Six on Saturday in Monsoon Season

How is your garden looking this week? Mine has gone wild! The combination of heat and monsoon-like rain has made the growth prolific and the whole garden is verging out of control! This rapid growth isn’t always a good thing as some plants have bloomed and gone over far more quickly than I would have liked meaning hard planned combinations haven’t had more than a second to mingle together. It almost feels like the garden is getting ready to finish up for the season, and it is only July! That said, there are always things to delight in the garden when you get out and look!

One of those delights is this year’s Broccoli! Most of my Broccoli last year got eaten along with the Brussel Sprouts by the invisible creatures that lurk waiting to munch on prize winning vegetables so this year I changed tactics and planted broccoli in large pots. So far, not only is the Broccoli looking healthy but I have the pots around our deck as the foliage is nice too so it adds something different to the decked area. So looking forward to picking those fresh heads of Broccoli!

The Astilbes love all the wet weather as they do best in moist soil and shady corners. I have them in both pink and white and they are worth growing not only for the foliage and then the feathery flower spikes but they put on a lot of growth each year and as perennials, can be easily divided up in Autumn or Spring to double your numbers. I think I started with one in each colour and now have ten dotted around the borders.

Another plant which must be loving the rain is the Hebe Little Red Rum. It featured in my #sixonsaturday a few weeks ago as the tips were just turning purple for the first time ever and in another first, they have literally burst into little frothy purple tips. It is such a delight as this plant provides lovely red Winter foliage and now here is is giving us a whole new thrill in Summertime too.

Hostas are one of my favourite plants in the garden and it is always a delight when the tall flower spikes bloom albeit this year, they have hardly had a chance to shine in all the battering rain. People plant Hostas for their structural beauty and myriad of green leaf colours but often the gorgeous flower spikes are overlooked and the colours of those blooms can be as subtly differs as the Hostas themselves.

Salvia Nemerosa is doing well in the borders and is a great little filler to keep the purple flowing along.

An unplanned but truly delightful combination in the shady border is the Hardy Geraniums intertwining with the Shuttlcock Ferns. I just caught this as I was weeding this week and thought it brought both plants more alive: giving the Ferns a little boost as they are starting to die back and allowing the delicacy of the Geranium flower to get some individual attention.

Do feel free to me leave a comment on these six and enjoy reading other #SixonSaturday blogs for information and inspiration from gardeners around the world sharing six things from their garden on a Saturday. #SixonSaturday is hosted by The Propagator, and you’ll find lots of links on Twitter on the #SixonSaturday hashtag. You can find The Pink Wheelbarrow on Twitter at @PinkWheelbarrow.