Planning for ‘summer’
I’m sitting here with the heating on, flicking through the RHS summer catalogue and wondering how I can enliven our scant flower borders this year. Up to now I’ve stuck to the maxim “if it grows it stays”. The front garden is hence stuffed with hardy geraniums, astrantia, lady’s mantle and yellow loose strife. I think that tells you something about the soil and climate.
Lupins, in theory, should do well but are confined to pots raised up high to protect against the onslaught of slugs. The first time I brought some home from the garden centre and left them outside my back door, they had been reduced to stumps in two days - and these had been robust specimens in full flower!
The catalogue is stuffed full of things I can only dream about. Salvias (which last one season at best here), achillea (we managed to keep one going in a pot for a few years), lavender (we’ve got a few struggling on bravely in damp conditions, even though they are atop a wall. The moisture-loving astilbes a few feet away are thriving), lupins (see above), helianthemums (for the hot border, excuse me while I laugh hysterically)...
To be fair, there is an astrantia and a geum (which also seem to survive here) and a foxglove (we allow these to selfseed, too) but after that, the catalogue is mainly useful for firelighting in these gloomy foothills on which England’s green and pleasant something or other was once built.
Actually, we do have one dry, heat lover doing well. It’s a curry plant which is spilling from a wall basket and thrives on neglect. These normally grow on sandy or rocky soils in the Mediterranean.
But as you can see from the photo, it's looking a bit sad all on its own. Its root system has taken over the whole of the compost in the basket. We tried to move it out to a new home this spring, but the compost came out in one basket-shape lump and couldn't be broken up. So it went back into the basket and now I have to try and decide how to get something else in there with it to cover the long bare patch. the little green sprouts you can see in the basket are the ubiquitous willow herb, one of our most abundent weeds.
Still, it's a nice problem to have, I suppose. Maybe I can try some seeds of flowers that like poor soil. I certainly can't get a trowel in there anymore to plant small annuals like pansies.
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| Hardy geraniums, ferns (selfseeded) and ivy |
Lupins, in theory, should do well but are confined to pots raised up high to protect against the onslaught of slugs. The first time I brought some home from the garden centre and left them outside my back door, they had been reduced to stumps in two days - and these had been robust specimens in full flower!
The catalogue is stuffed full of things I can only dream about. Salvias (which last one season at best here), achillea (we managed to keep one going in a pot for a few years), lavender (we’ve got a few struggling on bravely in damp conditions, even though they are atop a wall. The moisture-loving astilbes a few feet away are thriving), lupins (see above), helianthemums (for the hot border, excuse me while I laugh hysterically)...
To be fair, there is an astrantia and a geum (which also seem to survive here) and a foxglove (we allow these to selfseed, too) but after that, the catalogue is mainly useful for firelighting in these gloomy foothills on which England’s green and pleasant something or other was once built.
Actually, we do have one dry, heat lover doing well. It’s a curry plant which is spilling from a wall basket and thrives on neglect. These normally grow on sandy or rocky soils in the Mediterranean.
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| Curry plant - Helicrysum italicum |
Still, it's a nice problem to have, I suppose. Maybe I can try some seeds of flowers that like poor soil. I certainly can't get a trowel in there anymore to plant small annuals like pansies.
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