Hay while the sun shines

I see I haven't said much about the weather for a while, not since the chilly spell in mid-May.  Things soon warmed up - a few days in the Lake District in May was one of the warmest visits we've had - and from the last week of June or so they warmed up very considerably; despite a few rainy spells, it has been mostly a dry spring and early summer.  The past couple of weeks have been warm and dry, with a stiff breeze at times to dry things up even more, and at the moment there's no end in sight to this.  The farmers have quite literally made hay while the sun shines, and parts of the garden are turning to hay too; the lawn is quite crisp in places.  Keeping the pots watered is a priority.  I have a number of plants in small pots which dry out very easily, and, quite apart from not having much suitably prepared ground in which to put them, it's difficult to dig at the moment because it's rock-hard; they're taking turns to be plunged into bowls of water. 

We have no hosepipe ban (yet), not that I use a hose much at all; but we're trying to conserve water use, and to save 'grey' water where we can.  There isn't much in the veg plot that needs watering at the moment; the broad beans (not a success this year) are almost completely past, the first lot of lettuces were bolting anyway and the potatoes, garlic and shallots will soon be ready for digging up, and it's only the 'hill' (which is bearing up well) and the runner/French beans that need occasional watering.  Washing-up water is going under the raspberry canes, which are starting to fruit.  There are still quite a lot of green gooseberries, but there are always far more than I can use and the blackbirds are very grateful for them; the red ones were protected from the birds and have been picked, likewise the blackcurrants.  For the latter, I used a couple of fabric sleeves that are designed to protect cherry branches from the birds - they even come with little plastic cherries on the end of the draw-cords that seal the ends - and they were quite successful, although some of the leaves scorched underneath (a minor problem).  Other plants in the ground are having to find their own water unless they're really looking stressed (the Lysimachia clethroides has been looking a bit limp, but it's a potential thug anyway, so that's not necessarily a totally bad thing!).

The tomato plants - 7 of them this year - are all planted on into old plastic sacks of compost, an alternative to grow-bags as I wasn't really satisfied with the ones I used last year.  So far they're looking good and fruiting satisfactorily.  The 6 aubergines are starting to flower and have also just gone into bigger pots on the staging.  They and the tomatoes (and the little chilli and pepper plants) are being watered daily.

The heat isn't conducive to much heavy work in the garden, and I've been taking the opportunity to sit in the shade and clear the winter/spring bulbs out of their pots, which should have been done some time ago so that I could get the summer plants in.  As I had thought, many of the daffodils in pots didn't survive the spring cold; 'Tete-a-tete' and 'Elka' were fine (although they were in smaller pots that were easier to protect), and 'Elka' seems to have proliferated greatly, but the bigger varieties had just rotted.  'Baby Moon', I have discovered, is a glasshouse variety anyway; fortunately they were planted in a non-frostproof pot, so I had put them under cover when the freezing weather was forecast!  We seem not to have lost the other plants in pots (the fern that had been looking sad has recovered well), with the exception of the big purple phormium, which was always going to be a bit of a risk and which is definitely finished.

Rose 'Mme Hardy' and Buddleja alternifolia

Over the past weeks we've been enjoying bowlfuls of cut roses, as well as appreciating the show they make in the garden.  I had been considering getting rid of 'Mme Hardy', which always goes horribly brown as the flowers go over, but when newly in flower it made a fine show with Buddleja alternifolia (another plant I had considered removing, but maybe I'll just curb its enthusiasm a bit instead).  There are also some sweet William in bloom, and the Allium christophii have been impressive too.

Allium christophii

The peony ('Sarah Bernhardt') has also been providing some cut flowers; and the big philadelphus ('Virginal'), which I keep threatening to dig out, managed a few sprays as well.

Philadelphus 'Virginal'

Peony 'Sarah Bernhardt'

In this heat I've been ensuring that the birds and other wildlife have plenty of water, especially as the pond level is dropping extremely low; it hasn't been full since winter, and now a lot of the liner is showing.  Is it significant that there were a lot - I counted 9 - of dragonfly larva skins on the pond plants the other day?  The quality of what little water there is must be pretty poor, and presumably they felt the need to get themselves out of there and fly off to find better water in which to lay eggs.  Almost the reverse of rats deserting the sinking ship!  And one day we had a grass snake slither across the patio; it must have been looking for some water as well.

Dragonfly larva skins

There are more butterflies around now: a small tortoiseshell, a red admiral, a couple of ringlets, plenty of small whites, a female orangetip and something that was either a meadow brown or a small heath.  Most striking have been a few scarlet tiger moths that were here over several days; one was found dead on the lawn, which made for an easy photograph! - the scarlet parts aren't always visible when the moth is at rest.

Scarlet tiger moth (deceased)

Scarlet tiger moth (alive and resting)

The birds are coming to the end of their breeding season.  A thrush had been singing daily in the big ash tree but has fallen silent in the last few days, and the blackbirds have stopped singing too.  There are still some little sparrows being fed, but other young birds appear to be independent now.  Time for the parent birds to have a rest in the sunshine.