed, but I have never seen them as unhappy as this summer. A bit of sunshine will hopefully see them flowering better until October. Nicotiana, however, while not growing as tall as other years, has a wonderful scent on these damp evenings.
Our roses, which for the last few years have flowered unusually early and gave a great show earlier this year, now also look very sad. I didn’t treat them for any diseases, but with the weather I don’t think it would’ve made any difference. Greenfly certainly wasn’t a problem this year – they have more sense than to be out in this weather!
These last few days I’ve been cutting back a wild cherry tree I got years ago with coupons from pack of margarine! It had begun a takeover of an area of the garden, with branches touching the ground and forming several new trees around it. I didn’t realise that such a large tree could propagate itself by layering and so start shading out its neighbours. It needs a huge space, but its future in my garden is dubious. Too many trees planted in the early years of a garden can cause lots of problems later on.
Waterfall.
Hi All,
Well, I know i am not alone in my despair for the wet weather. Himself is also troubled because his vegetable patch can get a little swampy – but I think its doing well. Or should I say we eating well out of it. The potatoes are still continuing to grow and are lovely steamed with just a little butter, the dogs love them too! but if that is not enough – we have joined them with Mangetout, and the most delicious garden peas ever, i just have to have the patience to wait for them to grow bigger. The turnips have been lovely and i find them nice just roasted in the oven, and i joined them this weekend with the "carrot thinnings" lovely baby carrots – delicious. I also made a lot of black currant jam because his currant bushes were over-flowing. The birds are still eating off them.
The garden does look a little neglected and the weeds are growing faster than the rain is coming – so its difficult to try to get out much. That said – the Dahlias are putting on a nice show, the poppies have had their day but were good while they lasted and we ended up with some lovely mixes from last years seed crosses.
My sweet pea is still not up the trellis – so i have given up and last weekend agreed to stop pinching them out and to let them grow, i need a little colour and once they start they will tumble over with that distinctive smell.
The alliums have finally been taken up last weekend. They have lovely seed heads and i have some seeds if anyone wants them – on the seed swap forum.
The tomatoes are coming on nicely – slow due to the lack of sun, the peppers are growing ….. which i find a miracle – god only knows why i get so excited at the sight of them, i have a melon which i am looking after but no fruit just yet – if i get that excited about the peppers what will i do if a melon comes up, LOL
Ah well, thats all for now – hopefully we are getting some pleasure out of all this wet weather, if not only to look at the lovely colours in the garden,
I realised in all my ramblings i forgot to mention the best of the garden this week – i think its the cosmos – I have planted them throughout the front border and some of them are seeds i got in a seed swap last year – they turned out to be lovely double flowers – the petals turn back on themselfs and therefore are two toned, its always nice to see what comes up when you swap seeds.
Lastly, the one thing i felt i did badly this year – and i could do with advice here please – is my Tagetes, they went in as normal – but grew and grew…… and grew some more, they have only recently started to flower and they are supposed to be short. Was it the rain? i did not dead head or anything – they normally look like a lovely carpet – this year….. they are lanky….. but finally flowering.
Lorraine
Its tough gardening in this 2008 summer that never was, really disheartning to see the water damage to a lot of plants. Not doing much else but tidying around, cutting lawn when we can and trimming the edges. Bought two sacks of Spring bulbs recently, so looking forward to planting them in Sept. on a nice sunny day. Does anyone have tips on making raised veggie beds, which will be our next big project? Thanks, talk soon.
my potatoes
Apples
At last my water lily has flowered.
It was planted last year and did its best to form flowers.
Unfortunately they did not open in time and were cut back by the first frosts.
I have fared slightly better this year.
Water Lily
