MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR GARDEN
It takes a lot of planning to create a beautiful space, so make sure you keep it looking its best…
Gardens never stand still and with late summer on the horizon, it’s worth spending some time now to pump up the planting so you have flowers for longer. Take stock, not only to appreciate the successes so far, but also to note any failures. A little tending at this time can boost listless plants with a new lease of life, or consider giving lacklustre borders a lift by injecting a burst of colour with some late-season perennials.
STAR PERENNIALS OF LATE SUMMER
With a bit of foresight, you can ensure that just when borders are beginning to flag, a group of vibrant perennials will burst onto the scene, filling any gaps that invariably develop in even the best-planned schemes. Favourites include asters, hardy chrysanthemums, sedums, hydrangeas, salvias, penstemons, dahlias, Japanese anemones, rudbeckias and crocosmias. Their flowers will bring borders to life, with fiery reds, smouldering oranges, delicate whites, zesty golds and dusky pinks.
Mature plants are available from specialist nurseries, along with advice on their care. Choose specimens that either blend harmoniously or contrast vividly with your existing colour scheme. If your
budget is tight, however, focus on creating a single eyecatching arrangement near the house, diverting attention away from dull patches elsewhere. Grouping a few plants together creates greater impact than dotting them around singly. The soil is warm now, so provided they are watered, new plants should establish well.
Asters are one of late summer’s most colourful perennials, coming in an array of shades, and sizes ranging from around shoulder-height to barely knee-high.
Dwarf varieties such as ‘Jenny’ form neat domes of flowers, ideal for either the front of borders or pots, while medium-sized cultivars such as the old favourite Aster x frikartii ‘Monch’ – one of the earliest to flower – will slot in among leafy mounds of hardy geraniums, sedums or catmint. And, while asters fade, the daisy-like theme will keep going as hardy chrysanthemums come into their own.
Sedums are a wonderful addition to the garden in every season. In spring they emerge in clumps of architectural fleshy leaves, which are followed by many flat-headed stalks topped by scores of tiny starry flowers in white, pink or red. Loved by butterflies and bees, the flowers continue well into autumn, drying to add skeletal forms to the garden throughout winter. Sedum spectabile ‘Autumn Joy’, (ice plant), is just one of this invaluable family and really does live up to its name.
Salvias are the true jewels of the border, lavishly adorned with hosts of dainty flowers in shades of opal, garnet or amethyst. Starting in early summer, they flower profusely right up until first frosts. Salvia specialist William Dyson recommends cutting them back in July to remove straggly branches and spent blooms, encouraging a fresh flush of flowers.
While salvias love full sun, hydrangeas are thirsty plants and grow best in partial shade, providing a long-lasting blend of handsome foliage and large blooms. To be sure of the colour, choose your plant when the lacecap or mophead flowers are open, before they fade gracefully to add ethereal forms to the winter garden.
PICKING AND DRYING FLOWERS
Hydrangea flowers, along with gypsophila, roses and sea holly, are easy to dry and make a fantastic addition to indoor arrangements. So too are ornamental seedheads such as poppies, love-in-a-mist and alliums, and now is a good time to pick them – not forgetting to put a couple of seedheads aside to provide seed for next year. Also consider lavender – it takes just minutes to pick a bunch, a week to >
dry upside down in a warm place, and its uplifting aroma will linger for many months to come.
LIFTING AND DIVIDING
Thinking ahead, check whether wellestablished clumps of early flowering perennials, such as astrantias, daylilies, poppies and aquilegias, should be lifted and divided. If so, earmark possible sites, then prepare a deep planting hole half-filled with compost. When it comes to dividing a clump, dig out as large a rootball as possible, split it using a spade, place each section in a planting hole, and water both the original and moved plants while they put down new roots.
PRIMPING AND PREENING
By midsummer, many plants are becoming somewhat dishevelled and in need of deadheading, supporting, pruning, feeding or watering. The prompt removal of dying flowers will prevent energy being wasted on seed production. Use sharp secateurs for roses and stout perennials, such as lupins or delphinium that have strong stems of multiple flowers. Slender singlestemmed blooms can be cut with scissors.
After their flowering peak, plants such as catmint, hardy geraniums, alchemilla, centaurea and astrantias are likely to be flopping over, their flowers faded and foliage wrinkled. However, if they’re cut back with shears to about 15cm above the ground, thoroughly drenched and dosed with a liquid seaweed feed, they will sprout fresh young foliage and, in Indian summers, may even produce a second flush of flowers.
Edibles, too, will benefit from being given some extra attention at this time of year. Tomato plants thrive on permanently moist roots and a diet of high-potash feed to encourage more fruits. Rocket and spinach will flourish in a cool spot, while regular container sowings of cut-and-come-again or mizuna lettuce can be harvested within five weeks. Many herbs will be flowering, but cutting back now will prevent them running to seed and foster a fresh batch of leaves.
Many evergreen plants are best kept in shape with a ‘little-and-often’ approach, so snip back wayward branches to prevent vigorous bushes, such as pittosporum or photinia, getting out of control. Keep deadheading repeat-flowering roses to encourage new blooms. Climbers that flower just once can be pruned back and tidied.
Wisteria will by now be sending out long whippy shoots that can be reduced to just five leaves. Traditionally, box should be cut back in early June, but a light trim now will ensures a crisp outline for winter – trim it during a cloudy spell to avoid the leaves getting scorched. Brushing your hand in all directions through box will tease out any irregularities in length and make it easier to cut a neat shape.
WATERING AND MORE
In a dry summer, it is essential to water regularly – it’s best to do this at the coolest time of the day to prevent the water from quickly evaporating. A weekly soaking that penetrates to the roots is more effective than a brief daily sprinkling. If drought sets in, mulch the soil with a dense layer of compost to retain moisture, and consider fitting a diverter to a bathroom downpipe, and connecting to a water butt. Dehydrated plants become stressed, less floriferous and more prone to disease.
It’s a good idea to walk around the garden every day, checking for signs of mildew, aphids or blackspot, and treating promptly – pests that are left to their own devices, even for just a few days, can wreak havoc on your precious plants.
Warm weather encourages weeds to run rampant, so hoe the ground before seed sets and spreads far and wide. Get the garden in good shape before going on holiday: have a last-minute blitz on weeds, mow the lawn and, if the forecast is for hot weather, move containers out of direct sunshine, group them together and water thoroughly.