Once again, no measurable rain has fallen here, one day I had high hopes when I saw large drops falling but the drops didn’t even join up on the table by the back door! The forecast for the next 7 days is wall to wall sunshine, not what I wanted to hear. There is still plenty of colour in the garden though, my mini meadow and the area where it floods every winter are still very green so there is water down there somewhere and some plants are still flowering as though there isn’t a drought, the rest of my lawn though is very brown and crisp and will stay that way until the rain comes.
Here are my six for this week…..
No 1
Rudbeckia fulgida Goldsturm is coping with the conditions but is only half the size as usual, the flowers are much smaller too.
No 2
Tritonia rubrolucens, a cousin of crocosmia, has just started flowering and will carry on for hopefully a month.
No 3
My mixed salad leaves growing in the metal baby bath which was used for my brother and myself during the war! The old bulbs got removed and it was put to good use once more, no more having to buy bags from the supermarket, Sainsburys, your profits will drop! They are larger now and I am enjoying picking a few leaves each lunch time.
No 4
My hibiscus was a birthday present a couple of years ago from my nephew in Canada, it is in a pot by the back door so is watered every day with grey water.
No 5
Crocosmia solfaterre is doing well up at the top of the garden, in fact it seems to have spread rather a lot so must be happy in spite of the shortage of rain.
No 6
The pending file! I had ordered these earlier and by the time they arrived the drought had started so it has been easier to water them all by the back door than to plant them in different areas of the garden. Most of them are for my new late summer border which should have been up and running by now, but I’ll have to wait for some rain before I can finish the work in that area.
Those are my six for this week, I think I’ll be buying more late summer bulbs for the future as they seem to be doing the best in the garden when there is a shortage of rain. A lot of work has been done in the old fruit and veggie area, not by me I hasten to add, far too hot for me to do any hard physical work, but that won’t be planted up until the autumn rains come, but there could be a post about it before then. In the meantime, I’ll just keep on lugging the watering can round the plants that need it, we don’t have a hosepipe ban yet but it can’t be far away.
Thanks to Jon The Propagator for hosting once more, why not pay him a visit to see what is happening in gardens round the world.
I agree that later summer bulbs are looking tempting if our summers are going to be like this one more often. Still, you have a good spread of colour.
I’m struggling to keep some plants going Rosie, but will keep at it, there has to be some proper rain soon! Some plants have amazed me at how well they are coping.
Such a lot of extra work Pauline when the garden is so dry. Still it looks and sounds like the garden is managing very well under the circumstances. Looks like a good selection of plants waiting for the late Summer border.
This is where I’m thankful that I have heavy clay, the plants are coping just about but I’m sure there will be losses next year. The circular lawn where the meadow is and the underground stream underneath, is still very green, but the rest is brown and crispy.It is mainly the hydrangeas and astilbes that are suffering and one rhododendron is definitely not happy yet the one next to it is fine. Will have to wait and see what happens when the rain does eventually arrive.
Beautiful blooms. Loving your new additions too. Oh, how we need rain….sighs.xxx
Can’t really do any proper gardening while everything is so dry and hard, have to do a rain dance soon!x
Lovely hibiscus. I can send you some rain from New Zealand!
Please do send us your rain, lots of it, we really need it, we’re not used to a drought in this country!
Good grief – your pending file is much bigger than mine! 🤣 It’s interesting to see which plants or parts of the garden are affected by the heat and lack of rain – aspect and soil seem to come into it as well here. I like the look of that tritonia and will look it up…
I must try and remember Cathy, not to order plants just as we are coming into summer, just in case we have another summer like this one! The tritonia isn’t fully hardy, if I had known, I probably wouldn’t have bought it, just got lucky where I planted it.
Good luck with the heat and dry, it can be so frustrating to watch the forecast when every promised rain turns into a missed storm.
We had two good soaks and there’s even a green tint to the lawn again. It;s suddenly all a little less depressing!
We have been told Frank, that we have nothing but hot sunshine until Monday next week, then it might change, hopefully for something cooler and wetter! It’s not just the lack of rain, but the unusually high temperatures, not what this country is used to, we now understand why the rest of Europe has a siesta every day!
I’m intrigued by your Tritonia rubrolucens. Very pretty color. I’ve never had success with crocosmia though. Your pending late summer additions look like a great collection. Hope you’ll soon have rain and get to plant them in.
I think I was just lucky where I planted the Tritonia Susie, it must have the good drainage that it needs, really I wanted a Watsonia but knew they wouldn’t like my heavy clay soil and the Tritonia looked almost the same.We have had rain forecast for Wednesday next week, will it arrive, just have to wait and see if we get any here.