First Days of Summer

In a previous posting I said to enjoy your garden, to stop and look around and be in the present moment. Well I don't always practise what I preach and I got myself in a bit of a tizzy last week, fretting about all the jobs in the garden which should have been done but just hadn't.

Luckily my partner, took me by the shoulders, shook me a bit and told me to calm down, get a grip and got started on a list of gardening jobs I wanted to complete by the end of the day.

With working 5 days a week plus my photography and writing commitments, I always seem to be packing every minute I have at the weekend, with jobs that need to get done and so when the weekend is filled with rain, those bits and bobs I want to get done in the garden, have to wait until the following weekend. I don't mind gardening in a little light shower but we have had some torrential downpours over the past few weekends so I was behind, hence my meltdown.

I am pleased to report, that with both of us in the garden we managed to get all the jobs done.

All the cut and come again lettuces are now planted in the vegetable planter and I have sown another crop in the greenhouse.

My tomatoes are now planted up and doing very well, with lots of fruits forming. This year I have promised myself to keep a closer eye on the side shoots of the cordon tomatoes and to pinch them off and to tie in the shoots as they grow. Last year I was a bit laissez-faire with that job and the tomatoes got out of hand. Luckily this is a job I can do after tea in the evening and one I am quite enjoying, listening to the birds singing in the trees behind my vegetable patch.

My sweetcorn has now got to a decent size, so I have planted my climbing beans next to them and they will act as a support. A friend gave me some climbing beans, so we have constructed a wigwam out of our hazel poles for them to clamber up.

They are in a patch of ground which hasn't previously been cultivated, so I improved the ground a little but I think I will have to keep a keen eye on them, as they are greedy feeders and they will need a good drenching of liquid seaweed at regular intervals if they are to flourish.

I have now picked all my broad beans and I have to report that the lady in Stewarts garden centre was right, the insect mesh does not deter black fly. My poor broad beans were covered in then. It's so disheartening to see your plants covered in pests but I won't use chemicals, I usually just blast them with a hose. The aphids on our apple tree got that treatment last weekend, or you could try a soap solution, which you could make yourself or you can buy them at the garden centre.

I will hold my hands up and say that I do use organic slug pellets though. I am not proud with myself for using them. I think I need to look into the alternative more closely.

In the flower garden, I am pleased to say that after giving my aster the 'Chelsea Chop' at the end of May, it is starting to put on new growth. I have always wondered how successful that practise is (cutting down your late flowering perennials by 2 thirds in Chelsea week) but after watching Rachel De Thame on Gardeners' World do a piece about it, I just thought, give it a go.

The garden is full of colour, so my accompanying photographs show flowers and a vegetable with the most vivid colours.

My first dahlia to open, chard from the veg patch, a nasturtium and marigold, which have self seeded in the veg patch and are so beneficial to the insects, that they had to stay.

With my most pressing gardening jobs now completed and with the promise of good weather on Sunday, I hope to sit back and enjoy listening to the birds and leaving the buzzing around to the bees.

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here