June and July are too hot for gardening in a small west-facing garden with little shade. This year has been particularly hot and extremely dry from early spring. The roses and other early-flowering plants have gone over quickly, leaving tired, dry leaves behind, and nothing seems to be in a hurry to replace them. This last week it has been windy, which has battered some of the taller perennials and knocked over the allium skeletons so that they no longer look attractive. My time in the garden has been spent cutting back and tying up and hoping for some serious rain.
One job I completed a few weeks ago was the trimming of my little box hedges. These were formed from two clipped box balls and a number of smaller box plants sold for hedging which I planted about five years ago. I aim for an informal effect, retaining the natural curves of the plans, rather than straight lines. This is how the hedges looked before I started clipping:
And this is the result of an hour in the sunshine with a pair of secateurs:
I quite like the irregularity of the two shapes and the fact that there are two types of box, with slightly different shades of green.
Other work has included the dead-heading of all the roses, and cutting back those branches which had grown too far away from the support. Most of the roses will have a second flush of flowers and will continue to flower until about November.
Taking all the self-sown poppies and aquilegias out of the bed on the left of the garden, and cutting back the other perennials has left a fair amount of bare soil to be filled. Fortunately, a trip to Hampton Court Flower Show produced a small number of suitable impulse buys to fill the gaps. I have planted three Helenium "Moerheim Beauty", which have orange daisy-like flowers in late summer, and a potentilla "Arc en Ciel" which has red flowers edged with a touch of gold.
I was delighted to see another of my wild flowers blooming -Centaurea Scabiosa (Greater Knapweed). It is quite a small flower, and much more delicate and attractive than its larger garden versions:
The allium sphaerocephalon are in full bloom now. These are small round flower heads on long thin stems. As the flower heads grow bigger, the stems start to bend and sag in a very informal manner.
The flowers also attract a lot of bees, particularly these little bumblebees with orange tails:
One plant which I have retained despite its obvious deterioration is the angelica. This has finished flowering and is producing its seeds. It has been attacked by blackfly aided and abetted by ants which farm them for their honeydew. This in turn has resulted in an infestation of ladybirds and their larvae, which feed on the aphids. With all this frenzied activity, I haven't the heart to take the angelica out just yet. The garden will benefit from the increased ladybird population.
Another predator of aphids is the hoverfly. Here is a picture of one on the oxeye daisy.
Also performing well this month is the trachelospermum jasminoides, which survived the cold weather much better than I expected given its reputation for being tender. It fills the garden with a sweet jasmine scent.
