My gardening DIARY
MONDAY It has been too hot for spinach. I’d put out three short rows in our concrete containers but the weather was so sizzling hot that the plants don’t look happy. The next batch will be planted in cooler sites.
TUESDAY The best time to split and replant snowdrops is when they’ve finished flowering. The extensive dry weather though has caused leaves to rapidly shrivel and brown, so we’re removing dry, dead leaves but marking the position of the bulbs so they can be split in September/October.
WEDNESDAY Remembering to label sown seeds! I'm growing a cucumber we grew last year called 'Diva'. Looking for a place to sow the six precious seeds, I pushed each one into an ‘empty’ pot of compost. I now have six pots with one cucumber seedling and a ‘Delice’ squash.
THURSDAY We’ve been moving several rows of phlox from the top beds which we need for veg. Lining them out was supposed to be a temporary arrangement, some have been here years. Not ideal transplanting weather but they've lots of soil and will be well watered.
FRIDAY A couple of our hellebores in one spot have developed black streaks on foliage and old flowers. It’s a fungal disease, hellebore black death, and the only treatment is to
destroy the plants, root and all.
SATURDAY For 20 years, one of the most striking plants in the autumnal display here has been helianthus
‘Lemon
Queen’. This spring it was nowhere to be found, eventually two patches of it finally showed and we’re now making divisions, some will be po ed to ensure we don’t lose it.
SUNDAY The bean pole construction Dean made is a work of art. Around the garden – the laid hedge, the pruning of several trees and the training of our Banksian rose and Vitis coignetiae, are evidence of his skill. Thank you Dean.