Head Gardener's Diary - August
We don’t seem to have had a summer this year, every time
we get a dry or even sunny day it’s compensated for the
day after with heavy showers and gusty winds. The Dahlias and
Gladioli have taken a battering several times over and a lot
of the taller plants which usually manage to support themselves
are lying down. It hasn’t helped that this year has been
so wet and mild early on as everything is taller than usual
anyway. We’ve tied up what we can in the hope that they’ll
finish the season.
We are continuing with the hedge trimming – at the moment
we are concentrating on the inside of the demonstration garden
compound; this involves cutting back to the chain link fence
with secateurs and is rather time consuming but every time we
attempt to get the generator and hedge trimmer out at the moment
it rains. At least we can continue if the hedge is wet. I am
hoping for nice weather for the next couple of weeks as I am
on holiday and I’m taking my raincoat and umbrella in
the hope that I won’t need to use them. (Yes – I
am an optimist; how did you know?)
We’ve flailed the meadows, I shall do them again when
I return from holiday to tidy them up for the Friends Open Day
on September 14th , and cut down the remaining areas. I left
a couple of patches on the cornfield meadow as there were a
few mice and frogs hopping out of the way of the flail into
a couple of strips I hadn’t already cut and I couldn’t
have flailed knowing they were all in there thinking they had
found sanctuary.
A couple of trees in the garden are already starting to show
Autumn colour, most noticeably the Acer cappadocicum in the
bed on the right, just after you walk past the stream along
the road. I’m expecting quite a bit more colour by the
Open Day. It will be a busy week getting everything tidy after
my holiday so I am hoping to have a relaxing time doing little
apart from lying in the sun (see, still optimistic!), eating,
drinking and reading a few good books.
Julia Wesley |
|
| |
Dahlia Deborah's Kiwi,
Aug 2008 |
|
