Readers’ gardens
I’ve been neglecting our garden lately as all my concentration has been directed towards our local Open Gardens Day, so it’s lovely to have the time to catch up on simple jobs such as pruning and deadheading. The flowering perennials are already rewarding me for feeding them.
I can also finally get around to planting some unusual specimens bought on our coach trip to Hampshire and the Isle of White. It’ll be a challenge to squeeze them in now the borders have filled out in all their high summer glory!
David has pruned the very overgrown Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Irene Paterson’ and Salix integra ‘Hakuro-nishiki’ into more formal domes. Inspired by one of the gardens we visited on our trip, he has lifted half a dozen paving slabs and replaced them with gravel on the patio so we can grow some creeping thyme underfoot.
The tomatoes, sweet peppers and cucumbers in the greenhouse have been slow to flower, but outside the containerised spaghetti squashes are growing like triffids!
The next big change in the garden will be happening in September. The overgrown and diseased Viburnum tinus ‘Eve Price’ is coming out and a multi-stemmed birch planted in its place – David’s 70th birthday present!
After a somewhat lacklustre mid-season dip, the garden is gearing up for its peak performance. Orange daylilies, towering pink filipendula and sanguisorba ‘Lilac Squirrel’ are vying for space with carpet roses in pink and lemon and white panicles of chartreuse hydrangea
‘Little Honey’ and its cousin ‘Snowflake’. Bold variegated foliage comes in the form of persicaria ‘Painter’s Palette’, surrounded by penstemon ‘Dark Towers’ and stachys. Thalictrum has seeded itself all around the ornamental pond and tree lilies are just starting to open. This is my favourite stretch of summer!
Thompson & Morgan trial red and orange begonias and petunias are putting on a good show. You can hardly walk through the patio for the number of pots!
We’ve entered our front garden in the London Gardens Society Championship this year so I’ve hand-picked blemished leaves, fed copiously, weeded furiously and finally topped off with fresh compost in time for judges. I must say, it looks lovely.
Who would have imagined how successful our NGS Open Day would be? In July we welcomed over 500 garden visitors, served over £1k worth of refreshments and sold nearly £700 of home-propagated plants and produce.