Between peonies and Dahlias

I am rooted but I flow – Virginia Woolf, The Waves

This is ostensibly a July garden update, but I can’t talk about that month without acknowledging the curate’s egg that was June. I, like most gardeners these days I suspect, start the summer with a certain amount of trepidation – will it rain or won’t it? Will all our plans change? For a period in early June it really seemed like it wouldn’t ever again. The improbable verdancy of the verges was replaced by a late-summer sereness not often seen until August; and so a certain part of our days were spoken for by hosepipes and sprinklers and planting stalled. Despite having a fairly strong presumption against watering perennials in the ground (see: right plant right place), we had several new plantings that needed coaxing through the difficult spell which I’m happy to report are now thriving. Thankfully, by late June the rain came and sweetened the grass giving everything - including us - a new lease of life.

The rain, combined with a merciful drop in temperature, meant we could plant out both annuals and perennials that had been under the glasshouse benching enjoying the relative cool. We also planted a lot of salvias kindly gifted to us by neighbouring Whitburgh House Walled Garden, which we hope will carry the borders well into Autumn. The bare root potluck dahlias I mentioned in my last dispatch went in, and are racing to catch up with those that were potted into individual pots and cosseted under glass for six weeks. The courgettes on the other hand have been a disaster, slowly collapsing until eventually two of the four were hooked out and replaced with spare annuals. I suppose not everything enjoys the damp.

So that brings us into mid July: the interregnum between early and late summer, between peonies and dahlias. There’s multitudes in it, still, of course – you can’t spend all your time waiting around for the next season even though you raced ahead to Autumn weeks ago, mentally at least. There are those later things that are still to look their best like Persicaria and Sanguisorba, Rudbeckia and Echinops, racing skywards in this blessed rain. Those bits of freshness make the work of cutting back and deadheading the mouldering remains of the early summer stalwarts all the more worthwhile, giving the newcomers their time to shine.

In the coming weeks, we’ll continue the battle with the weeds – who also seem to like the rain – and if the weather stays cool and damp we might even start to spread some of the fresh woodchip we’ve been stockpiling from forestry work taking place on the estate, which will be helped along greatly by the arrival of our new tractor and tipping trailer. Pots of softwood cuttings taken in early summer can now be potted up and grown on, to be planted out in Autumn, and we’ll take another tentative foray into hedge cutting late in the month, after our last attempt was stalled by the discovery of a tiny nest of perfect eggs. We’ll also begin pruning work on the cordon apple trees in the next few weeks, to let the sun get to the ripening fruits.

There’s nothing quite like writing a list of everything you have to do to make you feel like you ought to be getting on, but before I go I wanted to thank everybody who came along to our open days, chatted to us about the garden, or went on one of the garden tours. It was such a fun month and it was great to see familiar faces as well as lots of new ones. Until next time!

Kate