A Midsummer Garden Tour 🌿 Why Your Garden Doesn't Have to Be Perfect
Well, well, well. What has happened over the last two weeks? My little channel has passed 1,000 subscribers, and I honestly did not expect that to happen less than a year after starting. Thank you so much, all of you. To celebrate, and because it is the last Friday of July, I thought we would do a proper end of July garden tour, not just the kitchen garden but the whole thing.
A pumpkin bigger than my hand
Before we go anywhere else, look at this pumpkin growing up my fence. I had to climb up and hold my hand next to it for scale, trying not to break my leg in the process. It is already starting to turn orange, which feels quite early.
Later in the tour I spotted another fruit forming on the same plant, which I had not noticed before. One little one further along has given up, but that is fine. So this is my reminder again: if you have no ground space, train a pumpkin up your fence or up any structure that is solid enough to hold the weight of the fruit. It really does work.
Seven weeks with no rain
We have had a beautiful summer this year and it arrived very suddenly, around the middle of June while we were still away on holiday. Before that the weather was miserable, cold and wet and windy. Since we came back it has been hot, around 30 degrees, and it has simply stayed that way. I am never going to complain about that, but the garden is not so keen.
By the last day of July we had gone about seven weeks with no rain. There was a sprinkle last Sunday that lasted less than five minutes and I do not think anyone even noticed it. I water religiously, and the potted plants get water every single day, yet the soil is still bone dry and you can see it in the plants.
The wisteria has looked sad ever since we got back and I am not sure it will pull through the drought. The olive tree, on the other hand, is loving the heat after a hard winter. The grass I am not even going to talk about, because we did not bother watering it at all.
What the dahlias taught me
This is the first winter I left dahlia tubers in the flower border rather than lifting them and keeping them in pots, and the difference is remarkable. La Belle Epoque, that powdery pink one with all its different shades, is humongous. It grew so heavy that one branch snapped off under its own weight and pulled another stem down with it. That flimsy little support ring was never made to hold weight like that, so I tied both stems individually to the hanging basket hooks on the garage wall, which is the only thing securely fixed there. Burlesque next to it is almost as tall.
Then compare those with the dahlias in pots on the decking. Some have not flowered at all yet, and the ones that have, like the white aster and Golden Spectre, are producing tiny flowers that go crispy almost as soon as they open. Same story with the rose Port Sunlight and with Pilgrim, which is covered in flower heads that dry out rather than dropping. Normally the petals would sit in moist soil, rot down and fall away. This year they just crisp up, and that is not a normal UK summer.
There is one more dahlia in the border that has not flowered yet and I cannot work out which it is. The label tells me nothing. It might be a Norwegian glory, or it could be the Sweet Nathalie. We will see.
Verbena, bees and the pests I do have
The one plant absolutely thriving is the verbena, and it is buzzing with bees. If you have a small garden and not much room for lots of different flowers, verbena could be your answer. It comes into flower around May and keeps going until October or even the beginning of November, before the frosts. I often find myself bowing to the bees so I can get past without interrupting them, which is ridiculous, but there we are.
A few people asked under my last video whether I get pests, so let me be honest. The top of my Gertrude Jekyll rose is completely covered in aphids, every single stem. They seem to love my roses specifically and I mostly just rinse them off when I can. The other problem is slugs, which are relentless no matter how hot it gets. I find them when I come to water in the evenings, and some of them are absolute beasts.
Potatoes, carrots and the seedlings I lost
The potato patch used to be much bigger. Earlier this week I lifted maybe four plants because I needed the space for carrots. The Charlottes were a really good size, better than anything I have had from pots, so growing them in a wider, deeper space clearly makes a difference. The King Edwards at the back were tiny, so those are staying in the ground for now.
My carrots did not germinate at all this year. The ones I sowed at the beginning of May came up and then died off during June, so there was nothing left. When we got back from holiday I went straight to the garden centre, as you have to, and picked up trays of carrot plug plants from B&Q instead.
The five beetroot in that row in front of the pumpkin are the only survivors from several trays of my own seedlings. Everything else dried out completely while we were away.
Round the fruit trees and the allotment
The tree border is my husband's work. It was the first border we built here, back when this whole space was just gravel and weeds four years ago. James Grieve has given us no fruit at all this year. The Acer is not a fruit tree but it is turning orangey at the tips, so I am mentioning it anyway. The Gala apple, the very first tree he planted, has a good crop that is colouring up nicely, but we are losing an apple almost every day because the roots are not getting enough moisture even with regular watering and the irrigation system.
The blueberry bush in front of it is still loaded, and we have already picked two big bowls of very sweet berries. The Conference pear lost most of its little fruits to the strong winds in late spring, and only two branches are still carrying anything, which is better than nothing. The young Concord pear is staying in its pot until it develops a bit more. Cobwebs are everywhere, because with no rain to wash them off the spiders are having a party.
The allotment, if I am honest, looks pathetic right now. It is much harder to keep on top of watering there. We go every other day, my husband helps, and we give each bed two, three, sometimes four full cans of water. It is a lot of physical work and it is still dry. I have collected verbena self seeders from around the garden to transplant up there.
The monstrosity in the middle of the garden
Yes, there is an inflatable tub sitting in the middle of my garden. After the holiday, with the weather being so lovely, we wanted a paddling pool for Natalia and there was nothing to be found anywhere. Not Amazon, not Argos, and we drove round every supermarket near us. Asda was the last one, recommended by a lovely friend, and this was the only pool type thing left. I talked my husband into it on the grounds that we could enjoy it too.
It has turned out to be the best thing. If I sit on this side I look right out over the good side of the garden, and I can watch the bees and the sunset going down over it all. There is something magical about that. Natalia loves it so much that once she is in we have to bribe her to come out, usually with food.
Why I did not tidy up for this video
I have spent far more time this last month sitting in that tub than doing garden projects. It is too warm for heavy work, and I am not putting that pressure on myself, because gardening is meant to be enjoyment for me. That is why I have it.
There is a lot of deadheading that needs doing. Pilgrim needs it, the dahlias could do with it, and Port Sunlight is basically nothing but spent flower heads at the moment. Last year I would never have let it get to this. This year I have decided I want to enjoy the garden more. I am working on my mental health and on being happy. We have a lot of family worries, and the garden has become the thing that keeps me grounded. I never had much interest in gardening before, so maybe something in my brain pushed me towards it as a way of healing my anxiety and lowering the stress. It works.
So I deliberately did not tidy anything before filming. I wanted you to see an unpolished garden, because it is completely normal to have dead flower heads on your roses and dahlias, and completely fine if you cannot keep up. Take it slowly, go at your own pace, nobody is chasing you. Sit down, relax, have a glass of wine or whatever you fancy. It is too hot for a cup of tea, although I still drink tea morning and evening.
In this video
- Passing 1,000 subscribers less than a year after starting the channel
- A pumpkin ripening up the fence, with another fruit forming
- Seven weeks with no rain and what the drought is doing to the garden
- Dahlias left in the border versus dahlias in pots, and the difference it made
- Verbena covered in bees, plus an honest look at aphids and slugs
- Lifting the Charlottes and replacing failed carrot sowings with plug plants
- Fruit trees dropping apples, and an inflatable tub in the middle of the lawn
That is my midsummer, end of July garden tour, dead flower heads and all. My camera overheated right at the end, so I finished this on my phone, which feels about right for the week we have had. Please just enjoy your garden and enjoy what you have created, because you are doing it for yourself and not for anyone else. Everything falls into place when it should. Tell me in the comments where you are gardening and whether any of this resonates with you. The next one will most likely be from the allotment. Thank you so much for watching.
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