Edging, yanking, planting and a list of heat-beaters!
Hello friends!
I've been pretty quiet on the gardening front recently - something to do with this heat, and the anxiety that accompanies drought for any person who cares about plants, and whether they have enough to drink. I've also been trying (and failing) to be a bit ninja about the school holidays this year, so that we have a few things in place (again, for anxiety reduction purposes), and that has been taking up a lot of my brain space, so although I've been doing my five minutes of gardening, there's been precious little time to record it for instagram stories or pictures.
I want to thank you all SO much for your kind messages regarding the new book. I'm so sorry not to have got back to you yet...it will happen at some point!
But here, for what it's worth, are my gardening forays for this week
Monday: There have been some interesting things happening with the hydrangea cuttings I took earlier in the year. If you remember, I split them in two, because I was greedy and wanted more for my money, and everything seemed fine for a while - each cutting took, and started growing well, and then I acclimatised them to the outdoors, and they continued doing well. Then suddenly, about half of them started drooping. I still don't know why.
I'm thinking that perhaps I overwatered them, and the smaller ones couldn't cope. But anyhow, today I potted the remaining strong ones onto larger pots, in multi-purpose compost, and also two of the ones that are drooping, to see if a change of compost will help (which I doubt, but I hate not to try).
Tuesday:
My large border needs attention; the asters, echinaceas and rudbeckias which I rely on to take over from everything else and give me the late summer show I crave, have not done well this year. Perhaps lack of water is to blame - I have no idea. I only know that it looks utterly shambolic and I am rather ashamed of myself and it's making me sad. I can't re-plant now, in this drought and heat, but I can do SOMETHING, and that something is to put in some badly-needed edging, which this bed has been waiting for since its inception. It was always meant to have a mixture of alchemilla mollis and alpine strawberries, but I didn't so enough strawberries or divide enough alchemilla last year, so it never happened. Today I put in five strawberry plants that have been ready to go in for yonks, and I feel instantly well with the world. I water in well.
Wednesday:
I continue with my edging job, with five more strawberry plants, and I dig up a bit of alchemilla mollis and put that in too. Again, I feel better. I water well. I also tidy, which is basically one of the easiest and most worthwhile tasks in the garden at this time of year. I pull out random weeds that are annoying me, and I sweep, and arrange tables and chairs, and dream about having cushions made and other stuff like that. I pull up the spent flowers of the allium sphaerocephalon (don't ask me how you pronounce it...I just had to copy and paste that word)...now I look closely I can see it's 'sphero' (as in 'sphere') and 'cephalon' (Kefalonia)...will I remember it? I doubt it. Anyway, I'm SUCH a big fan of this onion! It comes up much later than all the others, when you really need it, and it is SO CHIC, and OH HOW THE BEES LOVE IT! I've only ever seen more bees on a myrtle...it's as if this plant is some sort of class A drug for them and they cannot keep away...they don't even move when you come close. Gorgeous and highly recommended. Also beautiful in death...see above.
Thursday:
I have stopped picking sweet peas. There, I said it. There's a point in summer, when the support starts to buckle, and the leaves get a bit mildewed and I just sort of accidentally on purpose 'forget' to water or feed, and that's that.
I'll pick one last bunch this weekend and then remove them. I deadhead all the argyranthemum and give them lashings of tomato-food-laced water, and I do this also to my pelargoniums. I also put the sprinkler on as soon as it gets dark. I can feel a hose-pipe ban coming, and everything is dry as a bone.
Friday:
I want newness (it's a July thing) and so I remove the crispy dead leaves still sprouting from my pot of bulb lasagne, replace the displaced crocus bulbs, and pile on a small layer of new compost, into which I plan on sowing some mizuna (except I can't find any at the moment), so I clear out a pot of gone-over things and bury the last of my gladiolus callianthus bulbs (of which you are most probably totally sick of hearing by now.
Here they are in the flowerbed. It's pushing it to be planting these now, but if they don't go in, then they go to waste, and we can't have that can we!
I hope you've all had a lovely two weeks. I've got plans for a few new projects over the coming weeks, despite the ennui of heat, and my garden being full of dead things...doing new stuff gladdens things a little. In the mean time, here is a list of things that are doing really rather well thank you, right now in my garden, with very little or no help from me; a reminder, I hope for next year that this midsummer lull can be beauteous.
Agapanthus - extremely gratifying - I haven't even watered them...not once
Argyranthemum - on their fourth or fifth flush right now (I forget which). An absolute must-have
Hydrangeas (paniculata and Annabelle) - both doing lovely things. Paniculata has needed watering once or twice.
Amelanchier - I am just totally flabberghasted that these haven't died a death. I have not watered them (I should have) and they weren't planted all that long ago. Bravo!
Gladiolus callianthus (of course- see above)
Alpine strawberries - looking tatty but divine and coping with the heat valiantly
Sedum spectabile - Utterly gorgeous and well worth the few moments I spent pinching at the tips a few weeks back. They are amazing.
Anemone x hybrida - just coming out. Always welcome. They have needed water though.
Verbena bonariensis - always gorgeous and oblivious to dry conditions
Russian sage -as above
All the good things, as always
x Laetitia
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