Adam's Garden

Barely a drop of rain has fallen in the last four weeks. The water butts have long since run dry and each evening a round of watering is necessary because thirsty containers, especially the smaller ones, dry out in a flash. I am rapidly reaching the conclusion that a few large pots are infinitely preferable to numerous smaller ones. Not only do they respond better to a good watering, less water gets wasted, but the plants get a more extensive root run, even when a little crammed.

Each year I experiment with new combinations in pots. As I am growing several sunflower varieties this year one, some of the dwarf and shorter kinds found their way into containers, to great effect. 'Pacino', low growing and lemon yellow, makes a tremendous show planted alone, but in combination with a slightly taller variety called 'Trendsetter' and the dazzling Marigold 'Starfire' the effect is stunning. A particularly large pot is required in this case but the effort is worth it. An unlikely combination that has worked well this year is annual white Cosmos 'Purity' with Pelargonium F1 'Breakaway Red'. Again, a large container is required, mainly for the sake of the Cosmos, and I was a little uncertain of the slightly mismatched watering requirements of the two, with the Pelargoniums much more tolerant of dry conditions, but they co-exist famously. I tried the pink Cosmos 'Daydream' in with a number of other Pelargoniums and a Geranium but it only produced a few sickly flowers before I gave up on it and it was unceremoniously hoiked out. The remaining collection consists of Pelargonium 'Lord Bute' - an old favourite, deep purple with a vibrant puce picotee - a scented Geranium 'Corinda' which bears fluffy magenta blossom, a variegated ivy leaved Pelargonium with delicate flowers of the palest pink and an ivy leaved Pelargonium with pink and white striped flowers. This collection is a late developer, but the effect has been worth the wait.

We have a number of troughs, which tend to be a little more tricky to deal with than round or square containers because the wind tends to blow the plants over more easily, especially when they grow in a rather leggy fashion as do Salpiglossis and Bidens. The plastic troughs, which don't look particularly attractive, are best planted with trailers to cover the sides. The Lotus vine is good for this purpose but they really need to be on a wall as this plant will hang down a long way! I have never succeeded in producing heavily flowering examples of this plant but it is worth growing for the delicate pale grey-green foliage alone. The variegated scented Geranium 'Crispum' has proved a good trough plant this year with its sturdy stems and shrubby shape supporting the plant well.

The beds and borders are faring better in the dry conditions, but even these require a good soak every few days. The onions have put on a tremendous burst of growth and caught me unaware. Usually they are gradually thinned out and used for spring onions but the sudden growth necessitated a heavy thinning because they were in danger of overcrowding, and the result has been spring onion on the menu for every meal for the last week. It is great to consume home produce but these onions have brought a new meaning to 'feast or famine'.

The mangetout have produced an outstanding crop this year, even though the final third of the plants failed to get off the ground. They obviously respond well to hot, dry conditions. The broad beans have also done well, and the early potatoes, whilst not producing in quantity, have a superb flavour served hot with freshly picked parsley and lashings of butter. The elephant garlic has just been pulled - huge well formed cloves with a mild flavour - and there is enough to last well into the winter. Deftly positioned nets are keeping the blackbirds off the raspberries long enough for the fruit to ripen and we have been picking them for the last few weeks. There are still plenty yet to come and they are usually eaten the same day, often with clotted cream or strawberries. The strawberries have been smaller than usual this year but the flavour is as good as ever, and once again the birds have been kept well back with cages.

The baking sun has been heating up the first of compost heaps, which has now been topped off with a few offcuts of old floor vinyl weighted down with a four inch concrete block and some old fence posts. The heap was covered with a layer of earth prior to topping off for soil borne bacteria to speed up the composting process. I have made the compost heaps in a sunny position and the heat generated inside is phenomenal. After a week the level has already sunk by about a foot and I envisage usable compost within two or three months. In the meantime the second heap, immediately adjacent to the first, is filling up nicely, although flies have been attracted by something contained within, possibly the garlic stems.

Swarms of flying ants appear on the scene at this time of year, taking flight in the late afternoon and often crash landing in the swimming pool, which can be very disconcerting if you happen to be taking a dip at the time! The dwindling pile of manure in the orchard has been taken over by a colony of wood ants, harmless if left undisturbed but possessing a formidable bite when the occasion demands. They are building a sizeable hill and using the timber edging of a couple of beds as a sort of ant-highway as they form columns foraging for building materials. When these hills, which are constructed from small pieces of dead litter, are disturbed by a marauding animal or person the frenzied activity of the seething ants is audible as a hissing sound. The only visible harm caused by the ants in the orchard is from their practise of farming aphids on the young shoots of the fruit trees. This can be a terrible nuisance because the sap sucking aphids cause the leaves to curl and eventually die and when things get out of hand I may be forced to destroy the colony.

The ants are taking advantage of the good weather to press on with building their home, and I shall now enjoy the evening sun by getting down to some watering and looking forward to more produce from the garden.

You can find more articles in the archive under Soiled Hands.

Adam would love to hear from you just email him.