Relaxing in your garden is just gr-eight
Penstemons also have so much to offer, with masses of tubular blooms, carried for weeks on end on their upright stems – a superb modern cottage garden plant through and through.
If you go and visit gardens open to the public, you may stumble across a ‘prairie border’. These have become extremely fashionable in recent years, but will also probably remain popular for many years to come. The general concept involves ornamental grasses, planted with large daisies and tightly clustered tiny blooms, to create a ‘woolly’ and wild effect – replicating the open grassland of North America. An open border in need of a re-vamp can easily be used to such effect.
The month is ideal for relaxing in the garden, and having friends and family round to really appreciate your efforts. And it can be a relaxing time for yourself to enjoy the garden whilst watering, feeding and deadheading.
It is time to plan ahead for autumn colour, too, by planting out groups of Colchicums and autumn crocus.
Back to the Fuchsia...
FUCHSIAS bring a refreshing display to the patio or borders during the second half of summer and well through autumn.
The range of varieties available is enormous, and this is a good month to go to a Fuchsia show, or any other gardening show to appreciate them in all their glory. These plants never wane in popularity as they are so versatile and are easy to grow.
Generally, they perform best in partial or dappled shade and must never dry out. They are greedy plants, requiring a twice-weekly liquid feed during the flowering season with a general feed, replaced in August by tomato feed.
Most are non-hardy, requiring frost protection during the winter half of the year, although many varieties tend to make it through a relatively mild winter if left alone.
There are a smaller number of hardy types available, a few of which are traditionally used for hedging – especially in coastal areas. Here are a few of my favourites:
‘Snowcap’ is a single-flowered upright variety with clear red sepals and crispy white corollas. ‘Snowburner’ has huge gorgeous double blooms of pale pink and delicate pastel-mauve and its trailing habit makes it outstanding for baskets.
‘Voodoo’ is another trailing double variety, with red sepals topping dramatic deep purple corollas. ‘Annabel’ also suits baskets well, with very delicate pale pink and white double flowers.
‘Lena Dalton’ has an upright, very bushy and free-flowering habit. Hundreds of small, single pink and purple flowers are produced from May to November.
‘Devonshire Dumpling’ only produces its blooms sparingly, but the ruffled white and pale pink flowers are of a spectacular size.
‘Genii’ is a popular hardy variety with golden leaves and plenty of small single pink and purple flowers until the first really sharp frosts.
‘Thalia’, on the other hand, is tender, and winter protection is essential. The leaves are large and heavily tinged with purple – a fine contrast to the tubular clusters of vibrant orange-pink flowers.
PENSTEMONS perform for weeks in any sunny border or container and tend to be at their best during August and September.
These plants, native of North America, have only become popular in the last few years.
Many varieties are available in shades of purple, red, pink and white and some types grow taller than others but most reach around 60-90cm (2-3ft).
They do have a reputation for being a little tender and for this reason it is best not to cut back the previous year’s stems until around late April. By that time, a healthy cluster of new growth should be coming through on the lower third of the stems.
They do best in full sun on a fairly rich well-drained soil. When planting, add plenty of bulky organic matter and some general fertiliser and try to avoid a spot which waterlogs in winter.
During the summer, liquid feed them once a week and never let them dry out excessively.
What have you got for harvest time?
THE EIGHTH MONTH marks the beginnings of the real harvest season.
If your peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes are in full sun, they should be ripening nicely. Watering and feeding will be needed several times a week, as the fruiting places huge demands on the plants.
This also applies to runner beans, which can be mulched with grass clippings to remove excess nitrogen from the soil. Beans, like all legume plants take nitrogen from the air and fix it into the soil, from their roots, thus promoting leafy growth.
In August, growth is undesirable – it is flowers and pods that are needed.
Sowings of lettuce made now, in rows or pots, will provide fresh leaves for September and October salads, and perhaps for a late barbecue!
Don’t forget to sow your Prairies
IF YOU HAVE a new and empty border inn a sunny position, why not plant a ‘prairie-style’ border? Most garden centres have a good selection of suitable plants, coming into flower for instant effect. The display will get better each year, as the clumps establish to paint a ‘woolly’ effect. As the blooms fade later in the autumn, seed-heads prolong the season of interest, especially those of ornamental grasses.
These grasses provide a soft, animated backdrop to the vibrant, swaying daisies and pastel Achilleas. Not to mention, the translucency of the tall, dainty Verbena Bonariensis and the shimmering spikes of metallic blue Eringeum.
Colchi Colchi coup...
NOW IS the time to plant autumn-flowering Crocus and the larger-flowered, but only distantly related, Colchicums.
The latter can merely be rested on a sunny windowsill with no water and will flower happily within a few weeks.
Alternatively, plant it along with autumn Crocus in a sunny spot in leafy well-drained soil.
It’s a month of two halves
AUGUST should be mainly dry in the first half with some warm sunshine. However, the second half is expected to turn unsettled and showery and may very well be on the cool side with some early autumnal chilly nights.
A Budding month in more ways than one
IN SEPTEMBER, we explore the soft beauty of many Hydrangea varieties, along with Buddleias which attract butterflies in droves. We shall be celebrating our fourth birthday by re-exploring sunflowers and preparing for our very last (October) issue of Bloomin’ Great. But don’t worry, there will be some good news...
See you next month!
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