As Spring is nearing its end and summer is knocking on the proverbial door, garden jobs are stacking up. A to-do list is needed so I can select those jobs that can be fit into my 5-minute gardening routine and those that require that little bit longer. A to-do list, or I suppose more correctly termed a head gardeners journal. Oh, how I wish my scribbles on a scrap piece of paper were neat enough to be considered a journal.
That all said, I am late already with my Chelsea Chop. That essential job of cutting back perennials to half, or a third of their size to reinvigorate their growth. Timed to coincide with the RHS Chelsea flower show. As our location is further North and much colder that Chelsea, we are a few weeks behind our Southern gardeners and so I’m happy there is still time.
My scrap of paper is already insufficient for the list I am creating and extra scraps are gathered together.
Cutting back the Aquilegia. They will come back strong and it is said that once you introduce an Aquilegia to your garden, you will never be without it. It self seeds so prolifically. A good idea is to lift each new plant that begins growing and either pot it up in readiness for replanting or if you know where you want it, transfer it into its new location straight away. Then I have a well establish Brunnera -Jack Frost. This needs lifting and dividing. The flowers are finishing now and though it is still growing, I will be able to split this into three good sized plants and replant them. One will be going into our newly created shady Courtyard alongside a statue of the goddess Flora- the Brunnera is shade loving which is idea and will bring some lovely splashes of blue from its flowers – another next to the statue of a lion next to where a Sycamore tree had to be removed and the third plant will be replated in its original place. The division providing much needed stimulation to teh plant.
Then I need to move onto an area set aside to become a focus for our sons involvement with growing seeds, fruits and vegetables. I have to dig out of a raised bed, three Lavender bushes that I have been growing here ‘waiting’ for the right time and place for them to be relocated. This is now in a raised bed at the front of the house, replacing a Hebes that did not survive the Winter.
This raised bed has been home to three Rhubarb plants over the last three years allowing them to be come settled and established. That job done, they need to be split up and moved into large pots. I also grow Sweet William in this raised bed and I need to clear those as well and move them into the sunny border.
The empty raised bed will then be repaired where required and used inside a new polytunnel that will be erected ready for the autumn seeds. Inside this polytunnel is where I am hopeful our son will find motivation to work alongside me and develop his own horticultural skills.
Given the dry weather we are having more and more – even though we do get very wet weather too – I am looking to move out of pots and into the ground as many shrubs as I can to avoid them drying out when water becomes scarce.. Extra mulching needs extra bark or straw around the beds to help retain what moisture there is.
With the polytunnel up, I need to take cuttings from those plants which are suffering and hopefully I can develop new ones to replace them. The Californian Lilac, is a key one I hope to propagate successfully. This year also I want to try to take cuttings from my stock of roses. I lost over 18 rose bushes a year of two ago. For no apparent reason they just died. Autumn is the time to take stem cuttings and they should make new rose bushes in a year or two.
Re-seeding of the lawns. New gravel paths. New compost heaps, Additional water Butts. A supply of liquid feeds. Explore growing Comfrey to turn into my own liquid fertilizer – I believe it smells awful, but is a fabulous general feed – also I need to add some additions to our wild stretch of lawn which I cultivate for that purpose each year.
The lot of a resilient gardener is never complete …