Fragrance and colour T
his summer here in the Outer Hebrides has been pretty good, almost equal measures of sunshine and showers, so everything in the garden and polytunnel is growing like crazy. My bargain eye saw a number of poorly hanging baskets going for £1 each in Tesco so I just had to buy them! As hanging baskets on the walls are exposed to the wind here, they’re best on the front of the house so, as I’d run out of brackets, my old apple tree has sprouted some colour this year!
I have a nice little rose garden coming along, with plants I found in Wales, and they’re blooming well. I was told by an elderly chap years ago that when he was an apprentice gardener his morning job was to strike a match under the leaves of each rose bush, the idea being that the little dose of sulphur kept the black spot away. I still do it when I remember and, so far, there’s been no black spot!
The dahlias growing in the polytunnel are starting to flower and I’ve one with variegated foliage, which is rather strange, I think, from a packet of seeds, so I’ll watch to see what the flowers are like.
Veg and dye plants in the tunnel are doing well, although the spinach seeds bolted quickly. They’ll have to go outside next sowing. And the sweet peas are just grand, despite being informed by a local when I moved here that they would never grow. This year I’ve 16 different types, all selected for fragrance, and at the moment ‘Wiltshire Ripple’ and ‘Queen of the Isles’ are winning the perfume battle. It’s lovely to pick a bunch and fill the house with their scent.
We’re pretty pest-free this summer, barring the young crow who has systematically taken each bloom off my snapdragons!
Ducks are working overtime on slug and snail patrol and our hens get all the gone-to-seed vegetables, so nothing is wasted, but with more sheep coming, they’ll be competing for spent cabbage leaves.