My gardening diary
MONDAY
We’ve had such a busy year some things have been neglected. Although we try to grow as many of our plants as possible ourselves, we bought in a few treats that are slow to propagate. A tray full of Aster frikartii ‘Mönch’ got tall and leggy; they were cut down and have now made bushy li le plants. TUESDAY
Up a ladder in sweltering heat to cut back our Banksian rose. It had shot out in every direction, including under the gu er and the drainpipe. I was glad Neil was hanging on to the bo om of the ladder. WEDNESDAY
The two beds either side of the front steps up to the co age have li le colour since we cut back our geranium ‘Brookside’. Neil is charged with planting out dahlias, zinnias, marigolds French and African and the rest of our rudbeckias – I’m away for a fortnight. THURSDAY
We’ve been filming the summer episodes for our new Channel 5 series due to transmit next spring. We’re visiting four splendid gardens in each of the four seasons. Despite the remarkably sunny weather, we’ve managed to run into rain a few times! FRIDAY
Some of our beans have been so prolific that we’re finding it hard to keep pace with them. Since one of them can be dried and used as flageolet beans, they’ll be picked when the beans inside have swelled but before their cases have become brown and dry. Apparently the trick is to dry them in the shade! SATURDAY
Our tomatoes weren’t sown until April but they’ve made remarkable progress. Fruit is se ing well but it’s important to remove shoots growing in the leaf axils so the plant devotes its energy to ripening the tomatoes. SUNDAY
There are masses of docks in the field and we must try to catch as many of their seed heads as possible before seeds fall to the ground. Because of the extreme heat, plants everywhere have raced to set seed this year. Some are welcome, others not. Ca ro l K le i n