July's Garden Update
Cutting Back & Regrowth
The cuckoo comes in April, sings the month of May, In the middle of June he changes his tune, and in July he flies away
Over the last week, we’ve been combing our fingers through two of the garden’s biggest borders to give them an early summer tidy – weeding and deadheading, and chopping back those perennials that have passed their peak, before dropping in seed-raised annuals to plug the gaps. This is only the second summer for these beds, having been planted in spring 2023. When laying out a new border, I’m in the habit of including a kind of access path at the rear. This serves several practical purposes – it makes cutting the hedge easier, and it means you can squeeze yourself down the back and hook out any tall weeds without trampling plants at the front. It also has a third less practical but equally essential function which is somewhere to escape from the heat of the midsummer sun. Back here you can creep under a roof of foliage, amongst towers of Eupatorium and Veronicastrum, scratching around in cool dark earth even on the driest of days. I find this alternative perspective quite compelling, like stepping behind the scenery of a stage production to see the machinations that make the performance work, and it was here that last week, I thought I heard the distinctive two-note call of the cuckoo – a first for me.
It’s taken a while for me to fully re-immerse myself in the garden but it’s now starting to feel like we have a full team and are regaining some control over some of the wilder areas which - even with my somewhat permissive style of gardening- had become a little more characterful than I’d like.
Over the coming weeks we’ll be nose to the grind stone (figuratively) and in the weeds (literally), and on those days when we can’t bear to look at another shoot of willowherb we’ll start sowing the Hesperis, Digitalis, Aquilegia, and Dianthus seeds that Mr Maxwell kindly gifted us. These are all biennials (meaning they will make foliage this year and flower next spring before setting seed around now) and now is an excellent time sow them to mimic their natural life cycle. As an aside - biennials such as Verbascum and Digitalis seem to be having a bumper year (due to a cool, damp spring?), and we’ve got some absolute monsters in the garden. I’d be interested to know if you are noticing the same. Into July, we’ll carry on deadheading roses, lupins, and delphiniums to keep everything looking fresh and tidy ready for the later perennials to take centre stage. We’ll also start cutting the small box hedges around the garden, taking advantage of the cooler weather over the next week or so, so as not to scorch the new growth.
All that remains is for me to thank everyone that came to visit the garden during our open days in June, and, as it’s now almost July, I’ll make like the cuckoo and say cheerio (for now).
Kate