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 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.

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.