There is lots to do outside before the seasons change
Atremendous amount of time has been taken up with watering recently. I store more than 800 gallons of rain water in huge butts connected by hose pipe so that the one nearest the pathway can be used for dipping in the cans.
As the water level goes down, the dipping bin fills up again. The water was very low but the recent rain saved the day.
The lawns in the back garden are never watered but brilliantly green because the lawn consists of 60 per cent white clover and 40 per cent grass.
This is all due to Mother Nature but very few people notice the clover as the lawn is cut regularly before the clover flowers are visible.
Plants in the herbaceous border are looking really good now with c osmos and dahlias filling any gaps.
The dead flowers should have been taken off and the brown leaves have been removed from the hostas and the foliage on both plants looks really attractive even without the flowers.
This transformed the area at the centre of my garden where the now dried up stream runs.
The phlox are beautiful this year and they are to be sprayed with Fungus Fighter to prevent the leaves turning white due to the powdery mildew which attacks them at this time of year – so be aware.
Lots of herbaceous plants will come into flower again this year if the dead flowers are removed; this is particularly true when looking at Gaillardia, Penstemon, Delphinium, Erigeron and, very importantly, the dahlias.
Is there a space at the back of your flower border?
It’s not too late to sow a wigwam of runner beans; they grow very quickly and look so beautiful.
As the children are on holiday,
teach them how to find seeds on flowering plants.
As I explained last week, let the children find the seeds, put them into the tray in the sunshine and after a couple of weeks they can press the seed pods and hear the seeds fall onto the newspaper.
I’m sure this will keep them interested for hours.
Also, how are the plants in your containers and baskets?
And are you dead-heading every day?
Hopefully they are still looking good and they should still be excellent in a month’s time if you keep maintaining them.
If you have been on holiday and the baskets and containers look a bit sad, give them a good drink and then cut the stems back the where you can see a side shoot.
Instead of giving them a feed of tomato fertiliser, encourage more growth by watering with Maxicrop Complete plant food – it’s a liquid feed which is diluted with water.
The nitrogen in this natural feed will invigorate the plants and, in about three weeks, the plants will look wonderful again. In fact, you may find they look better than they did in July.
It’s a good idea to give plants a good drink rather than a squirt through a hosepipe.