For 21 Aug

Further to a recent post about restoring a Nitida hedge, I had a question from new Patron Jude (waves enthusiastically) who sent me pictures of the Nitida hedge she has inherited, which is wild and woolly at the top, and rather bare at the bottom.

 As you can see, lots of enthusiastic growth up top, not so much at the base: which is always annoying, as the base is the bit we can all see. And that's where we want the best of the greenery....

 

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This week: Lavender!

 Again!

In the sense that I seem to be always writing about how to prune Lavender, the reason being that people keep on asking the question!

So, Lavender: popular short-lived perennial, ideal for creating the "cottage garden" look, great for edging borders, easy to grow, withstands drought better than many others, available in a variety of heights and colours, and smells nice.

What's not to like?

Easy to maintain, as well, except that people - and by that, I mean Garden Owners - tend to be too soft-hearted with their pruning. Either they don't prune them at all, leaving the flower stalks to go brown and die ("Ugh!"), or they don't prune them hard enough, and after a couple of years, the plants get too big for the space, flopping open in the middle to reveal brown, woody stems:

 

The answer is.....

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July Newsletter

 

OMG! What a scorcher! AGAIN!!

I can't believe I'm writing this - AGAIN!! - but three months running, now, we've had heatwave after heatwave, the grass is well scorched, the water butts are empty, gardeners are sweating, and everyone with an irrigation system is thanking the lord, or me, in some cases, that they took my advice and installed it:

 ... because otherwise we would be getting this sort of thing:

 As you would expect, this month we talked about things dying in hot weather - plants, that is - along with the sort of jobs I have been doing at this time of year, including cutting down the oriental poppies (they've done their job), and pruning apple trees in summer, with a diversion about ermine moth infestations....

 

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