What a difference a month makes. Last month the garden was green and lush. The long cold wet Spring had made the garden grow at a great rate. June has arrived as a heat-blast, those of us who used to the watch the Fast Show wake up most days, look at the weather forecast and mutter 'Scorchio'. The past week or so has been hot hot hot and currently there is no rain forecast for at least the next ten days.
The Knot Garden is still rather weedy, but looks ok in this heat. The box hedging makes it nicely green.
I show this neglected part of the garden as it shows the amount of leaves that are falling from the trees. It is like Autumn has come early.
Some plants are starting to struggle and until now I have not been watering any plants in the garden itself, only planting in pots has had any. If we do not get any rain soon I will need to review this policy soon.
Not all the poor bits of the garden are due to the lack of rain, it is also the time of year when I cut back some plants to kickstart them into flowering again. It leaves patches in the borders for a week or so until they recover. Though they might need some water to help with this!
The Long Shoot does not look too dry yet, you can see the lawn is a bit stressed and it has stopped growing at any speed. I have never watered a lawn as I believe they will bounce back.
At the top of the garden the grass is already getting very brown, so I am hoping my belief is right.
The Spring Border is the Shade Border in the Summer. It is very green and seems to keep moisture better than the more exposed parts of the garden.
The Conservatory Border is also looking quite full and this Euphorbia mellifera has turned into a really good focal point for this border.
Also in the Conservatory Border is it leucanthemum and knautia time. I love how they work well together.
The Pond Border looks a bit dry and the roses are just finishing their first flowers. The crocosmia are budding up and the hollyhocks are just thinking about flowering. It feels like the season is getting ready to turn again already.
The Mme Alfred Carriere rose that climbs up the Whitby Arch is flowering very well and repeat flowers until the first frost.
The Kiftsgate Rose is also in full bloom. This huge rose rampages around the side hedge happily.
The Courtyard which is shady nearly all day until late afternoon is looking nicely green. I always think I want more flowers in this area this time of year, yet now it is so hot I appreciate the green much more.
The veg borders look scrappy, I am growing a couple of courgettes and one sweetcorn (yes one, I tried to plant it in a grid formation to help germination but the lack of other sweetcorn made this difficult).
There are also some potatoes growing quite well. They probably need a water.
and a couple of beans have started to form.
I currently have a lot of plants in pots that really need some thinking about.
and the greenhouse has just a few occupants who can withstand the heat. I keep the doors open to try and encourage breeze.
I end on the pond as usual. Yes this is the pond. It is very overgrown and very low. I do need to remove a lot of the planting as they have taken over a bit. Thankfully the pond is quite deep so it has never yet completely dried out ....... yet........ there is no sign of rain forecast in the next ten days (have I mentioned that yet?). The rain-butts are now all empty and much as I like the warm days, I would love some overnight rain.
Thanks as ever to Helen for hosting this meme.
