End of Month View of the Garden. End of July 2018

With thanks to Helen, The Patient Gardener, for hosting this Meme.

The heat wave continues, we finally had some rain on the 28th of July, a heavy downpour combined with gusty winds.  This brief respite filled a few water-butt’s, greened up the lawn and smashed lots of plants down, although nothing too fatally.

That’s what rain looks like.

Now the temperatures are back into the high 20’s, no rain forecast for the foreseeable future, and we are back to hot and sticky days where I’m not inclined to do too much outside as I’m not good in this heat.

Parts of the garden look fine due to the weather, but other areas are showing signs of stress and early autumn. I’ve been watering most evenings, baskets, tubs, window boxes and raised veg plot and struggling shrubs.

 

 

Foliage corner.

My foliage corner next to the french doors continues to please me, it only gets the sun quite late in the day so it’s not looking too bad, I’ve decided several of the plants will benefit from a report this coming autumn.

The Long Border.

The long border (before I mowed),  runs up from the foliage corner to my newish shed, the soil is a bit clayey, and is showing significant signs of cracking open. This is frustrating as over the years I’ve added lots of old compost and organic matter to improve conditions.  Already lots of the plants contained in it look very tired and dull, many might benefit from a good prune down, but in this heat I’ve just not got any enthusiasm to do it yet.

My Island bed of Disappointment.

My island bed of disappointment is continuing to look naff, its dried out, cracked open and lack luster, my cosmos, zinnias and a few other annual bits look unwell. I’m not going to worry about it until the autumn, have a rethink, throw yet more mulch at it,  and then see.

Echinacea & Unknown Eringium.

Tithonia

Orange Zinnia

I do have a few plants in flower around the place, my Echinacea is much shorter in height than previous years due to the dry weather, some Orange Zinnias, and interestingly a few Tithonia planted in a spot where I removed a small dead Acer and filled in the planting hole with the contents of one of my compost heap. The Tithinoia’s are growing quite bit and happy, this has led me to think that no matter how much I mulch it won’t be good enough

An area that is pleasing at the moment is my Sweetcorn forest, I’ve invested lots of time on this crop in order to get a good crop, it’s my most favourite veg, what other veg can you eat covered in butter.  Don’t Answer that.

 

Sweetcorn – not long now.

Most of the plants are around 6ft high with no more growing to do, only ripen those cobs. I’m aiming to eat my first one for my birthday at the end of August.

Crown Prince Squash

Squash And Sweetcorn The ugly Sisters.

Double Red Sweetcorn

Possibly Sucrette Squash & unknown Squash

I think my Double Red Sweet Corn from Real Seeds might be ready to try first, much smaller plants and smaller cobs, but they look fully pollinated, all I need to do is work out if the cobs are ripe…

I’ve also tried to grow squash plants in a few different areas around the garden, im getting into squash now, I don’t have anywhere that is perfect for squash growing  so im enjoying varying degrees of success so far.

 

Squash in the Red Corn.

Crops in the Greenhouses are mixed, Cucumbers are fruiting like mad, I’ve given loads away, Sweet Peppers are devoured by slugs, Chillies Peppers are still to ripen, and my Tomato crop for seed for the Heritage Seed Library are ravaged by blossom end rot. With 10 plants there should still be plenty of seed, the fruits looks rather unwell.

Tomatoes

Chilli Peppers

Tomato for seed

Cucumber

 

 

Oh, the horror.

Blossom End Rot

 

Until next month, keep cool.