July Gardening Articles

• print Water-Wise Gardening
• Relax and chill-out

• Space Invaders

• Gardening by the Sea

Part of me feels that gardeners are a 'soft target' for the water companies trying and, by and large failing, to reach their targets. The other, more rational, part of me says we need to treat this taken for granted commodity with much more care and respect in the future.

The acute water shortages in the south east have been highlighted for months and the archaic systems and laws we have will be addressed by parliament and hopefully brought up to date. It makes me angry to see that you can fill a swimming pool with thousands of litres of water but are prevented from watering plants which benefit the environment and contribute to our quality of life! There are many other ridiculous examples of how out of date things are but let's be positive!

By and large there is little threat of hose pipe bans in this area but some parts of the south west, especially those supplied by Thames Water, are already restricted. Bristol Water for instance says that its' reservoirs are 93% full and hasn't had to implemented a hosepipe ban for over fifteen years! If you are not sure whether there is a ban in your area, a call to the water company that supplies you with water will soon clear that up.

However, we mustn't be complacent, so what can we do to be more water wise in the garden? Here are a few tips.

Improve the water holding capacity of your soil by digging in lots of garden compost, well rooted manure or other forms of organic matter.
Keep weeds down to a minimum. Regular hoeing between plants does this but also reduces water loss from the soil. It also allows rain and irrigation to penetrate the soil to more readily.

Choose plants that are adapted to drier conditions. Alpine plants and succulents are fine examples. Many plants have tiny leaves or leaves that are modified by being very hairy, very fleshy or waxy to reduce water loss. These are plants that will thrive with less water.
Make sure that plants are thoroughly watered before planting and concentrate on watering recently planted items as a priority.

Apply water to the soil and root zone rather than spraying it all over the tops. A thorough soak in the early morning or late evening will be more effective than a little sprayed over the tops in the middle of every day. Thorough watering encourages roots to grow deeper into the soil where they are less prone to drying out.

Lawns look great when green but will recover after drought if not watered. Raising the blades on the mower during dry periods helps.
Install water butts to catch [free!] water from your roof. Rain water always produces better growth in the garden.

Recycle 'grey' or domestic water by using it to water your plants. Avoid applying this water over the tops of plants that you eat raw [salads, fruits, etc.]

A generous 2-3" mulch over the tops of your pots and borders will trap in soil water but this needs to be applied when the soil is already wet. There are many mulches to choose from such as composted barks, decorative gravels and of course your own garden compost. Avoid un-composted bark that contains lots of wood residue as this will lead to your plants suffering from nitrogen deficiency.

A visit to Bristol Water's Water-Wise garden at their headquarters illustrates many of the ways that we can have a great display without using lots of water. This well established garden, designed by Nigel North, is well worth a visit. Entry is free but the garden is only open during normal working hours. If you would like to visit the garden telephone 0117 953 6470.

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My garden has been colonised from space and whilst many aliens have arrived from inner rather than outer space there are lots of UFOs amongst them. So far no crop circles have appeared but every nook and cranny has been filled.

I'm of course referring to wind borne seeds of cultivated and [mostly] desirable plants. These are plants for free! However, not all are welcome and allowed to have free rein.

The spaces between shrubs and gaps in borders are quickly filled by these colonisers. In early spring gaps are filled with beautiful towering spires of foxgloves so loved by bumble bees. Following on quickly behind, the less showy purple honesty takes up the mantle and this one performs again when it's silvery white coin like seed pods ripen in autumn.

Then there comes a rush of varieties all jostling for position. An almost too successful invader is 'Granny's Bonnet' or Aquilegia. We have masses of the blue and white form of the alpine species and this needs a serious weeding out before it casts its' seeds everywhere. The earliest dainty heartsease flowers appear on Viola cornuta and these are the first of many. This is a truly remarkable coloniser and flowers non-stop well into autumn. We have both the white and blue form of this and, filling in the gaps between other more imposing perennials, they look lovely together. Both the Aquilegia and Viola actually 'invade' by dispersing their seed by exploding seed pods. Poppies do this too and we have a couple of colours of the grey leaf Papaver somniferum [aka Opium poppy] that verge on being weeds but we tolerate them.

