Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
1st August 2020
Autumnal August
As a kid I can remember insisting that August should be an autumn month because it started with the same letters. Dad patiently explained that wasn’t how it worked and that technically the autumn months are September, October and November. He always backed this up by saying that the colourful rowan berries depicted the start of autumn, which thirty years ago would have been September-ish. But for the last few years the rowan berries have decorated their boughs in August. Both my brother and I still insist on exclaiming ‘Autumn’s here’ when we see the laden rowan trees.
Whilst not entering into the debate, in his latest blog Monty Don nonetheless reminds us that the year is already half over and the evenings are drawing in. The mornings have certainly felt more autumnal of late and together with the really warm spring ensuring everything is forward in the garden, it definitely does feel more like autumn than summer as we head into August. So there.
Whatever the season, there is still lots to do in the garden and whilst the urgency has gone out of a lot of growth, wet days and warm ground will mean many plants will have a ‘second wind’. Cut back early flowering herbaceous stock and you may be lucky enough to get a second bloom, and deadheading roses regularly will encourage new flowers too. Keep cutting sweet peas to ensure repeat flowering, as once they are allowed to go to seed they are less enthusiastic about flowering.
And as Monty recommends, keep staking. There will always be something you forgot to support and rogue thunderstorms and heavy rain will soon flatten anything that is unsupported in late summer. I do admire the way everything seems so well behaved at Long Meadow. Even Monty’s Bears Breeches were ‘braced’ and upright this week, whilst mine are around the bear’s proverbial ankles!
From Tomato to Nomato
And staying in the ‘Gardener’s real World’, the rabbits have eaten my damn tomatoes. I have grown bush tomatoes in pots in the veggie patch this year and was pleased with how they were doing.
As two of the tomatoes were getting riper and redder every day, the big question was just when to pick them … should I leave them one more day …? Obviously not. The rabbits beat me to it. Or, according to Google, it could have been a squirrel. Either way, something furry beat me to harvesting my first lovely ripe tomatoes.
Home grown tomatoes always remind me of a friend who wrote for The Telegraph and who decided to diarise growing his own ‘tasty toms’ in his London back yard one year. He described the whole process wonderfully, from building raised beds, to nurturing the little seedlings, to painstakingly staking and tying in, to waiting eagerly for the tomatoes to ripen. They never did. It was one of ‘those years’ and the weather, and gardening gods, were against him.
The moral of his story was that he calculated that the three tomatoes he did manage to part-ripen on the kitchen windowsill cost him an eye-watering £73.00 each. He hasn’t bothered since. To add insult to injury I found a great gardening sign, which stated, ‘Gardening is cheaper than therapy – and you get tomatoes.’ Perhaps I should have added, ‘Unless the wildlife beat you to it.”
Moth Plant
I am quietly delighted with the way my ‘top’ garden has behaved during lock down this year. It has just got on with it and has produced the most beautiful displays of wild flowers, from a froth of ox-eyed daisies to the waves of yellow evening primrose that now dominate. I have always claimed, “In gardening one needs to know what to do, but also what to leave alone.”
Whilst some of the evening primrose flowers open in the morning, and are primarily pollinated by bees, many open at night and are pollinated by moths, giving it it’s common name of the moth plant. They are attracted to flowers by their sweet fragrance and light colour, with the colour allowing for greater night-time detection. It’s a great plant for encouraging wildlife into your garden and I have lots of bats in the garden at night also feeding on the moths that feed on the evening primrose. And not just bats … yesterday evening I was watching a moth dining out on the flowers only to be snatched out of the air by an, aptly named, pied flycatcher.
The food chain at it’s finest.
Moving up the Ladder
I had a ‘Merry Everything and Happy Everyday To Me’ day last week and treated myself to a new ladder for work. It’s fab’luss. It’s a Henchman tripod ladder and all three legs are adjustable making it incredibly safe and sturdy. It’s also lovely and light to move around, and it’s now an absolute pleasure to have to go up a ladder. My brother already has an 8ft version of the same ladder (see pic) but I opted for the 6 ft one as that’s high enough for me. Any higher and someone else can do the job.
There are a shocking amount of ladder related accidents that happen each year, as www.brownsladders.co.uk advise on their website; ‘Falls from ladders account for an average of 14 deaths per year. According to HSE statistics, falls from ladders account for almost a third of all injuries and cost the UK economy £60 million every year, as well as being the number one cause of workplaces deaths.’
Browns Ladders have a great range of ladders ‘for all occasions’ (although for gardening I think the fully adjustable tripod one is absolutely the best) and are a great company to deal with.
And, of course, I got all the site banter – “Is that your real ladder, Lynne? Oh no, it’s your step ladder!”
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