Dust off the sun cream – this may be our summer! The irony is that gardeners, ideally, are looking a few months ahead in order to get the most from their garden, be it the veg patch or the flower beds.
Veggie patches and allotments have been on a ‘grow-slow’ up until now as the ground took so long to warm up. A cold start and numerous pests meant that I have had to re-sow and plant numerous crops but I am picking French beans, peas, potatoes and lettuce at last.
I tried sowings of chick peas and lentils this year too but I’m definitely not going to get fat on that harvest! Not that you would anyway, I suppose.
I am also continuing to make sowings of beetroot, carrots, lettuce and radishes, straight into the warm ground, as they should provide pickings late into the autumn. There is a tendency to run out of steam and enthusiasm for veg about now, especially as hedge cutting and strimming demands attention, but keep sowing now and you’ll be reaping your rewards later.
For an easy, tasty and peppery winter salad leaf, sow land cress now. It is like watercress but without the need to grow in water, funnily enough. Sow into pots or directly into the ground.
And work in the flowerbeds now will reward you later too; as herbaceous plants like foxgloves, snapdragons, lupins and penstemons go over, cut back just those sections of the flower spike that have faded, taking care to leave any secondary laterals that may be growing. That way you may get a second flush of flowers at the end of the summer.
One of my favourite flowers is the autumn flowering nerine. It is a fabulous splash of colour as everything else is fading (including us gardeners), late in the autumn. It’s also known as the Guernsey Lily as they grow so well on that island. If you can find the time and inclination, I highly recommend planting the bulbs now for that late reward. They also look great in tubs or pots, which you can move into view, with a ‘ta-da’ flourish once they start flowering.
And for those of you who ‘wonder-about-wisteria’, this month is the time to cut back long summer growths so that each holds, or keeps, just six leaves, then give the plant a good dose of water and a feed with a potash-rich fertiliser for fabulous blooms next year.
Then when you have done all that preparation for the autumn, winter and even next spring, try to enjoy a bit of the current good weather we have now!
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