Sweet Rocket is in flower now too and its' lovely strong scent during the evenings makes it a must have plant! This, like so many of these plants, is a biennial which means that you will struggle to buy plants and it is best raised from seed that can still be sown now. These seedlings will not flower until next year and then disperse their seed and start the ball rolling. Once established you need not buy again. In fact, if you are gardening on a budget, this is a strong advantage to this group of plants.

So many good plant combinations appear and, one that I wish I could say I had planned, has been very striking this year. This is self sown blue Love in a Mist [Nigella] amongst the golden form of Marjoram. Oddly this has occurred in two places in the garden but in the second the aliens got it wrong as the white form of Nigella is lost in the other patch of gold.

A few herbs are attractive contenders but some need to be treated with caution. The tall feathery stems of purple fennel have wonderful aniseed scent but this and the also scented sweet cicely can dominate if allowed to seed without check. Feverfew is much more manageable and both the golden and green form will seed themselves even into the apparently most inhospitable place. These and the lovely daisy Erigeron karvinskianus –why such an ugly name for such a dainty beauty?- will grow happily and soften the harshness of paths and paving.

Lady's Mantle [Alchemilla mollis] will fill any gap it finds and smother all but the toughest weed. In fact this is such a successful space invader that some gardeners regard it as a weed but I find that, provided the flower heads are cut off before they seed, it can be kept under control easily enough.

These space invaders will not suit tidy gardeners and if they do arrive they will be quickly weeded out. This I think is such a shame when so many beautiful, free and easily grown plants can fill gaps in the garden and make a great contribution.

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It's a fair bet that a good number of you reading this are within earshot of the crash of surf on the beach and those that aren't wish they were!

The end of July is the time when even the most devoted gardener gives his plants that extra soak, picks the last of the blackcurrants and freezes even the smallest runner bean before heading to the coast for the annual holiday.

I find that after an hour or two of this so called bliss [I'm not a great one for sitting around in a deck chair] I like to take a mooch around the back alleys of seaside resorts. Here you will find the same sort of garden plants that we all grow but amongst them you also see some exceptional ones! Living by the sea presents opportunities as well as challenges.

The opportunities are that you can grow many plants that would struggle inland. Some are truly tender and wouldn't be happy outside the protection of a heated conservatory inland and yet here, close to the coast where frosts are far less likely, they thrive. You will see Angels Trumpets [Brugmansia or Datura], Bougainvillea and dark leaf Aeonium [a lovely succulent]. Many of these plants have their homes in far warmer places such as Brazil, Mexico or Africa and yet here on the coast they are happy to grow side by side with the more commonly expected Petunias, Busy Lizzies and more run of the mill bedding plants.

So much for the opportunities you say, but what of the challenges for gardeners by the sea?

The biggest challenge by far is wind and that has nothing to do with all the fast food businesses that go hand in hand with a British seaside holiday!

Wind is a menace and a constant adversary. You only have to look at the lop-sided bushes [I hesitate to call them trees] that hug our coastline to see that it can be tough out there. To grow here plants have to be adapted in some way to stand this all year round battering. It helps to have waxy leaves like the shrub Escallonia. This and Euonymus japonicus often forms the first line of defence to shelter the garden. It helps also to have hairy leaves for the same reason. Yellow flowered Senecios, now called Brachyglotis, and Buddleias use this form of defence. These all withstand the salt spray that often goes with those strong winds. I am amazed at how far this leaf burning concoction travels inland and, at a good 6 miles as the gull flies, our garden has had a liberal dosing of salt carried on gale force winds over the years.

Once the wind is stopped, or at least tamed a little, there are endless opportunities for growing something that little bit different and unexpected inside where frosts are almost unheard of and the growing season a good deal longer than at home.

So when you get bored of your deck chair too, take a stroll, be a little bit nosey and wander down those back streets, you never know what you may find!

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