Garden Log - August 2013

Shock horror. A garden log posted in the month that's being written about! You may not see this again for some time...

Everything is looking and smelling fab this month, but there is a definite sense of things reaching a peak and winding down. The ornamental stuff has, for the most part, done better than I could have hoped. The veg on the other hand has been somewhat disappointing. A few strawberries earlier on in the year, and I'm getting a few courgettes and a bit of salad, but still no tomatoes. They're on the plant, but taking forever to ripen. I suspect this is probably down to the soil being a bit crap and nutrient starved. I've been reading about how last years constant deluge will have washed everything out of the soil so I'll have to take some steps to address this once things have died back a bit. My compost heap appears to be doing well, so I should have a good load of mulch to stick down, and the missus and I have been discussing building a raised veg bed in the border under the kitchen window which will allow me to import some good top soil and horse shit. None of this can hurt even if it doesn't improve things (which I doubt will be the case) so we shall see.

Without further ado, here are some pictures!

 

The sweet peas are still going nicely. They haven't climbed as high as last year. This could be because they are a different variety, or because of the soil nutrition issues mention earlier. We'll see next year I guess. I'm sitting here writing this with their scent wafting over me. Lovely.

 

The non too productive veg bed. This is where the raised bed will be going. The lavatera at the back has been great. It's flowered for weeks, but does seem to be trying on a spot of world domination!

The hydrangea is flowering beautifully after a pretty poor show last year.

Nicotiana, dahlias and crocosmia.

The poppies in this border have been going non stop for months with everything knitting together very well.

 

The shady area has filled out very well. There are masses of foxglove seedlings under this lot. They should look spectacular next year. I really like the pink poppies (back left) that have randomly appeared.

 

Rampaging cosmos gone mad. But with no flowers... I'm hoping they'll start soon, but even if not the foliage is lovely.

 

This is a perennial sweet pea that I'd planted to climb the obelisk in the previous picture, but it seems to have decided that it wold rather scramble thought the cosmos. I'm letting it get on with it.

 

The seedling table is crammed with stuff waiting to be planted out in the next few months. The verbena bonariensis is almost growing in front of me it's walloped up so fast. The astrantia major at the front are taking ages to reach a decent size. I suspect I'll end up repotting and overwintering them to plant out in spring. You can also see a tiny agapanthus flowering. These also need a repot and I'm really hoping they turn out to be hardy. These are the ones I've grown from the seeds gathered at Alfabia on Majorca.

The new bed and old wheel barrow that I planted up have vanished under a blanket of more non flowering cosmos. I've just given them a handful of blood, fish and bone today, so hopefully they'll start producing soon.

 

This is turning into quite a long post, but I've not posted about the front garden in a while, so I thought I'd put up a few pictures.

 

These sweet peas have been lovely to have next to the front door. Being welcomed home by that smell is fantastic. They are starting to develop a bit of mildew, which the ones in the ground in the back garden aren't, which is a bit strange. Any suggestions on that?

The main bed is looking good, but will be getting a bit of a rearrange in the coming months. The festuca grass is coming out as I'm sick of it flopping all over everything else, there are some perennial poppies which will be getting moved closer to the front, and some of the verbena mentioned earlier is going here along with some gypsophila that I've been growing on in the coldframe.

A pretty full coverage this month!

I hope everyone is enjoying the tail end of their summer. I certainly am.

 

 

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