Summer has finally arrived after a difficult start to the year... What’s on the seasonal agenda in the garden?
So far, this year has been challenging in the extreme. The extraordinarily wet winter and spring combined with low light levels has resulted in an explosion of lush, lanky growth, whilst cold nights and lack of light has made growing from seed immensely difficult. Now’s a great time to give your garden a bit of summer cheer with some new planting, with the caveat that anything put in now must be kept watered until established. If not, get ahead with plans for autumn bulb planting, as September is the best time to plant daffodils and many early bloomers like crocus.
Planting now
For planting now, focus on the places that you use or see a lot, plus the key viewpoints from indoors. Although late in the season to put in bedding and patio plants, they do give an instant lift in containers and bare spots in borders, and if the autumn weather is kind you could enjoy up to three months of colour. I love shrubby salvias, especially vivid reds like ‘Royal Bumble’ or bicoloured ‘Hot Lips’. In a sunny, sheltered spot, they may well last for years. Dahlias rarely do, but even if you only get one season, they give a glorious display of summer and autumn blooms.
Alternatively, looking ahead to the winter months, go for long-lived plants for pots, like evergreens with architectural form such as variegated phormiums, cordylines and shrubs clipped into topiary shapes. In a big container. it’s possible to have the best of both worlds with a permanent plant surrounded by short-lived summer blooms.
Preparing for an autumn harvest
While it’s been a tough year for veg growing, don’t give up. Plenty of crops can be sown or planted now to give a harvest this year, particularly leafy crops like lettuce, rocket, mixed salad leaves, parsley, Oriental vegetables, radish, Swiss chard and spinach. Sow and grow for next year too and fill the ‘hungry gap’ when there’s comparatively little to harvest in spring. Hardy veg that tolerates frost can be planted or sown outdoors to harvest next spring or early summer, particularly brassicas that are suitable to stand over winter.
Spring bulbs
In the height of summer, it can be hard to think about spring bulbs, but do, if you can. These little powerhouses of flower are usually best planted in early to mid-autumn, especially the Narcissus family (daffodils), so it’s not too early to get planning and ordering. Bulbs are perfect for every garden space and by selecting a range of varieties, you can get back-to-back colour from late winter, through spring and into summer. Beware bargain bulb offers as these are often for smaller grade bulbs that don’t perform as well as top-sized ones; like most things in life, you get what you pay for. Happy planting!
Garden jobs for the season
• Trim lavender as soon as flowering has finished, cutting off dead flowers complete with stems along with tips of leggy new growth. Now’s a great time to make more plants from cuttings, ideally taken from side shoots.
• Prune wisteria, taking all long, whippy side shoots back to around 6 leaf joints from the main stem. Make a diary note to prune back to 2-3 buds in January.
• Keep dead-heading annuals, especially sweet peas, to encourage lots more flowers, and feed with liquid fertilizer high in potash such as tomato fertilizer.
• Feed tomatoes too. Keep removing side shoots and training in tall varieties, pinching out the growing tip at the top of the support. Watch out for diseased leaves that could be a sign of blight; remove and bin to slow or prevent disease spread.
• It’s been the year of the slug! Protect susceptible plants with barriers (proprietary ones or used coffee grounds); eco-friendly slug killer based on ferrous sulphate; or nematodes (biological control). Slugs gather in dark, damp spots so I put down planks or pieces of old carpet and turn over in the morning to give birds a feast.