Thank you ....

...Garden Helpers...

...for looking after my garden while I was away...

Agapanthas and Dwarf Sunflowers

A big thank you to G for tending my garden.   It isn't easy looking after someone else's garden especially when there are two lively tots and my dog as well as their dog to keep an eye on too.  You did a splendid job. 

Here we are...in August, after a warm and dry July.  It has been so dry that the garden would have needed water almost daily.   Everything was looking good on my return from Sweden, testament to G's vigilance.

Sunflowers and Agapanths are looking their best right now.   The white Agapantha I have not succeeded to get to flower before this year.

Leah planted many of the sunflower seeds back in spring.  These dwarf ones are a treat at this time of year.

Although the meadow is past its most colourful I can see it is still feeding lots of bees.  I will have to mow it soon but a few more days won't hurt.   The bees are loving the lavender too.  This year the tiny lavender I bought as posti plugs a couple of years ago is a decent size with masses of flowers. 

Bridge of Sighs

Lavender and Rose (Margaret Merrill)

The 'new' rose, 'Bridge of Sighs' is blooming again. The Passiflora is covered in buds, I can't wait to see how it looks when they all open.  It seems these were a good choice to plant on the arch.

Another newcomer is the Cherry Brandy Rudbekia.   It is much more difficult to grow than its more common cousin the lovely warm yellow Rudbekia that indicate late summer/ early autumn

Rudbekia, Cherry Brandy

The usual colour for Rudbekia

They are both lovely.  The blue flowers behind the Cherry Brandy are Borage.   These self seed freely.  I dig them up like weeds because I know there are plenty more...the flowers are pretty and can be eaten or used to pretty-up summer drinks.   You can freeze them in an ice cube for party effect.  But most of all the bees just love them so that is a good reason to grow them.

The hanging baskets are better than ever right now.

There is something very opulent and summery about a good basket.   

Aphids and whitefly have infested a lot of the sweet-peas but I still have enough to enjoy a fresh posy on my dining table every couple of days.

I think July and August are all about the vegetables though.

That is if I can nurse a couple of them through an attack (probably fatal all the same) of some sort of fungus attack I presume.   If you know what it is let me know please.  Even better if you know how to prevent it.

What is doing this to my cucumbers?

Still plenty of cucumbers though on other plants.

The promising cucumber crop is going to be halved if I can't stop the disease.  I have sprayed it with an all purpose Bayer product for this kind of problem.

Cucumbers grown at home do not taste anything like shop bought cucumbers.   They are slightly citrus flavoured and tangy.  Really delicious and explain the taste of the English, last century, for cucumber sandwiches.   I always thought cucumber sandwiches were a pallid tasteless thing till I have my home grown cucumber...then it all made perfect culinary sense.

One of the plants I am delighted with is the squash.   I grew this hybrid of the butternut for the first time this year.  I think I'll get a few little butternuts from them

It was called Squash H something or other on the packet,
It's a butternut hybrid I think.

I have been harvesting a few things for a while now

Beetroot, beans, cucumber.

The beetroot is delicious as a salad.   Peel, grate it and squeeze orange juice over it, serve chilled with a garnish of parsley.   Mmmmm!

The sweetcorn is looking better and better too.  Hopefully it will swell and ripen some more providing me with a wonderful crop this year.

Soon it will be time to pick the berries.   Actually, I think I could already but they are all the better for leaving on the bushes for as long as possible.   This year one of the grapevines I grew from a cutting of my Dorset vine is really well away - grapes from it maybe next year.

Grapevine

However, the lull in the gardening season is pretty much over now.   Time to get on and plan for the colder months.   I must plant out a few seeds for late salads and some winter veg.  That means doing some homework on what is best to grow and when.   I think Kale is a good one, chard too, if I get them in this week.

Having gorged on delicious home-grown raspberries with DnA in Sweden I am keen to put in a couple of canes this autumn too.   If you have raspberries growing, August is the month to cut back the stems that fuited this season to make room for a bumper crop next year.

Now is the time to take some semi-ripe cuttings of other perennials if you want or need to.   Reminds me...I must go and help G move her mature rose bush.   They are having work done on their house and need to move the rose.   I think we will take cuttings from that, for example, just in case moving an old rose like that suffers fatal set backs...I hope and think it will not, but to be on the safe side....

G it is time to cut back your wisteria now.   Just shorten the long side shoots a bit.  Tidy it up a little. 

Fennel feeding the bees

Tomorrow, if it isn't too wet, I will dig up the last of the potatoes, pick a few more beans...what a wonderful time of year when all the planning, planting and pulling up of weeds results in a meal supplemented by your own home grown veg and fruit. 

I leave you with this thought from Joel Salatin

The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests. It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides. It was in the pantry, the cellar, the backyard. ~Joel Salatin, Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World