6 Month Review

After a blazing start to the Summer, July seems to have been a bit of a wash out. The grass and shrubs have definitely been happier with the wetter weather, though I was very pleased to see a little sporadic sunshine this week.

I realised today that it has been just over six months since I started this blog. I had so many plans for the garden when I started out, and hoped that these weekly musings would chart my progress and also motivate me to do more, though many of my early plans have not been fulfilled. The year has been an eventful one of course and I do (for once) have an excuse for my inactivity. I should try to focus on the positives however and there has definitely been some progress in the garden this year. I have added a fruit and vegetable patch, for example (and revelled in every misshapen carrot and tiny beetroot I have harvested). We have also taken on an allotment which has entertained us through lockdown and continues to reward us with lots of fresh vegetables. I have also planted my first wildflower border (overall a success and I have collected lots of seeds to renew the process in a larger patch next year) and have finally dedicated an area to a proper winter border. Considering all of the above, and adding in the general clearing, tidying and weeding, there have been some small achievements in the garden this year, though there is still much to be done.

One of the areas that I had intended to tackle this year was the far bank. This is very overgrown and is also littered with years of debris. We have made a few trips across this year to do some general clearing and transplanting, but the weeds have returned with vigour and the inaccessibility of the area means that it always seems to take second place to the rest of the garden. It is a wonderful wildlife trap of course and I frequently watch birds and butterflies flying hither and thither between the weeds and flowers. I do still hope that we will be able to do more work here later this year and, in the meantime, we keep throwing foxglove and poppy seed heads across in the hope that these will combat some of the less attractive weeds!

If you turn your back on the the above, the rest of the garden is not looking too bad. The daisies are starting to die back and, after leaving them for as long as I felt able, I cut back a good proportion of them this week, taking comfort in the fact that the crocosmia are taking their place. We have a beautiful, fiery orange variety of crocosmia in the garden and I do love this plant. It spreads so well and brings a lovely brightness to the borders when other plants are starting to fade. I do find it is somewhat susceptible to drought and have to water it well in particularly dry spells, though it is generally very hardy and seems to flourish in all areas of the garden. Other "fiery" plants include the perennial sunflowers and orange daylilies. We grow both of these in pots as well as freely in the garden and they seem equally happy in both environments.

The lavatera, buddleia, hollyhocks and sunflowers are also still bringing lots of colour to the garden as well as attracting many bees and butterflies. The large white butterflies are prominent at the moment and appear to flutter aimlessly around the borders, finding flowers more by luck than judgment.

Colour is more prominent than scent at the moment, though the roses, evening primroses and lavender continue to pack a strong punch. The Countess of Wessex rose shown below has flowered particularly well this year and has a lovely, old fashioned scent.

Berries are also starting to appear on the holly, cotoneaster and honeysuckle as a reminder that summer wont last forever and autumn is on its way!

In addition to the usual flying insects in the garden, this week also marked "flying ant day". Whilst this event doesn't actually occur on a specific day throughout the country, it is temperature dependent and corresponds with a period of hot and humid weather. The flying ants ("alates") are composed of virgin queens and winged males (drones), which disperse in order to mate and form new colonies. After mating, the females chew off their own wings and look for a place to nest; the males live for a few days and then die (the ants in a colony are usually all female, the males are only produced at this time of year). Whilst the sight of a large swarm of flying ants can be a little unnerving, it is an amazing phenomenon and also produces lots of food for hungry birds!

As I sat and considered the garden today, I did feel satisfied that some progress has been made this year. It is still overgrown in places, but we have lots of flowers, happy bees and several nesting birds. There is a long way to go, and much work to be done, but I am enjoying the journey and remain optimistic that the house will one day have the lovely little cottage garden that it deserves.