My Gardening View this month is a mix of disaster and delight as the unsettled weather takes its toll on flowers and veg.
The days of torrential rain have been perfect for my slimy foes and several things – zinnias in particular – have been badly hit by slugs and snails.
The below average temperatures have also meant cosmos and other flowers in the cutting bed are only just getting going.
Of course it hasn’t all been cold and wet. We had a week of extremely high temperatures that coincided with our holiday – great for us, not so good for the friends who valiantly tried to keep the garden watered while we were away.
One thing that didn’t appreciate the hot weather was the lettuce and it promptly bolted. I’ve cut it back to a stump and it’s shooting again. It won’t make proper plants but we will get some more leaves. Meanwhile, I’ve sown some more, including ‘Arctic King’, a winter variety.
Things are getting a little crowded in the greenhouse. In fact, it was so packed I’ve moved some of the aubergines and chillies into the potting shed, which has a big window and gets lots of sunshine.
The cucumbers are doing particularly well. This is ‘Party Time’, grown from seed given to me by Burpee Seeds as part of this year’s gardening trials.
It’s the most success I’ve had with cucumber in years – masses of fruit, smooth-skinned and with a good flavour.
I’ve also been trialling this Vegebag given to me by Vegepod. It’s designed to keep pests at bay and has been really successful.
I’ve been using it to grow Kale ‘Midnight Sun’. This was originally part of last year’s gardening trials with seed given to me by Chiltern Seeds. However, the slugs liked it as much as I did and demolished the first sowing.
A second sowing was more successful but the plants didn’t get that big. This year, in their netted cage, they are enormous, although possibly not as dark in colour as last year.
The Vegebag has a zip top to make harvesting easy and would be ideal for someone without much garden space or even just a balcony.
A new venture this year is blueberries. I bought two plants and put them in pots as my soil isn’t acid. Only one has flowered and fruited this year but we still have quite a few fruit. I’ve had to net the bush as I think the resident pigeons will be partial to blueberries.
The gardening view in the main garden is entering its ‘blue phase’ with lots of eryngium in flower and the last of the campanula. The perovskia, or Russian sage, is looking particularly good against the gold of the stipa.
And I was relieved to see this come into flower. Campsis isn’t completely hardy and with several other things in the garden failing after the spring’s frosts, I was worried it hadn’t survived. It’s obviously tougher than it looks.
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Hi Mandy, I love seeing pictures of your garden – and this is in no way meant to be a criticism!. On a recent Sarah Raven podcast she said she also leaves the poppy heads for their seeds and because they look so lovely – but she methodically ‘de-leaves’ them after they finish flowering as the leaves can look ugly and when they are still green and slugs like to hide in them……. Lynda
That’s an interesting idea. I certainly don’t need to leave anywhere for the slugs to hide!