Compared to the fabulousness of June, July has come in wet and soggy with almost continual rain in Glasgow this week! I promise not to moan though, you can see the devastation caused by all last weekend’s wind and rain on my Instagram feed! The rain means everything is well watered and looking very green and lush but unfortunately, it’s all going over too quickly so here’s my pick from the garden this week, in between the rain, for #SixonSaturday as July streams in!
The Foxgloves have been plentiful this year as I did let lots self-seed last year and also threw some saved seeds in a fallow veg bed over Autumn and Winter to grow on and relocated them in Spring. There are lots of new self-seeded little plantlets already coming through for next year and I’ve started to move some of them into other places to spread the Foxglove love around!
Some of the stars of my garden are the Hardy Geraniums and I wait for them to fill out in the borders, providing welcome, weed-smothering ground cover and welcome pops of colour. One of my favourites is Geranium × magnificum, the purple cranesbill, and I split more up every year and keep adding it around the garden so that we are close to a wave effect which draws the eye and pulls all the borders together.
I was really pleased to see not just healthy leaves but flowers this week on the Escallonia as to be honest, it has been languishing the last few years and looking rather raggedy and beat. I gave it a liquid seaweed feed and honestly, I can’t believe the difference!
Another surprise this week was the purple tips on the Hebe Little Red Rum. I got this years ago to keep the evergreen border in front of the kitchen window in colour through the Winter and the two-toned foliage really pops in the bleak mid-Winter but I had completely forgotten that it produced a little flowering top in Summer, what a pleasant surprise!
I grew some Verbena Bonariensis this year from seed and although they were pricked out, they are overdue to be potted on so I took the chance and put them straight out into the borders! If they aren’t washed away by the rains or completely munched through by slugs, I might have a delicate sea of purple by late Autumn!
And saving the best until last, it’s been a two week haul of strawberries – my children cannot believe how many strawberries they are picking this year, whilst still sharing plenty with the birds who are up and at them before they are of a morning! I picked off all the runners last year so each plant’s energy wasn’t diverted into making babies and it has really paid off as the strawberry bed is full to overflowing with lush, healthy growth. We’ve taken no chances with them spoiling this year and have already frozen some for later use as we cannot eat or use them up fast enough, such is this year’s bounty.
Do feel free to me leave a comment on these six and let me know what you’ve been up to this week as July streams in!
You can enjoy reading other #SixonSaturday blogs for information and inspiration. #SixonSaturday is hosted by The Propagator, a gardening blog you should most certainly check out. You’ll find lots of links on Twitter on the #SixonSaturday hashtag and you can find The Pink Wheelbarrow on Twitter at @PinkWheelbarrow.
The Pink Wheelbarrow 
Leave a Reply