Back after two weeks in a rather hot Central Europe, to a
garden that has been not a great deal cooler and is looking dry after three
heatwaves and very little rain. A
hosepipe ban has just been announced – whereupon it has rained, though not
nearly enough to refill the reservoirs.
A kind neighbour did an excellent job in our absence of
watering the tomatoes and keeping the pots alive, though the plants in the
ground have had to fend for themselves.
On the whole they haven’t done too badly. The peas have mostly dried up and one or two
ornamentals are looking the worse for wear, and the lawn is decidedly
crunchy underfoot, but actually the garden is surviving and looked passably respectable
for the village open gardens day (by my drawing visitors’ attention to the wildlife
aspects of the plot rather than the conventional aspects of gardening). When I spotted one
visitor taking a photo, I realised that there was a reasonable amount of colour
if you looked in the right places! The
dahlia pots looked good, and the Verbena bonariensis and some pinks masked the fact that much
of the foreground planting (the geum and fading penstemons) needed deadheading;
in 31C I hadn’t felt much like getting out there with the secateurs to sort it
out!
 |
| A reasonable amount of colour |
The Echium vulgare ‘Blue Bedder’ in one of the tulip pots
had flowered well, and attracted interest from visitors. And my little wildflower patch has its good
points (I’m not sure I’m going to keep that for another year, though!).
 |
| 'Blue Bedder' and surrounding pots |
 |
| Wildflower patch |
Some of the veg plot isn’t looking too bad; the climbing
bean plants, with dill in front, are doing fine, though the dried-up peas need
clearing (and there’s a stray radicchio plant next to them which is flowering). The garlic (very small) and shallots (satisfyingly
large) have been lifted and put in the greenhouse to dry off, and I’ve started
clearing the broad beans. A late
explosion in the ladybird population is dealing with the blackfly! I was surprised how many of my lettuce
seedlings had survived the heat; before we left, I pulled up several of the
little strawberry plants which were flagging badly (they don’t do well in
drought) and popped lettuce in their place, and they’re coming on quite well.
 |
| Strawberry plants flagging - and about to be pulled up |
 |
| Radicchio in flower |
 |
| Beans and dill |
 |
| Dried-up pea plants, with a nice row of carrots |
There’s a new pest, melon-cotton aphid, in this country, affecting buddlejas;
mine has the characteristic leaf mottling, but apparently it’s not fatal. The plant is already in flower, much earlier
than usual because of the heat, and attracting butterflies, which seem more
plentiful this year.
 |
| Mottly buddleja leaf |
After today’s (nicely steady) rain, the forecast is for temperatures to
climb to low-to-mid twenties (centigrade), with some showery days ahead. I’ll be tidying up the garden as the weather
permits!
