Gardening for Ideas August 2010
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August can be a challenging
month in the garden. After the abundance of spring and early
summer, there's a danger of parched lawns and patchy borders,
just when we need our gardens to look their best. For inspiration,
all you need to do is conjure up memories of favourite holidays and
try to bring some of that summer scenery into your garden. Then,
even if you aren't going away, at least sitting outside under a
parasol, chatting over a jug of lemony elderflower cordial (or
something stronger), will have a sense of occasion and of place
about it.
Childhood holidays on the south Cornish coast make me think of fiery crocosmias (often called montbretia) and hydrangeas. There are many cultivars of crocosmia, most of which flower during August. Then, for some reason, I recall mesembryanthemums tumbling over a hotel's rock garden. These succulent bedding plants known as Livingstone daisies are liberally smothered with colourful, daisy-like flowers opening wide in the sun.
If you've been to Madeira or the Isles of Scilly, the impressive flower heads of agapanthus might turn your head as these fabulous plants have naturalised themselves there. They also grow well in our gardens, though some cultivars might need winter protection in colder regions. Here in Devon, they do well planted out and in pots.
Mediterranean holidays bring back memories of peeping through doorways in the narrow streets of old towns, to be greeted by a colourful courtyard full of potted pelargoniums (geraniums). This is a really easy scene to recreate and they look particularly good marching up the edges of stone steps. Olive trees always whisk me back to Corfu and the fragrant yesterday today and tomorrow (Brunfelsia calycina) reminds me of a trip to South Africa. So if you're not away this August, do yourself a favour and make your own backyard a special place to be.
Garden clippings
......in the vegetable garden
- Cut down infected potato
stems if they show sigs of blight (brown blotches). This saves the
tubers and hopefully they'll have reached a big enough size for
harvesting. If blight happens every year, stick to faster maturing
early and second early varieties.
- Fill a wide but shallow pot, or a deep tray (minimum 10cm/4in deep and sow with wild salad rocket. You should be snipping fresh, tasty leaves within four weeks for adding to salads and pasta. Liquid feed and it will re-grow several times.
- Pick French and runner beans regularly and thoroughly by removing all the beans at an ideal stage for picking. This way they are of the best quality and the plant will be able to make more. Water well during droughts.
......in the flower
garden
- Plants like fuchsias in hanging baskets often harden up and stop flowering about now, especially if they've had a lot of high potash liquid feed. Give them a couple of weekly doses of a general purpose feed and they should push out new, soft shoots and more flower buds.
- Prune rambling roses that have finished flowering. If you need to keep them tamed and tied in to a pergola or arch, cut out the flowered stems and tie in the new ones.
- Clip back lavenders after they've flowered. This is particularly important in colder areas, on rich wet clay soils. This stops them becoming straggly and helps them get through tough winters. Remove old flower stems and some top growth.
......and in general
- Pay particular attention to
the watering of rhododendrons, camellias and witch hazels,
especially if they are growing in pots. These plants set next
year's flower buds now and will be hampered by any dryness at
the roots.
- Look out for reversion on trees and shrubs. This is where on variegated plants with coloured leaves, Plain green shoots suddenly appear. Cut them right out to their source, otherwise, as they're stronger, they'll eventually take over.
- Plant the corms of colchicum (naked ladies) and autumn crocus now in borders or grass. They'll surprise you with their flowers this autumn and will come up year after year.
Q & A
Q: I have a large cherry tree
which needs pruning. When is the best time to do this? From
Elizabeth, Bridport Dorset
A: Cherries, like plums, are stone fruits and should be pruned during the summer months, fungal disease silver leaf, which enters wounds through cuts, but is least likely to do so in summer. Seal the wounds immediately with a wound paint.
Q: My New Zealand flax is flowering, but still looks dreadful after the winter. What can I do to tidy it up?
A: Phormiums did
take a hammering in the cold, snowy weather and many are flowering,
possibly because they were shocked by the cold. You can cut away
completely dead leaves and brown leaf tips but leave enough foliage
behind to mark the general shape of the plant until new ones have
grown.
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