End of Month view of the Garden – June 2019
June was a month with the most bizarre and strange weather i’ve experienced in quite a while, cool nights meant jumpers were needed, then a months rain fell in a day, followed by an unforecasted period of high winds, some hot days, some cool days then the month ended with the hottest June day for many years with temperatures here in my garden of 32°c.
The heavy rain and hot temperatures have resulted in a growth spurt of plants and weeds alike.
This month’s tour starts as always along my fence border where there are very few flowers in evidence for some reason.
There are a few weeds in evidence along this border, but i’m not too worried about it, there are lots of plants in here that generally do a good job of suppressing most of the weeds. This entire border was treated to several bags of Organic Soil improver by me last winter in order to improve the soil and the moisture holding capabilities of the soil, so far it appears to have been a great success, as my Matteuccia struthiopteris ferns are testament to.
My Island Bed of disappointment is certainly looking disappointing. I’ve not given it as much attention as I would have liked due to time constraints. It’s dominated by a leafy Peony plant, gaps and failed sunlovers. I need to fill these soily gaps with annuals, but i’m so behind in potting up and planting out that it’s not worth persevering with many of the plants i’ve grown, i’m blaming a bad batch of compost that has stunted the growth of many of my seed sown plants. Not herbicide affected, but just starved plants.
At the back of the Island Bed the Allium Globemaster have finished an i’ll remove the flower heads soon, I don’t want millions of grass like seedlings popping up everywhere.
The extra bit of bed I gained after digging up scorched turf is performing well, some random plants quickly planted are doing well, Delphiniums I purchased as plug plants are flowering, unfortunately they’ve barely made 1 foot high, i’ve also got my Lychnis Coronaria plants in flower for the first time since growing them from seed, these should have been the cerise red forms, but like all the other seeds i’ve tried they flower purple.
In the greenhouses, I’ve got 8 tomato plants in full growth interspersed with Pepper and Chilli plants, and in my smaller greenhouse I’ve got far too many cucumbers growing. I also successfully germinated 3 Banana seeds earlier in the year, more by accident than design as i’ve always failed with Banana seed before. I’ve now tracked down the packet and can correctly name them as Musa sikkimensis, I’m interested in how big I can grow them. Or where I’m going to grow them for that matter.!
I’ve also got 3 Coleus or now Solenostemon plants growing on in the Greenhouse, I purchased these from the Malvern Spring Flower Show. I’m intending to propagate from them, but they need to grow a bit more first.
In my raised beds, my Heritage Seed Library Onions are nearing full size. As these plants from seed are open pollinated, and not F1, they are all various sizes and shapes, not at all uniform as you would expect with F1’s. Open pollinated plants suit home gardeners, as the crop is ready for harvesting over a longer period and not all at the same time, potentially causing a glut.
I will harvest the biggest onions for drying first, this will give more room to smaller plants to develop. I’m also noticing at least 3-4 plants are showing signs of Allium Leaf Miner.
I’ve also planted out all of the Sweetcorn plants I was growing. I was sent samples of new varieties of seed of Sweetcorn Alliance and Sweetcorn Tyson to try from Marshall Seeds.
Sweetcorn Tyson is in the foreground planted with Squash Plants in a sort of ugly sisters style, as Sweetcorn Alliance seeds were sent earlier in the year, they are the bigger plants just behind the onions.
Elsewhere in the garden i’ve got many plants all goring well, the Sarracenias are looking good, if a little weedy since the repotting last spring, my Apple James Grieve has baby fruits, my Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’ is in full flower, i’m hopeful of seeds being available to send the the Hardy Plant Society members seed distribution this coming Autumn.
Elsewhere in the garden:
Interesting thing I’ve noticed about by choice of plants, I’m quite into purple without really noticing.
I will hope for a purple patch soon, until next time, bye for now.
The Cynical Gardener 
Coleus is STILL rad! I remember when it was popular when I was a kid. My grade school teachers kept them as houseplants in our classrooms.
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I think I also have fallen prey to some dodgy compost, plants not growing or putting roots down as they should (or I think they should). Hopefully they will catch up. You have such variety in your garden, it is a treat to visit it every month, although I am a little late on parade. By now I expect the I of D is now full and fence bed full of colour. Looking forward to the next review!
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Everything looked really good in June!
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