We are still in a period of drought as August ends. We have had a couple of rain showers, but the garden is still very dry.
In the front garden the Cyrpress trees have enjoyed the warm dry weather, but the crocosmia has not. It is not dead as there are streaks of green starting to run through it from the recent rain, but it does look a scrappy mess.
Signs of the dry weather are everywhere. This fuscia is sending out new green foliage after getting a bit crispy.
The Gertrude Jekyll rose by the front door is loving its new obelisk. It has Impomea growing through it and I am hoping that it flowers soon. This rose has been cut back hard a couple of times this year, once to enable the house to be painted and once to fit the obelisk over it. It has recovered well from such indignities.
This planter near the back door is a riot of bonkersness. I sort of think I over-plnated it and yet also think that it looks great.
The number of container plants in the Courtyard have increased quite a bit this year. Keeping the pots watered has been a bit of chore over these dry weeks, but thankfully I have had no losses as yet.
In this hot summer, this cool shady part of the garden has really come into its own. Buying this yellow bistro set was probably my best decision of the year.
The back garden itself is still looking quite dry. The recent rain was enough to make the garden start thinking about growing, but not enough to sustain this growth. The green on the lawn is clover and daisies and other weeds wildflowers. The grass remains steadfastly brown but I know it will recover in time. I had a day or two when I did not need to assiduously water the newer plantings, but that did not last long.
The rusty tree is settling in well. Maybe this was my best decision of the year? Now I am not sure. Maybe I made two good decisions.
The bees have been enjoying the Verbena banarama.
Several of the trees in the garden are in a confused 'I'm defoliating because its dry but its also the cusp of Autumn' moment. I realised as I walked around the garden how tall this Aldi Acer had now become. It was about 2 foot tall when I planted it over fifteen years ago and now it must be 7 or 8 foot tall.
In the Wild Garden, where it always gets very dry in the Summer. The Autumn cyclamen are flowering well. They seem to have suddenly seeded themselves around well. This makes me very happy.
The conkers are falling too and being spread around the garden by the many squirrels.
I have kept the Cryptomeria sekkan sugi well watered and it seems happy.
The Wild Garden looks very dry. It will soon need its Autumn mow. This is not so obvious as in previous years partly due to the dry weather stopping growth but also because I have it a 'long' cut in July. I might delay mowing for a month or so but I need to do it before the Spring bulbs start to emerge.
The Exotic Border has coped with the dry weather too. I have kept the Tree Ferns well watered. I could not bear to lose them.
and this is Newby, a new tree fern addition to the border. More of him another day......
Magnolia Leonard Messel has lost his leaves due to the drought. I did not really try to keep him watered which may have been a mistake. He is still alive so that is good. I am now just hoping that it will not effect the flowers next year.
The Edgeworthia got quite wilty whilst waiting for rain. I kept it watered and it is now looking better. I do worry about it, probably too much.....
The fernery also got very dry but now is looking much better. I did not water this, I thought I would see how it coped and thankfully it did.
and how is the veg garden I hear you ask? Well my dear reader, it is work in progress. Work has commenced on completely renovating the area. More of this another day too (trying to build an air of anticipation.....)
The pond is dry and feeling sorry for itself. There is some water I think where it is deepest, but it is hard to tell. It does need the weeds clearing too.
Allegedly we might get some rain next week. I hope so. I hope it does not go to the other extreme and give us too much rain. We need balance, but the whole point of climate change is that balance is unlikely. It is more than a worry.
Take care and be kind.