Category: Six On Saturday

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 over a month since we had any rain here in Berkshire. I’m writing this on Thursday as I’m away for the weekend and, as of now, there is no rain in the forecast until at least next Tuesday. In addition there’s now a hosepipe ban in force in our area. Thank you, Thames Water. I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking about changes we might have to make if hot dry summers are here to stay.

On the bright side, our leaky old eyesore of a garage has finally been demolished and the space prepared so a lovely potting shed can take its place.

The garden is really suffering but I’ve managed to come up with these six:

One – I spotted this flower crab spider on the water mint in our pond doing horrible things to a bumble bee it had captured.

Two – The lower water level in the pond is revealing a large population of pond snails. I’m finding them surprisingly mesmerising to watch move around the pond. At the moment they’re mainly feeding on algae and other dead matter in the water although this one seems to have taken a liking to one of the pond plants.

Three – A lovely butter yellow nemesia standing up surprisingly well to the heat and smelling divine.

Four – Pennisetum doing its wavy thing.

Five – Herb fennel loving the sunny weather (unlike most other things in the garden)

Six – Another dahlia has started to flower despite the parched conditions in our south facing front garden. This one is ‘Bayou’.

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.

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 over a month since we had any rain worth talking about here in Berkshire. There is some forecast for tomorrow but I’m not holding my breath. We now have a hosepipe ban in force so walking up and down the garden with a full watering can has replaced all other forms of exercise for the time being.

Despite that effort the vegetable garden is really suffering, especially root crops such as beetroot and carrot. Apart from the new potatoes grown in bags, we’ve been able to harvest very little: a few portions of French beans, a couple of small courgettes and a handful of cherry tomatoes. I’ll be honest, it’s depressing and is definitely making me give serious thought to what to grow next year, or more likely what not to grow.

By the way, thanks to everyone who suggested I pot up the new plants I featured last week and defer planting them out until the autumn. I have taken your advice.

From amongst the wilted and withered, I’ve managed to come up with these six:

One – The bright yellow flowers of Rudbeckia ‘Herbstsonne’, a plant which seems to be holding up surprisingly well to the heat and drought.

Two – Whereas what should be a deep pink echinacea in our south facing front garden has faded in the sun.

Three – The leaning tower of teasel.

Four – A gatekeeper butterfly on water mint in the pond. We gave in and topped it up with tap water before it came not so much a bog garden as a dried up puddle.

Five – The mint is flowering away and is covered with bees, small butterflies, hoverflies and predatory wasps.

Six – The dried flower head of Allium schubertii revealing the black seeds.

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.