Six on Saturday is a weekly meme originally hosted by The Propagator but now in the tender care of Jim at Garden Ruminations.
It’s now coming up to a month since we had any rain worth talking about here in Berkshire with no prospect of any for at least another week if the forecasts are correct. Then it may be brief downpours when what we really need is long periods of persistent rain to really soak the soil. There’s only so much you can do with a watering can.
From amongst the wilted and withered, I’ve managed to come up with six, the first three of which are a bit of a cheat:
One, Two & Three – There are plants dying and the earth is too hard to dig so of course I’ve bought some new plants: Penstemon ‘White Bedder’ to provide a contrast in a mostly pink/purple border, ‘Aster x frikarti ‘Mönch’ for some late summer/autumn flower and Erysium ‘Bowles’s Mauve’ which I know can withstand hot, dry conditions. I won’t be planting them out until we’ve had some rain and they have a good chance of survival. I might even pot them on and wait until the autumn. In the meantime they’re being moved from one shady spot to another and kept well watered.
Four – Goodness knows how it’s managed it given the lack of rain but the squash in one of the raised beds in the front garden has produced two fruits now. Do you want a bet it will be nothing but cloud and rain when it comes time for them to ripen?
Five – Finally the first ‘Chocolate Cherry’ tomatoes in the greenhouse are becoming, well…chocolate coloured.
Six – Just to prove how mad everything is this year, there is already fruit on the damson tree.
Do check out the posts of other participants by following the links in the comments section of Jim’s post. If you fancy taking part yourself but don’t know where to start, here’s the participant’s guide.
What Cathy Read Next... 
It’s been hard, hasn’t it? Our lovely gardens are supposed to bring us joy, but all I’ve felt lately is sheer frustration as I watch plants pretty much die all around me. Even long established trees are suffering. Let’s hope the forecast is wrong for all of us!
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You are quite right to hold back on planting out your new plants: a lovely selection too.
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Buying new, drought-tolerant plants seems like a sensible plan. I really want to get an aster but haven’t gotten round to it yet. The chocolate cherry tomatoes look very unusual – we have some darker beef tomatoes, but I haven’t seen cherry ones like that yet.
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Unsurpisingly, everyone (UK based) SoS reads the same this week. Too dry to do anything… I’m trying to grow some Erysium from seed at the moment, but most of the seedlings seemed to have stalled. I have one or two to plant out, and I don’t need that many for what I want, so hopefully enough will come good!
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There was a damson tree on the grass play area at the end of our road when I was a kid, probably the last time I ate one.
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The damson tree came with the house. I make a compote from them but it’s a messy business as it’s hard to separate the fruit from the stones, unlike plums. My solution is to bung the whole fruits in the microwave with a small amount of water, blitz it until everything is soft and then fish around for the stones. My hands end up looking like I’ve performed major surgery!
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Well said: “There’s only so much you can do with a watering can.” The same thing is happening here in my part of the Midwest U.S., and I’m trying to keep up with irrigating the struggling plants. It looks like you found some good options for new late summer/autumn displays. And your edibles look very tasty!
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