What I’m Doing This Week: Luckily the heat of last week has subsided, although its still fairly warm in the UK, averaging around 20-25°C most days. We’ve also had some rain which has been so very welcome after the extended dry period, we jokingly always say ‘the garden will be glad of it’ but that couldn’t be more true at the moment.
Although the heat was a touch too much it has brought on some flowering that wasn’t happening pre-heatwave. Our nasturtiums are noticeably visible from the other end of the garden and they’re a welcome pop of sunshine everywhere they sit.
We tried a few varieties last year, with mixed success, but this year’s Peach Melba variety have been fantastic so far. They’re mainly yellow but have an orange or almost red centre and lures in the bees, like a perfect target! These don’t seem to want to trail as much as other nasturtiums but they’re just about starting to tumble over the edge of the pots they’re in. An unsuspecting bonus of growing nasturtiums is that they’re edible, both the foliage and the flower are fine to eat and give a slightly peppery or spicy flavour…
Just down from the nasturtiums is the, now heavily flowering Buddleja ‘Harlequin’. It’s absolutely covered in long cylindrical sprays of flowers that will last right through until Autumn hopefully. Usually you’d cut these back hard in about March however, I completely forgot but its not caused any issues so far and if anything its really thriving.
The only real problem with the Buddleja is that its really in the wrong place…not the wrong place for the plant itself, but the wrong place in our garden. There are far better spots for it so I’ll either attempt to move it at some point or take semi-ripe cuttings later in the year in hope of growing some additional plants from those. We’ll have to see how it goes!
Our Cafe Au Lait is SO close to opening….the tension is mounting and the bud gets bigger and bigger every day. It’ll only be a matter of days before the first one is here and there are several other buds coming along too. I’m much more a fan of the single dahlias as they really are that much more appealing to pollinators but Cafe Au Lait are a real sight to behold!
In other news…? At this point in the weekly updates I’d usually mention the main podcast however the most recent season has come to an end now. But I’ll be back with a brand new season before you know it.
There’s a post over on Instagram asking who you’d like to hear me talk to next time around so if you’ve give a minute to spare, head over and let me know which green fingered mind you’d like me to get into…
That’s it from me, have a great week and I’ll be back next week with more.
View From The Potting Bench 