I am very lax in writing an End of Month View (EOMV) on the blog but I am sure you will forgive me if at least I do post an occasional update.
When reading the majority of the EOMV posts from gardeners in the UK you will probably find mention the abysmal summer weather. We have been unlucky in being subjected to an inordinate and unfair number of wet weekends, and those rare good weekends we have been blessed with I have not been at home. I work most of the week and get home late and am tired so my poor garden has become overgrown and now is beaten down by heavy rain. However, I think it still looks lovely, lush and slightly wild.
When going through the garden at the side of the house I feel I need a machete. This year the white Agapanthus honoured me with two enormous flowers which are still in bloom and the Japanese Anemones are standing tall, whilst as usual the Clematis “Jouiniana Praecox,” is madly scrambling through the climbing rose and along the wall.
Earlier this year I cut the Elder Sambucus Nigra right down to about 3 foot and in just a few months it has shot up to over 12 foot, however there were sadly no blooms on it as it flowers on last years growth. So I have to decide each year whether to go for the height and have blooms or cut it down annually.
The tomatoes are slow to ripen but getting there. This year I have grown Sweet Million and they are so sweet and an ideal size just to pop into my mouth as I pass by. I had a couple of plants left over and for the sake of somewhere to put them I planted them in the raised border and to an extent have let them grow wild just to see what happens.
I had an idea that I would go for a color palette of burgundy to lilac in the garden this year and I ordered a selection of seeds from Higgledy Garden. There have been a few failures but I think that was down to me and not the seeds. The Sweet Peas ‘Burgundy’ were beautiful although not very prolific and are now over. Below are those that were successful:
Cosmos ‘Pied Piper’ (with a Cleome muscling in)
Scabiosa ‘Back in Black’
Cerinthe ‘Major Purpurascns’
Amaranthus ‘Caudatus Red – Love Lies Bleeding’
The other plant that has suffered from neglect and the rain are the raspberries, I have not been picking them quickly enough and many have gone mouldy
I love peonies in the spring and it is such a shame their leaves go so manky for the rest of the summer. I had hoped the Guara would hide them but they have gone very straggly and again that is down to me not staking them properly.
Just in front of the obelisk the sweet peas were growing up there is a very pretty shrub that has interesting blue flowers, I can never remember what it is called, can you help me please?
The last part of the garden is the on the right hand side, which gets little sun and is full of Astilbe which have turned brown now. The Alchemilla Mollis are spilling out on to the lawn and I need to get out there and cut it back otherwise I will have bald patches.
There you go that’s my contribution this month and now I will take a tour of the other EOMV’s for August. Thank you Helen from Patient Gardener for hosting this long running and very popular meme.
