My Little Garden 13th August 2022
It’s been a very, very hot week here, but quite an exciting one. On Monday, I went out with one of the Rangers on the NT Quarry Bank Estate, and saw my first yellowhammer in years (you know the bird that says ‘ little bit of bread and no cheese’), plus flocks of goldfinch and house martins flying over the fields. Then, in complete contrast on Wednesday, I photographed a fabulous garden in the Cheshire village of Mollington for a Cheshire Life Magazine article. We’ll gloss over Thursday, which involved looking after two of the granddaughters on the hottest day of the week, but I’m really glad we went against all my usual fresh air principles and took them to see the latest Minion film at the local cinema. The air con for a couple of hours was absolute bliss and the film wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I feared.
We’ve had no rain this week, but I can’t complain as we did quite well last week, and the garden is struggling on. There are bits that are doing quite well, and more bits that are not doing quite so well, but here’s my sixes choices for this week.
- Lantana
This plant always loves the sun, so turned out to be a very good choice for this year.
2. Penstemon ‘Raven’
In the shade for part of the day, Raven is without doubt the best performing penstemon of the year. I need to take cuttings!
3. Thalictrum
I was almost despairing of the tiny flowers opening, but it seems to have bucked its ideas up.
4. Achillea
I said the other week that I was tempted to give up on achillea. In the full sun border where they seemed to be semi ok last year, not a single flower has been produced. In the little bit of lawn that I dug up in spring to accommodate, some new plants however, ‘Pretty Belinda’ is trying her best.
5. Catananche
After the flowers have gone the seed heads turn a lovely silver colour and apparently they are good for a dried flower arrangement.
6. Echinacea and other plants
I was going to finish with a shot of my Echinacea ‘Green Twister’, but instead I’m sharing this planting combination from the gardens at NT Quarry Bank on Monday. The photo really doesn’t do it justice, and it was very understated compared to the vibrancy of the main perennial border, but I thought it was absolutely lovely. Here Echinacea ‘Green Twister’ is mixed with a purple penstemon (a little lighter in colour than my ‘Raven’ shown above), fennel, allium sphaerocephalon, and ornamental grasses including Molina caerulea. I wonder how the echinacea and penstemon will fare over winter….
And that’s it folks. Have a great weekend, don’t forget the sun cream and if the heat gets too much go and see the minions, ideally with a small person in tow. You might regret it, but it’s something that everyone should enjoy / endure once.
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Thank you for reading!
