Sunshine brings out the blooms in my garden
Arecent sunny spell has encouraged many flowers to open in the garden. Geraniums (some inside and some out) are flowering well. Some small rebutia cacti I potted up a few weeks ago are now flowering in the sunshine. Mesembryanthemums and delosperma are also covered in flowers, as are carnations and streptocarpus. My four tomato plants in the tunnel are growing fast and the first fruits are marblesized, despite my late sowings. The major task in recent weeks has been lifting daffodil bulbs. I work on a 'two year down' system, so half the bulbs are lifted each year. I lift them by variety. They have what’s left of the leaves removed and are stored in seed trays in the garage. After two year’s growth I expect each row of seven bulbs to have multiplied to
between 14 and 20 bulbs. Surplus bulbs will be sold at our local society autumn sale.
I moved the primroses and auriculas outdoors in the shade of a tree about six weeks ago. They seem to like the cooler conditions outdoors and several are producing a second flush of flowers.
The sweet peas are producing stems each bearing four flowers and are growing fast on the cordon system, resulting in lots of cut flowers for the house and the neighbours. The dahlias planted out at the end of May are now settled and growing quickly. I’ve even done some disbudding and removal of sideshoots so that they’ll flower on longer stems. Alstroemeria, dianthus and perennial poppies are also flowering well, too.
I’ve lifted the first of the early potatoes. ‘Kestrel’ is low growing and the tubers are light yellow with purple eyes. The maincrop potato ‘Valor’ is growing strongly and has pink-purple flowers. This year I’m growing loose leaf lettuce. The seedlings are grown on in 12cm (4¾in) pots and leaves are taken as needed. By sowing a few seeds each month, I can have lettuce ready all summer and in the early autumn I can grow a few pots indoors to lengthen the cropping season.
I had a pleasant surprise recently when I accompanied a visitor to see the refurbished gardens at Hillsborough Castle. I knew there’d been a revamp of the walled garden last winter and spring but I was pleasantly surprised to see
how well the perennials had grown to cover the flower beds. They had also planted a lot of vegetables and fruit trees, which were also growing well.
I took my daughter to see ‘The Dark Hedges’ recently. This is a hedge of old beech trees along a country road not far from where I live. It has been used as a location for Game of Thrones and now attracts a lot of visitors. The rows of ancient beech trees along the road are indeed a marvellous sight!