My Small Suburban Garden

My Small Suburban Garden

Sunday 27 July 2014

Hot & Sweaty...



The humidity seems to have drained all the energy from the garden, as well as me. Sweat seems to pour from my skin simply by sitting still and the plants look quite sorry for themselves, despite copious amounts of expensive tap water applied daily.


I'd used a fair amount of Miracle Gro on the buddlias but even though there's more blooms than last summer they're still not attracting the quantity of butterflies and bees of previous years. While I've seen lots of peacocks, red admirals and tortoiseshells, as well as a few gatekeepers, I've only spotted one comma and one painted lady so far. Even whites are few and far between!


The chives are beginning to bud, and the mint I used to replace the dying lobelias in my wall planters seem to have taken ok, but my three bee hotels remain worryingly devoid of any guests this year. At least the new pink geraniums in the planters look reasonably healthy and the begonias are mostly starting to flower...


Friday 18 July 2014

Hot, Hot, Hot...


It seems that today is scheduled to be the hottest day of the year so far, which is welcome news indeed after all the damp, grey days we’ve encountered so far. Disappointed with my planters, I threw the remains of the marigolds and Californian poppies into the compost bin and replaced them with dark & light pink geraniums. Much nicer.


The lobelias were an epic fail too, so the planters on the wall are now filled with mint, and three of my terracotta tubs have also been re-planted with herbs (1 mint and 2 rosemary). The begonias have been surprisingly successful.


Despite the fabulous buddleias there’s a distinct lack of butterflies so far. I’ve seen a few peacocks, a couple of tortoiseshells and a large white. Bees are thin on the ground also. Only time will tell whether they turn up or not…



Friday 4 July 2014

Summer Sunshine...



After several weeks of warm but wet weather, the past two days have been utterly gorgeous - long may it last! The damp conditions haven't been good for the marigolds, which now look a little 'mouldy', and the lobelias don't appear to have enjoyed it much either and despite slug pellets the snails have munched their way through about a quarter of them. The ones in planters on the wall seem to have done better than those in the borders.



However, the buddleias are on the verge of blooming which should bring the butterflies into the garden again with any luck. Haven't actually seen that many so far this year. The geraniums which managed to survive the winter are in flower, and add a splash of red to the garden. The Californian Poppies have been the start this summer, and will provide plenty of seeds to ensure a good display next summer.



The parsley has now gone to seed, the jasmine is no longer flowering and the birds have eaten all of my wild cherries, but the begonias which I was almost sure hadn't survived the winter are all looking very promising. Predictably, the ornamental poppies didn't last long.

My bee hotels remain devoid of guests, which is a concern as by now the tubes should be home to baby bees which will hatch out next spring. Hmm....