And still the breeze continues. The last month has been fair and planting has continued throughout, but so has the watering, indeed it has been essential to the settling of every new plant. The breeze has been so drying. Our pond dried out in the middle of the month. As we move forward there is a hope for settled days, but that watering will probably need to continue. The dry weather planting has resulted in poor rooting so many plants will need help. Just keep moving the water away from the base of your plants to encourage them to search. Constant watering will also leach away the nutrients, so a bit of supplementary feed will be worth the trouble. A balanced liquid will be ideal, avoid loads of Nitrogen (N on the back of the bottle). Keep it modest, you are not looking to create a jungle.

Do keep picking too, all of our plants give huge energy to seed production, so dead heading will make for an extended season and food harvesting will encourage more produce. If you have a bit of sheltered space, there is still some worth in continuing to sow salad stuff and you are not too late to sprinkle in a line of Wallflowers. With some thinning out in a month, you can get some cracking plants for over wintering. Although it is a long journey, Wallflowers are worth the trouble and they have been magnificent this year. You are going to see a few autumn flowering wallflowers about this year. They are quite interesting, but a bit puny, the jury is still out. Within days we shall be back to the Winter Pansy season and then the bulbs will be in. The Pansy market has changed and our industry does seem to be launching ever more varieties. Be aware that some are tougher than others and if in doubt ask about the variety and if it over winters well.

If you find any, you can still put out Spring Cabbage plants and late Savoys. Keep a watch on the pest and disease issues, Pigeons have been a pain again and there is a bit of mildew around. If you have roses (aren’t they great this year ?), it is worth giving them a splash with a fungicide.

And finally enjoy. However the space looking, take it from me it is still pretty special. Pristine or full of weeds, immaculate or chewed to nothing it still remains a celebration of nature and our attempts at taming.

Happy Gardening.

Chris Evans
www.dundrynurseries.co.uk
www.thebutterflygarden.org