Last month I think I was a bit doom and gloom about the state of my garden, on account of the hot weather. I’ve been trying not to be a glass half empty kind of woman, but it’s not easy. A big plus is that it has rained, and conveniently quite a lot overnight – our water butts are all full again. But, there’s very little colour in my herbaceous border now – my aster Mönch is trying hard, as are the few cosmos that made it, and the sedums are starting to change from pale green to pale pink – but overall it looks a bit bedraggled.
My sweet peas have never been so disappointing – I’ve literally been able to cut a handful of flowers. Victoria’s* have done really well, so she’s kindly given me several bunches to enjoy. I’ve picked 2 dwarf beans so far – they’re so small they’re hardly worth cooking. My montbretia is well and truly scorched and my salad leaves were a non event.
What really depressed me on a recent walk to town was this – it looks like autumn is here already and August isn’t over yet!
But, looking on the bright side, my baby tomatoes and courgettes are romping away. Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth the trouble of growing them, but when I taste them, all that doubt disappears. I have managed to grow flat leafed parsley and I’ve had some success with coriander and basil, although the plants are pretty small. I chop the leaves up to eat with my tomatoes and bought salad, and I have to say the flavours are delicious.
Just to return to despondency for a moment, I can’t help it, sorry. Another disappointment has been my strawberry plants. They have produced very little fruit and I mean that in both senses. I did a bit of reading up about strawberries and discovered (you probably already know this), that as well as summer fruiting varieties, there are some called ‘everbearing’, which supposedly produce a steady supply of fruit through the summer and into autumn. So, I bought some. I’ve yet to see a single flower, never mind a strawberry, but I suppose there’s time yet. Little Bud* loves strawberries, he eats gargantuan quantities and, I’m rather proud to say, at the tender age of 2, he can identify a strawberry plant, just by looking at the leaves!
One thing there is no shortage of in my garden is insects. My nasturtiums have been decimated by blackfly and they’ve now moved on to my courgette flowers, cosmos, roses and geraniums. My perennial lupin was magnificent earlier in the season but when she finished flowering, the snails stripped all her leaves. With a heavy heart I chopped her back and she valiantly threw out some new and very healthy looking foliage. However, the whitefly moved in and she’s looking decidedly limp.
Back with my positive head on – after my sighting last month of a Hummingbird Hawk-moth, I’ve seen many Mint Moths recently – they’re another day-flying moth. They’re tiny – their wingspan is less than 2cm. They weren’t on mint, but seemed to be enjoying themselves nonetheless. As I hadn’t seen them before either, I thought they might be rare, but apparently they’re common as muck.
I’ve also spotted ladybird larvae on my cosmos, so hopefully they’re feasting on the blackfly. Soon they should pupate, emerge as ladybirds and continue munching.
Some plants do seem very happy, flowering again after a break during the heatwaves and the bees and hoverflies seem to be finding plenty to feast on – so it’s not all bad news. My overwintered geraniums have excelled themselves and my morning glory is glorious!
Oh, and the blue tits have now learnt to form an orderly queue at the bird camera feeder!
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Rambling Rose 