Our Anisodontea is looking really pretty as I write in mid May.  It flowers all year round, a few even showed up on Christmas Day last year.  But now it is literally smothered in dainty pink blooms and will be all summer.  It is a member of the mallow family, which includes Hibiscus and Lavatera and makes a largish woody shrub or small tree. Ours got a bit tall and gangly and prone to wind damage so I pruned it back: it has gone from strength to strength.  After a few years of flowering all the time, it not surprisingly runs out of steam so it’s worth taking some cuttings in the summer: they root really easily.  I always keep one in the greenhouse too in case a really cold winter does for it, but despite its Mediterranean origins it is surprisingly hardy.  

 

The wisterias have also been amazing this year. We have three in the garden here at ’Charnwood’, including a gorgeous pale lilac one that Peter has trained into a small tree, around 1.5 metres tall so takes up very little room. They are very vigorous, woody climbers so need a fairly brutal pruning regime if you don’t have unlimited space and/or a massive tree to grow one into.  Once you have established a framework, prune hard back to 2 or 3 buds around February then give it a feed:  sulphate of potash is good to encourage flowers to form. You can then do a summer prune to keep it under control.   Often overlooked is the scent, in full flower mid May the fragrance is just lovely. If you are planning to buy one, make sure it has been grafted.  It will cost you a lot more but if you get a cheaper seedling it can take over 20 years to flower.

 

Home grown tomatoes taste so yummy, but I’ve fingers like Mars bars meaning I’m not the deftest seed sower.  Instead, I keep my eye out for little plants as I’m out and about.  This year I found a tomato ‘Paul Robeson’ on a charity plant stall that I had to get for its name alone!  I looked it up when I got back and found it’s a much revered heritage variety with a fabulous taste – if I succeed in getting any fruit and it lives up to its distinguished name, I’ll let you know.

The yellow rattle we sowed in our little meadow has really taken off this year. The idea is that it acts as a parasite to weaken the grass to give space for wildflowers to thrive. Well, I think it’s working; we’ve a good crop of wild flowers including vetch, oxeye daisy and wild carrot.  The shrub roses ‘Complicata’ and ‘Morning Mist’ are also thriving as understory plants, as is the lovely white hydrangea. So far so good!

A good job to keep you fit over the summer months is to turn your compost heap.  If it’s not breaking down very well, add some grass clippings to heat it up.  If dry, give it some water, if too wet add some shredded paper or cardboard.  It’s not rocket science!  In the process of sorting our compost bins out we had a lovely surprise: some pretty, gentle little bees have taken up residence.  They don’t look like the normal bees we see here: they are quite small with yellow heads and bums that look as if they’ve sat in some icing sugar.  Turns out they are tree bumble bees, a relatively newcomer in the UK.  Happily for both them and us they only hang around in one place for a few months, so they will soon move on.  I’ll miss them but will be glad to get at the well rotten gold that is currently their bed to add to the borders. 

It’s Sunday, the sun is shining, and Peter has the barbeque going.  Time for a glass I think. Cheers!