Following on from my Spring Garden Diary, here’s the second instalment — April to June — documenting the garden as spring moves into summer and the season really gets going. With such rapid growth, gardening activities tend to focus on maintenance: mowing, pruning, trimming, staking and deadheading. Somehow, I still find time to undertake some small DIY projects…
April
Throughout the month, the garden was stirring with new shoots and blossom in every corner. With the worst of the frosts over it was time to move pots out of the greenhouse and finish several DIY tasks.
April started with the Amelanchier bursting into flower. The ferns I moved in January (to give the box more breathing space) have all grown well.The Pond Garden coming into growth. I love the vivid chartreuse of the new growth on the boxwood.As the risk of heavy frosts passes, I begin to move Agapanthus pots out of the greenhouse and site them around the garden.In my woodland garden, the cherry trees provide a canopy of white and pink blossom that soon falls like confetti. This area always looks best if I sweep the paths, but the cherry continually thwarts me.One of my main tasks in April was to top up the limestone gravel on the drive. Along with the renovated handrails, the front garden is looking very smart. Except…This one corner of my front garden has been waiting for a makeover since we moved here. The neighbour’s pierced concrete walling has been a long-standing eyesore, which I finally got round to improving…… TA-DA! Newly constructed fencing built in front of the pierced-concrete wall. The look is much better, in keeping with the rest of the garden, and the micro-climate is improved. I’ll grow some tall plants in pots here this year.Towards the end of April I gave my Pyracatha espalier an early prune. This will significantly reduce flowers and fruit, but will better ensure it stays looking neat and tight. You takes your choices…
May
With growth speeding apace, May’s gardening tasks focus on pruning, trimming and planting up summer containers. But with warmer days and longer evenings, it is possible to spend more time in the garden relaxing, observing, photographing and enjoying the plants and insects…
The first day of May and a young Red Admiral visits. Here he is trying to feed on an Allium ‘Gladiator’ bud that is barely open!This foxglove had self sown just outside our back door. I had admired its almost perfect rosette of leaves all winter. And now, this this magnificent spire.This is the first year I have tried lupins in the White Garden. They proved almost perfect with plenty of large white spires which flowered for many weeks over a neat dome of spoke-wheel leaves. Later in the year, unfortunately, it became a mess of ugly stems and mildew. Perhaps I could manage it better next year.Peach pruning in the greenhouse. I’m finally getting to grips with the alternating vertical system. new shoot / fruiting shoot / new shoot / fruiting shoot…In the Woodland Garden, spring flowers (snowdrops, narcissus and Hellebores) are over, and Aquilegias take centre stage…but the star of the woodland show was the peony. Usually quite pink, unaccountably this year, the flowers were closer to parchment. Their heady nutmeg fragrance seemed stronger than ever.A major project this month was to replace the top rails (capping) on my fences. As you can see, after two decades exposed to the weather, they were beginning to rot. So…Here is the new rail protected with a strip of acrylic deck tape which should prevent water soaking into the wood. (Detailed article to come)By May the cycle of hedge-trimming is underway. Old yoga mats are useful for catching and rolling up the clippings.I employ an expert (Will Cronin of Excelsis Gardens) to clip the topiary — box and yew — twice per year. We have too many pieces and it takes me too long. Will’s eye, speed and accuracy are quite remarkable.May is the month that I am most busy with planting up containers for the summer. In this pot, I’ve planted white bacopa, ivy-leaf geranium and cosmos. The cosmos proved to be especially lovely this year……so, I’ll finish with this photo. This year’s plants have a crisp, folded quality that I don’t think I’ve seen in Cosmos before.
June
By June, most of the prep work is done and the garden becomes a joy to relax in. Maintenance never stops, but working in the garden is the best way to enjoy it, closely observing the changes, noticing the little wonders and spotting problems before they get out of hand…
I overwintered this pot of burgundy Osteospermum in my unheated greenhouse, and it rewarded me with a magnificent display……including this little fella’. I find bush crickets inside many flowers in my garden. It seems to be their favourite hideout.I did some summer-pruning of the trained fruit trees this month, including this step-over cooking apple. June is a bit too early really, so they will need doing again later in the year, but for now, they look much tidier.Most unwanted: one of several invasive bamboo culms coming under the fence from next-door. Fortunately, they are easy to snap off at ground level when they are young. That will not stop them spreading further at the roots though.In my woodland garden, the Martagon lilies performed well. Spraying at the first sign of lily beetle helps. (Seen here alongside Aquilegia ‘Blue Star’)For a summer front-door display, I planted up several containers with purple and orange annuals and perennials. This worked really well, looking spectacular all summer.Self-sown foxgloves were stars of the back garden this summer, here seeded romantically among the iceberg roses.Keeping the garden tidy throughout summer requires regular mowing and hedge trimming. The clean lines really show off the planting.June brings the first major flush of roses. Regular deadheading keeps them flowering and looking their best. This little beauty is ‘Sweet Wonder’, growing with Salvia ‘May Night’Sweeping and weeding keep the paths and beds neat and tidy. That flash of yellow is a new plant I added this spring: Kniphofia ‘Poco Citron’ and it’s performing wonderfully……So here’s a close up: Kniphofia ‘Poco Citron’ with pink salvia and violet-blue Hidcote lavender in my Mediterranean Pond Garden
