Mzzz B's garden blog

It's been a challenging summer for all gardeners, after one of the wettest, coldest periods for a while. The heat and drought are not what we gardeners are used to. What has grown well in your garden and what has struggled?

It has been interesting to see that in my garden traditional plants that we tend to grow, have gone over very quickly- broad beans were gone in a flash! And the runner beans look to be struggling. Maybe that is why you don't come across runner beans in Europe! But French beans, yellow Italian flat beans, courgettes and sweet corn are doing overwhelmingly well! I have also grown an interesting and colourful vegetable, Callaloo, which is a Caribbean plant, although with so many beans and courgettes it's hard to keep up with eating it all! My raspberries were initially plentiful, but quickly finished with the heat and drought, they grow well in Scotland, where of course it is cool and wet!

Remarkably roses seem to be good, especially the ones that usually go brown in the rain! Crocosmia of all sorts seems to be loving it, see photo: Crocosmia Star of the East), but many plants seem to be flowering a few weeks earlier than usual.

The lawns of course have all turned yellow and were positively crisp at one point, but we saw with a little rain, cooler overnight temperatures and some dew the grass is coming back, if just in patches. It will recover, so there is no point in watering your lawn especially in a time of water short age.

One up side is that the garden has been alive with insects, it is humming with bees, and now wasps! Comma and little blue butterflies are around, but not many of the other types yet. But there are loads of large whites, so make sure you cover your brassicas with mesh as their caterpillars will shred them!

Lessons to learn from this season:

• water at night or early morning, watering the roots not the plant,
• grow varieties of plants that are grown in Europe, they are used to these sort of conditions!
• you can use waste water from the kitchen to water your flowers, as long as you only have washing up liquid or soap, in the water, although there is one popular brand which says on its label that it kills all marine life so maybe stay clear of that! Not sure what else it might harm! I have taken to saving water in the kitchen, as my hot water tank is a long distance from the sink, and it is amazing how much I have previously wasted!

Jobs to do in the garden now:

• There's still just time to sow seeds of carrots, spinach, radishes, spring cabbages, now the temperature has cooled a little, and hopefully the rain will come! If it is dry, make a drill and water well before you sow your seeds.
• Collect seed from annuals, sow the hardier annuals, like Love in the mist, marigolds, and ammi majus in September either in the garden or in pots to overwinter. They will flower earlier in the season, these are now going over , whereas the marigolds I sowed in the spring are only just beginning to flower. So you can plan for a succession of flowering in this way.
• Save seed in paper bags in a cool place, label well and sow in spring, again either in the garden or in pots to grow on and plant out when you have spaces.
• It's always fun to collect seed from all plants, just to see if you can germinate them. I have a wisteria which produces lots of very beautiful velvety, irresistable, seed pods, last year I sowed some and now have a little plant, but on research discovered thats it will take between 7 and 20 years before it flowers. Mmmm.....
• Dead head to try to encourage more flowers.
• Time to sit in the shade and peruse bulb catalogues to choose daffodils and tulips to brighten up pots or the garden in spring. Daffodils need to be planted early but wait until after November to plant tulips to avoid Tulip fire, a virus which affects them.
• Oh and of course, research the internet for recipes on how to use up those gluts of veg, my current favourites are courgette, cheese and onion tart, courgette and garlic soup. Then, of course, there is courgette, walnut and lemon cake (delicious)!

Do you have any stories from your garden? More recipes for gluts? Let me know on this website email (see Contact above) and maybe we can publish them on the website!