Susie’s Garden
Now that summer’s here your garden will not only be looking beautifully colourful, it can be home to tasty treats, too!
By the start of July many of the spring flowers have had their special moment and need tidying up. By doing this, they can be revitalised and they can even flower again.
So I am cutting back hardy geraniums, sweet rocket, lungworts, oriental poppies and others that have finished flowering. Any bulb leaves that have gone yellow can also be added to the wheelbarrow destined for the compost heap.
I have a stock of annuals in pots to put into any gaps that this creates, so in go cosmos, nicotiana, scabious and echiums. The lady’s mantle is covered in pretty greeny-yellow stars and is one of my top cut flowers, a valuable filler for mixing with the more exotic blooms of peonies and Peruvian lilies. However, it has a terrible reputation for self-seeding so I make sure I cut it back to ground level as soon as it starts to fade.
My lovely catmints, which line either side of the central garden path, are absolutely covered in bumblebees. I like the effect of them spilling over the path edge but when it gets impossible to walk between them I reduce them by thinning rather than cutting right back. It keeps the informal effect but makes walking a bit easier.
We’ve been eating loads of strawberries from the veg garden, netted by David so that the blackbirds don’t pinch them all. There are fresh broad beans, peas and potatoes flavoured with parsley, as well as lettuces for salads. We’ve just harvested the first tender courgettes. David planted them with lots of manure and compost and keeps them well watered as they are very thirsty plants.
He has planted our runner bean crop at the base of hazel poles. They won’t be ready for eating until late summer. The pretty red and white flowers look very attractive, though – the variety is “Painted Lady” from Kings Seeds – so you could grow them up a fence and make good use of the space in a small garden. For an edible climber, why not try nasturtiums? Their brilliant flowers add colour and a fiery peppery taste to salads!