Garden and Flowers
Every time I have an event I use a cutting list so I know exactly how many stems and what I need to cut. The next step is to go completely digital and keep a running total throughout the season. In practice this is difficult to manage, suffice to say I know I’ve cut thousands of stems (bearing in mind the conditions this year is quite an achievement) however, I couldn’t tell you exactly how many of each flower which would be really useful to know. This year, the main difficulty with the annuals was that they flowered and went to seed more quickly than I was able to use them and I ran out of replacement plants (which would have struggled in the dry conditions anyway.) The perennials were good, but again the flowering period was shorter or they got frazzled if they happened to flower when the temperatures reached almost 40o C. Also, I didn’t get a second flush from crops like astrantia or veronica. I often get asked how I keep up with the watereing. The answer is “I don’t and I can’t”. Apart from a little help when they are first planted (if they’re lucky). The only area which has a bit of drip irrigation on a timer are the beds around the sweet pea arch, and the greenhouses. The rest has to fend for itself, and to be honest, I think we may need to change our gardening practices to deal with hotter and drier summers.
My garden notes are that when the dahlias eventually flowered, they were smaller in height than usual but flower quality was and is still pretty good. Zinnias loved the heat (note to self zinnias also performed well in the greenhouse), cosmos in the irrigated patch are still fabulous. The unirrigated cosmos are half the size. Statice also loved the heat and I’ve been cutting lots for drying. On a positive note, the hot dry weather meant that conditions for seed collection were excellent. Not something I usually do much of as a rule but I would recommend it as a fall back if nothing else. Just cut some seed heads, pop in a labelled envelope and keep in a cool dry place until needed.
An update on planting: Biennials sown in June dianthus (sweet william), hesperis (sweet rocket) and lunaria (honesty) are now planted out. Digitalis (foxglove) are next on the list. Hardy annuals such as centaurea cyanus ( cornflower), salvia horminum ( clary sage), gypsophila covent garden, antirrhinum(snapdragon) , larkspur, agrostemma (corncockle), nigella (love in the mist) and, phacelia have been sown (some directly in the ground), and mostly pricked out into modules. I am expecting my bulb and ranunculus corm deliveries at the end of the month. Visual progress in the garden can be followed each month by subscribing to my YouTube channel.